Wenceslaus III of Bohemia

Wenceslaus III of Bohemia
King of Bohemia
Reign	1301–1305
Coronation	1301, Székesfehérvár
Predecessor	Wenceslaus II
Successor	Henry
King of Hungary and Croatia
Reign	1305–1306
Predecessor	Andrew III
Successor	Béla V
King of Poland
Reign	1305–1306
Predecessor	Wenceslas II
Successor	Ladislaus I
Spouse	Viola of Teschen
Issue
Elizabeth, Abbess of Pustiměřu (illegitimate)
House	Přemyslid
Father	Wenceslaus II of Bohemia
Mother	Judith of Habsburg
Born	6 October 1289 Prague, Bohemia
Died	4 August 1306 (1306-08-05) (aged 16) Olomouc, Moravia

Wenceslaus III Premyslid (Czech and Slovak: Václav III., German: Wenzel III., Hungarian: Vencel, Polish: Wacław, Croatian: Vjenceslav III, Serbian: Вeнцeслав III, Venceslav III; 6 October 1289 – 4 August 1306) was by inheritance the King of Bohemia (1305–06), the King of Hungary (1301–05) and the King of Poland (1305–06).

Wenceslaus III was the son of Wenceslaus II, King of Bohemia and Poland, and Judith of Habsburg, the daughter of Rudolph I, King of the Romans. During his short reign, the teenaged king faced the problem of significant internal quarrels in Hungary and in Poland.

Wenceslaus was the last of the male Přemyslid rulers of Bohemia. His sister Elizabeth married John of Luxembourg, who was elected King of Bohemia four years after his death.

Kingdom of Hungary

On 12 February 1298, Wenceslaus was betrothed to Elizabeth, the only child of King Andrew III of Hungary.

His father accepted the crown of Hungary on behalf of Wenceslaus III after Andrew's death in 1301. On 27 August 1301, Wenceslaus III was crowned in Székesfehérvár as the King of Hungary and as such assumed the name Ladislaus V (Hungarian: László,^[1] Czech, Slovak and Croatian: Ladislav). At that time, the Kingdom of Hungary was split into several de facto principalities, and Wenceslaus was only accepted as the King of Hungary by the rulers in modern Slovakia (Matthew Csák), in Burgenland (the Güssings) and on territory around the capital, Buda. Wenceslaus took the name of Ladislaus in honor to one of the most important figures in the Hungarian early history: the King Saint Ladislaus I of Hungary.

However, soon Matthew Csák switched sides in 1303 and started to support Wenceslaus' rival Charles Robert of Anjou, who was supported also by the Holy See. Consequently, the young Wenceslaus, in Ofen (Buda), became afraid and wrote to his father in Prague for help. His father took a large army and invaded Buda, but having considered the situation, he took his son and the Hungarian crown and returned to Bohemia. Ivan of Güssing was named to represent Wenceslaus III in Hungary. After his father's death, Wenceslaus III decided to renounce the Hungarian throne, and on 6 December 1305, he relinquished the crown to Otto, Duke of Lower Bavaria. But Otto, supported only by the Güssings, was imprisoned in 1307 and abdicated the throne in 1308, leaving Charles Robert as ruler of Hungary. In Hungarian historiography he is noted as an antiking during the interregnum of 1301–1310.^{[citation needed]}

Wenceslaus III of Bohemia and Poland

His engagement to Elizabeth of Hungary was broken off in 1305.

Poland

In 1305, Wenceslaus III married Viola of Teschen, a daughter of Mieszko I, Duke of Teschen; the marriage was childless. Wenceslaus III, however, wanted to claim his hereditary right to the Polish throne, but was murdered under mysterious circumstances in Olomouc, Moravia, on 4 August 1306 while on a campaign to that end.

Ancestry

See also

• History of Poland (966-1385)

Notes