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Updated 01-20-08
Perchta of Rozmberk /Perchta z
Rozmberka /Perchta von Rosenberg (c.1429-1476)
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"I HAVE CALLED AND PLEADED FOR HELP,... MY RIGHT AS A CHILD
OF ITS FATHER."
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Perchta was the fourth of the six children of Ulrich II (Oldrich), lord of Rozmberk (in German, Rosenberg), in southern Bohemia (the western part of what is now the Czech Republic). Her mother died when Perchta was about seven years old. Her three brothers were educated in Prague, Perchta and her two sisters at home. The eldest sister, Anezka, never married, and lived first at Rozmberk and later at her own estate; the youngest sister married, had at least one child, and is not heard of again.
It was Perchta who would be heard of. In 1449 she was married to John of Lichtenstejn, in the neighboring state of Moravia (now the eastern part of the Czech Republic). Neither had any desire to marry the other, but the match united the Rozmberks with a powerful Moravian family. The dowry that Ulrich agreed to pay would establish Perchta as the mistress of Lichtenstejn, allowing her to supervise the household, pay her servants, and meet her other obligations. For the Lichtenstejns, the fact of the dowry would help them get credit, which they badly needed.
Unfortunately, Ulrich paid nothing of the dowry for four years, and the whole debt wasn't met for ten years. In Ulrich's defense, it should be noted that during the 1450s he was fully involved, diplomatically and militarily, in opposing the Hussites who controlled Prague. Ulrich was a Catholic supporter of Austrian Hapsburg control of the area; the Hussites were Protestant and nationalist. The Hussite leader George of Podebrady had occupied Prague in 1448; ten years later he would be elected as Czech king. Ulrich perhaps felt that the dowry money was better spent defending his church and country. The Lichtenstejns did not agree; they had been cheated and felt no desire to make Perchta and her servants feel at home (nor, in fact, to feed or clothe them).
The 41 letters written by Perchta that have survived are fascinating.
During her first year of marriage, the 20-year-old believed that
her beloved father would rescue her or at least make her husband
be kinder to her. For the next three years, she turned to her
eldest brother, again looking for intervention which at first
didn't come. In 1454 part of the dowry was paid, and she wrote
one of her few happy letters. By then she had learned, in part,
how to deal with her husband. Nine years later, she pawned her
jewels to cover her husband's debt; only then did she finally
realize that his affection was measured only by her money.
In 1465, after 15 years of marriage, with the help of another
brother, Perchta was permitted to leave her husband, allowed
to take her daughter but not her son. For seven years she lived
at her old home, Rozmberk, with her younger brother (her father
had died in 1462). When that brother died, she went to live in
Vienna. In 1472, her husband died. During all this time Perchta
was writing letters asking for help from men in all those things
a woman could not do --- first to get the income her husband
had agreed to pay her after 1465, and then to get what was owed
to her on his death in 1473.
The letters that Perchta dictated to her secretaries, mostly in Czech but occasionally in German, over a period of 25 years, show a naive girl growing gradually into a skeptical woman, one who had learned how to survive.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from a translation in print.
Information about a secondary source.
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1. Essays, etc.
(a) "The Story of Perchta of Rozmberk (1429-1476)," a 2004 biographical essay on Perchta by Jana Volfova, translated by Victor Gomez.
(b) A English-language transcript of a 2004 Radio Prague broadcast on Perchta, by Jan Velinger, in an interview with Czech novelist Eda Kriseova; with it is a portrait of Perchta (which can be enlarged) that some believe to have been made during her lifetime.
(c) "The Letters of Two Sisters from Bohemia," (2004), an essay based on John M. Klassen's translation of the letters, which compares the lives of Perchta and her eldest sister, Anezka.
(d) "Tales of the White Lady," describes the legends that grew up about Perchta after her death; the article includes a brief quotation from a letter from Perchta to one of her brothers. You can also link to a brief article on her father, Ulrich.
2. The publisher's description of Klassen's 2001 translation, The Letters of the Rozmberk Sisters: Noblewomen in Fifteenth-century Bohemia (for excerpts, see below, under "In print").
