Battle of Mailberg

Battle of Mailberg
	; Leopold the Fair at the Battle of Mailberg, Babenberger Stammbaum, Klosterneuburg Monastery, 1489–1492
Date	12 May 1082
Location	Mailberg, Austria; Coordinates: 48°40′N16°11′E / 48.667°N 16.183°E
Result	Decisive Bohemian victory
Belligerents
Duchy of Bohemia	Margraviate of Austria
Commanders and leaders
Vratislaus II of Bohemia	Leopold II, Margrave of Austria
Strength
6,000 Bohemians; 2,000 mercenaries (from Moravia and Bavaria)	3,000 Austrians; 500 cavalry
	Mailberg Location within Austria

Last updated October 24, 2019

The Battle of Mailberg took place on 12 May 1082. The opponents were Vratislaus II of Bohemia (Czech : Vratislav II.) and Leopold II, Margrave of Austria (German : Luitpold II).

VratislausII, the son of Bretislaus I and Judith of Schweinfurt, was the first King of Bohemia as of 15 June 1085, his royal title granted as a lifetime honorific from Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV that did not establish a hereditary monarchy. Before his elevation to the royal dignity, Vratislaus had ruled Bohemia as duke since 1061.

Czech, historically also Bohemian is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group. Spoken by over 10 million people, it serves as the official language of the Czech Republic. Czech is closely related to Slovak, to the point of mutual intelligibility to a very high degree, as well as Polish. Like other Slavic languages, Czech is a fusional language with a rich system of morphology and relatively flexible word order. Its vocabulary has been extensively influenced by Latin and German.

Leopold II, known as Leopold the Fair, a member of the House of Babenberg, was Margrave of Austria from 1075 until his death. A supporter of the Gregorian Reforms, he was one of the main opponents of the German king Henry IV during the Investiture Controversy.

Battle

Vratislaus invaded Austria with an army of 6,000 soldiers from Bohemia and another 2,000 mercenaries from Moravia and Bavaria. Leopold and his army of about 3,500 soldiers met the invaders in a valley near Mailberg. Leopold was probably supported by additional forces from the conquered areas who remained loyal to the Babenbergs.^[1]

Bohemia is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech lands in the present-day Czech Republic. In a broader meaning, Bohemia sometimes refers to the entire Czech territory, including Moravia and Czech Silesia, especially in a historical context, such as the Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by Bohemian kings.

Moravia is a historical region in the Czech Republic and one of the historical Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early modern Margraviate of Moravia was a crown land of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, an imperial state of the Holy Roman Empire, later a crown land of the Austrian Empire and briefly also one of 17 former crown lands of the Cisleithanian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867 to 1918. During the early 20th century, Moravia was one of the five lands of Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1928; it was then merged with Czech Silesia, and eventually dissolved by abolition of the land system in 1949.

Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a landlocked federal state of Germany, occupying its southeastern corner. With an area of 70,550.19 square kilometres, Bavaria is the largest German state by land area comprising roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany. With 13 million inhabitants, it is Germany's second-most-populous state after North Rhine-Westphalia. Bavaria's main cities are Munich, Nuremberg and Augsburg.

According to reports by the historian Cosmas of Prague, Leopold arranged his troops in a wedge configuration, while Wratislaw arranged his troops in three parallel columns: the Moravian troops on the left, the Bohemian troops in the center, and the heavily armed Bavarians on the right.^[1]

Aftermath

Vratislav and his allies achieved a complete victory. The losses on the Bohemian side were minor, according to Cosmas. The Austrians were taken prisoner and held for ransom. Only a few of Leopold's men were able to escape. In 1899, at a construction site near Mailberg, the remains of numerous soldiers and horses were discovered—most likely from the Battle of Mailberg.^[1]

As a result of the battle, the northern areas of Lower Austria were devastated from pillage and famine. The Bohemian border was moved closer to Mailberg, recapturing land that had been lost to the Austrians under Bretislaus I in 1041. After the death of Leopold II in 1095, his daughter Gerbirg (Gerberga) married Bořivoj II, the second son Vratislav in 1100.^[1]

Bořivoj II was the duke of Bohemia from 25 December 1100 until May 1107 and from December 1117 until 16 August 1120. He was the younger half-brother and successor of Bretislaus II. His father was Vratislav II of Bohemia, his mother Świętosława of Poland.

Related Research Articles

Vratislaus I, Duke of Bohemia Duke of Bohemia

VratislausI, a member of the Přemyslid dynasty, was Duke of Bohemia from 915 until his death.

