SYMHC Classics: Who was Good King Wenceslas?

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Speaker 1: 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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. 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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, 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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. If you heard an email address or a Facebook U r L or something similar over the course of the show that could be obsolete now. Our current email address is History podcast at i heart radio dot com. Our old health stuff works email address no longer works, and you can find us all over social media at missed in History. And you can subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Google podcast, the I heart Radio app, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of I heart Radio. 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