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Fig. 67. The enthroning ceremony of a Carinthian prince on an engraving from Osłerreichische Chronik; after P. Korośec, 1986, p. 104.

and a Venedian hat with a grey cord selvage. Then they mount him on a horse which has never been used for work and lead him to a certain stone, lying between Glanegg and the inn at St Mary’s church. They walk him three times around the stone and everybody, children and adults, women and men, sing their Venedian songs, praising the Lord and Creator for giving them a ruler at their will” (Labuda, 1954, p. 116-118, 120-122; cf. Schónbach, 1900). John of Victring (II, 13) added that the first person to seat on the enthroning stone was “a free peasant holding with one hand an ox of mixed colour and with the other a marę of akin colouring, wearing country clothes, shoes and hat. The new prince comes (...) deprived of his clothes and dressed in a cape, hat and shirt of grey wool, thong shoes, and with a stick in his hand.” The peasant asked “whether he is a righteous judge, concemed with the well-being of the country and worthy of the honour?” When the present agreed, and the elect paid a ransom consisting of money, the cattle held by the peasant, his clothes and the promise to free the peasant’s farm from tribute, the latter, having lightly snapped the prince on his face, madę room for him on the throne. “The prince, standing on the stone throne, tums to all directions with a naked sword, assuring everyone that he will administer justice honestly.” There are several dozen of such thrones preserved in Slavonic territories (Leśny, 1990; Kurnatowska, 1977, p. 153).

Fig. 68. The enthroning stone of Carinthian princes; after P. Korosec, 1986, p. 104.

The throne of the Premysl dynasty has not survived, but according to Kosmas (I, 36), in Prague there was “an elevated place, called Źiżi, in the middle of the town.” Probably from that place, in 1004, a trumpeter sent by the Bohemian prince summoned the inhabitants to rebel against the invad-ing Polish army of Boleslaus the Brave. The stone throne was probably situated in that area. It is mentioned in the ninth-century legend about St Wenceslas, who assumed the throne of his ancestors, which means that it had existed at least sińce the times of his grandfather Bofivoy (TfeStik, 1985, p. 290). Then the throne appears twice in Kosmas’s chronicie (I, 42, II, 50).

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