March of Moravia
Encyclopedia
The March or Margraviate of Moravia, was a marcher state
Marches
A march or mark refers to a border region similar to a frontier, such as the Welsh Marches, the borderland between England and Wales. During the Frankish Carolingian Dynasty, the word spread throughout Europe....

, sometimes de facto independent and varyingly within the power of the Duchy, later Kingdom of Bohemia
Kingdom of Bohemia
The Kingdom of Bohemia was a country located in the region of Bohemia in Central Europe, most of whose territory is currently located in the modern-day Czech Republic. The King was Elector of Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806, whereupon it became part of the Austrian Empire, and...

. It comprised the region called Moravia
Moravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...

 within the modern Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

.

History

The march was originally established, like its fellow marches — Austria
March of Austria
The March of Austria was created in 976 out of the territory that probably formed the earlier March of Pannonia. It is also called the Margraviate of Austria or the Bavarian Eastern March. In contemporary Latin, it was the marchia Austriae, Austrie marchionibus, or the marcha Orientalis...

, Styria
March of Styria
The March of Styria was originally broken off the Duchy of Carinthia before 970 as a buffer zone against the Magyars. Originally it was known as the Carantanian march , after the former Slavic principality of Carantania, a predecessor of the Carinthian duchy...

, Carniola
March of Carniola
The March of Carniola was a southeastern state of the Holy Roman Empire in the High Middle Ages, the predecessor of the Duchy of Carniola. It corresponded roughly to the central Carniolan region of present-day Slovenia...

, and Carinthia
March of Carinthia
The March of Carinthia was a frontier district of the Carolingian Empire created in 889. Before it was a march, it had been a principality or duchy ruled by native-born Slavic princes at first independently and then under Bavarian and subsequently Frankish suzerainty...

 — in the first half of the 10th century on land that had formerly been part of Great Moravia
Great Moravia
Great Moravia was a Slavic state that existed in Central Europe and lasted for nearly seventy years in the 9th century whose creators were the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks. It was a vassal state of the Germanic Frankish kingdom and paid an annual tribute to it. There is some controversy as...

, a Slav state which succumbed to the Magyar incursions in the early 10th century.

Between Poland and Bohemia

After King Otto I of Germany
Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor
Otto I the Great , son of Henry I the Fowler and Matilda of Ringelheim, was Duke of Saxony, King of Germany, King of Italy, and "the first of the Germans to be called the emperor of Italy" according to Arnulf of Milan...

 allied with the Přemyslid
Premyslid dynasty
The Přemyslids , were a Czech royal dynasty which reigned in Bohemia and Moravia , and partly also in Hungary, Silesia, Austria and Poland.-Legendary rulers:...

 duke Boleslaus I of Bohemia had defeated the Magyars at the 955 Battle of Lechfeld
Battle of Lechfeld
The Battle of Lechfeld , often seen as the defining event for holding off the incursions of the Hungarians into Western Europe, was a decisive victory by Otto I the Great, King of the Germans, over the Hungarian leaders, the harka Bulcsú and the chieftains Lél and Súr...

, Boleslaus received Moravia. In 999 the Polish
Poland during the Piast dynasty
History of Poland during the Piast dynasty is the first major stage in the history of Poland from the 10th to the 14th century when Poland was established as a state and a nation during the medieval period of European history. The history of the Polish state begins with the founding of the Piast...

 Duke Bolesław I Chrobry conquered Moravia and incorporated it into his reign until in 1019 or 1029 the Bohemian prince Bretislaus Přemysl recaptured it.

Part of Bohemian Principality

Upon his father's death in 1035, Bretislaus also became the ruler of Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

. In 1054, Bretislaus decreed that the Bohemian and Moravian lands would be inherited together by agnatic seniority
Agnatic seniority
Agnatic seniority is a patrilineal principle of inheritance where the order of succession to the throne prefers the monarch's younger brother over the monarch's own sons. A monarch's children succeed only after the males of the elder generation have all been exhausted...

