Břatislav, fresh from his Moravian conquests, had fallen in love with the reported beauty of Judith "fairer than all other maidens beneath the sun," whose good father and excellent mother had confided her to the convent at Zuinprod (Schweinfurt), "to learn the Psalter." Břatislav, desiring her as bride, preferred action to asking; for "he reflected on the innate arrogance of the Teutons, and on the swollen pride with which they ever despise the Slav people and the Slav tongue." So he carried her off by night, on horseback; and, lest the Germans should wreak vengeance on Bohemia, took her to Moravia.
Břatislav could be as unswervingly faithful as he was audacious and vigorous. His friendship or enmity meant everything to Henry in Bohemia, much elsewhere. Yet, since he was naturally a man of strong ambitions, it was not friendship that he offered.
He had begun his career as the ally of Conrad (against the Poles); and had held Moravia under the joint overlordship of his father and the Emperor. But on his succession to Bohemia in 1037, his horizon was bright with promise. Poland had fallen from aggressive strength into disunion and civil war; the German rulers were absent in Italy. Břatislav saw his opportunity to take vengeance on Poland for old wrongs, and to ensure Bohemia's permanent freedom from the Empire.
In unhappy Poland, Mesco, son of Boleslav the Mighty, had died in 1034, leaving a boy, Casimir, under the guardianship of his German mother, Richessa. While Mesco lived divisions had been fomented and Poland at last partitioned by the Emperor Conrad. Now, first the duchess, and later on her son, when a man, were forced to fly before the violence of the Polish nobles – the duke (says the Polish Chronicle), lest he should avenge his mother's injuries. Casimir wandered through Russia and Hungary, and finally reached Richessa in Germany. Meanwhile Poland was given over to chaos. "Those were lords who should be slaves" says the same chronicle, "and those slaves who should be lords." Women were raped, bishops and priests stoned to death. Upon the distracted country fell all its neighbours, including "those three most ferocious of peoples, the Lithuanians, Pomeranians and Prussians."
Břatislav seized his chance. Sending the war-signal round Bohemia, he fell "like a sudden storm" upon Poland "widowed of her prince." In the South, he took and burnt Cracow, rifling her of her ancient and precious treasures. Up to the North he raged, razing towns and villages, carrying off Poles by hundreds into slavery. He finally ended his career of conquest and slaughter by solemnly transferring, from their Polish shrine at Gnesen to Prague, the bones of the martyred apostle, Adalbert.
While these things were happening Henry became Emperor. In the very year of his accession he prepared an expedition against Bohemia, which did not mature. Herman of Reichenau tells of envoys who came
