#i don't even care if anyone votes the idea would haunt me until i made it

[myryathedreamer]

Who ordered the death of king Wenceslaus III?

It's early afternoon of August 4th 1306 in beautiful Olomouc, Margraviate of Moravia. The young Bohemian king Wenceslaus III is a guest of the bishop, who offered him his hospitality on king's campaign to Poland. Václav had recently resigned his position as the king of Hungary, but now he's determined to defend his hereditary claim to the Polish crown.

Wenceslaus had just finnished lunch and decided to rest in private chambers. Suddenly there's a scream and the guards catch Konrad of Mulhov (1), a German knight, with a bloodied blade just outside of king's chambers. The king lies inside, stabbed to death. His death means the end of the Přemyslids, who had ruled Bohemia for over 400 years.

Konrad is killed immediately. We have the name of the killer (unless of course he was being framed), but even 700 years later we don't know who paid for king Wenceslaus' death. Even sources of that time can't agree on the culprit.

Elizabeth of Töss - a Hungarian princess, the last member of the House of Árpád. She was betrothed to Wenceslaus once. A king of Hungary and heir to the Bohemian throne is quite the catch. But once Wenceslaus gave up the Hungarian crown, the engagement was terminated. After this Elizabeth never got married and spent the rest of her life in a closter. The loss of an advantageous marriage and feelings of being betrayed seem like enough of a motive. But did Elizabeth have good enough connections to get a murderer right into king's chambers?

Charles Robert of Anjou- Wenceslaus took the Hungarian crown (thanks to his fathers political machinations) under quite tumultuous circumstances. After the previous king of Hungary got murdered, Charles Robert of Anjou was Wenceslaus' main opponent in pursuit of the crown and Wenceslaus' success only fanned the flames of opposition. It would make sense for Charles to get rid of his greatest rival. However when Wenceslaus gave up the Hungarian crown, he did so in favor of Otto of Bavaria. Would Charles ignore this new threat and arrange the death of his former rival?

Albert I of Germany - the king of Holy Roman Empire. Not too long ago he waged war Wenceslaus' father to slow down his rise in power. And even though he and Wenceslaus had made peace, the king of Bohemia still has a lot of power in the Empire. Plus since Wenceslaus has no legitimate children, if he dies, Bohemia will fall right into Albert's lap. After all, a few months after Wneceslaus' death Albert attacked the Bohemian kingdom to claim it for his son Rudolph. But had he been the culprit, would he wait that long?

Władysław I Łokietek - he's not happy with the Přemyslids ruling over Poland and would in fact like to claim the Polish crown for himself. He'd been campaigning against them for the past two years and now that Wenceslaus is coming to Poland with an army, it might be time to strike. But could he get a murderer to Wenceslaus' court?

Henry of Carinthia - while Wenceslaus is leading his army to Poland, Henry is his regent back in Prague. Maybe he would like the royal power for himself? His marriage with Anne, the eldest of Wenceslaus' sisters would only help with that. We know the Bohemian nobility elected him king after Wenceslaus' death, so did he decide to speed up the process?

The Bohemian nobility - over the past century they'd gained quite a lot of power and amassed several reasons to be mad at the king. It could be revenge for the execution of Zavis of Falkenstein, one of their own (2). It could be a solution to proprietary disputes. It could be an attempt to help one of Wenceslaus' opponents. But if such conspiracy had happened, wouldn't we have found out by now?

(1) Some sources name him as Konrad of Botenstein, but for the purposes of this poll it doesn't really matter.

(2) To me this doesn't feel like a valid reason since it was Wenceslaus' father who ordered to execute Zavis, but it is what some sources claim.