Bretislav I
| Bretislav I | |
|---|---|
| Duke of Bohemia | |
12th-century fresco depiction in the Znojmo Rotunda
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| Spouse(s) | Judith of Schweinfurt |
| Issue | |
| Noble family | Přemyslid dynasty |
| Father | Oldřich of Bohemia |
| Mother | Božena |
| Born | between 1002 and 1005 |
| Died | 10 January 1055 Chrudim |
Bretislav I (Czech: Břetislav I.; 1002/1005–10 January 1055), known as the "Bohemian Achilles", of the Přemyslid dynasty, was Duke of Bohemia from 1035 until his death.
Bretislav was the son of Duke Oldřich and his low-born concubine Božena. As an illegitimate son could not obtain a desirable wife by conventional means, he chose to kidnap his future wife Judith of Schweinfurt (Czech: Jitka), a daughter of the Bavarian noble Henry of Schweinfurt, Margrave of Nordgau, in 1019 at Schweinfurt.
During his father’s reign, in 1019 or 1029, Bretislav took back Moravia from Poland. About 1031, he invaded Hungary in order to prevent its expansion under king Stephen. The partition of Bohemia between Oldřich and his brother Jaromír in 1034 was probably the reason why Bretislav fled beyond the Bohemian border, only to come back to take the throne after Jaromír’s abdication.
In 1035, Bretislav helped Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II in his war against the Lusatians. In 1039, he invaded Lesser and Greater Poland, captured Poznań, sacked Gniezno, and brought the relics of St. Adalbert, Radim Gaudentius and the Five Brothers back with him. On the way back, he conquered part of Silesia, including Wrocław. His main goal was to set up an archbishopric in Prague and create a large state subject only to the Holy Roman Empire. His raid had an unintended enduring influence on Polish history, as the plundering and destruction of Gniezno pushed the next Polish rulers to move their capital to Kraków, which would retain this role for many centuries ahead.
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