, although he also provided that his younger sons should govern parts of Moravia as vassals to his oldest son. After that date, the march of Moravia was a Bohemian possession bestowed as a quasi-independent appanage on the younger sons of the Bohemian sovereigns. This appanage was usually held by dukes. Because, of course, there were multiple younger sons at any given moment, the Moravia was usually divided into 3 (varyingly) independent duchies/marches (úděly in Czech): Brno
Brno
Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...

, Olomouc
Olomouc
Olomouc is a city in Moravia, in the east of the Czech Republic. The city is located on the Morava river and is the ecclesiastical metropolis and historical capital city of Moravia. Nowadays, it is an administrative centre of the Olomouc Region and sixth largest city in the Czech Republic...

 and Znojmo
Znojmo
Znojmo is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic, near the border with Lower Austria, connected to Vienna by railway and road . The royal city of Znojmo was founded shortly before 1226 by King Ottokar I on the plains in front of Znojmo Castle...

.

Establishing the Margraviate

In 1182 Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa was a German Holy Roman Emperor. He was elected King of Germany at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March, crowned King of Italy in Pavia in 1155, and finally crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV, on 18 June 1155, and two years later in 1157 the term...

 intervened in Bohemian affairs to prevent any succession disputed by elevating Duke of Znojmo Conrad III Otto to the dignity of a margrave
Margrave
A margrave or margravine was a medieval hereditary nobleman with military responsibilities in a border province of a kingdom. Border provinces usually had more exposure to military incursions from the outside, compared to interior provinces, and thus a margrave usually had larger and more active...

. This status was short-lived: in 1197, Duke Vladislaus III of Bohemia resolved the succession dispute between him and his brother Ottokar
Ottokar I of Bohemia
-External links:...

 by abdicating from the Bohemian throne and accepting the margraviate of Moravia as a Bohemian vassal. It remained a Bohemian land (later, from 1348 onward, a land of the Bohemian Crown
Lands of the Bohemian Crown
The Lands of the Bohemian Crown , also called the Lands of the Crown of Saint Wenceslas or simply the Bohemian Crown or Czech Crown lands , refers to the area connected by feudal relations under the joint rule of the Bohemian kings...

) after Ottokar had received the hereditary royal title by Philip of Swabia
Philip of Swabia
Philip of Swabia was king of Germany and duke of Swabia, the rival of the emperor Otto IV.-Biography:Philip was the fifth and youngest son of Emperor Frederick I and Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy, daughter of Renaud III, count of Burgundy, and brother of the emperor Henry VI...

 and his status acknowledged by the 1212 Golden Bull of Sicily
Golden Bull of Sicily
The so-called Golden Bull of Sicily was a decree issued by King Frederick II of Germany in Basel on 26 September 1212 that confirmed the royal title obtained by Ottokar I of Bohemia in 1198, declaring him and his heirs Kings of Bohemia...

. When Ottokar's grandson King Ottokar II of Bohemia
Ottokar II of Bohemia
Ottokar II , called The Iron and Golden King, was the King of Bohemia from 1253 until 1278. He was the Duke of Austria , Styria , Carinthia and Carniola also....

 was defeated at the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld, his opponent King Rudolf I of Germany seized Moravia, but again granted it to Ottokar's II son and successor Wenceslaus II five years later.

Habsburg rule

With the accession of Archduke Ferdinand I
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1558 and king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526 until his death. Before his accession, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.The key events during his reign were the contest...

 of Austria
Archduchy of Austria
The Archduchy of Austria , one of the most important states within the Holy Roman Empire, was the nucleus of the Habsburg Monarchy and the predecessor of the Austrian Empire...

 to the Bohemian throne in 1526, the Margraviate of Moravia became a constituent part of the Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...

.

