The rival competitors—as usual—appealed to the German Emperor (then Henry V), who, though he appears to have lured them all with promises, finally awarded the throne to Vladislav. Civil war continued till Henry V, called in by Vladislav, entered Bohemia. Bořivoj was made a prisoner, and, by order of the German Emperor, imprisoned in a castle on the Rhine; whilst Otho was confined by his cousin in the castle of Pürglitz in Bohemia. Bořivoj's adherents continued the civil war; and Soběslav, a brother of Vladislav and Boleslav, became their leader. Soběslav obtained aid from the Polish King Boleslav, who, entering Bohemia, defeated Vladislav in a battle which was fought at the foot of the Krkonoše or Giant mountains.
A compromise was then arrived at (1111), by which at least temporary tranquillity was restored to Bohemia. Vladislav remained sovereign, whilst certain districts, both in Bohemia and in Moravia, were allotted to Bořivoj and Soběslav—and probably also to Otho—which they were to rule under the supremacy of Vladislav.
Vladislav died in 1125, and a few days before his death declared his brother Soběslav his successor. As usual, the discarded claimant to the throne, Otho, applied for German aid, and the Emperor Lothair, who in this year (1125) succeeded Henry V, also followed the example of his predecessors, and took up Otho's cause. Lothair seized this opportunity for reaffirming certain claims of supremacy which the German sovereigns had always maintained, but which the Bohemians had always refused to recognize. He declared that no prince had a right to ascend the Bohemian throne before having received that country as a fief from the rulers of Germany. Soběslav refused to recognize these claims, and in spite of the intestine divisions he seems to have been supported by his countrymen. In a very short time he collected a large army, with which he defeated (at Kulm, near Teplitz) the German troops of Lothair, that had crossed the Giant Mountains. Lothair himself, and the remnants of the German army, were entirely surrounded by the Bohemians. An interview then took place between Lothair and Soběslav, when the latter declared that though always ready to maintain the former agreement between Henry IV and King Vratislav,[1] he could not consent to any further limitation to the indepen-
- ↑ See page 30.
