Emma of Mělník

Who is Emma of Mělník?

Emma was a Bohemian duchess consort as the second wife of Boleslaus II of Bohemia.

Her origins are uncertain. The historian Gelasius Dobner thought she was a princess of Burgundy, and this theory has been recently respected. However the latest research of historians and numismatics indicate that she was of Italian-Burgundian origin and identified with Queen Emma of France, widow of King Lothair of France. She became the second or wife of Boleslaus I about the year 989 and died either in 1005 or 1006. It was traditionally supposed by Czech historians that Emma was the mother of Boleslaus' younger sons Oldřich and Jaromír and that the mother of the oldest son, Boleslaus III of Bohemia, was Adiva, the first wife of Boleslaus II.

Afraid of Boleslaus III, Emma chose to go into exile at the court of Bavaria in 1001 together with Oldřich and Jaromír. The brothers sought military backing from the German King Henry II. This action definitively placed Bohemia within the jurisdiction of the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1004, Jaromír occupied Prague with a German army and made himself Duke. Emma came back to Bohemia, maybe living in Mělník, where she died.