Wenceslaus III of Bohemia

Wenceslaus III Premyslid (Czech and Slovak: Václav, German: Wenzel III., Hungarian: Vencel, Polish: Wacław, Croatian: Vjenceslav III, Serbian: Вeнцeслав III, Venceslav III; October 6, 1289 – August 4, 1306, Olomouc, Moravia) was the King of Hungary (1301–05), King of Bohemia (1305–06) and the king of Poland (1305–06).

Wenceslaus III was the son of Wenceslaus II, King of Bohemia and Poland, and Judith of Habsburg, the daughter of Rudolph I, King of the Romans. He faced the problem of internal quarrels in Hungary and in Poland.

Wenceslaus was the last of the male Přemyslid rulers of Bohemia. His sister, Elisabeth married John of Luxembourg, who was elected King of Bohemia.

Kingdom of Hungary

His father accepted the crown of Hungary on behalf of Wenceslaus III in 1301. On August 27, 1301, Wenceslaus III was crowned in Székesfehérvár as the King of Hungary and as such assumed the name Ladislaus V (Hungarian: László,^[1] Czech, Slovak and Croatian: Ladislav). At that time the Kingdom of Hungary was split into several de-facto principalities, and Wenceslaus was only accepted as the King of Hungary by the rulers in modern Slovakia (Matthew Csák and the Abas), in Burgenland (the Güssings [Kőszegis]) and on territory around the capital, Buda. Wenceslaus took the name of Ladislaus in honor to one of the most important figures in the Hungarian early history: the King Saint Ladislaus I of Hungary.

However, soon the Abas and Matthew Csák switched sides in 1303 and started to support Wenceslaus' rival Charles Robert of Anjou, who was supported also by the Holy See. Consequently, the young Wenceslaus, in Ofen (Buda), became afraid and wrote to his father in Prague for help. His father took a large army and invaded Buda, but having considered the situation, he took his son and the Hungarian crown and returned to Bohemia. Ivan of Güssing was named to represent Wenceslaus III in Hungary. After his father's death, Wenceslaus III decided to renounce the Hungarian throne, and on December 6, 1305, he relinquished the crown to Otto, Duke of Lower Bavaria. But Otto, supported only by the Güssings, was imprisoned in 1307 and abdicated the throne in 1308, leaving Charles Robert as ruler of Hungary. In Hungarian historiography he is noted as an antiking during the interregnum of 1301-1310.

Poland

In 1305, Wenceslaus III married, Viola Elisabeth of Cieszyn who was a daughter of Mieszko I, Duke of Cieszyn; the marriage was childless. Wenceslaus III, however, wanted to claim his hereditary right to the Polish throne, but was murdered under mysterious circumstances in Olomouc, Moravia on August 4, 1306, while on a campaign to that end.

Ancestry

See also

• History of Poland (966-1385)

Notes