Wenceslas I Comes to Terms with Henry the Fowler

On the accession of Wenceslas I the relations between his house and the German King, Henry the Fowler, were strained. This, we have seen, was due to Dragomira's anti-German foreign policy. Wenceslas, however, as we know, had occasion to send his mother into exile; she cannot have gone very far, as according to popular belief the earth swallowed her up before she had had time to get clear of the Castle Hill. Later generations put up a chapel over the spot where Dragomira vanished..

Anyway, Wenceslas had to face a guileful, determined and quite unscrupulous adversary, who had even called at Prague with an army; so, being a man of peace, he came to terms with King Henry for a slight consideration, namely, an annual tribute of six hundred silver marks and one hundred and twenty head of cattle.

This warded off trouble from the west, but there remained the danger of barbarian invasion from the east and there was every reason for erecting strongholds in Bohemia as in other countries of Europe. I have found no trace of any such work by Wenceslas. He surely must have done something towards strengthening the Hradčany.

Wenceslas had built a chapel here in which to house the relic of St. Vitus; I cannot imagine him leaving such a treasure quite unprotected.

This precious relic, namely, the arm of St. Vitus, had been presented to Wenceslas by King Henry which was handsome of him, as he only got a trifling annual contribution of money and cattle out of Bohemia, whereas that country was started off with something of sufficient value to account for that noble fane the Cathedral of St. Vitus.

Bohemia did very well in the way of saints and sacred relics; some of her kings were enthusiastic collectors, and we remember that Christianity among the Czechs started with a royal martyr, the saintly Ludmilla, who was shortly to be joined by another.