Týřovský of Einsiedl

Jobst of Einsiedl (circa 1420 - 1474)

Family and youth

Jobst was born into a bourgeois family in the small town of Einsiedl, today's Mnichov in the Cheb district, likely around 1420; the town then belonged to the Teplá monastery. He most likely came from the Tullinger family. In a charter dated 16 June 1346, Beneda, abbot of Teplá, and the entire convent granted to Elizabeth and her brothers Oldřich and Bohuslav, descendants of Heinrich Tullinger, the estates that had reverted to the monastery after the death of the Teplá judge Jan Puchelberger, in particular the tin mines between the Ouša river and the brook called Goltwasser. In a charter of 25 May 1397, the Teplá abbot Bohuš and the monastery servant Bohuslav Tullinger of Mnichov reached an agreement concerning the tin mines near Mnichov. In its disposition the two issuers concluded that Bohuslav Tullinger held all rights to the village of Mnichov and that every third penny (orig. „pfannig“) of the mined metal would fall to him. Whether this is the same Bohuslav mentioned in the first charter cannot be said. Likewise it cannot be deduced whether this is Jobst's father, grandfather, or some other relative; nevertheless, his coat of arms (three feathers) is also known from Jobst's later coat of arms. He had a close connection to the city of Cheb and appears to us as a relative of the esteemed Cheb families of Schmidels and Puchelbergers, calling Jorg Schmidel his brother and Clement Puchelberger his uncle, with Puchelberger later becoming the burgomaster of Cheb. Jobst himself states that when he later stayed in Cheb, he lodged in the house of his brother Jorg. The kinship of the Tullingers and Puchelbergers is also indicated by the charter mentioned above.

Jobst could have received his education either at the school in Cheb or, more probably, at the Teplá monastery. There he could have learned to read and write in Czech, German, and Latin, which made him one of the few multilingual scribes in late medieval Bohemia.

Beginning of career

Thanks to his education, he was particularly suited to serve as a secretary and scribe, especially during the interregnum (1439 - 1453), when Czech lords conducted politics independently. Scribes who understood both languages of the land were recommended especially to those Czech lords who did not speak German, although they could not do without it during their frequent contact with neighboring German regions. For example, Lord Jan of Házmburk excused his letter to the city of Cheb written in Czech by stating that he currently did not have his German scribe available. In this capacity, Jobst actually appears in the service of Lords Aleš and Petr Holický of Šternberk, who at that time owned the nearby Bečov nad Teplou.

In February 1447, Duke William of Saxony approached Petr Holický of Šternberk to recruit an army in Bohemia for the Saxon Fratricidal War (1446 - 1451). The army was to assemble near Cheb, with Jobst entrusted with administrative and organizational matters. In a letter dated February 13, 1447, Duke William wrote:“Wir bedorffen wol eins endlichen diners, der dutschs und behemisch kan, uff den wir glauben gesetzen (...), dorzu uns Jobst, uwer diener, wol fuglich were.” (We absolutely need a servant who can speak German and Czech, whom we can trust (...), for this Jobst, your servant, would probably be suitable.)

These Czech mercenaries, due to an ensuing truce, were unable to participate in the Saxon Fratricidal War and seamlessly transitioned into the service of the Archbishop of Cologne, Dietrich II, in the Soest Feud. Since Petr Holický of Šternberk was the chief commander of the entire Czech corps, it is assumed that Jobst participated in the entire Soest campaign as Petr's right hand.

Jobst's next significant involvement occurred in 1450 when George of Poděbrady, after defeating the Strakonice Union at the battle of Mýto on June 4, 1450 led his campaign against their allies, especially Duke Friedrich of Saxony, resulting in the capture of the city of Gera. The following day, October 23, 1450 (some sources state October 16, 1450), a truce was concluded. Jobst of Einsiedl, who participated in this campaign in the retinue of Lord Petr Holický of Šternberk, wrote his letter on October 25, 1450 from the field camp near Salza, close to Plavno, the first preserved letter to the city of Cheb. Cheb was threatened by the returning Czech army, as in March 1450, the Cheb council had refused to allow George of Poděbrady and his partisans into the city for negotiations with the German fürsts, which had to be held in Wunsiedel instead. In the letter, Jobst warned the citizens and urged them to seek an agreement. The mediation was undertaken by Aleš and Petr Holický of Šternberk, who, with their secretary Jobst of Einsiedl, ensured safe conduct for the Cheb envoys. The negotiations took place at Skalná Castle (Vildštejn). However, on the way to the meeting, the Cheb diplomats, carrying gifts for George of Poděbrady, were ambushed and robbed. Jobst of Einsiedl was also attacked but saved his life by promising not to reveal the attackers.

Following the negotiations at Vildštejn, the city ultimately redeemed itself with 1000 gold in ransom: “Item wir haben geben vnd ausgerichthern Girziken tousent guldein, die jn der rat zu pranttschaczgeben musst.” (We gave Lord George 1000 gold, which must be given by the council as ransom.)
Petr of Šternberk received 200 gold for mediating the agreement, and other mediators also received rewards: “Geben dem Endresen I schock XXIII gr. zerung fur Hans von Kocza vnd fur den Jobst des von Sternbergs schreiber, als er zwischen eyn rat vnd den Behmen teidigat.” (Give the aforementioned 1 schock and 23 groschen to Hans of Kotzau and to Jobst, the scribe of the Šternberks, who participated in the negotiations between the council and the Czechs.)

In 1452 Jobst appears in connection with the disputes between the Nuremberg burgheress Margareta Vogel and Aleš Holický of Šternberk, when he wrote a letter of thanks to the Nurembergers for resolving the matter. Frederick III had apparently been calling for an end to the dispute since the beginning of the previous year. In the so-called Borschengrüner Fehde (Borschengrün feud), the war between Cheb and the Vogts of Plavno in 1452–1454, several representatives of the Czech nobility, including the Holický of Šternberk, were notably involved. Aleš Holický was displeased that Frederick of Saxony had stepped forward as mediator between Cheb and the Plaveners; after the experiences of the Soest war, the majority of Czech nobles regarded him as an enemy of the country. Aleš also pressured Mates Šlik to convince Cheb that it had to stop fighting the Plaveners. Throughout this conflict Aleš frequently used Jobst as his negotiator with the Šliks and with Cheb. Jobst remained in the service of the Šternberks until the end of 1453 or the beginning of 1454, after which he entered the service of George of Poděbrady.

In the service of George of Poděbrady

Jobst of Einsiedl remained with the lords from Šternberk until the end of 1453 or perhaps the beginning of 1454, for on June 24, 1453 Jobst still writes under the command of Lord Aleš of Šternberk. He then entered the service of the administrator George of Poděbrady, possibly motivated by familial ties to the Šternberk family. On October 28, 1454, he addresses as secretary of George to Görlitz scribe a letter announcing the imminent arrival of the administrator with King Ladislaus and urges the reservation of necessary accommodations. Correspondingly, the rescript of George to the mayor and council of Cheb, dated January 30, 1455 in Wroclaw, is already drafted by Jobst.

During this period, Jobst of Einsiedl was granted a coat of arms by King Ladislaus the Posthumous, which was elevated by Emperor Frederick III on November 23, 1455.

In the administrator's service a broad and significant field of activity opened up for Jobst. Since George spoke no German at all, he made use of Jobst's bilingualism especially in dealings with the predominantly German-speaking towns. Although George himself, with rare exceptions, sent his letters to Cheb in Czech, only letters in German have survived from later periods, behind which the activity of his new servant can be sensed. George valued Jobst's services and it is therefore likely that he interceded with King Ladislaus for the granting of a fief — the village of Jeschedorf, today Jaśkowice Legnickie — in January 1455, which Jobst held jointly with Hynec Dehraw, or that he was behind the elevation of Jobst's coat of arms by Frederick III on 23 November of the same year. The entry concerning Jeschkendorf is dated on the feast of the Epiphany, that is January 6, 1455, and is preserved in the extracts from the registers of the Duchy of Wrocław.As his confidential scribe he was literally indispensable to him. Therefore, if he was not absent on some mission, he was always by the side of the land administrator, accompanying him on his major campaigns in Moravia, Silesia, and Austria, often engaging in trade, as in Brno, and informing his friends in Cheb with apparent satisfaction about the successful achievements of the governor. Although a Catholic and unconditionally devoted to the Roman Church, he maintained unwavering loyalty to his Utraquist lord at all times by — a rarity at the time — being able to rightly separate religious beliefs from loyalty to service. Therefore, he also enjoyed the full trust and favor of George and was often entrusted with tasks that required special care and reliability.

Jobst also accompanied George on long journeys, such as to Hungary in 1456, of which he did not hesitate to inform his Cheb relatives.

After the death of King Ladislaus the Posthumous on November 23, 1457 rumors began to spread that the young king had been poisoned by George of Poděbrady. At the assembly in Vienna on January 21, 1458, Jobst of Einsiedl strongly defended against these accusations. Jobst argued that it had never happened in history that the Czechs had poisoned a king. According to him, the Czechs were the king’s loyal subjects and had voluntarily submitted to him in everything that Kings Sigismund and Albert had sought to conquer by force (restoration of royal estates, levies, aid against the Turks). Ultimately, based on Jobst’s arguments, the assembly acknowledged that the king had passed away by the will of God.

As mentioned earlier, Jobst was often entrusted with tasks requiring special care and reliability. Such a situation arose immediately after George was elected king. At the large electoral assembly in Prague on March 1, 1458, the representatives of Duke Wilhelm of Saxony referenced old charters stored at Karlštejn to better substantiate his wife's claims to the Czech succession. The administrator immediately dispatched his chamberlain and Jobst of Einsiedl, his scribe, with an appropriate entourage to Karlštejn to retrieve the relevant documents, which were presented to the assembled estates the following day. When George of Poděbrady was proclaimed king that same day, Jobst welcomed this significant event with undisguised joy and immediately communicated it to Cheb, where the news was joyously received (only the response from Cheb is preserved). Since George had already become famous in previous years for his zealous efforts to maintain peace, his election was particularly desirable for a city like Cheb, which was located on the borders of various regions and conducted lively trade. Moreover, Jobst assured the citizens of Cheb of the king's favor and admonished them to disregard the slander and threats of their neighbors, but to remain firm and steadfast. For Jobst himself, George's election had another consequence, as the new king elevated him to the knightly status that summer, as evidenced by the congratulations from the people of Cheb on July 29, 1458 or a transumpt of Pope Pius II's bull from March 1459, which names Jobst as “Jodocus de Eynsedil, milites Pragensis”. The vidimus was drawn up on March 12, 1459 at Kłodzko by Nicholas, abbot of Kamieniec, and Michael, provost of Kłodzko, at the request of Jan of Warnsdorf, captain of Kłodzko, and of Jobst, who presented the bull in the name of King George.The people of Cheb were unofficially informed of the election by a letter from Jobst; officially they were notified by a great letter with many seals, whose author may also have been Jobst.

