SYMHC Classics: Who was Good King Wenceslas?

This 2012 episode from prior hosts covers King Wenceslas. He's known from a Christmas carol, but was a 10th-century Bohemian prince, known for his kindness to children and promotion of Christianity. But he was murdered at only 22.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Happy Saturday and Happy Christmas Eve to those who are celebrating.
We got an email from listener Allison last month which
was a request for an episode on King WinCE's Last
who most people may know more from a song that
is sung as a Christmas carol than from the history
of the man who inspired that song. This episode on

(00:22):
him is from prior hosts Sarah and de Blina, and
they released it on December one, so enjoy. Welcome to
Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello, Welcome to the podcast. I'm Sarah Dowdy

(00:46):
and I'm Deblina Chuck Recording, and this is our very
special annual holiday episode. And one suggestion that we always
get around Christmas time is to do something on the
history behind carols. And for most traditional carols, that would
probab you mean biblical history. I mean that's what most
carols are going to be about, either that or some
kind of aspect of the composition. You know, where the

(01:07):
tune came from, who added the lyrics, when did Elvis
cover the song, you know, all that sort of thing.
But Dablina had another famous carol pop up in a
recent article, and she was kind enough to remind me
of it. I did. Sarah was searching for a Christmas
idea she loves to do every year, and I was
editing ten Christmas myths, and in the course of just

(01:30):
researching ideas for that good King once the sluss came up.
And it just so happens that that is your favorite
Christmas carol, Isn't that right? It's up there. It's kind
of a tradition that my dad and I have to
perform Good King Winces list. So when when you told
me about that, and when you told me, yeah, once
this list was a guy, I was hooked. I had

(01:53):
to find out more about this. And just to give
you guys a little background on the carol if you're
not familiar with it already. I kind of like it
because it is sentimental. I mean, after all, the good
King is taking it upon himself to bring a poor
man flesh and wine and some pine logs, all in
the middle of this snow storm, and all with the
help of his trusty page. But it's never modeling either,

(02:15):
because it has this really clippy sort of tune. Christmas
songs can can get they can can cross over into
that territory pretty easily, but this one always is stirring. Almost.
Some of the lyrics are entertaining to me. Um, thither
is always one kind of gets me, making fuel into
three syllables, and then others are just comically dramatic. And

(02:38):
we're going to talk about the composition a little bit more.
But a great example of this is heat was in
the very sod which the saint had printed. What does
that mean? It means that once Sliss is walking in
the snow and melting it because he is so good. Um. Nevertheless, though,
while researching this episode, I found that a lot of
people had very intense reaction to to this Christmas carol.

(03:01):
You know. They said that it was deeply moving to them. Um,
it was something that made them tear up almost. And
I've always found it more of a fun carol. But
that reaction that people have come from it uh having
a strong message behind it, one of giving to others
who are less fortunate. Yeah, ye who now will bless
the poor? Shall yourselves find blessing exactly. You'd be mistaken, though,

(03:24):
if you thought that Wenceslass was someone cooked up for
a nice carol with a good moral, just an anonymous
king with an excess of pine lugs. As we said,
he was indeed a real person, but not exactly the
person that's represented in the song. He was a tenth
century Bohemian prince, one known for his generosity, but perhaps
more famous for his murderous can folk and not just

(03:47):
small spoiled a surprise for you, but also known for
his exhamation. And once I found out that too, I mean,
come on, that just makes it perfect for us. Exhumation.
Wences Listler was actually born Votslov in nine oh seven,
near Prague and what was at the time Bohemia. Today
it's the Czech Republic, and our first Carol myth busting

(04:09):
and Deblina already hinted at this. He was not a king. Instead,
he was a duke or a sovereign prince in the
House of Premisal. His grandfather, a prince named Butchervoy, had
established this house, which lasted more than five hundred years,
and had married a princess named Ludmila, and together this

(04:30):
couple converted to Christianity. They set up Prague's first Christian church,
and eventually butcher Boy was succeeded by his son, who
was once Alice's father and just to get into a
little interesting linguistic side note here. Um, butcher boy's life
is really really hazy. I mean, not much seems to

(04:50):
be known about him except that he started this house.
He converted to Christianity. Um, but it is known who
converted him, and it was a guy named Saint Methodius,
and a along with his brother Cyril. Methodius is called
the Apostle of the Slavs and helped invent the Slavic
alphabet that eventually became the thrill like alphabet. So I
knew you guys who like language things would be interested

(05:12):
in that. But back to on Selass's life, Ludmila ended
up having a really important role in that. In fact,
she raised him, focusing mainly on his education, which was
something that was uncommon for nobles at this time. Apparently
a lot we were just illiterate. Yeah, and she also
focused a lot on his religious instruction, so he grew
up a practicing Christian and this proved to be a

