perhaps despairing of maintaining his hold on the country against the rival claimants.
Though Venceslas had given up his claim to the Hungarian throne, he determined to maintain his hereditary rights upon Poland.
An insurrection against the Bohemians having broken out in that country, Venceslas marched to Poland to suppress it. Before reaching Poland he was murdered at Olomonc[1] by unknown assassins.[2]
The male line of the dynasty of Přemysl, that had reigned over Bohemia nearly six hundred years, thus came to an end.
The sudden extinction of the house of Přemysl left Bohemia without any legitimate successor to the crown. Of the royal family only Elizabeth, widow of Venceslas II, Violet, widow of Venceslas III, and four daughters of the former king remained. The eldest of these daughters, Anne, was married to Henry, Duke of Carinthia, and popular feeling greatly favoured the election of that prince to the throne of Bohemia. Venceslas III had left him as his representative in Bohemia when he started on his expedition to Poland, and it was hoped that by this choice the Přemysl dynasty would be continued in the female line.
The German King Albert, however, declared Bohemia a vacant fief of the Empire, and appointed as king his eldest son Rudolph. The nobles assembled at Prague, and, probably intimidated by the power of the German king, elected Rudolph. They further, on the request of King Albert, who accompanied his son to Bohemia, declared Rudolph's brothers heirs to the throne in case of his death without children. As a concession to the feeling in favour of the old national dynasty, a marriage between Rudolph and Elizabeth, widow of Venceslas II, was arranged.
- ↑ In German Olmütz.
- ↑ Many historians have accused King Albert of being the instigator of the murder of his nephew. The chronicler of the monastery of Klosterneuburg, whose evidence, as being that of an Austrian, may be somewhat partial, writes—
"Wenceslas … propter insolentiam contra optimates suos in Olomucz civitate Moraviae a suis occiditur … sicque contra vaticinium in gente illa ab antiquo vulgatum Bohemiae regnum exhaeredatur" {Per Scriptores Rerum Austriacarum I. Chronicon Claustro-Neoburgense). The last words refer to Libussa's prophecy (see Chapter II).
