Vladislaus II of Bohemia

For other monarchs with similar names, please see Ladislaus II (disambiguation)

Vladislaus II of Bohemia
Duke and King of Bohemia
Reign	1140–1172
Coronation	1158, Regensburg
Born	c. 1110
Birthplace	Bohemia, Czech Republic
Died	18 January 1174(aged 64?)
Place of death	Meerane, Germany
Predecessor	Sobeslav I of Bohemia
Successor	Frederick of Bohemia
Wives	Gertrude of Babenberg Judith of Thuringia
Offspring	Frederick I of Bohemia Ottokar I of Bohemia Vladislaus III of Bohemia
Royal House	Přemyslid dynasty
Father	Vladislav I of Bohemia
Mother	Richeza of Berg

Vladislaus II or Vladislaus I (king) (Czech: Vladislav II./I.,^[1] c.1110–18 January 1174) was the second king of Bohemia from 1158. Before that he had been duke of Bohemia from 1140. He abdicated in 1172, the royal title was not yet hereditary. It was made hereditary in 1212 by the Emperor Frederick.

Vladislav was the son of Vladislav I and Richeza of Berg. He was married twice, first to Gertrude of Babenberg, second to Judith of Thuringia.

Contents 1 Early years 2 The second king 3 Abdication 4 Family and children 5 Ancestry[2] 6 References

Early years

He was an adventurous youth and, having no possibility of reaching the throne during the reign of his uncle Soběslav I, he moved to Bavaria. He returned at the death of Soběslav in 1140 and, with the help of his brother-in-law, the king of Germany, Conrad III, he was elected prince of Bohemia.

At first, he had to contend with the claims of his cousin, the son of Sobeslav, also named Vladislav. By Soběslav's request, the Emperor Lothair II had recognised the rights of his son at the Diet of Bamberg in May 1138, then, in June, the nobility affirmed them at Sadská. Another diet at Bamberg confirmed the succession of the son of Vladislav, however, in April 1140. The local dukes, Conrad II of Znojmo, Vratislaus II of Brno, and Otto III of Olomouc, gave him trouble. They were excommunicated by Henry Zdik, bishop of Olomouc, who was then driven out of his diocese. The territorial dukes then defeated Vladislav through treason at Vysoká on 22 April 1142, but their siege of Prague failed. Vladislav kept his throne through the help of Conrad III of Germany, whose half-sister Gertrude of Babenberg he married.

The second king

In 1147, he accompanied the king on the Second Crusade, but halted his march at Constantinople. On his way back to Bohemia he passed through Kiev and Kraków. Thanks to his friendship with Conrad's successor, the emperor Frederick Barbarossa, Vladislav was elected king of Bohemia on 11 January 1158, becoming the second Bohemian prince to boast such an imperial title after Vratislaus II. He was also invested with Upper Lusatia at Regensburg and his coronation was celebrated in a second ceremony at Milan on 8 September. Vladislav was a firm ally of Barbarossa. He duly accompanied him to Milan in 1158. During the Italian expeditions of 1161, 1162, and 1167, Vladislav entrusted the command of the Czech contingent to his brother Duke Děpold I of Jamnitz and his son Frederick.

After the revolt of the Moravian dukes, Vladislav gradually took control of the strongholds of Moravia: Brno with the death of Vratislaus II in 1156, Olomouc with the death of Otto III (in spite of the claims of Sobeslav, the son of Duke Sobeslav, who was imprisoned), and finally Znojmo with the death of Conrad II. Vladislav also intervened in Hungary in 1163 on behalf of the emperor. He married his second son, Sviatopluk, to a Hungarian princess and had diplomatic contact with Manuel I Comnenus. In 1164, he even married his six-year-old daughter Helena to Peter, son of Manuel.

In 1167, Daniel I, bishop of Prague since 1148 and Vladislav's greatest advisor, died. As a result, relations between the kings of Bohemia and Germany were strained. When his son (Vojtech) Adalbert III became archbishop of Salzburg in 1169, the emperor suspected him of supporting Pope Alexander III.