During George of Poděbrady's homage tour, Jobst accompanied his king, as testified by his reports sent to Cheb. He played a particularly notable role in Brno, which had closed its gates before George's arrival, and Jobst was sent as a negotiator with the city's representatives. In the autumn of 1458 Jobst accompanied George during his campaign in Austria.

Along with being elevated to knightly status, he received an inheritance worth 500 schocks of groschen at the Makotrasy estate. Around this time, he also acquired the villages of Skryje and Tytry. However, to enable the king to repay his debt to the Prague burgrave Zdeněk of Šternberk, Jobst returned the aforementioned inheritance and additionally lent 500 schocks of groschen in cash, for which the king registered him on July 2, 1460 the castle of Týřov with the town of Kožlany, the villages of Mlečice, Chmelištná, Zavidov, Týřovice, Broumy, Kouřimec, Újezdec, Hudlice with all benefits and taxes in Novosedly; according to the extract from the royal registers the whole pledge sum amounted to 1,050 schocks of groschen. It was stipulated that Jobst must not be repaid until his death, and after his death, only the king himself may repurchase the estates for 600 schocks of groschen. According to the resolution, Týřov Castle must remain open at all times and if the king were to spend on it due to wars, it would be at no loss to Jobst. With the forests, neither Jobst nor his heirs have anything to do nor sell timber, only to take it unimpeded for fuel and repairs to the castle. In hunting small game and birds, Jobst was free, whereas he was allowed to hunt 3 deer and 10 roes a year with the knowledge of the Křivoklát burgrave, who was obliged to lend him dogs and puppies. Since the castle needed repairs to its walls, underpinning, and buildings, the king added 100 schocks of groschen for repairs to Jobst. If the castle were to be captured by Jobst, the kings are obliged to help him recapture it or pay him within two years.

As the royal secretary, Jobst had the opportunity to provide many services to the city of Cheb through advice or intercession with the king. This was evident from the royal rescripts to Cheb, many of which are marked “ad relationem Jodoci de Eynsedel secr.” The city, due to its exposed position, was frequently accused from one side or the other. It had frequent disputes with other territories, and also with its own subjects who wanted to dissolve their legal ties with the city, as well as problems with the abbot of Waldsassen over jurisdiction in several villages, including Albenreuth (today Mýtina, part of the municipality of Lipová), which were inhabited by both monastic and city subjects. Jobst was often asked for his intercession. He was willing to provide information, unless it involved official secrets, which he always strictly maintained. However, he always acted with great caution, and although this is also commendable, it surprises the reader unpleasantly when, for example, in the middle of an interesting letter, it states:“Although you yourselves want to learn the reason for this matter, you can send one of the council's friends who is known to me, and you will learn the whole matter thoroughly.”On the contrary, the city did not lack in recognition. On various occasions, it gave its friend a monetary gift, as evidenced by the Cheb expense book. For example at Christmas 1458:“Item so haben wir desmals durch Paul Ruduschen hern Jobst von Aynsidel awszgericht XII guldein, damit jn der rat vereret.” (Thus we then, through Pavel Ruduschen, handed Lord Jobst of Einsiedl XII gold, to honor him.) Also in the following year: “Item geben hern Jobsten von Aynsidel X gulde. r. damit jn unser hern verereten, als er jn das wortt redt ken vnsern hern konig von des abtes von Waltsassen wegen.” (Also given to Sir Jobst of Aynsidel were ten gold coins, r., so that our lords might honor him, as he spoke on behalf of our lord the king concerning the matters with the abbot of Waldsassen.) And when the city council honored the king with several barrels of the then-popular Cheb mead, one barrel also went to Jobst with the wish that“es mit seiner Gemalin in Fröhlichkeit und Gesundheit auszutrinken” (he may drink it with his wife in joy and health).

Jobst was actively involved in organizing the assembly at Cheb in the spring of 1459, aimed at resolving disputes between Bohemia and Saxony through the mediation of the politically astute Margrave Albrecht of Brandenburg. Jobst arrived in Cheb by Easter, March 25, 1459, to announce the king's arrival on April 8, 1459, and briefed the council on all details, requirements, and other matters related to the visit. This gave the city ample time to prepare in advance. King George arrived in Cheb on April 7, 1459, with his wife Johana of Rožmitál, son Viktorin, and daughter Zdena, accompanied by a large retinue including numerous servants and significant representatives of the Czech and Moravian nobility. His entourage included 43 nobles and 16 knights, totaling around 900 riders and 100 wagons, among them were several notable figures from Czech nobility.

Upon entering the city, the townspeople prepared a ceremonial welcome for the king and escorted him, with a canopy over his head, to a house directly on the square, where he was accommodated. The owner of the house on the square where the king was lodged was councilman Kašpar Junker, who was one of the most prominent figures of the city's patriciate at the time and had been elected mayor several times in succession. Given that George of Poděbrady was accommodated in his house, it can be assumed that this house was among the best equipped in the city.

On April 8, 1459, representatives of the imperial nobility also arrived in Cheb: Albrecht of Brandenburg arrived a day after George, thus on April 8, and Elector Frederick of the Palatinate on April 9. They were accompanied by other noble lords and various advisors. (Among the advisors, the internationally recognized diplomat Martin Mayer must be mentioned unequivocally.) Later, four dukes from Saxony also arrived, namely the Saxon-Meissen Elector Frederick with both his sons, Ernst and Albrecht, and his brother Wilhelm of Saxony. Along with them, another 13 imperial counts came with their wives. Furthermore, the Bavarian duke Otto, the Archbishop of Magdeburg, advisors of Duke Ludwig of Landshut, envoys of the Bishop of Würzburg, advisors of the Duke of Munich, Albrecht, and advisors of the Austrian Duke Albrecht arrived. Each of them came with a very large entourage, numbering dozens to hundreds of members.

The negotiations, which officially began on April 10, 1459, saw Jobst deeply involved as he often met with Margrave Albrecht of Brandenburg by the king's command and guidance. He dealt with the margrave on April 9, 1459, late in the evening, and during this occasion, he fervently advocated for a settlement with Saxony by maintaining that if the matter were referred to the emperor or the electors, the end would be “nowhere in sight”. The next day, when the margrave appeared with Saxon advisors at the king’s residence at Kašpar Junker's house to discuss the matter further, Jobst of Einsiedl acted as an interpreter. When the negotiations concluded and they were leaving Cheb, he received a gift of 100 schocks of groschen from the city for the king: “Item wir haben awszgericht vnserm hern konygk au newen groschen 1^eschok gr., domit jn der rat vererat - hub auf her Jobst von Aynsidel” (Thus we have again presented our lord the king with 100 schocks of groschen, as a mark of respect by the council - handed over to Lord Jobst of Einsiedl).

Jobst likely held a similar agenda at the assembly also held in Cheb on Candlemas in 1461. Once again, Jobst was probably assigned an important role, as evidenced by his letter from December 14, 1460 to the mayor and council of Cheb, in which he requests:“to provide him accommodation at his brother's (Jorg Smidel) place, as he needs a comfortable place to rest, especially since he will not be able to sleep much, having a lot of work and needing to stay close to the king.”During this assembly, he also provided legal services in the dispute between Cheb and the abbot of Waldsassen over Albenreuth. For this and other services, he was given, besides ten gold coins, one arquebus and four hand cannons, all made in Nuremberg.

At the end of February 1461 Jobst was sent as part of the escort of Zbyněk Zajíc of Hazmburk to the imperial diet in Nuremberg. In the summer of the same year he set out as a member of a Czech embassy to Vienna. For the services he had rendered for the city of Görlitz in 1461, he received from the locals 6 schocks and 21 groschen. At the beginning of September 1461 at Laxenburg, Zbyněk Zajíc of Hazmburk, Vilém of Rýzmberk, Burian Trčka of Lípa, and Jobst of Einsiedl concluded a truce with Albrecht of Austria until June 1462. Jobst then took part in further negotiations at Leoben at the turn of September and October, from where he set out for Wiener Neustadt to meet Empress Eleanor in order to arrange a meeting between George and Frederick III.

In November 1462 Jobst appeared with George's army at Vienna, where the local burghers had risen against Frederick III and called Frederick's enemies — including Albrecht of Austria — to their aid. Frederick, besieged in the Vienna castle, asked George to break the siege; the Czech attack on Wiener Neustadt was unsuccessful, however, so that not long afterwards Frederick surrendered to his besiegers and concluded a peace treaty with them on disadvantageous terms.

Because Emperor Frederick III elevated George's sons Viktorin, Jindřich, and Hynek to the status of imperial princes on December 7, 1462, in Korneuburg, Jobst, Zdeněk of Šternberk, and Prokop of Rabštejn were sent to the emperor to bring back the princely cloaks and hats, which were formally presented at the Royal Court in Prague on February 21, 1463.

In March 1463, on George of Poděbrady's commission, Jobst became involved in the matter of the admission of the Jews Smahel, Gumprecht, Joseph and Sarah and their children to Cheb for six years at an annual rate of 150 Rhenish guilders. In this matter Jobst dealt with the Cheb burghers Kašpar Junker, Pavel Ruduš and Franz Scheller. At the beginning of summer 1463, George entrusted Jobst with negotiations with Hilary of Litoměřice. Their result was, on 11 June, the vidimus of George's earlier agreement with Princess Hedwig of Legnica concerning Legnica. In August 1463 George admonished the royal cities in writing to perpetual loyalty. The author of this text, however, may have been, as Urbánek concludes, none other than Jobst.

