Individual

Go to List of Family Names Go to List of People    < Previous Next >

Birth:          ABT  931 of Praha, Bohemia
Death:           977 

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubravka_of_Bohemia
Doubravka of Bohemia or Dobrawa, Dabrówka (Czech: Doubravka Premyslovna, 
Polish: Dobrawa Przemyslidka, Dabrówka Przemyslidka) (ca. 940/45 – 977) was a 
Bohemian princess of the Premyslid dynasty and by marriage Duchess of the Polans.

She was the daughter of Boleslav I the Cruel, Duke of Bohemia, whose wife may have 
been the mysterious Biagota.[1][2]

According to earlier sources, Dobrawa urged her husband Mieszko I of Poland to 
accept baptism in 966, the year after their marriage. Modern historians believe, 
however, that the change of religion by Mieszko was one of the points discussed in 
the Polish-Bohemian agreement concluded soon before his marriage with Dobrawa. 
Her role in his conversion is not considered now to be as important as it is often 
represented in medieval chronicles.
Life[edit]

Date of birth[edit]

Dobrawa's date of birth is not known. The only indication is communicated by the 
chronicler Cosmas of Prague, who stated that the Bohemian princess at the time of her 
marriage with Mieszko I was an old woman.[3] The passage is regarded as tendentious 
and of little reliability, and some researchers believe that the statement was made with 
malicious intent.[4] It is possible that in the statement about Dobrawa's age, Cosmas 
was making a reference to the age difference between her and her sister Mlada. That 
would give him a basis for determining Dobrawa as "old." It[citation needed] also 
found that Cosmas confuses Dobrawa with Mieszko I's second wife Oda, who at the 
time of her marriage was around 19–25 years old, a relatively advanced age for a bride 
according to the customs of the Middle Ages. Some researchers have taken up 
speculative views, such as Jerzy Strzelczyk, who assumed that in the light of 
contemporary concepts and habits of marriage of that time (when as a rule marriages 
were contracted with teenage girls) is assumed that Dobrawa had passed her early 
youth, so, it's probable that she was in her late teens or twenties.[5]

Early years[edit]

Nothing is known about Dobrawa's childhood and youth. In 1895 Oswald Balzer 
refuted reports that previous to her marriage with Mieszko I, Dobrawa was married to 
Gunther, Margrave of Merseburg and they had a son, Gunzelin. This view is based on 
the fact that Thietmar of Merseburg in his chronicles named Gunzelin, Gunther's son, 
brother of Boleslaw I the Brave, Dobrawa's son.[6] Currently, historians believed that 
Gunzelin and Boleslaw I are in fact cousins or brothers-in-law.[7]

Marriage with Mieszko I and role in the Christianization of Poland[edit]

In the second half of 964[8] an alliance between Boleslav I the Cruel, Duke of 
Bohemia, and Mieszko I of Poland was concluded. In order to consolidate the 
agreement, in 965 Boleslav I's daughter Dobrawa was married to Mieszko I. There was 
a difference of religion between the spouses; she was a Christian, he was a pagan.

Two independent sources attribute to Dobrawa an important role in the conversion to 
Christianity of Mieszko I and Poland. The first is the chronicles of Thietmar, who was 
born two years before the death of Dobrawa. He wrote that the Bohemian princess 
tried to persuade her husband to accept Christianity (even at the cost of breaking 
their marriage and with it the Polish-Bohemian Alliance). In the end, she finally 
obtained the conversion of Mieszko I and with him, of all Poland.[9]

In turn, the 12th century chronicler Gallus Anonymus says that Dobrawa came to 
Poland surrounded by secular and religious dignitaries. She agreed to marry Mieszko I 
providing that he was baptized. The Polish ruler accepted, and only then was able to 
marry the Bohemian princess.

However, modern historians allege that the baptism of Mieszko I was dictated by 
political benefits and should not be attributed to any action of Dobrawa, who 
according to the modern view had virtually no role in the conversion of her husband.
[10] They note that the conversion of Mieszko I thanks to Dobrawa formed part of the 
tradition of the Church which stressed the conversion of Pagan rulers through the 
influence of women.[11]

On the other hand, literature doesn't refuse to give Dobrawa a significant role in the 
Christianization of the Poles. In her wedding procession, she arrived in Poland with 
Christian clergymen, among them possibly Jordan, ordained the first Bishop of Poland 
in 968. Tradition attributes to Dobrawa the establishment of the Holy Trinity and St. 
Wit Churches in Gniezno and the Church of the Virgin Mary in Ostrów Tumski, Poznan.

