K počátkům životní dráhy významného šlechtice husitské doby v českých zemích Haška z Valdštejna

The study provides the first detailed account of the early life of an important nobleman in the Czech lands, Hašek of Valdštejn. While his political career in the period after 1419 is relatively well known, the period prior to this date has not received due attention from historians. Hašek of Valdštejn was the most important member of the Valdštejn family until the time of the great Albrecht Václav Eusebius of Valdštejn in the 17th century. Like his famous relative nearly two hundred years later, Hašek had a major career in the military and diplomatic sphere in the 15th century. The author describes Hašek’s early life in the text. He came from the impoverished Dětenice branch of the family, which held domains in eastern Bohemia, as was first mentioned in written sources in 1404. It can be assumed that he was born sometime between 1385 and 1390. An important strategic decision was his departure from Bohemia to Moravia in 1410, where he managed to establish a prominent position for himself in the local aristocratic society. In Moravia, Hašek acquired the domain of Uherský Ostroh as a pledge by 1411 at the latest. Hašek also acquired the Víckov domain in Moravia at an unknown time. And while it is said that Hašek was the leader of the Budějovice-Hrotovice group of highwaymen in Moravia, the author emphasises that the existence of such a group of outlaws is not sufficiently documented in the sources. He concludes that this is an artificial construct of historians and that no such group existed.