As a result of this diplomatic activity, Jobst of Einsiedl gained considerable influence and maintained written correspondence with foreign princes, especially with Margrave Albrecht of Brandenburg. Notably, in 1463, the margrave sent Jobst a confidential letter informing him of the papal legate's efforts against the king. “Dast wollest” (You may), the letter continues, “in grosser geheim vnnsern herrn dem konig sagen, dann es warlich also ist” (tell our lord the king this in great secrecy, for it is indeed so). Jobst also repeatedly relayed news from the Bohemian court to the margrave (a letter from July 4, 1464, and three letters from 1469 are preserved). The influence of the royal secretary was evident on various occasions. From afar, they sought his intercession, such as at the beginning of 1463 by the town of Zgorzelec. In 1464, Jobst, along with Chancellor Prokop of Rabštejn and Henry, Lord of Gera, mediated a dispute between Henry of Plavna and Günter of Bünau on the king's orders. Meanwhile, when a newly established noble association again raised the question of who exactly should oversee the imperial insignia, several lords and knights, including Jobst of Einsiedl from Týřov, were tasked with transferring state documents stored at Karlštejn to Prague and their supervision. One of the symptoms of the increasingly sharp disputes in the religious and political sphere was the religious confusion leading to the emergence of many sects. Jobst had one such in mind in his interesting letter from September 17, 1466. This was linked to the names of Liwin and Janek of Wirsberg, Franciscan apocalyptic preachers active in the Cheb region and influenced by the sermons of John Capistrano and the preaching of John Rokycana in Cheb in 1451. Fearing an interdict and also because King George had spoken out against the teachings of the Wirsbergs, the city council banned the Wirsbergs from entering the city. Jobst appears in his letter as a fervent Catholic and from his interesting expressions, we recognize a dogmatizing layman, as there were many at the time, especially in Bohemia. He took the decline of faith deeply to heart and let it culminate in a complaint, “das die werlt so falscher list ime mer ist, vnd nicht ansicht vnd betracht den gemein rechten cristen glawben” ( that the world is getting worse and the true faith is not generally seen) - a complaint shared by the contemplative souls of his time. However, events then unfolded in an unstoppable sequence, causing George's waning star to extinguish. The curse that befell him also engulfed his loyalists, and entire regions groaned under the weight of the interdict. Even the city of Cheb, which had maintained praiseworthy loyalty to its king (having sworn fidelity on September 4, 1461), was decidedly influenced by political reasons. Since 1315, the city of Cheb and its area had been pawned property of the Bohemian crown. Relying on its privileges, which delineated a favorable special status, it stayed aloof from all movements in Bohemia and swore allegiance and homage only to the crowned king. To pay homage to a king like Matthias who lacked a crown could have easily set a dangerous precedent. Therefore, the city, despite repeated admonitions, refused homage to the usurper king and preferred to have an interdict declared over it. That Jobst did not falter is easily understandable after all that has been said. As a man of conscience and character, he maintained loyalty to his king without even slightly violating the humiliating obedience to the punishing church. Despite his lips not uttering a word of reproach, he had to endure all difficulties; as a Catholic, he had the Utraquists as enemies and as a supporter of the excommunicated king, his own sovereigns, from whose community the church had excluded him. His estates were devastated, his subjects' villages burned and destroyed (he quantified his losses at 300 schocks of groschen). King George recognized the damage and by a charter of October 21, 1466 credited him with 100 schocks of groschen for the construction of ponds and granted him the favour that neither he nor his eldest son could be paid out from Týřov until their deaths.Faced with this devastation, Jobst fought a hard battle with himself; for conscience and faith, church commandments and sworn loyalty were in constant conflict: the fierce battle that stirred the whole era is reflected in the breast of this man, who resolutely adhered to what he recognized in his simple soul as right and good. Eventually, he decided on suffering obedience, because it was about the faith, which he did not want to weaken by resistance “nicht schwächen helfen” (help to weaken). Thus, he shared the same fate as the allied city of Cheb, which he tried to comfort and strengthen in obedience. Only when he saw that his opponents cared less about faith than about plunder, did he take up the sword to secure peace.

After the death of King George of Poděbrady on March 22, 1471, at the beginning of May 1471, Jobst successfully engaged in settling a dispute between Cheb and the highest Prague burgrave, Jan Jenc of Janovice at Petršpurk. The lord of Janovice had, after all, many concerns other than waging war on Cheb, as he was more preoccupied by his fight against the Šternberk garrison of Ostromeč Castle. During the same year Jobst also tried to help the Cheb burghers in peace negotiations with Vilém of Volfštejn and Beneš of Kolovrat, though without much success. After Vladislaus II Jagiello ascended the throne on May 27, 1471, Jobst remained in the office of secretary.

In 1472, Jobst acquired from King Vladislaus the same municipal rights for Kožlany as Rakovník had, including a coat of arms and permission to build a brewery in Kožlany. From June 1472, he also discussed a court dispute between himself and Friedrich of Šumburk. Jobst accused Friedrich of Šumburk's servants of stealing his cows, later found on “na jeho páně Šumburkuov zámek” (his lord Šumburk's castle). If Šumburk failed to appear in court against Jobst, he was to compensate Jobst for the stolen cows. The registers of the chamber court record both findings – of June 20 and of October 3, 1472 – and consistently style Jobst in them as the royal secretary.

He also continued to serve the people of Cheb as their informant about events in the kingdom. From the end of 1464 until the spring of 1465, for example, he dealt with the case of confiscated cattle which had been improperly declared and which the nobleman Jenec of Janovice at Petršpurk had seized from the Cheb burgher Jobst Lochner. Among the significant missions in which Jobst took part in the service of Vladislaus were, for example, the negotiations with Frederick III in 1473–1474, which he attended together with Burian II of Gutštejn and Beneš Libštejnský of Kolovrat. These negotiations, held in Nuremberg and Augsburg, were preceded by several further meetings with Albrecht of Brandenburg, the principal outcome of which was the recognition of Vladislaus as the legitimate king of Bohemia. Furthermore, an agreement was reached on military operations in Austria for the purpose of fighting Corvinus and the rebellious Austrian nobility. In July 1474 Jobst is documented as an assessor of the chamber court.

In 1473, King Vladislaus granted Jobst the right of mortmain to the estate at Hlince, and that same year confirmed all privileges granted to him by King George, and additionally allowed him to kill up to four deer or does in the forests and especially allocated 50 schocks of groschen for castle repairs. The charter concerning Hlince is dated at Prague on June 18, 1473: the king granted Jobst, his secretary, the right of escheat after Kateřina of Radkov to a peasant farmstead on which sat Matěj called Žižák. The holders of the farmstead – Jan of Miletínek and Újezd, Jan Vrš of Všetaty and Matěj of Hlince – were called upon to lodge their objections within two weeks, and on July 4, 1474 the chamberlain Valentin put Jobst in possession of the farmstead, appraised at 20 schocks of groschen. A further 100 schocks for the building work at Týřov were credited to Jobst by King Vladislaus at Kłodzko on August 21, 1473, and all the charters concerning Týřov were confirmed to him on March 7, 1474. However, Jobst died the following year. As late as June 11 and July 15, 1474, “Jodocus de Eynzidl” sat among the lords of the council at the chamber court beside the supreme chamberlain Vilém of Rýzmberk and the supreme burgrave Jan of Janovice, but by 1476 he was no longer alive, as noted in a letter from April 17, 1476: “Wie etwen herre Jobst vom Eynsidel, demegot gnade” (May God have mercy on Lord Jobst of Einsiedl). Jobst left behind a will that was entered into the land registers. Its wording has unfortunately not been preserved; we know, however, that it was invalidated, having been made “po smrti pečetín” (sealed after death). The books of findings of the land court made a general rule of it: “Kšaft podle práva na list mocný královský učiněný, ve dsky vložený, král zase s pány vyzdvihli a odvolali, protože jest byl po smrti pečetín. O tom nález Septimo Plana D. XXX, kdež Jošt z Eynsydle kšaft dělá.” (A will lawfully made under a royal letter of authority and entered into the land tables was annulled and revoked by the king and the lords, because it had been sealed after death. On this see the finding Septimo Plana D. XXX, where Jobst of Einsiedl makes his will.)

Jindřich (Henry) Týřovský of Einsiedl (c. 1466–1556)

Jobst died in 1474, but his last will could not be entered into the land tables because it was sealed only after his death. The surviving son Jindřich (Henry), who always signed only as Henrich, was not yet of age, and so he remained under the guardianship of Litvín of Klinštejn, a counsellor of the chamber court, who was still writing his name with Týřov as late as 1491. From 1494, Jindřich himself was already giving permission for the sale of feudal estates in Mlečice. Note: The labour vassals in Mlečice and Zavidov were always obliged to serve Křivoklát, but as subjects on the Týřov estate, they could sell their properties only with the consent of their lord — the holder of Týřov.

In 1500, the chamber court heard a dispute between Jindřich and Jan of Gutštejn over ore mining, to which Gutštejn's smelter Ota supposedly had a claim. Jindřich objected that “mu odpoviedati povinovat nenie, poněvadž se majestátuov královských dotýče” (he was not bound to answer him, since the matter touched upon royal charters), and on 2 May 1500 the court quashed the summons, ruling that they were to seek their right before the land court, “poněvadž krále JMti v zemi nenie” (since His Majesty the King was not in the land).

Jindřich was an excellent manager. In a short time, he purchased manors in Nezabudice and Panošín Újezd, the villages of Hřebečníky, Skryje, Tytry and Novosedly, and built the Myslice manor. In Kožlany, he bought two deserted peasant farms with revenues there, which had belonged to Krakovec for many years, from Jindřich Albrecht of Kolovrat, and founded a pond with piping above the town.

In 1503, he bought the wasteland of Sadlno and the estate of Slabce, with which a feudal obligation towards Křivoklát was also connected, and Jindřich thus had to, when needed, “sám druhý na hrad přijeti ve všem holým železe.” (come to the castle with one companion, in full armour.)

