Reign 1080–1086 Name Judith Bohemia Issue Boleslaw III Wrymouth | Spouse Wladyslaw I Herman Burial Plock Cathedral | |
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Died 25 December 1086
Plock, Poland House Premyslid dynasty
House of Piast | ||
Judith of Bohemia (c. 1056/58 – 25 December 1086), also known as Judith Přemyslid, was a Bohemian princess of the Přemyslid dynasty, and Duchess of Poland by marriage.
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She was a daughter of Duke Vratislaus II of Bohemia by his second wife Adelaide, daughter of King Andrew I of Hungary. She was named after her paternal grandmother Judith of Schweinfurt, who died shortly after her birth.
Family
Judith was the second of four children born from Vratislaus II's marriage with the Hungarian princess Adelaide. The others were Bretislaus II, Ludmila (later a nun) and Vratislaus, who died young in battle. Judith's uncle Duke Spytihněv II died in 1061 and was succeeded by his brother Vratislaus II. One year later, in 1062, Duchess Adelaide died.
Duke Vratislaus II remarried in 1063 to Świętosława, daughter of Duke Casimir I of Poland. From this marriage, Judith gained five half-siblings: Boleslav (Duke of Olomouc, who died shortly before his father), Borivoj II, Vladislav I, Soběslav I Oldřich and Judith, later wife of Wiprecht II of Groitzsch, Burgrave of Magdeburg.
Marriage
Around 1080, Judith married Władysław I Herman, Duke of Poland (nephew of her stepmother), to solidify the recently established Bohemian-Polish alliance.
According to contemporary chroniclers, Duchess Judith performed remarkable charity work, helping the needy and ensuring the comfort of subjects and prisoners. After almost five years of childless marriage, the necessity for an heir increased:
On 10 June 1085, Judith and her husband were present at the coronation of her father Duke Vratislaus II as the first King of Bohemia. One year later, on 20 August 1086, she gave birth to the long-awaited son and heir, the future Duke Bolesław III Wrymouth. Sadly, the duchess never recovered from the effects of childbirth and died four months later, on 25 December. She was buried in Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Masovia in Płock.
Three years later, in 1089, her husband was remarried to the widow of Judith's uncle King Solomon of Hungary, Judith of Swabia, who was renamed Sophia in Poland in order to distinguish herself from Władysław I's first wife.