9.9. 1285 Queen Kunhuta of Hungary died

Thesecond wife of Přemysl Otakar II was the young and supposedly exceptionally beautiful Kunhuta Uherská. She married at the age of sixteen and bore the king a son, Václav II. She apparently died of tuberculosis when she was only forty years old.

During the reign of Přemysl Otakar II, the Czech state flourished in Central Europe. Přemysl was successful in Austria, for example, where the local nobility chose him as their duke. Because of this, he married Margaret of Babenberg, thirty years his senior, whom he eventually divorced. His second wife was the young and supposedly exceptionally beautiful Kunhuta Uherská.

Kunhuta married Přemysl when she was only sixteen years old. The marriage was a loving one, although they married primarily for political reasons. Kunhuta was born in Halych. Her mother was Anna, daughter of King Béla IV.

"Kunhuta is most often referred to in literature as Kunhuta of Hungary. However, more correct would probably be Kunhuta Haličská, Černigovská, or possibly Mačevská. The title Uherská indicates her belonging to the Hungarian royal family," writes Kateřina Charvátová in her book Václav II.

Kunhuta's father, however, lost his inheritance after the Tatar invasion, and so her mother and children stayed at her grandfather's court. There he and his children felt like Arpad's children. And there Kunhuta grew to unprecedented beauty. When she met Premysl Otakar II, the king already had children. And that was with a lady-in-waiting named Anezka Palceřík. His first marriage was otherwise childless.

When Kunhuta married, she was only the aforementioned sixteen years old, and the wedding took place in Prešpurk. "Together with Přemysl, she was then crowned on 25 December 1261, the first and only Queen of Bohemia. The queen was received by the noble nobility, and the abbess Anežka was also present. The coronation took place in Prague with great pomp, in the presence of one archbishop and five bishops. The feast after it lasted two days. Anyway, the king had been king for ten years, but this was the first time he had been crowned," writes Slávka Poberová in her book Love of Czech Queens.

Queen Kunhuta apparently even fell in love with her husband. There is evidence of this, love letters. They were not written by the queen, but she had people to do it, which was quite common at that time. Four years later a daughter Kunhuta was born, and after another four years a second daughter Anezka. And perhaps two boys, but they didn't live long. Ten years after the wedding, a healthy son was born, the later Václav II. Kunhuta died at the age of forty, probably of tuberculosis.

Sources: The Only Love of Premysl Otakar II.
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