During the war of 1505 waged against the Šlik lords, he fielded 4 men and 1 wagon. That year, Ambrož Chodaur of Loket also sued Jindřich, having paid Jindřich for grain that was subsequently not delivered – the matter concerned four schocks of strychs of oats at 13 Meissen groschen each and two schocks of barley at 11 groschen; on 14 November 1505 the chamber court found in Jindřich's favour, because Chodaur had not proved that Jindřich was obliged to let him know whether he was keeping to the bargain. In 1509, he was one of the Bohemian nobles waiting in Brno for the arrival of King Vladislav from Trnava, but they soon left again because the king kept failing to arrive. Albrecht Rendl of Oušava described it bluntly to Petr of Rožmberk on 5 February 1509: “Nayprv jeli pryč Pražané, potom Burjan Trčka, potom pan Novohradský, pan Maštovský, pan Tayrovský a někteří jiní s nimi; tu pan kancléř mluvil, že jich král žádá, aby s králem do Čech jeli, a oni jebíc jedou předse.” (First the men of Prague rode away, then Burjan Trčka, then Lord Novohradský, Lord Mašťovský, Lord Týřovský and some others with them; the lord chancellor told them that the king asked them to ride to Bohemia with the king, but they, damn them, rode off all the same.)

Jindřich then in 1513 resolved before the chamber court a dispute of his servant Rovný of Zavidov with Jindřich Tuchorský of Tuchořice, a servant of the lord of Krakovec. Witnesses testified that as they were riding from Jesenice, Rovný rode in among them on a mare, Tuchorský's horse bolted, and when he asked Rovný to ride ahead or behind, Rovný snapped back: “Co ty mi chceš rozkazovati, ano mi jest tak svobodno jeti královskou silnicí jako tobě?” (What do you want to order me about, when I am as free to ride the king's highway as you are?) Tuchorský drew his sword and struck him over the head. Jindřich, entered in the registers as “Heyndrych Eynsygl z Eynsydle a na Tayřově”, summoned Tuchorský for trespass, but the court turned its finding against him: whoever beat a servant who had himself drawn a hunting knife and “jinú svévolnost provozoval” (committed other wilful acts) had not committed trespass.

In 1514 Jindřich held the office of captain of the Rakovník and Podbrdsko districts – on 22 August 1514 Zdeněk Lev of Rožmitál turned to him and to Jan Vamberský of Rohatce to adjudicate a dispute of Wolf of Gutštejn over an imprisoned subject. He addresses him as “urozený pane” (noble lord), that is, as a member of the lordly estate, and styles him in the same way in his circulars of 1526 and 1527.

The Supreme Chancellor of the Kingdom of Bohemia, Adam of Hradec, obtained from King Louis in 1524 permission to redeem Týřov with all its appurtenances; the charter is given at Buda on St Wenceslas's day, 28 September 1524. Whenever Adam deposited the redemption sum, Jindřich was to hand over the estate immediately. Jindřich, who produced a charter from King George stating that he could not be redeemed by anyone during his lifetime, did not surrender the castle, and since Adam died in 1531 and Jindřich thus outlived him, the entry lapsed. In 1525, Jindřich Týřovský was summoned to the chamber court by Jan Pečkovský of Pečkovice for the reason of failing to testify at another court.

In the meantime, a heavy calamity befell Jindřich. With his wife Kateřina Řesanská of Kadov, he had 4 sons, namely Jan, Albrecht, Jobst and Jiřík. The last of these participated in the campaign against the Turks and in 1526 was captured at the Battle of Mohács. The father, who wished to ransom him, had to pledge Týřov in 1528 to Jáchym of Malcany, to whom the citizens of Plzeň sent a letter in 1530.

Lorenc Šlik took advantage of Jindřich's distress and obtained from King Ferdinand permission to redeem the Týřov estate. However, this could only take place by agreement with Jindřich, who again invoked King George's charter, did not agree, borrowed 375 schocks of groschen from Petr Cíl of Svojšice, 350 schocks of groschen from Zikmund Beřkovský of Šebířov and 230 schocks of groschen from Slavibor of Všechlapy, and in 1532 redeemed Týřov.

From the aforementioned sums, it follows that Týřov was pledged for 1000 schocks of groschen. When Jindřich could not satisfy his creditors, he sold the village of Novosedly, the Nezabudice manor and manors in Panošín Újezd, and additionally pledged the Kouřimec manor, the villages of Mlečice, Hřebečníky, Skryje and Tytry.

Zikmund Beřkovský summoned Jindřich to court for the debt as early as 1531, but Jindřich ignored three summonses, so an arrest warrant was issued for him and Beřkovský seized Jindřich's estates — 2 peasant farms in Kožlany and a fishpond above the town, which he intended to drain. Jindřich, however, forestalled him and drained it himself.

After Jiřík's return to Bohemia, the Bohemian estates interceded with the king for Jiřík's service to be paid.

Considerable difficulties were caused to Jindřich by his unruly sons, who were constantly before the court for brawls. Albrecht and Jiřík came in 1536 to the inn of Jiřík Čapek in Rakovník, where they found Jiřík of Bobrovice, lord of Děkov. When Bobrovice was speaking on the gallery with the innkeeper, Albrecht threw off his gown, grabbed a sword and stabbed Bobrovice in the side. The innkeeper rebuked Albrecht and he stopped. Then Petr Krašovský and Jiřík Týřovský stabbed Bobrovice with hunting knives on the side and wanted to murder him. Bobrovice was so badly injured that he could not even come down the stairs.

Albrecht, Jiřík and Jobst killed without cause in 1542 in Plzeň Petr Chlumčanský. Jobst was sentenced for this murder by the court of appeal that same year – Zikmund Winter cites him as one of the few cases in which such a sentence was actually passed on a nobleman, whereas the other suits were settled or “pro všelikteraké chyby z práva zdviženy” (quashed for all manner of legal flaws). Jiřík in 1544 wounded Václav of Martinice on the road; the same Jiřík in 1548 spoke at the barber's about Bořivoj Pešík of Komárov, calling him an arch-liar, and at a feast at Liblín in 1555 he insulted Bohuslav Zvíkovský, calling him an arch-liar. During the quarrel, Jiřík rushed at Bohuslav with a sword and wanted to fight him. Albrecht in 1554 clashed in Hřebečníky with Jan of Lobkovice, who in self-defence shot Albrecht through both legs.

Father Jindřich too had dealings with the courts. In 1536, Erhart Kfelíř summoned him over damages of 100 schocks of groschen, because his (Jindřich's) men allegedly went through the forests with handguns and shot game around Týřov. In 1544, Mikuláš Pešík of Komárov summoned Jindřich over 3 animal nets and a yew-coloured horse, which he had borrowed from Mikuláš's deceased brother Jan and not returned. It is interesting that Mikuláš and Jindřich were related in some way.

When Lorenc Šlik saw that he would not outlive Jindřich and would not live to see the Týřov estate, in 1545, with the king's permission, he transferred his right to Týřov to Václav Mašťovský of Strojetice, who immediately renounced all rights to hunting, and in return the king credited him 100 schocks of groschen against Týřov and allowed him to fell forests only for the needs of the castle and granted him the right to request from the Křivoklát captain each year 2 deer, 4 roe deer and 2 wild boar, but he could freely hunt small game. The pledge of Týřov was agreed for the lifetime of Mašťovský and his sons.

In 1554, Mašťovský obtained from the king and the Bohemian estates that an additional 100 schocks of groschen were credited to the initial sum, and Jan the Elder of Lobkovice on Zbiroh obtained permission to purchase the village of Mlečice, which he held in pledge, as a hereditary property.

In 1550, he borrowed 81 schocks from Jan Pešík of Komárov and secured the debt for him on the pond with its bottom near Kožlany, together with its margins and piping. Towards the end of his life he held the villages of Mlečice, Tytry and Zavidov in pledge.

At the land diets Jindřich appeared among the lords: on 4 May 1542 he is listed as “Jindřich Tajřovský z Einsidlu” among the relators of the diet's resolution for the lordly estate, and on 4 January 1552 again as “Hendrych z Einzidle na Tajřově”. In 1543 the estates laid before the king, among other things, “o Viléma Švihovského, Tejřovského a jiných mnohých osob dluhy” (the debts owed to Vilém Švihovský, Týřovský and many other persons) – that is, claims against the crown – and Ferdinand I replied that he “chce na jejich spravedlnosti vyptati rozkázati, to v radě uvážiti a v tom se spravedlivě zachovati ráčí” (would order an inquiry into their claims, consider them in council and deal justly in the matter). In 1554 Václav Mašťovský of Kolovrat then obtained the diet's consent for the king to add a further hundred schocks to his sums on Týřov, “kdyžby toho čas přišel a žeby tajž zámek Tajřov vyplatil” (when the time came and he redeemed the said castle of Týřov).

Jindřich was a regional captain in 1546; in 1545 he sold Slabce with Sadlno and in 1555 the Myslice manor. After dividing his property among his sons, in 1556 he moved to Jince, which belonged to Mikuláš Pešík of Komárov, where on 19 February 1556 he died and is buried in the local Church of St. Nicholas.

Henry's sons and the division of the family (1556–1578)

While their father was still alive, the brothers learned of a plot being prepared in their neighbourhood. Jiřík of Entenšlank, the revenue scribe at Křivoklát, and Jetřich Valečský at Hřebečníky offered fifteen schocks of groschen in 1555 to Jiřík Plocar and Jakub Pokner of Kožlany for murdering their kinsman Kilián. The Týřovský brothers learned of the agreement and summoned both lords to court over those fifteen schocks that had been agreed.

Jindřich died in 1556 and left four sons – Jan, Albrecht, Jobst and Jiřík. Hardly had the father died when Václav Mašťovský, to whom Lorenc Šlik had transferred his right of redemption in 1537, took possession of the Týřov property. The brothers resisted, because Mašťovský was unable to deposit the redemption money. Only in 1558, when Mašťovský died, did the court find in favour of the Týřovský brothers, and King Ferdinand issued them a charter that Týřov with its appurtenances could not be redeemed by anyone during their lifetimes. In doing so he reserved for himself all hunting of deer and wild boar. The list of royal pledges of 1590 dates the charter to the Monday after St Martin's, that is 14 November 1558, and sums it up in the words “Gebrüdern Teyrzowsken Ablösung des Schlosses Teyrzow auf vier Leibe” (to the Týřovský brothers, redemption of Týřov Castle upon four lives) – Týřov could not be redeemed as long as any of the four brothers was alive.