3. For historical background, part of a history from Radio Prague. This page is on the Hussites; you can link to the next page, on George of Podebrady.
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[John M. Klassen has translated 70 documents relating to Perchta and Anezka Rozmberk. Of these, 41 are letters written by Perchta and 7 are by Anezka; there are no letters between the sisters. Other letters are by Ulrich, his sons and grandson, and by Perchta's neighbors at her Moravian home (these last are helpful in corroborating her more dramatic statements). Klassen's introduction fills in the historical background, while an interpretative essay discusses Perchta's view of herself and her family. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Rozmberka, Perchta z. The letters of the Rozmberk sisters:
noblewomen in fifteenth-century Bohemia: translated from Czech
and German with introduction, notes and interpretive essay /
John M. Klassen, with Eva Dolezalova and Lynn Szabo (Library
of medieval women). Cambridge; Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer, 2001.
(x, 134 p.)
LC#: DB2049.R69 R69 2001; ISBN: 085991612x
Includes bibliographical references p. [129]-132) and index
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"I beseech Your Grace not to forget me."
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[From Perchta's first letter to her father, soon after arriving at her new home after her wedding in late 1449:]
I send my prayers, noble lord! And I would be truly happy to hear that all is going well with you; I also thank the Lord God I am well, except that I cannot stop longing for Your Grace, and most heartily I ask to see Your Grace, for I would like very much to see for myself how Your Grace is doing.
And dear lord, I beseech Your Grace not to forget me, but to please be loving towards me, for I would never want to lose Your grace; I would always want to do everything that is pleasing to Your Grace. [pp. 33-34]
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"I trust that Your Grace will subject me only so much to
their will."
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[But two months later:]
That which I wrote you in my first letter, that I am doing well, is unfortunately not so; would that I were doing well. On the contrary, I am doing badly. And the complaint I bring before Your Grace is that I am in such a disorderly residence that there is no way I can get used to it.
[After listing her grievances --- having to beg her mother-in-law for food and bed-linens, violent disagreements between her husband and his relatives, her husband's refusal to see her:]
I would have written to Your Grace a long time ago, but I continually expected improvement, and did not want to trouble Your Grace about it....
I would like to know Your Grace's will about how I am supposed to exist in this; but you should know already that I feel exceedingly lonely and desperate. And dear lord, I trust that Your Grace will subject me only so much to their will....
I wrote to all that I am doing well, except to Your Grace and to lord Henry [her eldest brother].... And I ask that you please read it [this letter] yourself and do not show it to anyone. [pp.35-36]
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"Please forgive me for writing to you so often."
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[Perchta's father replied that she should "not at this time speak with anyone about this matter," so that they could meet and discuss it "later." But three months after that, father and daughter had not yet met:]
The meeting with Your Grace, which I requested earlier, will perhaps not be possible, because I hear that there may be a battle. But I pray Your grace, dear lord, for God's sake do not forget me....
I ask Your Grace, please forgive me for writing to you so often, for I do not know of anyone with whom I might better take refuge than with Your Grace. [p.37]
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"It was not my wish to be married."
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[In November 1450, Ulrich had still not seen Perchta, but he urged her by letter to "put off all sorrows; be happy and in good spirits"; Perchta replied, saying that she fears that her husband will kill her (Ulrich's servants had already reported to him that she had been beaten):]
I want to let you know that I am a lonely and woeful woman, too much deserted by you and by all, and I believe before God that I have done nothing to Your Grace to deserve it.... Therefore, dear lord, dear father, have compassion on me, as a father toward his children, and bear in mind, dear lord, that it was not my wish to be married. And I have called for and pleaded for help, which is my right as a child of its father....
Deserted, I have written brother [Henry, the eldest] and have often sent messages, requesting that he take them to Your Grace; I do not know if he has done this, for my messages have brought me no assistance, not even after what your servants have seen with their own eyes... so that Your grace might know that I am not exaggerating. [p. 41]
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"If he sees me anywhere he flees from me."
