Sword of Saint Wenceslas

Did You Know?

• The iron blade has a ripped hole in a cross shape measuring 45 x 20 mm.
• The wooden handle is covered with yellow-brown fabric and velvet embroidered with laurel twigs using thick silver thread.

History

For centuries, people thought the Sword of Saint Wenceslas was the actual weapon used by the 10th-century duke. That view shifted in the 19th century, when experts labeled it a Gothic piece from the 1300s, possibly made by Charles IV alongside the new ceremonial crown also dedicated to Saint Wenceslaus. But a recent close technical study changed things again: the blade itself dates to the early Middle Ages, likely the 900s, meaning it really could have been Wenceslas’s. The cross on the blade was probably engraved later in the medieval period, while the guard and pommel were likely added around the 1200s.

The treasury of St. Vitus Cathedral also holds a helmet and mail shirt that are probably Wenceslas’s original armor. The sword first appears in a cathedral inventory from 1333. When it began appearing in coronations is unknown, but by the time Charles IV wrote the Coronation Ordo, likely in 1347, it already had a ceremonial job. During the procession, the supreme marshal of Bohemia carried it before the king, alongside the other crown jewels, up to the main altar.

Just before the king’s coronation, he briefly received the blessed sword. Then, after the ceremony, the sword was used to confer knighthoods at the close of the Mass.