Background
She was the third child and only daughter of Mieszko I, Duke of Teschen, by his unknown wife, probably called Grzymisława.
She was the third child and only daughter of Mieszko I, Duke of Teschen, by his unknown wife, probably called Grzymisława.
She was named after her paternal great-grandmother Viola, wife of Duke Casimir I of Opole. Queen of Bohemia and Poland
Viola married with young King Wenceslaus III of Bohemia and Poland on 5 October 1305 in Brno. The reasons for marriage are not too obvious: although later chroniclers describe how beautiful Viola was, her father Duke Mieszko I was only one of the vassals of King Wenceslaus III, and in consequence, this was an unequal union.
The main reason wasn"t her beauty but maybe the strategic position of Cieszyn between the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Poland.
Four days after the wedding (9 October), Wenceslaus III annulled his long-time engagement to Elizabeth, daughter of King Andrew III of Hungary and with this renounced to all his claims over the Hungarian crown. Ten months later, on 4 August 1306, King Wenceslaus III was murdered in Olomouc under mysterious circumstances, leaving Viola as a fifteen-year-old widow.
Maybe because of their youth, the union failed to produce an heir. With little money and nowhere to go, Viola probably stayed with her sisters-in-law, Anna and Elisabeth in one of the nunneries.
Both princesses were fighting for the throne of Bohemia, but Viola stayed away.
Later, she mainly resided in Moravia, where she had her dowry towns. Second Marriage. Death
The marriage took place in 1316 but was childless and short-lived: Viola died only one year after, on 21 September 1317, and was buried in the vault of the House of Rosenberg in the Vyšší Brod Monastery.