Oldrich II of Rožmberk

Oldřich II was born into the family of the highest burggraph of the Czech Kingdom, Jindřich III from Rožmberk and Alžbiet from Kravář and Plumlov. His father died in 1412 , appointing before his death the guardians of Oldřich and his sister, his relatives, the lords Jindřich from Kravář and Plumlov, Cenek from Wartemberk and Jan III from Hradec . In fact, Chenek from Wartemberk became the sole guardian.

Having lost his father at the age of nine and inherited the extensive rymberg pane in 1412 , Aldřich very early began to delve into the management of family estates. From childhood, thanks to the beliefs of his parents, Oldrich accepted the reformist beliefs of the Hussites . The same belief was held by his guardian, the highest burggrave of the Czech Kingdom, Cenek from Wartemberk . In 1417, at the order of Chenek, all Catholic priests were expelled from the lands of Oldřich from Wartemberk, and Hussite priests were put in their place at the head of the parishes.

On the eve of the Hussite wars, during the weakening of the royal authority of Sikmund of Luxembourg in the Czech Republic, Olderzhikh II came of age in 1418, took the magnificent title of Vladarg Rožmberk House ( Czech Vladař domu rožmberského ). In the same year, he married his sister Katerina to Reinrecht von Walsee (d. 1450).

By the decision of Oldrich II, in the villages and towns of the rymberg papacy, a gradual abolition of the feudal right of the “dead hand” was begun (in 1418 - 1419 ). During the reign of Oldrich, the Ombreckian possessions reached the greatest territorial scope. Oldrich II became the largest and most influential feudal lord of southern Bohemia (only the royal city of Ceske Budejovice and Zlatokorunsky Monastery remained outside his power).

The support of Oldrich II of the Hussites at the beginning of the Hussite Wars pursued primarily pragmatic goals: this enabled him to convert the lands of the Hussite-devastated monasteries into his ownership and thereby significantly increase his possessions. In addition, the strengthening of the radical wing of the Hussite movement, especially in the south of the country, could not but arouse reasonable fears for Oldrich the fate of his South Bohemian papacy. In October 1419, Oldřich from Rožmberk, together with Chenek from Wartemberk, Jan Mikhalets from Michalovits, Alesch Shkopek from Duba, Jindřich from Wartemberk and Viktorin Bocek from Kunstat and Podebrad formed a panic alliance to protect “ Wenceslas IV law and order” after the death of King Wenceslas IV . On November 4, 1419, when the rebel residents of Prague approached the Hradcany , Oldrich accompanied the Dowager Queen Sofia , who decided to leave the city. Two days later, Oldrich was one of the lords who concluded a ceasefire agreement with the citizens of Prague.

Dissatisfied with the strengthening of the taborites in the south of the Czech Republic, Oldrich went over to the side of the Catholic Church and King Sigmund. At his Krumlov court, Oldrich II gave refuge to Catholic intellectuals and artists expelled from Prague. The court of Oldřich gradually became, on the one hand, the political center of recatolization , and on the other, an intellectual club that embraced the ideas of humanism and renaissance . Such a radical change in beliefs and a change in allies will become a hallmark of the whole subsequent policy of Oldrich.

In the spring of 1420, on behalf of King Sigmund, Oldřich II of Rožmberk at the head of his troops besieged Tabor , however, Mikulas from Gusi managed to defeat the Oldřich detachment and lift the siege on June 30 . After this, Oldrich begins the persecution of Tabor preachers and their supporters in his possessions. Hussite priests are replaced by Catholic. After the defeat of the royal forces on Vitková Hora, the troops of the Taborites hit the possessions of Oldřich in southern Bohemia. Several of his castles were captured and destroyed, several estates ravaged, part of his peasants joined the taborites. However, Oldřich’s troops retained the most important castles in the immediate vicinity of Tábor, among which Pribenice and Pribenichki on the banks of the Luzhnice . The possession of these castles made it possible to control the path from Tabor to the center of the country. Under the pretext of protection, Oldrich captured the estates of the Zlatokorunsky monastery .

Despite the defeat at Vitkovo, July 28, 1420 in Prague Sigmund of Luxembourg was crowned king of the Czech Republic. After the coronation, Oldřich was appointed hetman of the Prachensky and Béchynsky Krai together with Vaclav from Duba and Peter from Sternberk, while the lands of the destroyed Zlatokorunsky monastery were granted to Oldřich (on October 1, 1420, the king transferred Oldřich to the administration and the monastery itself).

