Victor, Duke of Münsterberg also: Victor, Duke of Münsterberg and Opava; Czechoslovakian: Viktorin z Minsterberka; was an Imperial Count from 1459 and Count of Kladsko.
Background
Victor was the second son of the Bohemian king George of Poděbrady and his wife Kunigunde of Sternberg. In 1463 he married Margaret Ptáčková, the only daughter of Hynek Ptáček of Pirkstein, who died in 1472. Two years later he married Sophie, daughter of Duke Boleslaw II of Cieszyn.
Career
From 1462 until his death, he was Duke of Münsterberg, and from 1465 to 1485 Duke of Opava. From these marriages, he had several daughters:
Johanna (1463–1496), married to Duke Casimir II of Cieszyn
Magdalena (d 1497), Cistercian in Trzebnica
Anna (d 1498)
Uršula (died after 1534) until 1529 nun in the Magdalene convent in Świebodzice
Apolonia (d 1534), first Poor Clare in Strzelin, then married to Erhard of Queis
Lawrence (Vavřinec. Doctorate 1503)
Bartholomew (c 1477–1515), a prominent diplomat.
Died in a shipwreck on the Danube near Hainburg an der Donau.
With him Victor"s heirs in the male line died out
Because Victor"s older brother Boček was mentally challenged, the duties of the first-born were transferred to Victor. Consequently, he had to stand by his father politically from a young age.
His father asked emperor Frederick III to appoint Victor to imperial count, which the emperor did in 1449. A little earlier, George had appointed Victor and both Henries Dukes of Münsterberg both of Opava (which he had acquired in 1464) and Counts of Kladsko.
These areas were ruled by the brothers jointly until George"s death in 1471.
As a participant in the campaign against the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus Victor was captured by the Hungarians in 1469 in Moravia. After his release, he was a support of Corvinus for a while,
Victor received the Duchy of Opava. At the request of Corvin, Victor agreed in 1485 to a contract by which he had to give the Duchy of Opava to Matthias Corvinus"s illegitimate son John, and received several castles in Slavonia in return.
When Matthias died in 1490, Victor hoped that Opava would be returned to him, but that did not happen.