self cutting off the wheat and grapes that the priests required to prepare the holy wafers and the wine for the sacrament. His great generosity to churches seems to have caused discontent among some of the nobles; and the ambition of Venceslas's younger brother Boleslav induced him to become the head of a conspiracy against the prince. Wenceslas had the pious habit of attending the anniversaries of the foundation of churches—posviceni, as they are called in Bohemia—in every part of his dominions, and on the invitation of his brother he repaired for a festivity of this description to Stará Boleslav, where Boleslav then resided.
On his way to early mass on the 28th of September, 935, Wenceslas was attacked by his brother and other conspirators, and murdered after a brave defence. Wenceslas was canonized by the Catholic Church, and the 28th of September is still one of the great religious festivals of Bohemia.
Boleslav, surnamed the Cruel, now became sovereign of Bohemia. He was "one of the most powerful monarchs that ever occupied the Bohemian throne."[1] He greatly extended the frontiers of the country, and also consolidated it internally. His reign began with a renewal of the intermittent but ever-recurring war against Germany. Probably King Henry considered the murder of his ally Wenceslas as a sufficient reason for resuming hostilities.
Henry died before he had had time to open the campaign; but in 938 the powerful king and emperor Otho I, who succeeded him, sent two armies into Bohemia. Though the records of this war are very obscure, it seems probable that Boleslav succeeded in defending his country against the invaders, at least for a time; it is also reported that he succeeded in subduing some of the Bohemian nobles who had allied themselves with the national enemy. War now continued between the two countries with varying success, but few details concerning this struggle have reached us. We read that in 946 the Bohemian prince sent hostages to Otho; but this evidently does not indicate a decisive victory of the Germans, for in 950 Otho himself entered Bohemia with a great army. Boleslav, seeing that his forces were insufficient to resist the whole power of the victorious Emperor, consented again to pay the tribute which Wenceslas had promised. Boleslav henceforth lived
- ↑ Palacký.