(Saint) Wenceslaus I, Wenceslas I or Václav the Good was the duke (kníže) of Bohemia from 921 until his assassination in 935. His younger brother, Boleslaus the Cruel, was complicit in the murder.

Year 1082 (MLXXXII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.

Boleslaus I, Duke of Bohemia Duke of Bohemia

Boleslaus I the Cruel, also called Boleslav I, a member of the Přemyslid dynasty, was ruler of the Duchy of Bohemia from 935 to his death. He is notorious for the murder of his elder brother Wenceslaus, through which he became duke. Despite his complicity in this fratricide, Boleslaus is generally respected by Czech historians as an energetic ruler who significantly strengthened the Bohemian state and expanded its territory. His accomplishments include significant economic development due to an expansion in trade, the introduction of silver mining and the minting of the first local coinage, the Prague denarius.

The Battle of White Mountain was an important battle in the early stages of the Thirty Years' War.

The Duchy of Bohemia, also later referred to in English as the Czech Duchy, was a monarchy and a principality of the Holy Roman Empire in Central Europe during the Early and High Middle Ages. It was formed around 870 by Czechs as part of the Great Moravian realm. The Bohemian lands separated from disintegrating Moravia after Duke Spytihněv swore fidelity to the East Frankish king Arnulf in 895.

Bretislav I, known as the "Bohemian Achilles", of the Přemyslid dynasty, was Duke of Bohemia from 1035 until his death.

The Kingdom of Bohemia, sometimes later in English literature referred to as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe, the predecessor of the modern Czech Republic. It was an Imperial State in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Bohemian king was a prince-elector of the empire. The kings of Bohemia, besides Bohemia, also ruled the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, which at various times included Moravia, Silesia, Lusatia, and parts of Saxony, Brandenburg, and Bavaria.

Cosmas of Prague Czech writer, medieval chronicler and roman catholic priest

Cosmas of Prague was a priest, writer and historian born in a noble family in Bohemia. Between 1075 and 1081, he studied in Liège. After his return to Bohemia, he became a priest and married Božetěcha, with whom he probably had a son. In 1086, Cosmas was appointed prebendary (canonicus) of Prague, a prestigious position. As prebendary he also travelled through Europe on official matters.

The Přemyslid dynasty or House of Přemyslid was a Czech royal dynasty which reigned in the Duchy of Bohemia and later Kingdom of Bohemia and Margraviate of Moravia, as well as in parts of Poland, Hungary, and Austria.

Drahomíra of Stodor was Duchess consort of Bohemia from 915 to 921, wife of the Přemyslid duke Vratislaus I. She also acted as regent of the Duchy of Bohemia from 921 to 924 during the minority of her son Wenceslaus. She is chiefly known for the murder of her mother-in-law Ludmila of Bohemia by hired assassins.

Frederick, Duke of Bohemia Duke of Bohemia, 1172-1173 and 1178-1189

Frederick, a member of the Přemyslid dynasty, was Duke of Bohemia from 1172 to 1173 and again from 1178 to his death.

St. George's Basilica is the oldest surviving church building within Prague Castle, Prague, Czech Republic. The basilica was founded by Vratislaus I of Bohemia in 920. It is dedicated to Saint George.

Świętosława of Poland Queen consort of Bohemia

Świętosława of Poland was the third wife of Duke Vratislaus II of Bohemia and the first Queen of Bohemia as of 1085.

Kłodzko Land is a historical region in southwestern Poland. A Bohemian domain since the 12th century and raised to the County of Kladsko in 1459, it was conquered by Prussia in the First Silesian War of 1740-42 and incorporated into the Province of Silesia by 1818. After World War II it fell to the Republic of Poland according to the 1945 Potsdam Agreement.

Luitpold of Znojmo, a member of the Přemyslid dynasty, ruled as Moravian duke of Znojmo for twenty years - from 1092 until his death.

The Czech Corner is a territory found in the western end of Klodzko land, close to the current Czech-Polish border. This area consisted of eleven villages which were inhabited by Bohemian Czechs.

Conrad II of Znojmo, a member of the Přemyslid dynasty, was a Bohemian prince who ruled in the Moravian principality of Znojmo from 1123 to 1128 and again from 1134 until his death.

References

1 2 3 4 Cosmas of Prague (2009). The Chronicle of the Czechs (Medieval Texts in Translation). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 9780813215709.

External links

Mailberg at AEIOU

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[cosmas-1] 1 2 3 4 Cosmas of Prague (2009). The Chronicle of the Czechs (Medieval Texts in Translation). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 9780813215709.