Vladislaus III, Duke of Bohemia

Who was Vladislaus III, Duke of Bohemia?

Vladislaus Henry, known as Vladislaus III, was the youngest son of Vladislaus II and younger brother of Ottokar I. On 22 June 1197, he was elected Duke of Bohemia. Faced with an uprising in favour of Ottokar, Vladislaus abdicated a few months later, on 6 December. Ottokar then took the Bohemian throne without imperial approval and compensated Vladislaus with the near-autonomous margravate of Moravia. By his repudiation of the throne, Vladislaus helped to bring an end to the destructive dynastic wars of the Přemyslids, which had lasted for over twenty-five years from the death of his father. He was the 25th and last duke of Bohemia.

Before his brief dukeship, Vladislaus was Duke of Brno and Znojmo from 1191 to 1194. He supported his older brother Ottokar when he seized the duchy in 1192. Ottokar made him margrave of Moravia then, but the two never paid the demanded sum to the Holy Roman Emperor and so were deposed in June 1193 by a decision of the Diet of Worms, which appointed Bretislaus, Bishop of Prague, as duke.

After the death of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI and Bretislaus in 1197, Vladislaus was crowned duke with his brother in attendance. Vladislaus had the eyes of the claimant Spytihněv III of Brno put out. He also filled the bishopric of Prague with his own confessor, Milico Daniel II, who held the see until 1214 and never received imperial nomination. Ottokar and Vladislaus then very nearly came to blows, but, their armies encamped facing each other, the two met and negotiated a solution whereby Ottokar became duke and Vladislaus margrave of Moravia. Vladislaus held Moravia until his death twenty five years thence.