Prince Wenceslaus Of Bohemia Murdered On Order Of His Own Brother

A. Sutherland  – AncientPages.com – Sword of Saint Wenceslas, also known as the Coronation Sword of Bohemia, has its beginnings in the Kingdom of Bohemia, and it tells a tragic story of two brothers.

The iron blade is 76 cm long, at the widest point is 45 mm and has a ripped hole in a cross shape (45 x 20 mm). The wooden handle is covered with brown-yellow fabric, embroidered with the ornament of laurel twigs with thick silver thread. The cross on the blade was most likely made later in the Middle Ages. Source

The relic is a ceremonial sword with the blade, which age and history go back to the 10th century, to the times of St. Wenceslaus, the duke of Bohemia from 921 until his assassination in 935.

Wenceslaus (Polish: Waclaw) was born in 907, in Stochov, was Duke of Bohemia, a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe. He was the son of Prince Vratislav and the pagan princess Drahomira, who was the daughter of a Veletian chieftain.

The Veletians were a Baltic Slavic tribe who were known as fierce or wild (‘Ljutici’) and for their long and violent resistance to Christianity. It is rather curious that Drahomira was given in marriage to the Christian ruler of Prague.

Left: Prince of Bohemia, Wenceslaus;  Right: Wenceslaus, probably by Peter Parler, in St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague. (Public Domain)

St. Wenceslaus was a Czech prince from the Przemyslid dynasty, royal dynasty which reigned in the Duchy of Bohemia and later Kingdom of Bohemia and Margraviate of Moravia (from 9th century to 1306 AD), as well as in parts of Poland (including Silesia), Hungary, and Austria.

When Wenceslaus was thirteen, his father, Vratislav, died, the government, and as well as two boys (Wenceslaus and Boleslaus), were entrusted to their grandmother, Ludmila of Bohemia.

There is conflicting information, however, whether  Ludmila raised one or two boys. Some sources say that the boys’ mother Drahomira raised Boleslaus, while Ludmila devoted her attention to Wenceslaus.

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