Luitpold of Znojmo

Luitpold of Znojmo (Litold znojemský, Luitpold von Znaim, Lutoldus Znoyemsis; died 15 March 1112) was a Bohemian nobleman and a member of the Přemyslid dynasty who was the Duke of Znojmo in Moravia for twenty years, from 1092 until his death.

Family
He was the second son of Duke Conrad I of Bohemia (died 1092) and his consort, the Bavarian countess Wirpirk of Tengling. Luitpold's father ruled the Duchy of Bohemia for only a few months before his death, having succeeded his elder brother Vratislaus II. Both had wrangled over the newly implemented seniority principle with their eldest brother Duke Spytihněv II: not until Spytihněv's death in 1061 and the accession of Vratislaus II to the Bohemian throne did Conrad receive his share, ruling over the Moravian lands of Znojmo and Brno for more than 30 years.

Luitpold did not succeed his father as Duke of Bohemia; according to the principle of agnatic seniority, the ducal title passed to his eldest cousin Bretislav II, son of the late Vratislaus II. Instead, Luitpold ruled in half of Moravia (the western part) as had his father Conrad I, though again the territory was divided into two principalities: Brno and Znojmo. Luitpold was co-ruler (diarch) of both principalities alongside his elder brother Ulrich I.

All Moravian lines of the Přemyslid dynasty as a whole were systematically associated by dynastic marriages with princesses of major royal and ducal dynasties, especially the Árpád dynasty, Rurik dynasty, Piast dynasty, Nemanjić dynasty, Vukanović dynasty, the House of Babenberg, and other dynasties of Bavarian dukes; the same was true vice versa. Members of the Moravian dynasty were fully predisposed to take over the central throne (for both Bohemia and Moravia) in Prague, under the principles of agnatic seniority.

Domestic policy
Luitpold ruled over southern Moravia as diarch in Znojmo for 20 years, only once interrupted by the illegitimate regency of Duke Bretislav II in 1099–1100, when he and Ulrich were evicted. Both fell out with Bretislav when the duke tried to enforce the succession of his younger brother Bořivoj. He had Ulrich captured and arrested in Kladsko, while Luitpold fought against the forces of Bořivoj's father-in-law, the Babenberg margrave Leopold II of Austria.

Upon Bretislav's assassination in 1100, Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV confirmed the accession of Bořivoj to the Prague throne; nevertheless, Luitpold and Ulrich enforced their return to Moravia and the restoration of the Brno duchy with the help of Austrian and Bavarian armed forces as well as the indirect support of the emperor, whom the brothers visited in early February 1101 in Frankfurt. After they returned, they continued to reign in the two principalities of Brno and Znojmo in certain territorial union. Henry IV gave Ulrich insignia of rank and banner (vexillum) for their reign as Moravian dukes, while Luitpold's brother officially renounced all claims to the Prague throne. Luitpold himself, however, once again participated in the successful rebellion led by his Moravian cousin Svatopluk of Olomouc against Duke Bořivoj in 1107.

About 1101, Luitpold and Ulrich together established the Benedictine abbey of Třebíč and prepared its St. Procopius Church as a mausoleum for the Brno-Znojmo branch of the Přemyslid dynasty, where they were both later buried. Luitpold died in 1112, whereafter his Znojmo principality passed to Ulrich.

Marriage and issue
By his marriage to Princess Ida of Babenberg, daughter of Margrave Leopold II of Austria and his consort Ida of Formbach, he had one son, Conrad II; the other children (if any) are unknown. Conrad legitimately succeeded his father as Duke of Moravia, Prince of Znojmo from 1123 to 1128 and again from 1134 until his death about 1161.