In early September 1420, Oldřich managed to capture one of the leaders of the taborites Vaclav Koranda . Koranda, along with several other taborites, was imprisoned in the castle of Pribenice. On the night of November 13, Koranda and her associates somehow freed themselves from prison and captured the castle tower. The troops of the Taborites who came to their aid by storm took the castle. When the news reached the neighboring Pribenichki castle, panic seized his garrison and the second castle surrendered to the camp by the evening of that day. The taborites took possession of the enormous wealth brought to Pribenitsa for storage by the surrounding secular and spiritual feudal lords ^[3] . On November 18, 1420, after the loss of the castles of Pribenice and Pribenichka, as well as the cities of Prachatice and Vodnany , Oldřich was forced to conclude a three-month truce with the taborites, according to which he permitted the preaching of the Four Articles of Prague in his possessions. At the same time, the swar of Oldrich was inflamed with the Budejovice hetman Lipolt Kraiři from Krajka.

In June 1421, Oldrich II took part in the Chaslavsky Diet , which deposed King Sigmund and formed an interim government of twenty “zemstvo monarchs”. Five monasteries were elected from the pans estate, including Oldrich II of Rožmberk (one of the two Catholic lords). Despite this, after the troops of the second anti-Hussite crusade invaded the Czech Republic at the end of August 1421, Oldrich II openly sided with the deposed King Sigmund. At that moment, Jan шийсяižka, who was in the south of the country, immediately turned his troops against Oldřich and captured his castle Poděhusy and his own city ​​Sobeslav . The Taborite-Rymberk war in southern Bohemia continued until October 1423 , when a new parliament in Prague declared a truce and formed a new kingdom government. By direct order of Sigmund, Oldřich from Rožmberk refused to participate in the Sejm and recognize his decisions, but he joined the new government.

The Hussite civil war that erupted in 1424 resumed hostilities between Oldrich and the taborites, which ended in a ceasefire in November 1426 . In 1427, Oldrich was appointed Cheskobudeyevitsky hetman and took part in the hostilities of the Fourth Crusade of 1427-1428 , after the defeat of which Sigmund of Luxembourg finally decided to negotiate. In 1431, Oldřich also took part in the next unsuccessful crusade , which ended with the victory of the Hussites in the battle of Domazlice . In the same year, Oldrich II was authorized to officially invite the citizens of Prague to participate in the Basel Cathedral . In the documents of 1431, Oldrich from Rozmberk is mentioned as the highest burggraf of the Czech Kingdom .

In the spring of 1434, Oldřich from Rožmberk, who for some time retired from active operations, was appointed by Sigmund of Luxembourg the royal governor of the Czech Republic and Moravia and official representative of Sikmund in negotiations with the gusis fractions on his return to the Czech throne. In May, the troops of Oldřich led by the knights Mikulas Krhlebets and Hvale from Khmelny moved to join with the troops of other Czech lords in the central part of the Czech Republic. On May 30, 1434, the troops of the taborites and orphans suffered a crushing defeat at the battle of Lipan from the forces of the Pansky Union. After this battle , the government of Ales from Rizmburk , appointed by the Sejm on December 1, 1433 , on which Oldrich of Rozmberk had a significant influence, significantly strengthened his political position.

In 1435, Oldřich laid siege to Lomnice nad Luznice , after which he defeated the armored troops that came to the aid in the Battle of Krzesche ( August 19, 1435 ) and captured the city. This battle was the last battle of the Hussite wars. In 1436, Oldrich reached a final peace agreement with Tabor, which by that time had already recognized the power of King Sikmund of Luxembourg.

In 1437, King Zikmund appointed a regency council of 7 nobles, among which was Oldrich II of Rozmberk, the recognized head of the Catholic Party. Zikmund appointed the husband of his daughter Albrecht of Habsburg as his heir , and soon died. In 1438, Oldrich led the Czech delegation to Vienna, where he announced to Albrecht Habsburg that he was elected king of the Czech Republic. June 29, 1438 Oldrich took part in the coronation of Albrecht. At the same time, the war between Oldrich and Tabor resumed for a while due to the fact that the townspeople of Tabor refused to recognize Albrecht of Habsburg as the new king, speaking for the Polish candidate.

