Witizla (or Vitěslav), was a

Bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a ...

duke who with Spytihněv I of

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 ...

, according to ''

Annales Fuldenses The ''Annales Fuldenses'' or ''Annals of Fulda'' are East Francia, East Frankish chronicles that cover independently the period from the last years of Louis the Pious (died 840) to shortly after the end of effective Carolingian rule in East Fran ...

'', as Bohemian representatives came to pledge allegiance to Frankish king

Arnulf Arnulf is a masculine German given name. It is composed of the Germanic elements ''arn'' "eagle" and ''ulf'' "wolf". The ''-ulf, -olf'' suffix was an extremely frequent element in Germanic onomastics and from an early time was perceived as a mere ...

in 895. This was the last time in Bohemian history when there were groups of princes like Bohemians, Lemuzes, Lucans or

Zlicans The Zliczans (, ) was a Slavic tribe in early medieval Bohemia, divided by a river from the tribe of the Bohemians. They are mentioned in the ''Chronicle of Dalimil''. In the 9th and 10th centuries their seat was in Kouřim. They likely held the Vy ...

. He was possibly the founder of Slavnik's dynasty. According to

Francis Dvornik Francis Dvornik (; 14 August 1893 – 4 November 1975) was a Czech academic medievalist, byzantinist, slavist and Catholic priest. He was one of the leading 20th century authorities on Slavic and Byzantine history and matters related to the church ...

, "the fact that two dukes are specially mentioned indicates that Bohemia was divided into two dukedoms", which could be related to the

White Croats The White Croats (; ; ; ), also known simply as Croats, were a group of Early Slavs, Early Slavic tribes that lived between East Slavs, East Slavic and West Slavs, West Slavic tribes in the historical region of Galicia (Eastern Europe), Galicia n ...

White Croatia White Croatia (also Great Croatia or Chrobatia; , also ) is the region from which part of the White Croats emigrated to the area of modern-day Croatia and lived between 7-10th century. According to recent archaeological and historiographical res ...

and Slavnik's dynasty in eastern part of medieval Bohemia. The two dukedoms became part of

Great Moravia Great Moravia (; , ''Meghálī Moravía''; ; ; , ), or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavic to emerge in the area of Central Europe, possibly including territories which are today part of the Czech Repub ...

in the 9th century, and after its downfall (c. 895), continued to be close allies until Massacre of the Slavníks (995) and unification of whole Bohemia.

References

Slavník dynasty 9th-century monarchs of Bohemia 9th-century dukes in Europe 9th-century people from Bohemia 9th-century Slavs Dukes of Bohemia Year of birth uncertain Christian monarchs Slavic warriors {{Europe-noble-stub