Drahomíra of Stodor (; – died after 934 or 936) was Duchess consort of Bohemia from 915 to 921, wife of the Přemyslid duke Vratislaus I. She also acted as

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

of the

Duchy of Bohemia The Duchy of Bohemia, also later referred to in English as the Czech Duchy, (Old Czech: ) was a monarchy and a Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, principality of the Holy Roman Empire in Central Europe during the Early Middle Ages, Early and High M ...

from 921 to 924 during the minority of her son

Wenceslaus Wenceslaus, Wenceslas, Wenzeslaus and Wenzslaus (and other similar names) are Latinized forms of the Slavic names#In Slovakia and Czech_Republic, Czech name Václav. The other language versions of the name are , , , , , , among others. It origina ...

. She is chiefly known for the murder of her mother-in-law

Ludmila of Bohemia Ludmila of Bohemia ( 860 – 15 September 921) is a Czech saint and martyr venerated by the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics. She was born in Mělník as the daughter of the Sorbian prince Slavibor. Saint Ludmila was the grandmother of ...

by hired assassins.

Life

Drahomíra was born in the present-day

Havelland Geographically, the Havelland () is the region around which the River Havel flows in a U-shape between Oranienburg to the northeast and Rhinow to the northwest. The northern boundary of the Havelland is formed by the River Rhin and the Rhin Cana ...

region centered around the fortress of

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

(Brennabor), the daughter of a Hevelli (Stodoran) prince. According to Cosmas of Prague, she married Duke Vratislaus I of Bohemia about 906. Drahomíra gave birth to at least six children: her sons were

and Boleslaus, who both succeeded their father as Bohemian dukes. Among her four daughters was one Přibislava, whose considered to have married to a Croatian prince, who became a nun at the St. George's Convent in Prague, and possibly Střezislava, the wife of the Bohemian-Croatian nobleman Slavník, founder of the Slavník dynasty. The marriage led the Přemyslid dynasty to cooperation with the

Polabian Slavs Polabian Slavs, also known as Elbe Slavs and more broadly as Wends, is a collective term applied to a number of Lechites, Lechitic (West Slavs, West Slavic) tribes who lived scattered along the Elbe river in what is today eastern Germany. The ...

and brought Bohemia in conflict with the

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

duke

Henry the Fowler Henry the Fowler ( or '; ; – 2 July 936) was the duke of Saxony from 912 and the king of East Francia from 919 until his death in 936. As the first non- Frankish king of East Francia, he established the Ottonian dynasty of kings and emper ...

, who became German king in 919 and later waged war against the Hevelli tribes. After her husband's untimely death in 921, the Bohemian nobles designated Drahomíra regent for her minor son Wenceslaus. However, she had to divide the government of Bohemia with her mother-in-law Ludmila, widow of Duke Bořivoj I, who took over the religious education of her sons. Popular history depicts Ludmila as a restrained and pious grandmother. Wenceslaus was one of the main reasons for the eventually fatal discord between Drahomíra and Ludmila, who had exerted great influence over Drahomíra's eldest son, leaving Drahomíra to concentrate her efforts on her younger son, Boleslaus. Despite or perhaps as a result of her political and personal efforts, Ludmila attracted Drahomíra's bitter enmity. She alleged that her mother-in-law, with the help of Bavarian missionaries, educated Wenceslaus to become a monk rather than a prince. Moreover, the two women may have disagreed whether to recognise the East Frankish supremacy of Henry the Fowler. Ludmila fled from Prague to Tetín Castle on the road to

Regensburg Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...

, where on 16 September 921 Drahomíra's henchmen, Tunna and Gommon, attacked and strangled her. The next year the troops of Duke Arnulf of Bavaria raided the Bohemian duchy. When Drahomíra's son Wenceslaus came of age about 922, he sent his mother into exile, though he called her back in 925. She spent her later years in Prague; however, upon the murder of her son she fled from the court to the

Croats The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...

. While some considered that the Croats lived near Prague, others noted that in the case of noble and royal fugitives tried to find security as distant as possible, indicating these Croats probably were located more to the East around Vistula valley.

In popular culture

She is the subject of two operas, ''

Drahomíra Drahomíra of Stodor (; – died after 934 or 936) was List of Bohemian consorts, Duchess consort of Bohemia from 915 to 921, wife of the Přemyslid dynasty, Přemyslid duke Vratislaus I, Duke of Bohemia, Vratislaus I. She also acted as regency ...

'' by František Škroup (1848), and ''

'' by Karel Šebor (1867).

References

Bibliography

*''Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700'' by Frederick Lewis Weis; Line 244–7

External links

Busta Drahomíry, matky sv. Václava author: Ivo Durec (foto)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drahomira Duchesses of Bohemia Year of death unknown 10th-century women regents Year of birth uncertain 10th-century duchesses consort 10th-century regents Mothers of Bohemian monarchs