Boleslav II

Boleslav II (died Feb. 7, 999) was the prince of Bohemia (967 [or 973]–999), the son and successor of Boleslav I. He successfully continued his father’s work by further consolidating the supremacy of the Czechs over the other Bohemian tribes and by founding monasteries, nunneries, and capitular churches.

Boleslav II secured the establishment of the bishopric of Prague in 973, under the metropolitan authority of the archbishops of Mainz. He treacherously but completely destroyed the Slavnikovci, the only princely rivals of the Přemyslid dynasty in Bohemia, in 995. He was usually loyal to his suzerains, the Holy Roman emperors Otto I, II, and III, whom he helped in their conflicts with the Polish princes, though his support of the rebellious duke of Bavaria, Henry the Wrangler, caused Otto II to lead punitive expeditions against him in 975–977.