Judith of Schweinfurt

Judith of Schweinfurt (; before 1003 – 2 August 1058) was Duchess consort of Bohemia from 1034 until 1055, by her marriage with the Přemyslid duke Bretislav I.

Family Her parents were Henry of Schweinfurt (d. 1017), margrave in the Bavarian Nordgau,

Bretislav and Jitka

According to František Palacký, the young Bohemian prince Bretislav, son of the Přemyslid duke Oldřich of Bohemia, on his way to the court of Emperor Conrad II in 1029 passed through Schweinfurt, where he met Judith and immediately fell in love with her. He also had been able to reconquer large Moravian territories occupied by the Polish duke Bolesław I the Brave by 1019. Therefore, Oldřich was not averse to confirm his good relationship with the German nobility through a marriage to Judith.

Beautiful Judith was a desirable bride, however, Oldřich's only son Bretislav was of illegitimate birth from his misalliance with the farmer's daughter Božena. Judith's relatives were very proud of their noble origins, thus complicating the prospect of Bretislav's marriage with the high-born Judith. The young man solved the problem in his own way by sneaking into the monastery and abducting Judith Their first son Spytihněv was born after almost ten years (which led to the hypothesis that the kidnapping happened in 1029), although Judith may have given birth to daughters before her first son.

Exile in Hungary After Bretislav died in 1055, Judith was expelled by her son Spytihněv out of Bohemia, like many other Germans, and moved to the Kingdom of Hungary with her younger son Vratislaus. In Hungary she may have secondly married the former king Peter Orseolo, who had been deposed in 1046. Judith died in 1058 and her mortal remains were transferred to St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

Legacy

The marriage of Bretislav and Judith was perpetuated in the theatre play Bretislaus, also named Bretislav and Jitka, written by the Czech author Jan Campanus Vodňanský (1572–1622) in 1614. The performance was then forbidden, considered detrimental to the reputation of the Bohemian monarchs. According to legend, Judith during her kidnapping lost a shoe when Bretislav's horse galloped downhill from the Schweinfurt monastery; since the 19th century a masonry cave with a stone shoe marks the site.