Because of their disagreement the brothers divided the property that same year, 1558. Albrecht took Týřov and Kožlany, Jan took Broumy, Hudlice and Kouřimec, Jiřík took Hřebečníky and Chmelištná, and Jobst took Skryje, Tytry, two settled peasants in Kožlany and the fishpond above the town. When Albrecht died in 1571, Kožlany passed to Jobst.

The brothers also took turns in the office of regional captain: according to the surviving list, the captain of the Rakovník district was in 1566 Albrecht “na Týřově” (at Týřov), in 1568 Jobst “na Týřově” and in 1570 Jiří “na Hřebečníkách” (at Hřebečníky). Jan took part in person in the campaign of Maximilian II against the Turks in Hungary in 1566, and on 7 October 1566 he received in the field camp a letter of safe conduct so that he might set out for home with the emperor's permission. In 1571 Jiřík was elected for the lordly estate of the Rakovník district to the commission that was to draw up, together with the regional captains, a register of all settled holders for the land tax. On 7 November 1572 Jobst bought from Eva Vršová of Lažany for 270 schocks of Bohemian groschen the Voříšek house on the Old Town Square in Prague; after his death his nephew Jan sold it in 1575 to Vilém Sviták of Landštejn for 300 schocks.

Jobst immediately afterwards evicted his subject Jiřík Zubr, called Trygl, and ordered him to move out of Kožlany; he settled the farmstead with another husbandman. Zubr disobeyed the order and complained about Týřovský to the royal chamber. The chamber called upon the burgomasters of Rakovník, Jesenice and Kralovice to appraise his property jointly, but Jobst was not satisfied with the appraisal and sent his officials and gamekeepers to evict Jiřík by force. In a bloody brawl Zubr was seized, thrown into the town gaol and delivered to Rakovník.

Zikmund Winter, who worked up the dispute from the Rakovník archives, describes its beginning differently. According to him the brawl between Zubr and the manorial officials took place in the week after St Bartholomew's 1570, and its cause was a debt: Jobst is said to have “pro nějaký dluh týral až k zoufalstvu a utiskoval velmi” (tormented Zubr to the point of despair over some debt and oppressed him greatly), and when the subject came to beg him to “zlehčil” (lighten) the debt, he sent him word that he would send him to the Rakovník gaol or “že mu dá na krk okovali těžký obojek železný, aby s ním chodil a robotil” (that he would have a heavy iron collar riveted round his neck, so that he would walk about and do his labour service in it). From the shed of the Kožlany reeve, where he had been locked up, Zubr escaped when his red-haired son Jiříček brought him a knife and a mattock, and by March 1571 he was already hiding in the Křivoklát forests.

He soon broke out of prison, roamed the forests, kept coming to Kožlany, robbed and killed his successor Kryštof Halík, and declared plunder and damage against the town and against Lord Jobst. He was therefore pronounced a dangerous declared enemy, and the people of Rakovník offered fifteen schocks for his capture. Zubr joined with several rogues; they caught eight cats, tied sulphur and powder to the back of each, carried them in a sack to Kožlany, set them alight and released them through the town – but the burghers kept watch and partly killed, partly caught the cats. The rogues then set fire to Týřovský's village of Broumy and to the sheepfold of Kryštof of Kolovrat in Všesulov, plundered the surrounding churches and attacked people on the roads. Two of Zubr's companions were caught and executed in Rakovník in 1573; Zubr himself was seized only in Leipzig, the Saxon elector had him transported to Ústí, and in August 1574 he was beheaded at Pohořelec. Winter closes the whole story sharply: “Nejčistěji ze všeho vyvázl pan Jošt Tejřovský, jenž všeho odpovídání Tryglova hlavní původ byl; jeho měšec neutrpěl nijakého ourazu. On nepodepsal nic, neplatil nic a zbrojné lidi musili poddaní jeho Kozlanští na svůj groš vypraviti sami. Moudrý pán!” (Lord Jobst Týřovský, who was the chief cause of all Trygl's feud, came out of it cleanest of all; his purse suffered no injury whatever. He signed nothing, paid nothing, and his subjects of Kožlany had to fit out the armed men themselves at their own expense. A wise lord!)

The church in Kožlany burned down in August 1430, when the Taborites were besieging Libštejn and half the town went up in flames. It then lay in ruins for some hundred and forty years – only around 1571 did Jobst have it repaired, and of the Gothic building only the presbytery and the walls in the foundations remained. He did not complete the work in his lifetime, the keystone above the altar kept a shield without the patron's coat of arms, and he was buried in the church in 1574, which thus became the burial place of the family.

Jan and Jobst died in 1574. Only the fourth brother, Jiřík at Hřebečníky, remained alive, together with his nephew Jan, Jobst's son, who resided at Skryje. Jan summoned his uncle to court to have the share after his deceased uncles assigned to him, and Jiřík ceded to him Hudlice, Broumy, Chmelištná, two hereditary men in Kožlany and one cottager. They were to stock the fishpond above the town jointly, and on the sale of the fish Jan was to take three parts of the money and Jiřík one part; should the Týřov estate come to be redeemed, they were to share the money between them. Jan was not satisfied, and so the agreement was amended in 1578: Jiřík assigned to him a further three subjects in Tytry and half a meadow below Čertova skála, and 1250 schocks were allotted to him from the redemption of the estate.

Kožlany remained in the family's hands even after the division: Jiřík held the town together with Hřebečníky. He died some time between 1578 and 1583, for in 1583 his nephew Jan already appears as the collator of the church at Kožlany, Hřebečníky and Kožlany having passed to him. The family lost the town only in 1588, when King Rudolf granted it hereditarily to Jan the Elder of Lobkovice in exchange for the ruined Týřov.

The family, however, never lived to see that redemption. As early as 27 September 1575 the diet gave its consent for the emperor to sell to Jan the Elder of Lobkovice “panství Tajřovské s jeho příslušenstvím … k dědictví prodati ráčil” (the Týřov estate with its appurtenances … as hereditary property), and in the same year King Maximilian registered the Týřov estate to Lobkovic at Točník for eight thousand thalers, on condition that he came to terms with Týřovský and that the Bohemian estates consented to the pledge. In January 1577 Jiřík was still among the lords of the Rakovník district who were summoned to the ceremonial ride out to meet the body of the deceased emperor, and he still wrote his name “na Tejřově” (at Týřov); in the same year, however, he sold his right to Týřov to Lobkovic for 1,250 schocks and kept only the village of Újezdec hereditarily and Týřovičky for life. In the division with their uncle Jan the brothers had moreover kept in joint possession the “hory rtuťové a cinobrové” (mercury and cinnabar mines). Lobkovic paid the money to Jiřík in 1577 and the estates gave their consent in 1578. After a hundred years the family thus lost the castle from which it took its name. By then no one had lived at Týřov for several years, and so the castle fell into decay.

Jan (John) Týřovský of Einsiedl (died 1609)

Jan was the son of Jobst, who in the division of 1558 received Skryje and Tytry. After his father's death in 1574 he resided at Skryje and, through agreements with his uncle Jiřík, gradually added to them Hudlice, Broumy, Chmelištná and other minor holdings.

In 1584 he bought the village of Slatina from Jan Chlumčanský, and a year later a far greater opportunity presented itself: Šebestián Lažanský, overburdened with debts, sold him in 1585 the stronghold and village of Chříč, the mill opposite the brewery, a sheepfold, the village of Lhota with the miller Kuba, a share in Holovousy, the demesne manor of Dubjany, a deserted mill on the river, a fishery with a privileged tavern and the village of Studená for 17,000 schocks of Meissen groschen. At that time he still wrote his name with Hřebečníky and Skryje. In 1582 Jan had Skryje, together with other property, entered in the renewed land tables. Hřebečníky, which he held from 1585 after his uncle Jiřík, he administered according to Sedláček only as guardian of Jiřík's son Jindřich Jakub, who in 1600, on coming of age, thanked him, “jenž statek nejináče nežli jako vlastní otec spravoval” (who had managed the estate no differently than a father of his own would).

In 1594 Jan sent to the campaign against the Turks three horsemen, led by “strejc jeho” (his kinsman), and eight foot soldiers under the ninth banner of the regiment of Bohuchval Rut; at the muster near Znojmo in September 1594 he is recorded among the lordly estate of the Rakovník district. In 1597 the general diet elected him, in place of the deceased Kryštof Jindřich Krakovský of Kolovrat, to the commission for reconciling the municipal law with the land ordinance, on which Daniel Adam of Veleslavín also sat. In 1600 he was, together with Kryštof Šlovský of Šlovice, captain of the Rakovník district – in a report to the emperor of 3 June 1600 on the collection of the diet's levy from shops, crafts and trades he signed himself “Jan Tejřovský z Ensidle na Křičí a Dubjanech” – and from 1602 to 1605 he sat for the lordly estate of his district on the committee that was to decide, in the event of sudden danger, on calling out the general levy; at that time he wrote his name “na Hřebečnicích” (at Hřebečníky). According to the list of regional captains he also held the office in 1602, 1604 and 1609. In 1605 he lent the Bohemian chamber 1,334 schocks 58 Meissen groschen.

Zikmund Winter ranks him among the harsh overlords: villagers are said to have “běhali světem, majíce železné obojky na krku z trestu, jak jim je věšíval a rukama svýma na petličný zámek zavíral urozený Jan Tejřovský z Ejnsidle a na Skrejích” (roamed the world with iron collars round their necks as a punishment, as the noble Jan Týřovský of Einsiedl and at Skryje used to hang them on them and lock them with a padlock with his own hands). In 1602 he conducted before the land court a suit against Šebestián Lažanský over a fine of twenty schocks “pro vystavení a zaražení nový krčmy” (for building and setting up a new tavern); Vilém Slavata noted in his memoranda how Lažanský's friend, the procurator Jan Peldřimovský, tried in vain to excuse himself from testifying.

