passes leading from Silesia into Bohemia. When the Tartar army attempted to force these passes they were bravely repulsed by the Bohemian soldiers. After three weeks the Tartars abandoned all hopes of entering Bohemia, and turned their attention to Moravia. They ravaged the open country in Moravia, though they were unable to storm any of the towns.[1] After devastating also Hungary and the neighbouring districts of Lower Austria, the Tartars disappeared from Europe almost as suddenly as they had arrived there.
As soon as the danger from the Tartars had passed over, both the struggle between the Pope and the Emperor, and the feud between Venceslas and Duke Frederick of Austria, which was to a large extent influenced by the greater conflict, began afresh. Venceslas at this period took the part of the Pope, and became one of the supporters of William of Holland, whom the Papal party in Germany had chosen as king (1247).
In the following year a great insurrection broke out among the Bohemian nobles, the causes of which are not certainly known, though the great extravagance of the king appears to have been the principal one. Venceslas's son, Přemysl Ottokar,[2] who now governed Moravia under his father's supremacy, became the leader of the insurgents, who chose him as king.
The pretext for this insurrection was the king's command to his nobles to take part in the crusade which Pope Innocent IV had again decreed against the German Emperor Frederick II. Civil war continued in Bohemia up to the year 1250, when an agreement was arrived at. Přemysl Ottokar made submission to his father, who, on the other hand, again entrusted the government of Moravia to his son.
In the following year the Estates of Austria chose Ottokar as their duke, and he made his entrance into Vienna shortly afterwards. Though his deceased brother had been married
- ↑ Many legends referring to the defence of the Moravian towns, and particularly of Olomonc, afterwards sprang up; some of them are reproduced in the so-called MS. of Kralové Dvůr.
- ↑ Přemysl Ottokar (II as king of Bohemia) was the second son of Venceslas. His elder brother, Vladislas, who had been Margrave of Moravia, and who, during one of the temporary truces between the two countries, had married the daughter of Duke Frederick of Austria, died in 1247.