In May 1439, Albrecht appointed Oldřich of Rožmberk and Mengart of Hradec as rulers and hetmans (governors) of the Czech Kingdom during the time of Albrecht's absence in the Czech Republic. On October 27, 1439, the new king suddenly died. The question of a new king was negotiated between Oldrich II and Mengart of Hradec, on the one hand, and moderate temperamental leaders Alesch of Sternberk and Ginek Ptacek of Pirkstein , on the other. Oldrich supported the election of Ladislav Postum , son of Albrecht of Habsburg, as king, so the negotiations came to a standstill. The Prague Sejm in 1440 elected King Albrecht of Bavaria , but he rejected this offer.

The Czech kingdom in the absence of the king was ruled by means of regional landfreeds . The hetman of one of them, Bechinsky, was Oldřich of Rožmberk. Oldřich retired to his South Bohemian estates and from afar watched the ongoing struggle between the party of Ginek Ptacek from Pirkštejn and the taborites led by Jan Kolda from ампampach . After the death of Ginek Ptacek in 1444, the leader of moderate cups became 24-year-old Jiří from Podebrad . In the same year, the cup-holders agreed to the election of Ladislav Postum as king, advocating the appointment of a regent from his party under him. Oldrich II sharply opposed such a development of events, who did not want to strengthen the cupholders and took considerable property and political advantages from the absence of royal power. Oldrich used all his influence to persuade the King of Germany Frederick not to let the young ladislav go to the Czech Republic. In addition, Oldrich prevented the convocation of a general Sejm of the kingdom in every possible way.

In 1447, King Frederick officially announced that he would not let Ladislav go to the Czech Republic. This led to the fact that the cups on the night of September 2 to 3, 1448 captured Prague, captured the highest burggraf Mengart from Hradec and proclaimed Jiri from Podebrad regent of the kingdom. Oldrich II was at that moment in Vienna. Faced with a fait accompli, Aldřich tried to establish friendly relations with the Cupmen, but this only led to greater hostility with Jiří from Podebrad.

In an effort to consolidate Catholic and anti-Podebrad forces in the Czech Republic, Oldřich, who returned from Vienna in February 1449, founded the Pan-Roman Catholic Union (“Strakonice Unity”). In April, a truce was concluded with Jiří from Podebrad for one year. On June 4, 1450, the troops of the Catholic Union and the Cupmen met at the battle of Rokitsan (the troops of Oldrich was led by his eldest son Jindrich IV ). In this battle, the cups won, after which peace was concluded for almost another year. In November 1450 - January 1451, the warring parties gathered in Prague and agreed on the need to send a delegation to Frederick with a request to let Ladislav go to the Czech Republic. At these negotiations, Oldrich was also represented by his eldest son, as the health of Oldrich was significantly shaken. In 1451, Oldřich transferred the management of family estates to Jindřich IV. Formally moving away from business, Oldrich continued to determine the entire family policy of the Rozhmberks. At the Svyatogeorgievsky Diet in Prague, which recognized Jiri from Podebrad as regent of the kingdom, there was not a single Römberg representative.

Throughout his political life, Oldřich skillfully benefited from rapidly changing circumstances, trying to increase his financial condition as much as possible and expand his patrimonial possessions, not hesitating to resort to outright violence and fraud. Despite this, the Hussite wars demanded huge expenses, to cover which Oldrich had to sell part of his estates: in 1420, for example, he was forced to sell the trading town of Haslach am Mühle in Upper Austria and lay the family castle of Rožmberk . However, debts increased during the entire period of the Hussite wars. In 1426 - 1428, Oldřich was forced to sell the family clan and the castle of Vitków-Kamen , the village of Tříšov , the Bor farm and the possessions of the Visebrod Monastery . In addition, many possessions were lost as a result of seizure by taborites, for example, in 1421 Jan ижižka captured the Römberk castle Vlštejn (Wildstein) in the Pilsen Region.

In 1422, King Sikmund, left without a mint, granted Oldřich of Rožmberk the right to mint a royal coin.

