Boleslaus I, Duke of Bohemia

Boleslaus I the Cruel

Boleslaus I the Cruel, also called Boleslav I (Czech: Boleslav I. Ukrutný) (ca. 915 – July 15, 967 or 972), was the ruler (kníže, translated as "duke") of Bohemia from 935 to his death. His was the son of Vratislaus I and the younger brother of his predecessor, Saint Wenceslaus.

Boleslav is notorious for the murder of his brother Wenceslaus, through which he became duke of Bohemia. Wenceslaus was murdered during a feast; at precisely that time Boleslav's son was allegedly born. He received a strange name: Strachkvas, which meant "a dreadful feast". Being remorseful of what he had done, Boleslav promised to devote his son to religion and educate him as a clergyman.

Despite the fratricide, Boleslav is generally respected by Czech historians as an energetic ruler who significantly strengthened the Bohemian state and expanded its territory. Citing Wenceslas' religious policies as the cause of Boleslav's fratricide seems unlikely as Boleslav in no way impeded the growth of Christianity in Bohemia, and in fact he actually sent his daughter Mlada, a nun, to the Pope in Rome to ask permission to make Prague a bishopric.

A Jewish slave trader being presented to Boleslas of Bohemia

One of Boleslav's major concerns was the tribute paid yearly to the East Frankish kings. He stopped the payment shortly after he ascended the throne, which led to the prolonged war with the king Otto the Great. This conflict, presumably consisting of border raids (the general pattern of warfare in this region at the time), reached its conclusion in 950 when Boleslav signed a peace with Otto. Despite being undefeated, he promised to resume the payment of the tribute. Five years later, the armies of Czechs and Germans allied against the Magyars in the victorious Battle of Lechfeld on August 10, 955. Boleslav had also helped Otto to crush an uprising of Slavs on the Lower Elbe in 953.

After the Battle of Lech, the rest of the huge Magyar army turned to Bohemia, where it was crushed by Boleslav. Because of this victory, Boleslav freed Moravia from Magyar raids and expanded his territory to Upper Silesia and Malopolska. As a sign of the Bohemian-Polish alliance, Boleslav's daughter Dobrawa married the then still pagan Piast prince Mieszko I in 965, bringing Christianity to Poland. Boleslav's wife may have been Biagota. He was succeeded by his oldest son Boleslaus the Pious.

Sources

• Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis; Line 244-7
• The Plantagenet Ancestry by William Henry Turton, Page 85

Preceded by Wenceslaus I

Duke of Bohemia 935–972

Succeeded by Boleslaus II