"THE WRATISLAS DYNASTY."
[To Tea EDITOR OP TUE °SPECTATOR:9 Srn,—Referring to the correspondence on the subject of a " Wratislas" dynasty in Bohemia and of a. branch of the Wratislaw family settled in England, -which has appeared in your columns, I should not have thought that the latter subject bad much outside interest, but as the correspondence has been somewhat inaccurate it may as well he corrected.
As " Anglo-Magyar " points out, in your issue of July 31st, there has been no Bohemian dynasty of Wratislas. "W. H." (Spectator, July 24th) was, no doubt, alluding to the ancient dukes, subsequently kings, of Bohemia, of the Premysl line, among whom were Duke Vratislav I. (died 916), the father of good King Wenceslas " of the Christmas carol, and King Vratislav II. (died 1092). It is hardly necessary to point out that the English or German " w " of a Slavonic name is properly pronounced as a "v," without considering the advice of Mr. Weller, Senior. I know of no such name as" Wratielas " in Bohemian history, or in the Wratislaw (in Czech, Vratislava) family. In Polish or Hungarian, I believe, it becomes Vladislav or Vladislai. The city of Breslau appears in mediaeval Latin as " Wratislawia," and almost the first stone I set my foot upon, in the Cathedral of Prag, bore the name of Wratislaw. The Premysl dynasty, in effect, died with the Emperor Ottokar II. at the battle of the Marchfield (1278), when the Hapsburg won. The blind " King of Bohemia," John of Luxemburg, who died at Crecy (1346), had married a descendant of King. Vratislav I.; and her granddaughter, Anna, appears to have been the wife of King Richard IL of England.
The notes of 'W. H." on the reasons which led my great- grandfather, Count Marc Wratislaw, to Oxford and then to Rugby appear to have no basis in fact. He was attached at the time, 1770, to the Austrian Embassy in Paris. He died, as Foreign Master, at Rugby in 1796. There is a legend that his brother came to England to press him to return, but having married outside the "mobility," so that his children had lost Austrian caste, he declined to do so. Laws Deo. It is not known why he came to England. There arc now two Bohemian related families of the name. One carries the title of Count and Baron Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (the Serbian Mitrowitza), the other of Mitrowitz and Schonfeld. The blood of Prernyal (A.D. 700) is claimed to run in our veins : presumably the same claim is made by many other Czech families. The head of the English branch is Captain J. M. B. Wratislaw of the 1st Connaught Rangers, while two other relatives of the name held commissions in H.M. Army. Readers of Tom, Brown's Schooldays will perhaps remember an allusion (Part I. Chap. ix.) to " Wratislaw's Hole," a bathing pool in the Avon at Rugby, which took its name from my great-grandfather or one of his sons who was also a master at the school.—I am, Sir, 8/..c., T. W. G. WRATISLAW. 4 Park Place, St, Tames's, S.W.
[We cannot publish any more letters on the subject.—En. Spectator.]
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