Vršovci

The Vršovci (Vrshovici) were a noble Czech (Bohemian) family and clan, probable or legendary ancestors of some bearers of the Oksza and the Rawicz coat of arms (noble families in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth also in Russian Empire and Ukraine).

First noted in the power struggles of the 10th–12th centuries in Bohemia. The Vršovci were the third most powerful political force in newly Christianized Bohemia, after the reigning Přemyslids (Přemyslovci) and the contending Slavníks (Slavníkovci). They were active in Bohemian conflicts with Poland, Hungary and the Kings and Electors of the Holy Roman Empire, and also in the intermittent internal conflicts common for feudally fragmented regimes of that time. The Vršovci possessed such towns as Žatec and Litoměřice.

They had consanguinity with the Přemyslidi and often cooperated with them. Some historians supposed that, unlike their opponents, the other two leading families of Bohemia, the Vršovci could have retained some pagan beliefs in the 10th century.

The etymology of the clan name is still a subject of dispute. One version claims its origin to be Czech "fishnet" i.e. "Vrša", while another opinion would have it derived from "Vrsa/Vrsvs" ("Ursa/Ursus"), Latin for "female bear/bear".

The Vršovci, Přemyslids and Slavníki took part in cruel power struggles that occurred in Bohemia on the turn of the first millennium. Vršovci and Přemyslids led by Boleslav II the Pious, fought with the rival princely clan of Slavniki. On September 28, 995 they stormed Libice nad Cidlinou in Central Bohemia and conquered the Slavníki. Among the victims were four or five brothers of future catholic saint Adalbert (Czech: Svatý Vojtěch, Polish: święty Wojciech), then bishop of Prague. According to the legends the saint was very impulsive. He damned the murderers(Vršovci). However, as some legend says the saint know how to moderate "the horse of his anger" in order to not "deviate from a bright way of the eternal life" so he escaped from Bohemia to Hungary and Poland, also legend says that he predicted the prosecution of Vršovci.

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