Judith of Schweinfurt

Judith of Schweinfurt
Judith's face
Born	Judith before 1003
Died	2 August 1058
Title	Duchess of Bohemia
Spouse(s)	Bretislaus I, Duke of Bohemia
Children	Vratislaus II of Bohemia Spytihněv II, Duke of Bohemia Conrad I, Duke of Bohemia Otto I of Olomouc
Parent(s)	Henry of Schweinfurt Gerberga

Judith of Schweinfurt (Czech: Jitka ze Schweinfurtu; before 1003 – 2 August 1058) was a Duchess of Bohemia.

Family

She was the wife of Bretislaus I of Bohemia.^[1] Her parents were Henry, margrave of Nordgau (Bavaria),^[1] and his wife Gerberga. She was a scion of the House of Babenberg.

Bretislaus and Jitka

The House of Přemysl wished to confirm its good relationship with the Babenbergs through a marriage to Judith in 1020. Judith was a desirable bride, but Oldřich of Bohemia had only one son, Bretislaus, and he was of illegitimate birth, thus complicating the prospect of a marriage with the high-born Judith. Bretislaus solved the problem by kidnapping Judith from a monastery in Schweinfurt,^[1] although he was never punished for the crime. He married Judith some time later. Their first son Spytihněv was born after almost ten years, which led to the hypothesis that the kidnapping happened in 1029, although Judith may have given birth to daughters before her first son.

Exile in Hungary

After Bretislaus died in 1055, Judith may have been sent by Spytihněv out of Bohemia, like other Germans, and moved to Hungary. In Hungary she may have married the former king Peter Urseolo of Hungary, who had been deposed in 1046.

Judith died in 1058 and was buried in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

References

1. Herwig Wolfram, Conrad II, 990-1039: Emperor of Three Kingdoms, transl. Denise A. Kaiser, (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006), 226.

Literature

• KRZEMIENSKA, B. Břetislav I. - Čechy a střední Evropa v prvé polovině XI. století. Praha : Garamond, 1999.
• ŽEMLIČKA, J. Čechy v době knížecí 1044–1198. Praha : NLN, 2002. 660 s. ISBN 80-7106-196-4.