Frederick, Duke of Bohemia

Who was Frederick, Duke of Bohemia?

Frederick was the duke of Olomouc from 1164 and then duke of Bohemia from 1172 to 1173 and again from 1178 to his death. He was the son of King Vladislaus II, who abdicated in 1172 in his favour. However, he could not hold on to his principality, because he was approved of by neither the national diet nor the emperor, and was deposed in September the year following by the emperor at the Diet of Hermsdorf. The Emperor Frederick I, godfather and namesake of Frederick, nominated Oldřich, son of Soběslav I, but he renounced the throne in favour of Soběslav II, sympathetic to the peasantry, but antagonistic to both nobles and emperor.

Frederick allied with the emperor and defeated Soběslav at the battles of Lodenice and Prague. The emperor recognised Frederick as an imperial prince, but he also raised the bishop of Prague, Henry Bretislaus, to princely status, making him a direct vassal of the emperor. He also appointed Conrad Otto margrave over Moravia and thus divided the duchy into three parts dependent on him. When Frederick, who was practically a puppet of the emperor, died, he was succeeded by Conrad Otto.

By his marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of Géza II of Hungary, he had the following issue: