Bohuslav Jiri Lord Kolowrat-Krakowsky

(1596 – 1638/41)

Chamberlain and Imperial Council

Asesor of Chamber and feudal court

Son of Krystof Jindrich Krakowsky of Kolowraty (1549 – 1596) and Katerina Tyrovska of Einsiedel (1588 – 1640).

In turbulent times he always and consistently stood on the Catholic side. Therefore, he was accepted by sir Jindrich Michael Hieserle of Chodov (1575 – 1665) to newly established order of Christian knights (Ordo Christianae Militiae). It happened in Carinthian church in Heiligenblut, where he together with sirs Vilem of Klenova and Pribik of Ujezd took the given oath and then they were girded by sir Hieserle with the order´s scarf.

He did accompany sir Hieserle previously on his dangerous and adventurous Danube cruise from Bavaria to Danube, where sir Hieserle described everything in his Stories (a name of the manuscript: Life, which contains some journeys and crusades that I, Jindrich Hieserle, Baron of Chodov took part of, also the way of my life, what I noted from my childhood for my family and my heirs and future and written by my own hand and had decorated with figures. Year 1614). Sir Hieserle describes how he pretended to by Kolowrat´s horse groom or how he pretended contagious disease and tried to conceal his true identity. However, the crew of the ship were captured by such a fear of the plague that they began to convince Bohuslav Jiri to „rather swipe his groom into Danube or he and his people are in great danger to taint and as anyone can see, there is no help for him anyway“.

It seems that Bohuslav Jiri did not do very well as on June 25th, 1631 the court jeweler and Prague citizen Jost Brysl of Brysl (†1635) exacted from him the amount of 1400 threescore Meissen groschens. Probably therefore he had to sell his house in Lesser Town in street under the Prague´s Castle ramparts, which stood between the houses of Krystof Harant of Polzice and Bezdruzice and tailor Melichar Peller, opposite the St. Martin´s Church, for the amount of 1800 threescores Meissen groschens to sir Jachym Liebsteinsky of Kolowraty. Then his situation must have changed, as he bought in 1636 the Drazejovice estate (Drazovice, seven kilometers east of Susice), which is a fortress with two courtyards, brewery and villages Drazovice, Basetin, Simonov, Podhorsko and Ostruzno for the amount of 16000 threescores groschens from Anna Veronika Kotzova of Dobrse.

Sir Bohuslav Jiri was married twice. He married for the first time on January 8th, 1618 and he took Katerina Marketa Nowohradska of Kolowraty (1603 – February 21st, 1634), daughter of Volf Nowohradsky of Kolowraty and of Jitka of Sternberg, as his wife. After she died and was buried in Velhartice, he married Anna Veronika Kotzova of Dobrse (1622 – 1638), daughter of Vaclav Kotz of Dobrse and Katerina Jezovska of Luby in 1636. But both marriages remained childless.

Lady Katerina Marketa´s marble plate was well preserved in parish Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Velhartice, with faint Kolowrat´s heraldry and sign:

ANNO DOMINI M. D. C. XXX 4 XXI
FEBRUARII . OBIIT . ILLUSTRISSIMA . ET .
GENEROSISSIMA . DOMINA . DOMINA
CATHARINA . MARGARETA . BARONISSA
DE COLOWRAT . HIC . PIE . MEMORIE
DEFVNCTA . ORATE . PRO . ILLA

In English:
Anno Domini 1634, February 21st
Extremely noble lady passed away
Baroness Katerina Marketa
Of Kolowraty. Here in pious memory
Died. Pray for her.