Judith of Schweinfurt, whose parents were Henry, Margrave of Nordgau (Bavaria), and his wife Gerberga, is a scion of the House of Babenberg.

The House of Premysl wished to confirm its good relationship with the Babenbergs through a marriage to Judith in 1020.

Judith was a desirable bride, but Oldrich of Bohemia had only one son, Bretislaus, and he was of illegitimate birth, thus complicating the prospect of a marriage with the highborn Judith.

Bretislaus had solved the problem by kidnapping Judith from a monastery, although he is never punished for the crime.

He had married Judith some time later.

Their first son, Spytihněv, was born after almost ten years, which led to the hypothesis that the kidnapping happened in 1029, although Judith may have given birth to daughters before her first son.

Oldrich and his son Bretislaus had sought to win back Moravia from the Poles and in 1029 Bretislaus had driven the Poles out of the eastern lands.

Bretislaus' efforts in today’s Slovakia against Hungary had failed in 1030 due to the jealousy of the Emperor Conrad II.

In the following year, Czech forces refuse to take the field for the emperor.

Oldrich had been invited to the Diet of Merseburg in 1032 and had not appeared.

His absence had raised the ire of the emperor and Conrad, busy with events in Burgundy, charges his son Henry VI, Duke of Bavaria, with punishing the recalcitrant Bohemian.

Jaromír, twice Duke of Bohemia and twice deposed, manages, in a surprise campaign, to depose his brother in 1033.

Oldrich is sent to Bavaria.

Jaromír’s third reign is short-lived.

He is in turn was captured, blinded, and deposed by Oldrich, who seizes power again and drives out Jaromír's son from Moravia.

Oldrich dies abruptly on November 11, 1034 and later examination of his skeleton reveals his skull to have suffered a fatal blow.

Jaromír now renounces the throne in favor of Bretislaus, called the Restorer, who had fled beyond the Bohemian border.

Bretislaus helps Emperor Conrad II in 1035 in his war against the Lusatians.

Bretislaus I, Duke of Bohemia, is the author of decrees concerning the rules of Christianization, which include a ban on polygamy and trade on holidays.

It was in 1030 that Bretislaus had married Judith of Schweinfurt.

In 1054, Bretislaus organizes the succession and issues the famous Seniority Law, introducing agnatic seniority for order of succession.

Younger members of the dynasty are supposed to govern fiefs (technically, parts of Moravia), but only at the Duke's discretion.

The result of this institution will be the relative indivisibility of the Czech lands, but also the alternation of rules of stronger (or perhaps more political) dukes with periods of bitter fraction wars of members of the dynasty.

It will be effectively ended by the elevation of Bohemia to kingdom under Ottokar I of Bohemia, when primogeniture will become the ruling principle.

Bretislaus’s eldest son Spytihněv is to succeed him as Duke of Bohemia with control over that territory.

Moravia is incorporated into the Bohemian duchy, but divided between three of his younger sons.

The Olomouc Appanage goes to Vratislaus; the Znojmo Appanage goes to Konrád; and the Brno Appanage went to Otto.

The youngest son, Jaromír, enters the church and becomes Bishop of Prague.

Spytihnev II succeeds his late father in March 1055 as Duke of Bohemia.

His coronation is celebrated with the first known rendition of Lord, Have Mercy on Us.

After succeeding to the throne, he goes at once to Regensburg to receive imperial confirmation.

This loyalty to the Holy Roman Empire does not prevent him from expelling all Germans from his lands.

This new anti-German policy will continue to his death.

Bretislaus’s younger children are left the region of Moravia.

Otto and Vratislaus are shut out of the government by Spytihnev, but after his death both will gain control of Moravia and Bohemia, respectively.

Pope Victor II, with the Investiture Controversy looming, seeks the alliance of the Bohemian duke.

Thus, Rome grants the right to Spytihnev of wearing the miter and tunic of a bishop for the annual sum of one hundred marks.

Spytihnev’, his brothers having inherited Moravia, tries to reduce their authority by arresting three hundred Moravian magnates and stripping his brothers of their rights in the province.

Thus, Vratislaus of Olomouc flees to Hungary in 1058.

Spytihnev II, Duke of Bohemia, dies on January 28, 1061.

Svatobor, his son by Ida of Wettin, enters the church and becomes Patriarch of Aquileia.

Vratislaus, who had fallen out with his brother Spytihněv II and had been exiled to Hungary, had regained his Moravian ducal throne with Hungarian assistance and eventually reconciled with his brother and succeeds him as duke of Bohemia Vratislaus in turn entrusts Moravia to his brother Conrad.

Vratislaus, an ally of Henry IV, will support the Emperor in both the Investiture Controversy against the popes and the rebellions in Saxony that are to dominate his long reign.

Pope Gregory VII, having already gained the support of Boleslaw II of Poland, is keen on roping in the duke of Bohemia to surround the emperor with adversaries fighting for the church.

The pope confirms Vratislaus in the privilege of wearing the miter and tunic, which his predecessors had had.

The pope also expresses gratitude for the regular payment of tribute to the Holy See.

Vratislaus is often at odds with his brother Jaromír, the bishop of Prague, and he wears his religious vestments around the bishop to irritate him.

Jaromír, for his part, ignores the creation in 1063 of a new Moravian diocese at Olomouc by Vratislaus, who raises John, a monk of Brevnov, to the see.

Jaromír is resentful of the loss of tithes and fiefs and the brothers enter into a long rivalry.

Jaromír even attacks the new bishop of Olomouc and carries off by force of arms the relics which had been removed from Prague to the new see.

Vratislaus, for his part, spites his brother by wearing his episcopal vestments—an honor conferred by the pope for the price of one hundred marks per annum—in his brother's presence at official functions.

Despite the pope's support for Vratislaus' new see, the Bohemian duke is unswayed in his loyalty to the emperor.