In 1608 the Bohemian and the Moravian rule were separated a last time, when the Moravian estates supported Matthias of Habsburg
Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor
Matthias of Austria was Holy Roman Emperor from 1612, King of Hungary and Croatia from 1608 and King of Bohemia from 1611...

 against his brother Emperor Rudolf II
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
Rudolf II was Holy Roman Emperor , King of Hungary and Croatia , King of Bohemia and Archduke of Austria...

. Since Rudolf had to cede the Bohemian throne to Matthias in 1611, Moravia was directly ruled by the Habsburgs from Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 at that time who held the title Margrave of Moravia.

In 1804 the margraviate became a province of the Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...

 and in 1867 a crown land
Crown land
In Commonwealth realms, Crown land is an area belonging to the monarch , the equivalent of an entailed estate that passed with the monarchy and could not be alienated from it....

 of the Cisleithania
Cisleithania
Cisleithania was a name of the Austrian part of Austria-Hungary, the Dual Monarchy created in 1867 and dissolved in 1918. The name was used by politicians and bureaucrats, but it had no official status...

n part of Austria–Hungary.

Administration

In 1348 Emperor Charles IV
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles IV , born Wenceslaus , was the second king of Bohemia from the House of Luxembourg, and the first king of Bohemia to also become Holy Roman Emperor....

 had begun to divide the Moravian margraviate into several kraje
Kraj
A kraj is the highest-level administrative unit in the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. For lack of other English expressions, the Slavic term is often translated as "province", "region", or "territory", although it actually approximately means " country", or " countryside"...

(lands):
  • Brno
    Brno
    Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...

  • Hradiště
    Uherské Hradište
    Uherské Hradiště is a town in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic. It lies on the Morava river and is the seat of the Uherské Hradiště District.- History :...

  • Jihlava
    Jihlava
    Jihlava is a city in the Czech Republic. Jihlava is a centre of the Vysočina Region, situated on the Jihlava river on the ancient frontier between Moravia and Bohemia, and is the oldest mining town in the Czech Republic, ca. 50 years older than Kutná Hora.Among the principal buildings are the...

  • Olomouc
    Olomouc
    Olomouc is a city in Moravia, in the east of the Czech Republic. The city is located on the Morava river and is the ecclesiastical metropolis and historical capital city of Moravia. Nowadays, it is an administrative centre of the Olomouc Region and sixth largest city in the Czech Republic...

  • Přerov
    Prerov
    Přerov is a town in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic where the Bečva river flows through. Přerov is a statute town . It has population of about 47,373 to January 2, 2008. Přerov is about 22 km south west of Olomouc. In the past it was a major crossroad in the heart of Moravia in the...

  • Znojmo
    Znojmo
    Znojmo is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic, near the border with Lower Austria, connected to Vienna by railway and road . The royal city of Znojmo was founded shortly before 1226 by King Ottokar I on the plains in front of Znojmo Castle...


From 1850 the Province of Moravia was further divided in 32 political districts (okres
Okres
Okres refers to administrative entities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia...

).

Margraves

Přemyslid dynasty
Premyslid dynasty
The Přemyslids , were a Czech royal dynasty which reigned in Bohemia and Moravia , and partly also in Hungary, Silesia, Austria and Poland.-Legendary rulers:...

  • Conrad II, Duke of Bohemia 1182-1191
  • Vladislaus III, Duke of Bohemia 1197-1222
  • Vladislav II 1223-1227
  • Přemysl 1227-1239
  • Vladislav III 1239-1247
  • Ottokar II of Bohemia
    Ottokar II of Bohemia
    Ottokar II , called The Iron and Golden King, was the King of Bohemia from 1253 until 1278. He was the Duke of Austria , Styria , Carinthia and Carniola also....

     1247-1278
  • Wenceslaus II of Bohemia 1283-1305
  • Wenceslaus III of Bohemia
    Wenceslaus III of Bohemia
    Wenceslaus III Premyslid was the King of Hungary , King of Bohemia and the king of Poland ....