(05:35):
pretty big problem when on Selass's father died. And that's
because once Selass's mother, draw Amira the Arrogant was her nickname,
she proudly adhered to the pre Christian Southern Slavic religious beliefs,
and as regent was suddenly in a really awkward position
with her Christian mother in law. Either that or she
simply chose to align herself with the faction of government

(05:57):
that preferred the old beliefs and really wanted Ludmila's Christian
influence on the future sovereign to be brought to an end.
So ultimately, once the slass was removed from his grandmother's
care and Ludmila was strangled with her own veil at
a castle, likely on the orders of draw Amira. According
to Encyclopedia Britannica. She was also later canonized, which is

(06:17):
going to run in the family too. Um so yes,
a brutal and for when Selass's grandmother uh And then,
of course attempts were made to bring him he was
a teenager by this point back into the pre Christian
Slavic religious fold. That didn't really work, though, you know,
his grandmother had had raised him with these beliefs. He

(06:38):
was considered very pious. He was said to have taken
a vow of chastity, and he encouraged missionary work too.
In Bohemia, German missionaries to come in and and uh
convert his his fellow people. Um. He especially tried to
make his people enthusiastic about Christianity, building these beautiful churches,
kind of following in his grandparents footsteps there holding feasts.

(07:01):
He also decisively defeated his opponents in battle to become
the definitive ruler of Bohemia. I mean, there was no
question anymore who was who was the prince lesh duke
uh He He expanded the kingdom, and after that too
he banished his mother and reversed her policies of persecuting
Christians and really focused on education, something that ultimately contributed

(07:25):
to that good king sort of reputation he had. According
to an article by Steven Ott Finowski in Mental Floss,
he was also said to have been very kind to
children and to the poor, which is all good carol
material if you're thinking way far down the line. Despite
the religious tensions still existent in Bohemia, though it was

(07:46):
an alliance that ultimately brought an end to once Slass
reign in he chose to pretty much align himself as
a junior partner with the German King Henry the First,
the Fowler. From once a Slass's perspective, this was preferable
to war with Germany and an invasion, especially since Bohemia
was still able to maintain much of its independence. But

(08:07):
to Bohemian nobles this was just the last straw. So
a contingent encouraged on Selass's younger brother, Boloslav, who sees
the princeton for himself, and like much of the story,
the details of what happened next are kind of scanty.
In one version, once a Slass is invited by his
brother to a religious festival and Boloslav murders him on

(08:30):
the way to church. In another version, Bolislaf actually avoids
murdering once Aslass himself actually doing the deed, and instead
has once Alass murdered, but during mass by a henchman.

(08:51):
Either way, though one was murdered September, he was only
twenty two years old. And I think that's going to
be our carol myth bus Ding number two, because even
though the Carol doesn't really spell it out, it just
seems to hint that good King Wenceslas was an old
jolly man. My my Family's book of Christmas Carol's even

(09:12):
has an illustration of him, and he's clearly and an
elderly fellow with a large beard. Um. But yeah, he
was only twenty two, and after he was dead, Uh,
bols Love succeeded his brother and ultimately became known as
the cruel or the bad Um. Although he was actually
quite successful in his rule. He expanded Bohemia, added quite

(09:35):
a bit more territory, and in his thirty eight years
of power too, he did not reverse Wenceslus's Christian agenda either.
You know that it's sometimes set up as that sort
of story. It was his um pre Christian brother trying
to get back to the old ways. But uh, he
continued to allow missions. He didn't get into the sort
of religious persecution that had happened during his mother's regency. Um. Though,

(09:59):
it is interesting to note that the royal house that
had been started by by these two fellows grandfather was
particularly plagued by this sort of family strife. It lasted
until six, you know, remarkable five hundred years I think
I mentioned earlier, Um, But both loves grandsons murdered each other,
and other family feuds and murders stretched into the eleventh century,

(10:23):
and a lot of the trouble came from there not
being a strict line of succession, you know, Sometimes it
would just be whoever in the family was oldest, and
that might be a younger brother. Sometimes it would be
the the duke slash prince's eldest son, all kinds of
messy business. So fratricide is rarely a good pr move.
And for bulis Law, despite his political successes that Sarah

(10:47):
just mentioned, it meant that he was faced with a
growing cult around his dead brother. So reports of miracles
near once Islas's grave started trickling in almost immediately, and
unfortunately weren't We weren't able to find examples of those
exact miracles. I was trying to find specific examples of

(11:07):
what happened and what led to his stood, but I
couldn't find a single thing. I mean, I'm guessing we're
just going to have to imagine some of the standard
miracle miraculous sort of stuff forces here. But what we
do know is that Bolus Laugh ultimately had once a
Slus exhumed and reburied in the Church of St. Vitus
and Prague, which became a prime pilgrim's destination a few

