Page:Bohemia An Historical Sketch.djvu/78

 King Rudolph, father-in-law of King Venceslas, had died in 1291, and, contrary to the expectations of his son Albert, Adolphus, Count of Nassau, had been chosen as Rudolph's successor. Venceslas, between whom and his brother-in-law Albert a personal enmity existed, favoured the election of Adolphus of Nassau. Later on Albert's sister, the Bohemian queen, appears to have exercised her influence over her husband to such an extent, that he at least did not oppose the deposition of Adolphus and the election of Albert. The death of Adolphus of Nassau at the battle of Gellenheim (1208) made Albert undisputed ruler of Germany.

Friendship, however, proved impossible between the kings of Germany and of Bohemia. Albert seems to have been irritated by the power of the Bohemian king in Poland and Hungary; he therefore favoured the Papal cause, when the ambitious Pope Boniface VIII contested the rights of Venceslas over Poland and Hungary, declaring that the right to confer the crowns of both these countries rested with the Holy See. War broke out between Albert and Venceslas (1304), and the German king invaded Eastern Bohemia, hoping to possess himself of the silver mines of Kutna Hora; but he was forced to retreat before the Bohemian armies. In the following year Venceslas II was preparing to invade Austria, when he died suddenly at the age of thirty-four (1305). Though the unfavourable political situation and his early death prevented him from carrying out his ambitious plans, it appears certain that Venceslas for a time seriously contemplated the re-establishment of the great Bohemian empire of his father.

His successor, Venceslas III, was then only sixteen years of age; and as he only reigned one year, it is difificult to understand where the contemporary chroniclers found the materials for their long—mostly unfavourable—reports on his character and his actions. He undoubtedly concluded a somewhat disadvantageous treaty with the German king, to whom he ceded lands (forming part of the present kingdom of Saxony) to the north-west of Bohemia that had belonged to his father. On the other hand, Albert promised not to interfere in the affairs of Poland and Hungary; his claim to the latter kingdom, however, Venceslas ceded to the Duke of Bavaria,