| History |
Drahomira was a princess of the Hevelli or Hevellians, a Slavic tribe living around the river Havel in the Havelland area of Brandenburg in Eastern Germany from the 8th century onwards. In 906 she married Wratislaw I, duke of Bohemia. They had six children, including Wenceslas, Boleslaw and Strezislava, of whom Boleslaw would have progeny.
She led her husband to cooperation with her own people warring against Saxony. After her husband\'s untimely death in 921 she and her mother-in-law Ludmilla, widow of Wratislaw\'s father Borziwoy I, divided the government of Bohemia.
Popular history depicts Ludmilla as a restrained and pious grandmother, but it is likely that the political demands of government called for more energy and worldliness than history records. The issue of influence over Drahomira\'s eldest son Wenceslas, only thirteen when his father died, was one of the main reasons for the eventually fatal discord between Drahomira and Ludmilla. Ludmilla exerted great influence over Wenceslas, leaving Drahomira to concentrate her efforts on her younger son Boleslaw.
Despite or perhaps as a result of her political and personal efforts, Ludmilla attracted Drahomira\'s bitter enmity. Ludmilla fled to Tetin castle, where he daughter-in-law\'s hired assassins, Tunna and Gommon, murdered her in 927.
When Wenceslas came to power he sent his mother into exile, though he later recalled her. She was said to have persuaded her younger son Boleslaw to murder his elder brother, and Wenceslas was killed in September 935 by a group of nobles allied to Boleslaw, who took over the rule of Bohemia. Drahomira died after 935. According to a chronicle she was killed in an earthquake. [1] |
Ellie Wood Keith Genealogy
Est 890 - Aft 935 (~ 46 years)