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[At the end of this letter is a touch of unintentional humor (for a modern reader, not for Perchta); her father had apparently suggest that all these problems were her fault --- that she hadn't been loving enough to her husband:]
...[P]lease understand that he shows me great hatred, that if he sees me anywhere he flees from me.... He never comes to sleep with me.
And I have tried everything; I followed him into the cellar, into the kitchen, and I even walked into the horse stable, the only place I was able to track him down, to get him to speak with me, but he fled from me while many people, both good and bad, saw it. For me this so sad and such a shame that it is a wonder my heart is not broken. [p.42]
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"Let all men promptly ask him to send my to you."
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[On New Year's Eve, Perchta wrote her last plea to her father:]
...[P]lease have no fear that I have misled Your Grace. I ask Your Grace to please send me someone whom you trust well, without delay. Instruct him to make inquiries; if he sees things differently , or if upon inquiry it is not as I have made known, please reprimand my promptly....
O dear lord! if you do not remember me, you will act unjustly to me, and I will die shamefully....
When you gave me in marriage, it would have been better had you buried me in the ground. For God's sake do not delay in sending someone reasonable to him [her husband] and let all men promptly ask him to send my to you. And to take a hard stand in this, if he should not want to do so; indeed, you would then have to take a harsher stand towards him, so that he fears you and so that he does not treat me so badly. [pp.48-49]
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"...as long as he has lived he has not been loving to any
woman."
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[In the two later letters to her father, Perchta would write only cheerful news; for the help that she needed she turned to her eldest brother, Henry. She had already told him of her husband's refusal to pay for her care at the birth of their first child (because of that unpaid dowry); what she then writes suggests a reason for his lack of interest:]
When someone spoke to my wicked lord [her husband], and suggested that he should live with me differently, if not for my sake, nor for that of my kin, then for the sake of other people, because people are talking a lot about how terrible things are for me, he replied that nothing in the world can make him relate to me happily, and, cursing all those who counseled him to get married, that he never had such an intention, but they compelled him to it; that if he should not see me for a year, he would not remember me at all, and that when he sees me, he greatly fears me.
This man questioned him as to why he spoke this way, or if he finds fault with me; and he told him that he finds absolutely no fault with me and that... he does not blame me, except that he cannot live happily with me; that as long as he has lived he has not been loving to any woman.
It is not proper to write about the rest; he talked about himself indecently and desperately. I could not believe that he would say this about himself. [pp.44-45]
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"And I hope... that you too will rejoice in this as I rejoice."
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[Despite her husband's distaste, a second child was born in 1451 and at the end of that year Perchta was able to visit her home and see her family for the first time in two years. Things were no better in 1452: her children were suffering from lack of food and clothing. In 1453, however, part of her dowry (due three years earlier) was paid to her husband, and there was a reconciliation between them in the summer of 1454. She wrote to her father:]
And to God be thanks that things are better for me than they were.... He [her husband] intends in all matters to to act towards me as a devout man should act.... I also want to behave towards him as his loving spouse. And I hope because you are my loving father, that you too will rejoice in this as I rejoice. [pp.63-64]
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"My lord is very afraid now."
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[A year later things were bad again, but at least her family was trying to intervene. To her brother Henry:]
And thank God, dear brother, things are going well between me and father, for it seems to me that what he has heard from other people about my living conditions has affected him, and that it matters to him more than it did before. Also I know that my lord [her husband] is very afraid now that you are dealing with this matter, thinking that there was no way that you wanted to allow it to be negotiated without you.
I ask you, dear brother, remember me, abandoned, even for the sake of these children, for you well know that I am completely deserted by my husband as well as are these children. [p.65]
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"Do not give my dowry to him too soon."
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[In 1457, Henry died, and Perchta turned to her younger brother John. In 1460 it was time for all of her dowry to be paid, but although her situation is better, she has become more circumspect:]
...[B]ecause of God's help things go well for me also, for my situation is much better than before.... For all this, I ask only that you do not give my dowry to him [her husband] too soon. I promised him that I would ask you for it, but do not do it.