(11:30):
hundred years later, and Bolos Laugh went down in history
as the cruel while murdered once Slus became a Czech
patron saint, and even today his feast day, which is
September twenty eight, the day that he was murdered, is
a national holiday, and his statue stands proudly in one
Slas Square in Prague. There's even a parody of the
famous statue that's really close to the original. It's by

(11:52):
David Sarney and it features once a Sluss riding on
an upside down dead horse. You'll see it a lot
on some of those strangest traveled destination lists, and if
some listeners hopefully will be able to post pictures, I
expect pictures from you guys. I'm sure folks have visited it,
all right, So whence this list check national hero? He's

(12:15):
a saint murdered duke. But how did the Christmas carol
end up happening? Uh? Finally, an English Anglican warden picked
up this story, I mean we're talking hundreds of years
later and decided that it would actually be a pretty
fitting reminder for teaching children about the importance of charity.
And we're talking about John Mason Neal. He was the

(12:37):
son of an Anglican clergyman, and he himself was destined
for the clergy and was ordained in eighteen forty two,
but he was in very poor health and couldn't actually
go to work in a parish, and so instead he
got a job as the warden of Sackville College. And
you know that sounds like an educational institute, but it

(12:58):
was actually an almshouse, and he took his job pretty
seriously there. His early career, though, is very shadowed by
suspicions that he was a crypto Catholic. He was. He
was not popular among fellow Anglicans. Otfanowski, who I noted earlier,
said that he was at one point even attacked by
a mob, and uh received threats against his home and

(13:21):
his life. But he did develop a pretty solid reputation
as a historian and a novelist and a translator of
ancient and medieval works. And my absolute favorite job description
of him comes from Oxford University Press, where they call
him a hymnologist. And fortunately for us, John Mason Neil

(13:41):
not only love to translate hymns, but he liked to
write them as well. Yeah, so, of course, good King once.
This last was part of Neil's canon of hymns and carols.
Specifically one meant for children, as Sarah kind Of indicated earlier.
According to BBC History Magazine, he took the tune from
a Scandinavia and song that he found in a medieval

(14:01):
book sent to him by a British ambassador in Stockholm.
And interestingly it's a springtime song tempest a dust Floridam.
And he chose the wenzelas story for the legends associated
with the saint and went with Wenceslaus instead of vas
Law for rhythm, which was a good choice, I think, yeah.
And he published it in eighteen fifty three and it

(14:22):
tops his fairly considerable list of Christmas hits, including Ocome,
Ocome Manual and Good Christian Men Rejoice. So, of course, though,
and this is something we couldn't go without mentioning, Good
King wences List isn't really a Christmas carol, so you know,
we've already said it's not about a king, but it's
not really a Christmas carol either. It's about St. Stephen's day,

(14:44):
and that's pretty evident from the first line. Good King
Wenceslass looked out on the Feast of Stephen and um
as Stephen. St Stephen was associated with Alms for the poor,
so too is St Stephen's Day. And according to Claire
Settith in Time magazine, December twenty six was when the
English poor traditionally received most charity. UM. So this is

(15:07):
another reason why it kind of makes sense for John
Mason Neil writing a song meant to encourage charity. UM.
But why this was why December twenty six was the
day um? Might be because Anglican churches would have a
collection box out during during all of Advent collect donations
for the poor this Boxing Day, or because the aristocracy

(15:30):
or employees would give out gifts or boxes to their
servants the day after Christmas, because of course their servants
might be working on Christmas Day. Boxing Day today is
still a national holiday in England and Wales and Canada.
In Ireland it's still called St Stephen's Day. Reminded me
a little bit of the Halloween episode I did with Kristen,

(15:51):
because I kept on finding all these different traditions people
have in various countries to celebrate this holiday. And in
Ireland they actually uh kids will attach a wren to
a pole and parade it through town to celebrate St
Stephen's Day. Apparently, though in England, and Canada. It hasn't
become so much a day of charitable giving as a

(16:12):
day of intense shopping, kind of like the Black Friday
day after Thanksgiving sales we have here in the States. Interesting,
so very cool to learn some of the history behind
one of the coolest carols out there. Yeah, did it
change your perspective on the carol at all? Have you
shared any of these details with your father? Yeah, I

(16:34):
haven't yet, but I'm sure that this will be a
story I will be relating over over our Christmas holidays.
I'm kind of stuck on the idea of you and
your dad performing this. I feel like we should have
invited your dad to the studio to hear a performance.
I bet he would do it. I'm not totally sure
i'd I'd perform Good King once with podcasts, but that
he'd be game. Um. Yeah, I'm thinking the biggest perception

(16:58):
change I'm going to have to make is Good King
wences list as a twenty two year old. Yeah, that's true,
I too pictured hard as an old guy. I know. Well,
I'll work on that. Thany so much for joining us
on this Saturday. Since this episode is out of the archive.

(17:21):
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