Brass medal Wenceslas II standard

Wenceslas II was the only legitimate son of king Přemysl II Otakar by Kunhuta Uherská; father of Wenceslas III and Elisabeth who became wife of John of Luxembourg. He succeeded to the throne at the age of seven after premature death of his father. But until 1283 he lived at the court of his cousin Otto IV of Brandenburg who served as regent for him. After acceding to the Czech throne he proved himself as an able ruler and diplomat. He annexed most of Upper Silesia to the Czech crown, later on became the king of Poland and for his only son Wenceslas III he won the Hungarian crown. With this he created the largest state formation in central Europe which, however did not last long – due to the assassination of Wenceslas III in Olomouc one year after the death of his father. After rich silver deposits were found in the vicinity of the contemporary town of Kutná Hora, he carried out a mint reform that was part of a new mining code Ius regale montanorum co-authored by Italian financial experts Rinieri, Appardo and Cino; he also introduced the most famous Czech coin of all times – the Prague groschen.