In the story of the first duke Přemysl, as told by Cosmas, the Czechs become dissatisfied with appealing their disputes only to arbiters, however wise, and so choose to subject themselves to a single rulerwith the power to enforce decisions. Libuše, a prophetess and their most respected judge, is deemed unsuitable for the task as a woman. She agrees to take a husband, who might become the first Czech duke, yet warns them at length of the risks:

O most pitiable people, who do not know that they live free and that no good man leaves freedom except with death....

In Cosmas’s account of the mythic origins of ducal lordship, Libuše prophesied “what the rights of a duke might be” and predicted the duke’s indisputed domination of medieval Czech society. He would, she said, do with the Czechs and their property as he pleased. Indeed, in the preceeding chapter the duke of Bohemia’s rights and assets proved extensive; he exercised comprehensive oversight in his territory and enjoyed a near monopoly of the institutional bases for power. Libuše warned the Czechs that the decision to subject themselves to a duke would result in their own near-total disempowerment. Yet throughout the Chronica...

The previous chapters took institutional and social-structural approaches to political life in the eleventh- and twelfth-century Czech Lands, focusing on the duke and the freemen respectively. Neither, however, suffices alone to describe the exercise of, or resistance to, power. Having thus laid the groundwork, we turn here to consider relations between the duke and the freemen, that is, between the extensive lordship ascribed to the Přemyslid ruler and the composition of lay society as deduced from the sources. The duke had significant and far-reaching rights over his subjects, although common sense suggests that he required the aid and services of...

One more foundational aspect of medieval Czech society demands consideration: the institutional Christian church and its leaders. The sources upon which this study is based originated mostly in ecclesiastical contexts (excepting only the coinage) and it is therefore crucial to understand the church’s role in the structures and mechanisms of political power. Only then can we analyze revolt and similar strategies enacted by freemen, nonruling Přemyslids, and reigning dukes designed to alter the prevailing balance of power. It is imperative first to determine where, or whether, the church fits into the scheme of balance and interdependence laid out in Chapter...

In 1126, Otto of Olomouc convinced Lothar, king of the Germans, to enter Bohemia with an army in defense of his claim to the throne, occupied upon the death of Vladislav I by Soběslav I. The outcome was a humiliating defeat for the invaders near the border castle of Chlumec in deep February snows and the demise of the pretender himself. It was a dramatic and decisive victory for the duke and his Czech forces, one that was long remembered in both the Empire and the Czech Lands. One observer went so far as to attribute Soběslav’s success to a...

This chapter tackles three distinct questions raised by the conclusions put forward in previous chapters: If the freemen’s leverage lay in their readiness to depose the duke, how did such revolts proceed and what changes manifested over time? Since the seniority rule of succession and an abundance of ambitious dynasts empowered the freemen, what characterized intradynastic relations? And what precisely was the relationship between Moravia and its vice-dukes and the Bohemian duke in Prague? These issues will be treated here together not only because they can be, but because they must be. To tell either the story of rebellion or...

Finally, we turn to consider the relationship between the duke of Bohemia and the ruler of the array of German and non-German territories that we may justifiably call the “Empire.”¹ The complicated question of the place of the Czech Lands within, or in relation to, the Empire has long been a preoccupation of Czech and German historians—unfortunately one often driven by modern political agendas.² These discussions usually revolve around Bohemia’s “dependence” upon the Empire, defined in legal and institutional terms in such a way as to create considerable distortion of the actions taken during the eleventh and twelfth centuries...