[She seems only partially convinced of her husband's change of attitude; she will treat him very carefully and asks her brother to do the same:]
Since the Lord God, out of his mercy, turned his purpose, his kind heart and his faithfulness towards me, which I otherwise do not understand, I beg you as my dear brother, not to oppose him in anything he asks of you; for in this way you will convert him fully to yourself; and if you do this, and act in a friendly manner towards him, I will be in a greatly improved situation, and even better....
I beg you to give him a very friendly response to his letter, and show him your concern about the money. [pp.69-70]
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"I find no true love in him, nor is there any hope of it."
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[Relations between husband and wife remained reasonably good until 1463, when Prichta pawned her jewels for money her husband needed. His response to her efforts made her decide to leave him. Her father had died the previous year, so she wrote to another brother, a bishop:]
...I have what I need to eat and drink, and my husband eats with me and has been with me since the time I organized those affairs [pawning her jewels]....
And before I paid this [the money she had raised] into his hands, he made me many favorable promises, but when he had it in his hands again, then he showed me less and less of his goodwill, and I find no true love in him, nor is there any hope of it....
Gracious prince! I beg Your Grace for God's sake, please do not withdraw yourself from me and please send a message to my lord, earnestly asking that he release me to come to Your Grace. If Your Grace will request this of him with diligence, I know he will not be able to refuse it.... [p.76]
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"...lest he becomes alienated from me."
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[It took two years (and complete payment of the dowry) for Perchta's brothers to convince her husband to release her. Their motive, according to one brother's letter, was that the situation had become "no small shame... to me and to our kinsmen." In 1465, she left her husband's house and returned to the family home, bringing her daughter but not her son, who stayed with his father. Her next letters are from 1470: she is, not surprisingly, having trouble collecting the income her husband had agreed to provide when she left, but she is concerned not to antagonize her son, now 20 years old and helping to handle his father's affairs. To her brother John:]
If your help is needed, I trust that you will not desert me in this, so that I might come into what is mine. And should my son yield, then do not converse openly with him [about the missing payments], lest he becomes alienated from me.
[And a week later:]
...I understood from the letter of John the priest that my affairs have not made a good start so far as my son is concerned...; if he [the priest] cannot negotiate it himself, let him give it over to you. [pp.84-85]
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"I want you to know that I now handle my affairs...."
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[In 1472, her brother John died, and his son Henry became the head of the family. Prichta moved to Vienna, still in need of help in getting the income owed to her. But in the next year her husband died, so she was able to have at least some control over her finances; she wrote to Henry:]
Well-born lord and dear nephew, my friendly service and goodwill. I am letting you know that my lord and husband has unfortunately been brought down by death, may God be merciful to him....
I want you to know that I now handle my affairs according to the counsel of my good lord and kinsman [the nephew to whom she writes]. It has always been a heartfelt joy to me to hear from you that you are doing well.
[The letter is signed:]
Perchta, born of Rozmberk, widow of the blessed John of Lichtenstejn. [p.90]
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"I heartily wish you to be happy."
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[Perchta never collected from her husband's family all that was due to her as her husband's widow. It's unclear how much her nephew tried to help her, but her last letter, in the year before her death, is to him:]
...[Y]our servant Herman knows that I have spots from the plague. Your servant will tell you all about this so that I can serve you, you should know that I am willing. Also I heartily wish you to be happy and that everything is going well with you. [pp.94-95]
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[This article by Klassen precedes his translation of Perchta's letters (above), but it gives some information not available in the later book. Klassen's focus here is on Perchta's father, but the article's second half discusses, from Ulrich's point of view, the relationship between father and daughter. It also briefly describes the effects of Perchta's experience on some Bohemian women later in the century:]
Klassen, John. The public and domestic faces of Ulrich of
Rozmberk. The Sixteenth Century Journal, 31 (2000), 699-718.
LC#: D220 .S57; ISSN: 0361-0160
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Updated 01-20-08
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