Dobrawa's marriage cemented the alliance of Mieszko I with Bohemia, which 
continued even after her death. On 21 September 967 Mieszko I was assisted by 
Bohemians in the decisive battle against the Wolinians led by Wichmann the Younger.

When, after the death of Emperor Otto I in 973, a struggle for the supremacy in 
Germany began, both Dobrawa's husband and brother Boleslav II the Pious, Duke of 
Bohemia, supported the same candidate for the German throne, Duke Henry II of 
Bavaria.

Issue[edit]

The marriage of Mieszko I and Dobrawa produced three children:
1.Boleslaw I the Brave (Chrobry) (b. 967 - d. 17 June 1025).
2.a daughter, perhaps named Swietoslawa, perhaps identical to the legendary Sigrid 
the Haughty (b. 968/72 - d. ca. 1016), perhaps married firstly with Eric the Victorious, 
King of Sweden, and later wife of Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, by whom she is 
said to have been mother of Canute the Great, King of Denmark, Norway and England. 
Gunhilda of Poland, who married Swyen I "Forkbeard", King of Denmark and England, 
is usually identified with Sigrid.
3.There is an hypothesis asserting the existence of another daughter of Mieszko I who 
was married to a Pomeranian Slavic Prince. She could have been the daughter of 
either Dobrawa or one of Mieszko's previous pagan wives.[12]
4.Also, a theory has been advanced (apparently recorded by Thietmar and supported 
by Oswald Balzer in 1895) that Vladivoj (c. 981 – January 1003), who ruled as Duke of 
Bohemia during 1002–1003, was another son of Dobrawa and Mieszko I.[1] Although 
modern historians have rejected this hypothesis,[citation needed] Czech historiography 
has supported the notion of mixed Piast-Premyslid parentage for Vladivoj.[13]

Death and burial[edit]

Dobrawa died in 977. In his study of 1888, Józef Ignacy Kraszewski wrote that "her 
tomb was discovered in Gniezno Cathedral. It was a simple stone marked with a cross. 
Purple robes and a weighty gold loincloth were the only objects found in her 
tomb."[14] A similar view of Dobrawa's burial place was expressed earlier, in 1843, by 
Edward Raczynski in his study Wspomnienia Wielkopolski to jest województw 
poznanskiego, kaliskiego i gnieznienskiego (Memories of the Greater Poland districts 
of Poznan, Kalisz and Gniezno).[15] However, the burial place of the Bohemian 
princess is now considered to be unknown.[16]

Dobrawa's death weakened the Polish-Bohemian alliance, which finally collapsed in 
the mid-980s.

Parents
____ Boleslaw (Boleslav) I "the Cruel" (ABT  915 - 15 Jul  972)
OF STOCKOW Biagota (ABT  901 - )

Siblings
____ Daubravka (ABT  931 -  977)
____ Boleslaw (Boleslav) II "the Pious" (ABT  935 - 7 Feb  999)

Marriage To VON MERSEBURG Gunter (ABT  930 - 13 Jul  982)
    m.  dv. BEF  965 

Notes

Parents
____ Eckard II (ABT  900 - 6 Sep  954)
----- ----- ()

Children by VON MERSEBURG Gunter ABT  930 - 13 Jul  982
____ Ekkhard I (ABT  960 - 30 Apr 1002)

Marriage To ____ Mieszsko I (ABT  922 - 25 May  992)
    m. ABT  966 his 2d

Notes

Parents
____ Ziemomysl (ABT  892 - ABT  955)
----- ----- ()

Children by ____ Mieszsko I ABT  922 - 25 May  992
____ Boleslaw I "Chrobry" "the Brave" ( 967 - 17 Jul 1025)
OF POLAND Gunnhild (ABT  968 - 1014)

Produced by Fzip 1.7 6/20/2017