     1305-1306

House of Habsburg
  • Rudolf I of Bohemia 1306-1307

Meinhardiner
  • Henry of Bohemia 1307-1310

House of Luxembourg
House of Luxembourg
The House of Luxembourg was a late medieval German dynasty, which between 1308 and 1437 ruled the Holy Roman Empire, twice interrupted by the rivaling House of Wittelsbach.-History:...

  • John of Bohemia 1310-1333
  • Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
    Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
    Charles IV , born Wenceslaus , was the second king of Bohemia from the House of Luxembourg, and the first king of Bohemia to also become Holy Roman Emperor....

     1333-1349
  • John Henry
    John Henry, Margrave of Moravia
    John Henry of Luxembourg, Czech: Jan Jindřich, German: Johann Heinrich , was Count of Tyrol from 1335 to 1341 and Margrave of Moravia from 1349 until his death....

     1349-1375
  • John Sobieslaus 1375-1394
    • Jobst of Moravia
      Jobst of Moravia
      Jobst of Moravia, Jobst von Mähren from the House of Luxembourg was the eldest son of Margrave John Henry of Moravia, the younger brother of Emperor Charles IV....

       1375-1411
    • Prokop of Moravia 1375-1405
  • Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor
    Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor
    Sigismund of Luxemburg KG was King of Hungary, of Croatia from 1387 to 1437, of Bohemia from 1419, and Holy Roman Emperor for four years from 1433 until 1437, the last Emperor of the House of Luxemburg. He was also King of Italy from 1431, and of Germany from 1411...

     1419-1423

House of Habsburg
  • Albert II of Germany
    Albert II of Germany
    Albert the Magnanimous KG was King of Hungary from 1438 until his death. He was also King of Bohemia, elected King of Germany as Albert II, duke of Luxembourg and, as Albert V, archduke of Austria from 1404.-Biography:Albert was born in Vienna as the son of Albert IV, Duke of Austria, and Johanna...

     1423-1439
  • Ladislaus the Posthumous 1440-1457

Podiebrad family
Podiebrad family
The Bohemian Poděbrady family was a noble family in Bohemia, arising from the Lords of Kunštát. After Boček of Kunštát had acquired the Lordship of Poděbrady by marriage, he called himself "Boček of Kunštát and Poděbrady". The best known member of the family was George of Poděbrady, who was...

  • George of Poděbrady
    George of Podebrady
    George of Kunštát and Poděbrady , also known as Poděbrad or Podiebrad , was King of Bohemia...

     1458-1468

Hunyadi family
Hunyadi family
The Hunyadi family was a Hungarian noble family strongest in the Late Middle Ages. Their probable Romanian origins are claimed by medieval authors and by many modern historians....

  • Matthias Corvinus 1468-1490

Jagiellon dynasty
Jagiellon dynasty
The Jagiellonian dynasty was a royal dynasty originating from the Lithuanian House of Gediminas dynasty that reigned in Central European countries between the 14th and 16th century...

  • Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary
    Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary
    Vladislaus II, also known as Ladislaus Jagiellon ; was King of Bohemia from 1471 and King of Hungary from 1490 until his death in 1516...

     1490-1516
  • Louis II of Hungary 1516-1526

House of Habsburg
  • Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
    Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
    Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1558 and king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526 until his death. Before his accession, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.The key events during his reign were the contest...

     1527-1564
  • Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor
    Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor
    Maximilian II was king of Bohemia and king of the Romans from 1562, king of Hungary and Croatia from 1563, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation from 1564 until his death...

     1564-1576
  • Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor 1576-1608
  • Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor
    Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor
    Matthias of Austria was Holy Roman Emperor from 1612, King of Hungary and Croatia from 1608 and King of Bohemia from 1611...

     1608-1617

From 1611, the Margraviate of Moravia and the Kingdom and Bohemia were ruled in union
Union
Union may refer to:* Trade union or labor union, an organization of workers that have banded together, often for the purpose of getting better working conditions or pay...

, see List of rulers of Bohemia.
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