König Ottokars Glück und Ende

König Ottokars Glück und Ende is a tragedy in five acts written by Franz Grillparzer in 1823. Based on the historical events surrounding the life of Ottokar II of Bohemia, the play deals with the fall of the king from the height of his powers to his death, having lost most of his supporters and lands, largely through his own actions.

Grillparzer had originally wanted to write a tragedy about Napoleon, however, fearing censorship from Austrian authorities, instead used King Ottokar II of Bohemia (1253–1278) as the central figure, as there were a number of parallels in personality traits and circumstances.

The play was completed in 1823, but publication was delayed by censorship issues, notably the "unfortunate allusion to Napoleon's second marriage to Marie-Louise of Austria, and its unfavourable portrayal of Bohemia". The wife of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, Caroline Augusta of Bavaria read the play and urged her husband to allow it to be publicly performed, which took place for the first time on February 19, 1825 in Vienna's Burgtheater.

The play's nationalistic themes in particular were criticised when first released, and remain controversial today. However the tight personal tragedy of Ottokar, at once the cause and the victim of events around him, as well as the elegance of the verse, has maintained the popularity of the play among students and audiences to the present.

The tragedy begins in the year 1261. Ottokar is at the height of his powers, having recently defeated the Hungarians at the Battle of Kressenbrunn, and the play opens with news that Ottokar is divorcing from his wife Margarete, on the grounds that she cannot bear an heir, and that they are in any case distantly related. Instead, he is to marry Kunigunde, young relative of the Hungarian King Bela, news which breaks the heart of Berta, one of Margarete's most beautiful ladies-in-waiting who Ottokar had previously seduced, as well as alienating her family, the Rosenbergs. Despite revealing that she never loved Ottokar, and only married him after the death of her first husband out of a sense of duty, Margarete is nevertheless deeply upset by this rejection and betrayal, although still waives her rights to retain the lands of Austria and Styria inherited from her first marriage.

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