In the 870s A.D, during the reign of Svatopluk I of Great Moravia, the Moravians took control of the lands of Bohemia. However, Svatopluk I was not able to directly control the territory himself and so he gave power to a man named Borivoj I, a descendant of the legendary Premysl. Unlike his predecessors who were forever left behind in legends and myth of the Chronica Boemorum, Borivoj would be the first historical duke of Bohemia as mentioned in the Frankish chronicle Annales Fuldenses, and the progenitor of the Premyslid dynasty that would shape Bohemia in the years to come.

Baptism of Duke Borivoj, 19th-century painting

During Borivoj I’s reign, he ruled from his fort in Levy Hradec, where he supported Svatopluk I in his war against the Eastern Franks and their king, Louis the German. In 874, Borivoj I married Ludmila and the two of them had two sons, Spytihnev and Vratislaus. Both Borivoj and Ludmila converted to Christianity in 883 and the first church in Bohemia was built at Levy Hradec.

Unfortunately for Borivoj I, his fellow Bohemian princes were not too keen on his rule and attempted to remove him from power in 884. Borivoj fled to Moravia to enlist the aid of Svatopluk and in 885 returned with an army to restore his position.

Upon defeating the pagan princes who had attempted to overthrow him, Borivoj decided to construct the Church of the Virgin Mary upon the site where the princes held their diet, which once served as an old sacrificial field for their pagan rituals.

In 889, Borivoj I would die and because his heirs were not old enough to rule yet, control of Bohemia would revert back to Svatopluk through an agreement with Arnulf of Carinthia, the ruler of East Francia at the time.

St. Clement Church at Levy Hradec, the first church built in Bohemia.

Ruins of the Church of the Virgin Mary located at Prague Castle.

Spytihnev I, Fresco at Rotunda of St. Catherine in Znojmo.

Eventually, Borivoj I’s son Spytihnev would take his father’s place as the duke of Bohemia in 894. It was at this time that Svatopluk I died and Great Moravia began its descent into ruin under the rule of Mojmir II. Seeing a chance to free Bohemia from the yolk of Great Moravian control, Spytihnev appeared at the Imperial Diet in Regensburg in 895 to pay homage to King Arnulf of Carinthia and cast his lot with the Eastern Franks.

Aiming to consolidate his power over and cement the Premyslid dynasty’s control over the other Bohemian princes, Spytihnev moved his base of operations to Hradcany and built a new castle known as Prague, located in the same area that Borivoj I had built the Church of the Virgin Mary. While the other princes recognized Spytihnev’s rule, they still maintained a good amount of independence.

In 898, Bohemia officially broke away from Great Moravia through its alliance with the Bavarians and began to pay tribute to the King of East Francia. While Great Moravia fell apart in the wake of Magyar invasion, Bohemia was able to protect itself with the help of its new Frankish allies. In 915, Spytihnev died, having successfully secured Bohemian independence.

After Spytihnev I’s death in 915, his younger brother Vratislaus became the next duke of Bohemia. At the time of Vrastislaus I’s reign, the Duchy of Bohemia consisted of the more organized Central Bohemia while the rest of Bohemia consisted of more tribal and pagan principalities. Vrastilaus I had married Drahomira in 906, creating an alliance with the Polabian Slavs, thus bringing them into conflict with the Saxons who wanted to subdue them.

In 915, Vrastilaus I allowed the Hungarians free passage through his land to fight against the Saxons. During his reign, Vrastilaus I established St. George’s Basilica at Prague Castle and is also said to be responsible for founding the city of Wroclaw in Silesia.

Vrastislaus I would meet with an untimely death in 921. With his two sons, Wenceslaus and Boleslaus, not of age yet, it fell to his wife Drahomira to rule as regent for Wenceslaus. However, she had to share this power with Ludimila, Borivoj’s widow, and tragedy and treachery would befall them in the coming years.

Written by James Travis

Citations:

Agnew, Hugh. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press.

Panek, Jaroslave and Oldrich Tuma. 2020. A History of the Czech Lands. 2nd ed. Prague: Charles University Karolinum Press.