Czech Currency 20 Czech koruna banknote 1994
Czech National Bank - Česká národní banka
Obverse: Portrait of Přemysl Otakar I (1155-1230), duke and then king of Bohemia, member of the Přemyslid dynasty; ribbon with jewels; Otokar I seal
Reverse: Burial crown of Ottokar II of Bohemia and seal of the Golden Bull of Sicily; ribbon with jewels, Coat of arms of the Czech Republic at right.
Colors: blue, olive.
Size 128 x 64 mm.
Watermark: portrait of Premysl Otakar I.
Artists: Oldřich Kulhánek, Miloš Ondráček, Václav Fajt.
Printer: Státní Tiskárna Cenin.
Czech banknotes - Czech paper money
1993 - 2009
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Ottokar I of Bohemia - Přemysl Otakar I
Ottokar I (Czech: Přemysl I. Otakar; c. 1155 – 15 December 1230) was duke and then king of Bohemia. He was a member of the Přemyslid dynasty.
Ottokar's parents were Vladislaus II, Duke of Bohemia, and Judith of Thuringia. His early years were passed amid the anarchy which prevailed everywhere in the country. After several struggles in which he took part, he was recognized as ruler of Bohemia by Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI in 1192. He was, however, soon overthrown for joining a conspiracy of German princes to bring down the Hohenstaufen monarchy. In 1197 Ottokar forced his brother, Duke Vladislaus III Henry, to abandon Bohemia to him and to content himself with Moravia.
Taking advantage of the German civil war between the Hohenstaufen claimant Philip of Swabia and the Welf candidate Otto IV, Ottokar declared himself King of Bohemia. This title was supported by Philip of Swabia, who needed Czech military support against Otto (1198).
In 1199 Ottokar divorced his wife Adelheid of Meissen, a member of the Wettin dynasty, in order to marry Constance of Hungary, the young daughter of the Hungarian King Béla III.
In 1200 - with Otto IV in the ascendancy - Ottokar abandoned his pact with Philip and declared for the Welf faction. Both Otto and Pope Innocent III subsequently accepted Ottokar as hereditary King of Bohemia.
Philip's consequent invasion of Bohemia was successful. Ottokar, having been compelled to pay a fine, again ranged himself among Philip's partisans and still later was among the supporters of the young king, Frederick II. In 1212 Frederick granted the Golden Bull of Sicily to Bohemia. This document recognised Ottokar and his heirs as Kings of Bohemia. The king was no longer subject to appointment by the Emperor and was only required to attend Diets close to the Bohemian border. Although a subject of the Holy Roman Empire, the Bohemian King was to be the leading electoral prince of the empire and to furnish all subsequent Emperors with a bodyguard of 300 knights when they went to Rome for their coronation.
Ottokar's reign was also notable for the start of German immigration into Bohemia and the growth of towns in what had until that point been forest lands. In 1226 Ottokar went to war against Leopold VI of Austria after the latter wrecked a deal that would have seen Ottokar's daughter (Saint Agnes of Bohemia) married to Emperor Frederick II's son, Henry II of Sicily. Ottokar then planned for the same daughter to marry Henry III of England, but this was vetoed by the Emperor, who knew Henry to be an opponent of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. The widowed Emperor himself wanted to marry Agnes, but by then she did not want to play a role in an arranged marriage. With the help of the pope, Agnes entered a convent.
Golden Bull of Sicily
The Golden Bull of Sicily (Czech: Zlatá bula sicilská, Latin: Bulla Aurea Siciliæ) was a decree issued by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor in Basel on 26 September 1212 that confirmed the royal title obtained by Ottokar I of Bohemia in 1198, declaring him and his heirs Kings of Bohemia. The kingship signified the exceptional status of Bohemia within the Holy Roman Empire.
Ottokar's Přemyslid ancestor Vratislaus II had already been elevated to a Bohemian king by Emperor Henry IV in 1085, in turn for his support during the Saxon revolt and the Investiture Controversy. He was crowned at Prague by Archbishop Egilbert of Trier the next year, the title however was not hereditary and upon his death in 1092, his brother Conrad I succeeded him again as Bohemian duke. In 1158 Vratislaus' grandson Vladislaus II achieved kingship again, bestowed by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, whom he had accompanied on his Italian campaign against Milan, but failed to secure the succession of his eldest son Frederick.
In September 1198 Frederick's younger half-brother Ottokar I made use of the rivalry among Otto IV from the House of Welf and the Hohenstaufen duke Philip of Swabia, youngest son of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who both had been elected King of the Romans. He received the hereditary royal title by Philip for his support and, maneuvering between both sides, achieved the acknowledgement by Otto IV as well as by Pope Innocent III. After the assassination of Philip and the papal ban imposed on Otto IV in 1210, Ottokar again switched sides, when he and several princes in 1211 convened at Nuremberg and elected the young Hohenstaufen scion Frederick II alium imperatorem ("Other Emperor"). Frederick, then King of Sicily, left for his coronation in Germany, reaching Basel in September 1212. Here he issued the Golden Bull that confirmed the kingship of Ottokar I and his heirs in Bohemia.
According to the Golden Bull of Sicily, the estates of Bohemia and Moravia were an autonomous and undivisible constituent of the Holy Roman Empire. The King of Bohemia was no longer subject to appointment by the Emperor, and was only required to attend Reichstag diets close to the Bohemian border. Although a subject of the Holy Roman Empire, the Bohemian king was to be the premier Prince-elector (Kurfürst) of the Empire and to furnish all subsequent Emperors with a bodyguard of 300 knights when they went to Rome for their coronation. By this act Frederick II also declared that he and the Empire will give the investiture for Bohemia only to a ruler approved by the people of the country.
When in 1346 King Charles IV united the rule over Bohemia and Germany in his hands, he established the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, which remained beyond the Empire's suzerainty and were not considered Imperial States.
As part of the 800th anniversary of the document's signature, the document was put on public display at the National Archive for four days in September 2012.