Wenceslaus II Premyslid (; ;
September 17, 1271 –
June 21, 1305) was
King of Bohemia (1278 - 1305),
Duke of Cracow (1291 - 1305) and
King of Poland (1300 - 1305).
He was the only son of King
Ottokar II "the Great" of Bohemia and Ottokar's second wife
Kunigunda. Kunigunda was the daughter of
Rostislav, lord of Slavonia, son of a Grand Duke of
Kiev and Anna of Hungary, daughter of
Béla IV of Hungary. Wenceslaus's father died in battle
August 26, 1278, shortly before Wenceslaus's seventh birthday.
Before Wenceslaus became of age, the government was handled by Otto IV Margrave of
Brandenburg, who is said to have held Wenceslaus captive in several locations. Later his mother's secret husband,
Záviš of Falkenštejn ruled for him.
On
January 24, 1285, Wenceslaus married
Judith of Habsburg, daughter of
Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf I, to whom he had been betrothed since 1276. In 1290 Wenceslaus had Záviš beheaded for alleged treason and began ruling independently.
In 1291
Przemysł II, High Duke of Poland, ceded the sovereign duchy of
Krakow to Wenceslaus.
Kraków was associated with the overlordship of Poland, but Przemysł held the other duchies and in 1295 was crowned King of Poland. After Przemysł's death in 1296 Wenceslaus became overlord of Poland and in 1300 was crowned King of Poland. He was planning to invade
Austria when he died in 1305. He was succeeded by his son,
Wenceslaus III (Václav III.), last of the
Přemyslid kings in male line.
In 1298
silver was discovered at
Hory Kutné (
Kutná Hora, Kuttenberg) in
Central Bohemia. Wenceslaus took control of the mine by making silver production a royal monopoly, and issued the
Prague groschen with became the most popular of the early
Groschen-type coins. Kutná Hora was one of the richest European silver strikes ever: between 1300 and 1340, the mine may have produced as much as 20 tons of silver a year.
In 1301, Wenceslaus' kinsman
Andrew III of Hungary died and with him the
Árpád dynasty in male line. Wenceslaus was one of the relatives who claimed the throne, and he accepted it from a party of Hungarians on behalf of his young son in the same year. They never succeeded in having more than a portion of
Hungary submitted under their rule.
Queen Judith had died in 1297. Wenceslaus's second wife was
Elisabeth Richeza, daughter of
Przemysł II, King of Poland 1295 - 1296. After Wenceslaus's death, she married
Rudolph of Habsburg, duke of Austria, who also became king of Bohemia for a brief period in those unruly years.