Abdication

Eager to impose his son Frederick on the throne of the still-elective duchy of Bohemia, he abdicated without either the consensus of the Bohemian noblemen or the Emperor's permission. Frederick kept the throne for less than one year, before yielding the place to Sobeslaus II, the elder son of Sobeslav I.

Vladislav lived in Thuringia in the lands of his second wife, where he died in January 1174. He was buried in the Cathedral of Meissen. His reign was marked by the founding of numerous Premonstratensian and Cistercian abbeys in Bohemia, as well as the construction of a stone bridge across Vltava in Prague: the construct was named Judith Bridge in honour of Vladislav's second wife.

Family and children

By his first wife, Gertrude of Babenberg (died 4 August 1150), he had the following issue:

• a daughter (Richeza?), married Yaroslav II of Kiev
• Frederick, successor
• Sviatopluk, married a daughter of Géza II of Hungary
• Vojtech, archbishop of Salzburg as Adalbert III
• Agnes (died 7 June 1228), abbess of St George of Prague

By his second wife, Judith of Thuringia (married 1155), daughter of Louis I, Landgrave of Thuringia, he had the following issue:

• Ottokar, later king of Bohemia, first of a hereditary line
• Ladislaus, later duke of Bohemia as Ladislaus III
• Richeza (died 19 April 1182), married Henry II, Duke of Austria

Ancestry^[2]

Bretislaus I, Duke of Bohemia

Judith of Schweinfurt

Casimir I the Restorer

Maria Dobroniega of Kiev

Count Poppo of Berg

Sophia of Hungary

Diepold II, Margrave of Vohburg

Liutgard of Carinthia

Vratislaus II of Bohemia

Świętosława of Poland

Henry I of Berg-Schelklingen

Adelheid of Mochental

Vladislaus I of Bohemia

Richeza of Berg

Vladislaus II

References

Regnal titles
Preceded by Sobeslaus I	Duke of Bohemia 1140–1158	Vacant Title next held by Frederick
Vacant Title last held by Vratislaus II	King of Bohemia 1158–1172	Vacant Title next held by Ottokar I

Monarchs of Bohemia Přemyslid c.870–1306 Bořivoj I Spytihněv I Vratislaus I Wenceslaus I Boleslaus I Boleslaus II Boleslaus III Vladivoj Boleslaus III Boleslaus the Brave1 Jaromír Oldrich Jaromír Oldrich Bretislaus I Spytihněv II Vratislaus II Conrad I Bretislaus II Bořivoj II Svatopluk the Lion Vladislaus I Bořivoj II Vladislaus I Sobeslaus I Vladislaus II Frederick Sobeslaus II Bedřich Conrad II Wenceslaus II Ottokar I Bretislaus III Vladislaus III Ottokar I 2 Wenceslaus I Ottokar II Wenceslaus II Wenceslaus III Non-dynastic 1306–1310 Henry the Carinthian Rudolph I Henry the Carinthian Luxembourg 1310–1437 John the Blind Charles I Wenceslaus IV Sigismund Habsburg 1437–1457 Albert Interregnum Ladislaus the Posthumous Non-dynastic 1457–1471 George of Poděbrady Matthias Corvinus3 Jagiellon 1471–1526 Vladislaus II Louis Habsburg 1526–1780 Ferdinand I Maximilian Rudolph II Matthias II Ferdinand II Frederick Ferdinand III Ferdinand IV Leopold I Joseph I Charles II Charles Albert3 Maria Theresa Habsburg-Lorraine 1780–1918 Joseph II Leopold II Francis Ferdinand V Francis Joseph Charles III 1 Also duke of Poland from the Piast dynasty. 2 Hereditary kings since 1198. 3 Antiking.

Persondata
Name	Vladislaus 02 Of Bohemia
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth	Bohemia, Czech Republic
Date of death	18 January 1174
Place of death	Meerane, Germany