The power and influence of the Pr.emyslid wives and daughters

This article deals with a topic inadequately represented in the historiography of central Europe, specifically, the cultural activity of elite women of the Premyslid dynasty. The exploration goes against the grain of existing historiography and extant sources, which ignore women's political, social, religious, and cultural agency. Rather, it attempts to reconstruct the influence of dynastic women and offers a reassessment of the extent to which women inspired cultural activities through the patronage of the court. It questions the role of consorts by examining the perception of their activities in medieval sources. The article argues that Czech dynastic women acted at times in their own right rather than exclusively supporting their husband's role. Thus, they were not just passive participants but active agents. The article concludes that between the mid-twelfth and mid-thirteenth centuries several consorts of the Premyslid dynasts played a significant role in the dynasty's wider political and cultural programme.