Chříč became the new seat of the family, and for two decades Jan steadily bought further property to add to it. In 1601, at the wish of King Rudolf, he ceded to the royal chamber the villages of Skryje, Hradiště and Čilá for 18,000 schocks, and in exchange obtained as hereditary property the town of Kožlany with the church patronage, the Cukr mill, two rent-paying mills with the brook below the town, the fishpond above Kožlany, the village of Zavidov with a tavern, and Chmelištná with the church patronage and a mill, all at an appraised value of 26,250 schocks; the difference of 8,250 schocks he was to pay within two years. After thirteen years Kožlany thus returned to his family and was permanently joined to Chříč. In 1606 he sold Zavidov to Jaroslav of Vchynice at Krakovec for 4,000 schocks, and in 1609 he ceded Chmelištná to Vilém Sviták at Soseň.

In 1603 he also bought from Šebestián Lažanský the manor and village of Březsko, Milíčov with the church patronage, Hedčany, the deserted Bělbožice and a part of Hlince for 20,250 schocks. He deposited the earnest money at once with the land tables, but Lažanský did not accept it, and so the purchase was entered only in 1604 upon a summons. As late as 1609 Jan still owed Lažanský 2,000 schocks, and the latter obtained a chamberlain to take possession of the village and manor of Březsko; Týřovský, however, paid at once, and Březsko was joined to Chříč.

The church at Kožlany was in the family's patronage – as early as 1571 the Catholic priest Vít Kandidus was installed there on the presentation of Jan's father Jobst and his uncle Jiřík. With his own parish priests, however, Jan got on badly. After Vít's death his official entered the parsonage, took all the grain from the granary, the horses, cows and sheep from the stable and carried off all the clothes and a whole brew of beer, while the parishioners divided up the fields and meadows. Vít's successor Maťheol, of whom the people of Kožlany complained that he drank and that he slept through Sunday mass although some three hundred people wished to receive communion, complained to the archbishop that his patron had him thrown into the town gaol, where he spent eleven days in hunger and endured cold and stench. Jan, for his part, wrote to the archbishop that he would not tolerate Maťheol at Kožlany because he was fleecing the subjects.

The quarrels went on: in 1603 he asked the archbishop to install Václav Rakovnický at Kožlany, since the community and he himself were like sheep without a shepherd, and the newly installed Petr Hostinius complained in 1609 that his patron Týřovský was driving him from the parsonage and not paying him his tithes.

Jan remained a Catholic, yet lived in harmony with the Lutherans of Kožlany. At the request of the people of Kožlany he petitioned the king in 1604 to grant them four annual fairs and the levying of a toll on Břežanská hora near Vožeh's mill. Because the people of Čistá and Kralovice objected to the toll, the proceedings dragged on and Jan did not live to see the outcome.

He had no children, and so in 1607 he made a will in which he bequeathed all his property to his kinsman Jindřich Jakub Týřovský at Hřebečníky, to whom he owed 500 schocks. Should the latter too pass away without descendants, everything was to fall to the brothers Maxmilián, Karel and Bohuslav Jiří Krakovský of Kolovrat at Šípy, Jan's maternal uncles. When Jan died at Chříč in 1609, Jáchym Vysecký of Kožlany rode in haste to Prague on a nag and announced the death to Jindřich Jakub. Debts of 8,900 schocks remained on the estate.

Jindřich Jakub (Henry Jacob) Týřovský of Einsiedl (died 1618)

Jindřich Jakub, the son of Jiřík who resided at Hřebečníky, grew up after his father's death with his uncle Jan, who administered Hřebečníky on his behalf, and in 1600, on coming of age, he thanked him for his stewardship. In 1602 a “zlá příhoda” (grievous incident) occurred at the Hřebečníky stronghold: Zdislav Hrobčický of Hrobčice stabbed Jindřich Sekerka of Sedčice there with two dagger thrusts, murdering him, and fled after the deed.

In 1609, immediately after his uncle's death, he took possession of the Chříč estate. In order to free himself of debt, he sold the stronghold of Hřebečníky and the village of Novosedly – according to Sedláček together with the feudal village of Šlovice, to Jiřík Děpolt Černín of Chudenice –, pledged Milíčov and sold the wood with the meadow called Chrustina. He did not, however, have the estate inventoried, nor did he enter his uncle's will into the land tables.

Maxmilián Krakovský at Šípy, the former maternal uncle of Jan, took advantage of this: he summoned Jindřich Jakub before the court and in 1616 took possession of the Chříč estate himself, in order to preserve it and prevent the creditors from taking everything. Týřovský resisted, but within a year came to a settlement with him and took over Chříč and Milíčov again himself.

He had also clashed with Maxmilián in person before. In 1611 he was riding from Chříč through Šípy and, at the request of Karel Krakovský, stopped in front of the stronghold for a cup of wine. Maxmilián came out of the stronghold with a rapier and let loose a torrent of abuse at him; a fierce brawl followed, in which Týřovský wrested the rapier from Maxmilián and rode off in haste. A wager with Karel Vtelenský of Hluboš, who came to Chříč in 1616, ended in much the same way: Jindřich Jakub challenged him for a hundred ducats that he would not shoot the finial off the roof of the manor house within ten shots. Vtelenský shot the finial down, but Týřovský refused him the stake, then rode to Hluboš and took from his lodging a standing striking clock worth 50 schocks.

For the people of Kožlany he achieved what his kinsman had striven for in vain. In 1612 he obtained for them from King Matthias a charter for two annual fairs with a toll on cattle – the first on St Lawrence's day, the second on St Matthew's, with an eight-day market peace – and he himself supplemented it with a series of privileges. He allowed them to buy for the use of the community a manor with one or two hides of fields and to build themselves a town hall in which they would pass judgement over local people and outsiders alike, with appeal to Prague Castle; the school was to remain under the authority of the burgomaster and the aldermen, who would themselves appoint both the schoolmaster and the town scribe. The inhabitants could freely make wills and sell their farmsteads, brew beer by turns in the communal brewery and sell it by the measure or cart it elsewhere, trade in salt, pitch and iron, elect their own forester for the communal wood, and they were left the hunting of hares and the catching of fish and crayfish in the brooks. In return they had to work two days a year from every rateable house on the Chříč demesne and to assist their lord in the fishing of the great Týřov pond.

In 1612 he requested a preceptor from the University of Prague “pro syna svého a některé poddané, k liternímu umění oddané” (for his son and some subjects devoted to the art of letters); the university sent him Jaroš Rychter of Jaroměř. Alongside the young Adam Jindřich, the children of subjects were thus taught at Chříč as well. Winter concludes from this that the arrival of a private tutor at a manorial seat sometimes gave rise to a whole “improvisovaná školka” (improvised little school).

In economic matters he was enterprising – in 1614 he opened an alum and sulphur works near Chříč. He was the regional captain of the Rakovník district, and during the revolt of the Bohemian estates against King Ferdinand in 1618 he fielded four horsemen and twenty-six armed men on foot. He died in the summer of the same year. He was buried in the church at Milíčov, which he had previously had enlarged, and his tombstone is still there with the inscription “Leta 1618 dne 20. juli umřel pan Jindřich Jakub Tejřovský z Einsidle pán na Chříči, Dubjanech a Březsku, hejtman kraje Rakovnického.”

After his death the confiscation commission found him guilty of taking part in the revolt, yet left the estates of Chříč, Kožlany and Hřebečníky to his under-age son Adam Jindřich. Bílek adds from the confiscation records that he “zemřel v čas zpoury dne 20. července 1618, jíž se zúčastnil” (died at the time of the revolt, on 20 July 1618, in which he had taken part), and that he was placed among the persons “v trvalé zpouře zemřelé” (who died in persistent revolt), against whom posthumous proceedings were conducted; their heirs were summoned by Prince Liechtenstein by an edict of 14 July 1622.

With his wife Dorota Újezdecká he had a son, Adam Jindřich, and a daughter, Dorota Polyxena. Both were minors at their father's death, and the maiden Dorota Týřovská, the unprovided-for sister of the deceased, was appointed their guardian; in 1621 she gave up the guardianship in favour of Bohuslav Jiří Krakovský at Šípy and Opálka, a counsellor of the chamber court. The same “Dorota šlechtična Tejřovská” (Dorota, noblewoman Týřovská) appears in Bílek's list of widows and ladies who, on the orders of the directors, sent their men to the army of the estates and paid taxes to the rebellious estates. The daughter Dorota Polyxena married Petr Jiří Kokořovec of Kokořov at Šťáhlavy; in 1628 she was among the persons of the knightly estate of the Plzeň district who promised the reformation commission to accept the Catholic faith within a year, in 1637 she bought the Nečtiny estate, and in 1638 she and her husband erected the chapel of St Adalbert by the Šťáhlavy stronghold. She died in 1640.

Adam Jindřich (Adam Henry) Týřovský of Einsiedl (died 1652)

Adam Jindřich was a minor at his father's death in 1618, which probably saved him. In 1621 he was indeed summoned before the confiscation commission, but because he was not of legal age he did not appear to a twofold summons; only in 1629 was he acquitted before the commissio tractationis, since he had not personally taken part in the revolt, and his father's estates of Chříč, Hřebečníky, Broumy and Kožlany were left to him. The commission did find his father guilty, but left the estates to the under-age son. The Chříč property then comprised the villages of Chříč, Slatina, Lhotka, two subjects in Holovousy, Hlince, Studená, Milíčov and Hedčany, the manors of Březsko and Dubjany and the deserted villages of Dolany and Bělbožice.

In the meantime his guardian Bohuslav Jiří Krakovský managed Chříč badly. In 1624 Dorota Týřovská sued him for impoverishing the orphans, for carrying off and selling grain, cattle and other things.

In 1627 Adam Jindřich came of age and took possession of the indebted estates; he managed them with his official Václav Kulíšek. In order to be able to cultivate the devastated estate, he borrowed 2,800 schocks from Vilém of Klenové at Zvíkovec. When the term expired in 1631 and he could not pay, the creditor took possession of the Chříč estate. Týřovský rid himself of the debt by taking Vilém's daughter Eva Eurosina of Klenové as his wife; she bought from her father the town of Zvíkovec and the village of Chlum. According to Sedláček, Vilém of Klenové bought Zvíkovec in 1633 from Václav Heraklius of Blizivo in fact already for his married daughter.

