Judith of Bohemia ( 1056/58 – 25 December 1086), also known as Judith Přemyslid, was a member of the

Přemyslid dynasty The Přemyslid dynasty or House of Přemysl (, , ) was a Bohemian royal dynasty that reigned in the Duchy of Bohemia and later Kingdom of Bohemia and Margraviate of Moravia (9th century–1306), as well as in parts of Poland (including Silesia ...

and duchess of Poland by marriage. She was a daughter of Duke

Vratislaus II of Bohemia Vratislaus II (or Wratislaus II) () ( 1032 – 14 January 1092), the son of Bretislaus I of Bohemia, Bretislaus I and Judith of Schweinfurt, was the first King of Bohemia as of 15 June 1085, his royal title granted as a lifetime honorific from Ho ...

and

Adelaide of Hungary Adelaide of Hungary ( – 27 January 1062) was the only daughter of King Andrew I of Hungary. It has generally been assumed that her mother was Anastasia of Kiev, but it has been hypothesised that Adelaide could be the result of Andrew I an ...

, and was married to Władysław Herman.

Early life

Judith was born into the

. She was the second of four children born to

and his second wife,

. Her father became duke in 1061 and her mother died the next year.

Duchess of Poland

Around 1080, Judith married Duke Władysław Herman of Poland 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: ::''Because she was barren pray to God every day with tears and orations, made sacrifices and paying debts, helping widows and orphans, and given very generous amounts of gold and silver for the monasteries, commanded the priests to pray to the saints and the grace of God for a child.'' On 10 June 1085, Judith and her husband were present at the coronation of her father, Vratislaus II, as the first

king of Bohemia The Duchy of Bohemia was established in 870 and raised to the Kingdom of Bohemia in Golden Bull of Sicily, 1198. Several Bohemian monarchs ruled as non-hereditary kings and first gained the title in 1085. From 1004 to 1806, Bohemia was part of th ...

. One year later, on 20 August 1086, she gave birth to the long-awaited son and heir, Bolesław Wrymouth. She never recovered from the effects of childbirth and died on 25 December. She was buried in Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Masovia in

Płock Płock (pronounced ), officially the Ducal Capital City of Płock, is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, in the Masovian Voivodeship. According to the data provided by Central Statistical Office (Poland), GUS on 31 December 2021, the ...

References

* K. Jasiński: ''Rodowód pierwszych Piastów'', Warsaw – Wrocław, 1992. {{DEFAULTSORT:Judith of Bohemia

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

Year of birth uncertain Bohemian princesses Queens consort of Poland Přemyslid dynasty Nobility from medieval Bohemia Polish people of Czech descent 11th-century people from Bohemia 11th-century women from Bohemia 11th-century Polish women 11th-century Polish people Deaths in childbirth Mothers of Polish monarchs