The News That Killed the King

Wenceslas IV bought Kunratice in 1407 and between 1408 and 1412 built the New Castle, called Wenzelstein, here on a wooded rise; from its windows, it is said, one could see into the windows of Prague Castle. Here, on 30 July 1419, the king was brought the news that the New Town councillors had been thrown from the windows, and the shock brought on a stroke, so that he died on 16 August. Two days later his body was taken from here without ceremony to Vyšehrad and then secretly to Hradčany, whence, because of the constant unrest in Prague, it was quietly carried to the tomb at Zbraslav. The monastery of Zbraslav was laid waste in 1420, and only in 1423 did the people of Prague remember that King Wenceslas ought to have had a solemn burial. It was fortunate that a fisherman at Zbraslav told them of his body hidden in a vineyard; so they took it and bore it in state by way of Vyšehrad to the castle, where the king was laid in the royal tomb. Afterwards Queen Sophia took refuge here at the New Castle, not being safe even at Hradčany. In May 1420 Sigismund came here to look over the treasures his brother had left.