In the same year 1631 the Saxons burst into Rakovník, and Týřovský was subsequently accused of having welcomed Captain Ploskovský on the square, of having engaged himself to him as a cavalry captain, of riding about the district with his wife, supplying the Saxons with news, skirmishing with the imperial troops and threatening Catholic Plzeň. The burghers of Rakovník, on the contrary, testified that he had not been in the town and that his subjects had merely brought things there from Chříč and hidden them from the enemy. Because of the uncertainty of the evidence he was pardoned in 1638 and sentenced only to a fine of 3,000 Rhenish guilders, of which 2,000 were given for the building of Prague Castle and 1,000 for the building of the Jesuit college in Klatovy. The money was lent to him by the Prague burgher Martin Leibinger, to whom he ceded the manor in Holovousy in settlement. Bílek dates the whole procedure: the royal procurator accused him before the Friedland confiscation commission on 15 November 1632, the revision commission proposed a pardon on 12 August 1638, and the imperial resolution confirmed it on 14 December 1638 on condition that he “místo pokuty, za provinění své zasloužilé, 3000 zl. rýn. na hotově složil” (paid down 3,000 Rhenish guilders in cash in place of the fine deserved for his offence); 2,000 guilders were allotted to the building of Prague Castle by a resolution of 30 December 1638 and the remaining 1,000 were given to the Jesuits on 10 January 1639.

In the meantime Chříč bore the burden of supplying the army. From the end of January 1638 his petition for a reduction of the contribution for the estates of Chříč and Zvíkovec has survived: he had already handed over to the soldiers 3,131 guilders 14 kreuzers, 44,929 pounds of meat, 740 strychs of rye, 451 strychs of wheat and 1,661 strychs of oats, while he owed 394 guilders 45 kreuzers on the Budějovice contribution. The district commissioner Skuhrovský recommended remitting four fifths of the arrears, and so it was decided on 4 May 1638.

From 1640 to 1644 he was himself captain of the Rakovník district, together with Jan Ferdinand Renšperger of Renšperk. On 26 December 1640 the two of them wrote from Rakovník “cito, cito, citissime” to the vice-regents that the commissioner Rossi de Dateli had brought four infantry regiments into the war-ravaged district without their knowledge; in June 1642 they reported nine of Suys's regiments with artillery and three regiments of Croats in Rakovník.

The war rolled over Chříč twice more. In 1637 enemy armies were ranging through the neighbourhood and burned Chříč, so that Adam Jindřich stayed in Prague, where he bought a house from the tax registrar Kačerovský. In March 1640 the imperial colonel Václav Zahrádecký marched with two regiments to Podmokly, burned everything and pressed on across the ford towards Chříč; Týřovský raised 300 guilders for the fire ransom and thus rid himself of the enemy.

The burden of war did not end there. In 1641 sixteen imperial regiments were concentrated in the Rakovník district, and Chříč, along with Libyně, Šípy and Podmokly, had to supply 512 pounds of bread each for their subsistence, as many pints of beer and 256 pounds of meat, while Kožlany supplied 320 pounds of bread, as much beer and 160 pounds of meat. The following year the captain of Zbiroh reported to the Bohemian chamber that some peasants, driven by hunger, were attaching themselves to the soldiers quartered in Kožlany – leading them to the manorial strongholds and threshing grain for them to keep starvation at bay.

He died towards the end of May 1652; he had drawn up his last will on 29 April 1652, calling the estate in it “na nejvýš zruinirovaný” (ruined to the utmost). In it he directed that his body be clothed in unmangled white linen and buried without any pomp in the church at Kožlany, to which he bequeathed 500 schocks so that a sung mass might be celebrated every month for the salvation of his soul. At the funeral all the poor subjects were to receive alms of six kreuzers each and a piece of meat for dinner, ten poor men a suit of cloth and another ten a suit of black linen. The greatly ruined Chříč estate went to his son Vojtěch Ignác, the widow Eva Eurosina received 20,000 schocks, and should she not be paid out, she was meanwhile to take over the manor of Ptíč, the Lejskov mill and the villages of Hlince and Studená; his daughter Kateřina Dorota was allotted a dowry of 6,000 guilders and a trousseau. The debts amounted to 11,500 guilders.

Vojtěch Ignác (Adalbert Ignatius) Týřovský of Einsiedl (died 1695) and the end of the family at Chříč

Vojtěch Ignác inherited the Chříč estate with the town of Kožlany, burdened with considerable debts, while still a minor; his mother Eva Eurosina, née of Klenové, remained his guardian. As early as December 1652 she asked the archbishop that the parish priest of Kralovice, Alanus Folkner, might also administer the parish of Kožlany, which was then without a priest, reminding him of her husband's bequest of 500 schocks for a monthly sung mass. How devastated the estate she was taking over was is shown by the official survey of 1653–1655: in Kožlany there were forty occupied and sixteen deserted holdings, 441 strychs of deserted fields, buildings in a wretched state and a deserted parsonage; in Hedčany not a single farmer was in residence and eleven holdings lay deserted, and in Holovousy two occupied holdings stood against six deserted ones. In 1655 she sent the archbishop a certificate that her entire family and all the subjects in Kožlany were of the Catholic religion and that on Easter Monday they had attended divine service and the sermon delivered by the parish priest of Čistá, Jan Procerius, who also administered the parish of Kožlany.

He came of age in 1662 and took possession of his father's inheritance himself. Oto Jiří of Helversen, lord of Krakovec, at once secured on his estate 3,000 guilders which the young Týřovský owed him for gold objects, diamonds and rubies. In 1676 he additionally bought the village of Třímaný – from Norbert Miseroni, who sold it off from the Krašov estate – and in the same year dismissed from his service the burgrave Daniel Vlašimský, formerly a Prague burgher, to whom he remained in debt for 500 guilders.

Like his father he held the office of captain of the Rakovník district. The chronicle of the Plasy monastery records him in this capacity on 13 November 1681, when together with Count Štampach, captain of the Plzeň district, he was royal commissioner at the election of Abbot Ondřej Trojer. The same chronicle states that the Plasy monk Leopold Miškovský was in March 1688 given to “mladým pánům baronům Týřovským” (the young lords, the barons Týřovský) as prefect in Prague, where he himself studied law; another Plasy priest, Kandid Ungar, spent seventeen years with Vojtěch Ignác at Chříč as domestic chaplain.

He attempted to bring the people of Kožlany into complete subjection: he asked them to hand over all their privileges for inspection, and when after several years he did not return them, the burghers saw through their lord's ruse and complained to the Bohemian chamber. On the order of the regional captain he returned their charters to them in 1680. During his rule seven Kožlany subjects abandoned their holdings and fled. When the people of Čistá claimed annual fairs and a toll in 1680, the people of Kožlany opposed both the fairs and the toll, and their hereditary lord maintained that Břežanská hora belonged to him, since his ancestors had bought it from Albrecht Jindřich of Kolovrat.

To the church at Milíčov, where his grandfather lay, he had a tower added in 1665 and provided an altar.

He died in 1695 and was buried in the church at Milíčov. He left behind a widow, Kateřina Magdalena, née Countess of Brandenburg, the sons Jan Vilém, Michal Antonín and František Pavel, and the daughters Anna Barbora and Polyxena Lidmila. Chříč was inherited by Michal Antonín, who was not of age and therefore remained under the guardianship of his elder brother Jan Vilém. The widow at once dismissed Jan Kautský, who had been burgrave there for thirteen years; when Kautský secured a position with Diviš of Helversen at Krakovec, Jan Vilém refused to release his sick wife Barbora with her two children and had them imprisoned.

Because of their great debts the Týřovský brothers sold the Chříč estate in 1701 to Count Václav Josef Lažanský of Buková at Manětín for 211,000 guilders and 300 guilders of key money. The deed of sale names the village of Chříč with the manor house and two farmsteads, a brewery, a granary, the town of Kožlany, the villages of Studená, Hlince, Třímaný, Holovousy, Hedčany, Milíčov, Slatina and Lhota, the manors with sheepfolds of Ptíč, Březsko and Dubjany, and a mill with a powder house and a vineyard near the town of Louny. Each of the brothers reserved five persons for himself, and all of them agreed to pay their mother Kateřina Magdalena 300 guilders a year. Sedláček adds that at that time debts of 69,450 Rhenish guilders were secured on the estate, and enumerates what it then comprised: the manor house and village of Chříč with a farmstead, the villages of Slatina, Lhota, Holovousy, Hlince and Studená, the manor and village of Březsko, the manor at Ptíč, the manor of Dubjany, Milíčov with the patronage, Hedčany, Třímany, Bělbožice, the town of Kožlany with the patronage and the deserted village of Dolany. “Tak Týřovští po stu letech Chříč opustili.” (Thus the Týřovskýs left Chříč after a hundred years.) That the new lords were already residing at Chříč by the end of 1701 is shown by the Plasy chronicle: from 19 November 1701 a chaplain served there “u hraběnky Lažanské na Chříči” (with Countess Lažanská at Chříč).

The last Týřovský (1701–1771)

Kočka's genealogy ends with the sale of Chříč and the death of Michal Antonín in 1705. The fortunes of the last generation of the family were traced by August Sedláček in his entry in Otto's Encyclopaedia, on which this chapter is based.

Vojtěch Ignác's widow, Kateřina Magdalena, held Trnová in 1696–1697, bought Malá Chyška in 1703 and died on 31 July 1708. Of the daughters, Polyxena Lidmila married Václav Popovský of Šarfenbach at Oblajovice in 1710.

The eldest of the three brothers, Jan Vilém, held Dolní Nerestce and Krsice and left an only daughter, Josefa Anna; his widow, née Příchovská, remarried in 1713. František Pavel first had Myskovice and from 1704 Vlčkovice and Bořetice. From 1703 he was married to Anna Markéta Hrobčická, the widowed Malovcová of Chýnov, and died around 1717 without children.

Michal Antonín, to whom Chříč and Kožlany fell in the division, married on 1 November 1700 Marie Konstancie, Countess of Sporck, lady of Radenín. He died as early as 14 February 1705 at the age of twenty-eight; the widow remarried Karel Josef Voračický of Paběnice and died in 1735. The marriage produced the daughters Marie Konstancie (1701–1722) and Marie Anna (born 1704, married in 1755 to Jan František, Baron of Fünfkirchen) and the posthumous son Jan Michal.