The end of the war led to some improvement in the financial situation of the rymberg papacy, primarily due to the return of a large number of peasants who had previously fled to the taborites, and the return of possessions lost during the war. In the early 1430s, Oldřich obtained from King Sikmund the transfer to his control of the Zvikov castle, taken from the Rozmberk in 1318 , and in 1433 he exchanged it from the king for the Zbirog castle . In 1434, Oldřich bought Porshéšín Castle , and in 1435 he captured the taborite town of Lomnice nad Luzhnitsy and annexed it to his captivity. In addition, Oldrich II requested a reward from King Sikmund for his support during the war, but received only 600 gold. Considering that he did not receive enough for his services, Oldrich refused to appear at the Jihlava Diet .

Seeking to give legitimacy to his captures during the Hussite wars and to reinforce his claims to other possessions and privileges, Aldřich made many fake royal granted letters with real or fake seals, 33 of which have survived to this day ^[2] . 16 of these crafts were allegedly published by King Zikmund, 6 by King Jan of Luxembourg , etc. With the help of such “documents”, he claimed his rights to Prachatice , Lomnice nad Luzhnitsy , Zlatokorunsky Monastery , Milevsky Monastery , Gluboka Castle , Zvik papacy and other possessions. In addition, according to these letters, the previous kings allegedly affirmed the indivisibility of the Rhomburk possessions ^[4] . The origin of the Witkowicz from the Italian clan Orsini was also described precisely in these “documents”.

In June 1436 ^[4] Oldřich bought his strategically important castles Příbenice and Příbínicek , captured by the Hussites during the war, and ordered them to be destroyed.

In 1451, Oldřich left the administration of the rymberg papacy, losing the title of possessor of the Rožmberk house to his eldest son Jindřich IV .

Arriving in the Czech Republic in 1453, King Ladislav Postum confirmed the authenticity of most of the falsified letters of Oldrich from Rožmberk. However, at the end of his life, the main problem of Oldrich was the debt receipts and mortgage certificates issued to them at the time by King Sikmund. After the death of Sikmund, these documents went to the King of Germany Friedrich , from whom they were bought by the archenemy Oldřich Jiří from Podebrad . This significantly limited the political possibilities of Oldrich.

After the death of his eldest son Jindřich IV in 1457, another son of Oldřich Jan II stood at the head of the Rožmberk house. In the same year, King Ladislav unexpectedly died. Jiří from Podebrad, who decided to take the throne himself and needed the support of the Rožmberks for this, entered into negotiations with John II. In exchange for the return of the bonds, Oldřich Jan II agreed to support (or at least not oppose) the election of Jiří as king of the Czech Republic. Oldrich did not forgive this son for the rest of his life. At the end of 1457, Oldrich moved Divchi-Kamen , where he lived until the summer of 1461 ^[5] .

Oldrich II of Rožmberk died on April 28, 1462 and was buried in the family tomb of the Visebrod Monastery .

From about 1418, Oldřich was married to Katerina from Wartemberke (d. 1436), екаenek’s niece from Wartemberk , from whom he had six children: Jindřicha IV , Joshta II , Jan II , Anezhka (d. 1488), Lidmila (d. 1490) and Perkhtu (nicknamed "Bela Pani") (d. 1476).

• War for Faith: Against All / Proti všem ( 1958 ; Czechoslovakia ) directed by Otakar Wavra , in the role of Oldrich Wenceslas Spidla .

• History of Cesky Krumlov // www.krumlov.su
• Macek Joseph Tabor in the Hussite revolutionary movement. Volume 2.M. 1956.
• Rubtsov B.T. Hussite Wars (Great Peasant War of the 15th Century in the Czech Republic). Chapters V — IX.
• Oldřich II. z Rožmberka on the website of Cesky Krumlov // www.ckrumlov.cz
• Oldřich II. z Rožmberka // www.e-stredovek.cz
• Zlatá Koruna: Výstava přibližující zločiny Oldřicha II. z Rožmberka - další příspěvek k čtyřsetletému výročí vymření Rožmberků
• Otec českých tunelářů
• Anna Kubíková. Oldřich II. z Rožmberka. Veduta, 2004
• August Sedláček. Anéžka z Rozemberka // Sborník historický vydaný na oslavu desítiletého trvání Klubu historického v Praze. Praha: J. Otto, 1883. s. 110-118.