Wenceslaus II of Bohemia - The Crown of Hungary and Death

The Crown of Hungary and Death

Queen Judith died in 1297. Wenceslaus' second wife was Elisabeth Richeza, daughter of Przemysł II, King of Poland (1295–1296). Later she remarried to Rudolph of Habsburg, duke of Austria, who also became king of Bohemia for a brief period in those unruly years.

In 1301, Wenceslaus' kinsman Andrew III of Hungary died and the Árpád dynasty became extinct in the male line. Wenceslaus was one of the relatives who claimed the throne, and he accepted it from a party of Hungarians on behalf of his young son, betrothed to Andrew's only child, Elizabeth. On 27 August 1301, his son was crowned in Székesfehérvár as King of Hungary under the name Ladislaus V (Hungarian: László, Czech, Slovak and Croatian: Ladislav).

At that time the Kingdom of Hungary was split into several de facto principalities, and young Wenceslaus was only accepted as the King of Hungary by the rulers in modern Slovakia (Matthew Csák), in Burgenland (the Güssings ) and on territory around the capital, Buda. But the Abas and Matthew Csák switched sides in 1303 and started to support Wenceslaus' rival Charles Robert of Anjou. Consequently, the young Wenceslaus, in Ofen (Buda), became afraid and wrote to his father in Prague for help. His father took a large army and invaded Buda, but having considered the situation, he took his son and the Hungarian crown and returned to Bohemia (1304). Ivan of Güssing was named to represent Wenceslaus III in Hungary.

Wenceslaus II died in 1305, at the age of 34, probably of tuberculosis. He was succeeded by his son, Wenceslaus III (Václav III.), the last of the Přemyslid kings in the male line.