Jan Michal, the last male descendant of the family, inherited Vlčkovice from his uncle František and bought Neustupov in 1729. In the same year he became a councillor of the court of appeal and soon afterwards a judge of the land court; in 1737 he is listed as “Herr auf Boretic, Neu-Stupov und Vlckovic, kais. Rath, Hoflehnrechts-Beisitzer und königl. Hauptmann des Bechiner Kreises” (lord of Bořetice, Neustupov and Vlčkovice, imperial councillor, assessor of the court feudal law and royal captain of the Bechyně district), and he still figures in the calendar of St Adalbert in 1768.Around 1759 he “upadl v hypochondrickou nemoc, pro kterou byl pod poručenstvím” (fell into a hypochondriac illness, on account of which he was placed under guardianship); his estates were sold in the same year. His wife Antonie Josefa, Countess of Millesimo, died on 29 November 1771. “Kdy Jan, poslední po meči, zemřel, není známo.” (When Jan, the last of the male line, died is not known.)

The blood of the family, however, lived on in the female line. Kateřina, according to Sedláček perhaps a sister of Jan at Chříč, was married to Kryštof Jindřich Krakovský of Kolovrat, and Lidmila Týřovská to his grandson Bernart Alexandr Krakovský; both were, as Sedláček wrote in 1906, “prabáby nynějších hrabat z Kolovrat” (great-grandmothers of the present counts of Kolovrat).

Coat of Arms

I would like to thank Michal Kacl, Jan Škvrňák, Jan Boukal and Markéta Poskočilová for their help with the research.

According to Sedláček, Jobst of Einsiedl received his coat of arms “bezpochyby za krále Ladislava” (undoubtedly under King Ladislaus); its augmentation by King Frederick III of 23 November 1455 is recorded in Chmel's regesta (no. 3452), and Sedláček included it in his list of grants of arms from the years 1439–1456. Vojtěch Král of Dobrá Voda cites the Týřovský arms among the examples in which the eagle was granted “jakožto znamení zvláštní císařské milosti” (as a token of special imperial favour) – in the 1st and 4th fields of a “štípeného a dvakráte děleného štítu” (shield party per pale and twice per fess).

The description of the Týřovský coat of arms varies considerably among individual authors. August Sedláček in Českomoravská heraldika writes that “z Enzidle Týřovští měli štít křížem rozdělený v 1. a 4. poli napříč děleném nahoře černého orla v bílém, ve zpod v bílém tři pruhy pošikem, v 2. a 3. poli modrém tři duty bílé špičkami k sobě a na tři strany se rozbíhající, nad štítem dvě helmy s přikryvadly modrými a bílými s poprsím muže v modrém oděvu se zlatým lemováním, levou s přikr. červenými a bílými s vysokým červeným kloboukem s bílou ohnutou střechou a (černou) kytou.” (the Týřovskýs of Einsiedl had a shield quarterly divided, in the 1st and 4th fields per fess, in chief a black eagle in white, in base in white three bends, in the 2nd and 3rd azure fields three white ostrich feathers pointing towards each other and diverging in three directions, above the shield two helms with blue and white mantling with the bust of a man in blue dress with gold edging, on the left with red and white mantling with a tall red hat with a white curved brim and a (black) plume.)

Rudolf Jan Meraviglia-Crivelli in Der Böhmische Adel states:

“Wappen: Gespalten und zweimal geteilt; 1. u. 2. in Silber ein schwarzer Doppeladler; 2. u. 5. in Blau drei silberne, in Deichsel gestellte Straussenfedern; 3. u. 6. in Silber zwei rothe Schrägrechtsbalken. - Zwei Helme: I aus der Helmrone, eine schwarzgekleidete Jungfrau mit offenen goldenen Haar, welche sich mit beiden Händen eine goldene Krone auf das Haupt setzt; Decken: blau-silbern - II. hoher, rother Heidenhut mit weissem Stulp und oben mit sieben schwarzen Hahnenfedern besteckt; Decken: Roth-silbern.”

Arms: Party per pale and twice per fess; in the 1st and 2nd argent fields a sable double-headed eagle; in the 2nd and 5th azure fields three argent ostrich feathers arranged in pall; in the 3rd and 6th argent fields two gules bends. — Two helms: I. from the helm crown, a sable-clad maiden with flowing golden hair, placing upon her head a golden crown with both hands; mantling: azure-argent — II. a tall gules heathen hat with argent cuff and seven sable cock feathers on top; mantling: gules-argent.

From the seal of Jobst von Einsiedl and most of the surviving coats of arms of the Týřovský family, it is clear that the depiction of the bends in a separate field is rather the invention of whoever depicted the arms. It appears only on a single depiction of the Týřovský coat of arms, namely on the arms of Dorota Polyxena Kateřina Kokořovská, née Týřovská, and thereafter only on depictions created after the extinction of the family. Sedláček himself in his blazon states that the shield is divided into only 4 fields and at the same time that the 1st and 4th are secondarily divided per fess.

The eagles are never depicted in full, but rather than being intentional, this is a practical matter — a whole eagle simply does not fit in the field. Thus, the eagle is variously depicted either almost complete, just without claws (tombstone of Jindřich, seal and tombstone of Jakub Jindřich, relief of Dorota Polyxena Kateřina Kokořovská of Kokořov, née Týřovská) or only its bust (seal of Jobst von Einsiedl, armorial of Lucas Cranach the Younger, arms on the cartouche in the church in Milíčov).

Given the minimal number of surviving colour depictions directly from the time before the extinction of the Týřovský family, determining the colours of the arms is somewhat more complex. Let us begin with the left helm and its respective crest, which is a Tartar hat, whose colour is agreed upon by both the blazon from Sedláček and Meraviglia-Crivelli, as well as the depictions by Cranach the Younger and from the altar in Milíčov. From the depictions by Cranach, from the Milíčov altar and from the relief of Dorota Polyxena Kateřina Kokořovská, we can conclude that the hat was additionally divided per pale, with only one half being red while the other was argent, which would also correspond to the colour of the respective mantling, whose colours also agree in the blazons and the depictions. The blazons and Cranach's depiction also agree on the argent/white colour of the mantling on the right helm. Where, however, the blazons (and modern depictions of the arms) disagree with period depictions are the colours of the charges on the shield. It seems that the problem arose when matching the mantling colours with the charges on the shield, when the azure-argent scheme was probably incorrectly assigned to the feathers in the 2nd and 3rd fields and the gules-argent scheme to the bends (bars) in the 1st and 4th fields. I have deliberately not mentioned the crest on the right helm, which is a man in blue dress according to Sedláček, or a sable-clad maiden placing a crown on her head according to Meraviglia-Crivelli. From both colour and non-colour depictions, it is clear that the man can be immediately dismissed. Cranach the Younger correctly assigned the maiden to the bends, meaning his maiden, the bends and the corresponding mantling are of the same blue colour. It is possible that Cranach took the blue colour from the bends of the arms of Kožlany, which Jobst von Einsiedl obtained for the town in 1472, and which reportedly adopted its bends from the arms of its overlord. Sedláček too, in his entry on Kožlany, writes that in 1472 Vladislaus II augmented the arms of the town “o rodinný znak Týřovských z Ensidle” (with the family arms of the Týřovskýs of Einsiedl), and describes them: “štít na příč rozpůlený; v dolní polovici 2 pruhy stříbrné a 2 červené pošikem položené, v hor. polovici barvy modré vystupuje polovina kozla barvy stříbrné, držící sekeru” (a shield parted per fess; in the lower half 2 argent and 2 gules bends, in the upper azure half issues a demi-goat argent holding an axe).More correct, however, would be the variant from Milíčov, where the maiden, the corresponding mantling and the bends are all sable. It is interesting that this is also the only contemporary depiction where the maiden places a crown on her head.

A word on the armorial itself: it is the manuscript German MS 2 in the John Rylands Library in Manchester, commissioned in 1565 by Elector August of Saxony from Lucas Cranach the Younger in Wittenberg. Cranach's workshop did not compose it afresh, however – it copied an older Habsburg armorial of about 1500 dedicated to Bianca Maria Sforza. The depiction of the Týřovský arms thus goes back iconographically to a time only a quarter of a century after Jobst's death, and to the very court that had augmented the arms in 1455; it is probably their earliest coloured depiction. The arms are placed among the Bohemian and Austrian lords, immediately after the dukes of Poděbrady.

Two points need clarifying. First, the reversal of the quarters is not a systematic feature of the manuscript: the Saxon electoral shield, the Poděbrady arms and the Lamberg arms on the same page are all correctly oriented, whereas the Švamberk arms (the swan facing heraldic sinister) and those of the Hasištejn Lobkovices (quarters swapped just as with the Týřovský) are reversed too. The error thus most likely lay in the exemplar, which Cranach's workshop copied faithfully. Second, the bare label Einsiedell invites confusion with the Saxon lords of Einsiedel (Gnandstein, Scharfenstein), of whom Meraviglia-Crivelli writes that the family was “auch im Meissnischen ansässig” (also settled in the Meissen lands). Sedláček explicitly rejects this in Otto's Encyclopaedia – the family is “rozdílný od hrabat z Einsiedlu v Německu žijících i krví i erbem” (distinct from the counts of Einsiedel living in Germany both in blood and in arms) – and the armorial proves him right: the Saxon Einsiedels appear in it separately, on fol. 158 among the knights of Meissen, with their canting arms of a hermit in a habit with staff, hoe and rosary on a golden shield, which share not a single charge with the Týřovský arms.

The correct blazon therefore most likely reads:
A quartered shield where the 1st and 4th fields are per fess, with a sable eagle issuant or salient on an or background in chief and two sable bends on an argent background in base. In the 2nd and 3rd gules fields are three argent ostrich feathers pointing towards each other and diverging. Above the shield are two helms with crowns; the left with gules-argent mantling, from which rises a per pale tall Tartar hat with a sable or argent plume, its sinister half argent and dexter half gules. The right helm has sable-or mantling and in the crest a sable-clad maiden, either crowned or placing a golden crown on her head.

Family Tree of the Týřovský Family

Sources: