Hynek Boček of Poděbrady


Hynek Boček of Poděbrady was a Bohemian-Moravian nobleman and follower of the Hussites.

Life

Hynek was a member of the House of Poděbrady. His parents were Boček II of Poděbrady and Anna Elisabeth of Lipa, a daughter of Henry of Lipa. He often used his middle name Boček in addition to Hynek, as this name had a rich tradition with his ancestors.
Hynek was first documented in 1417 in connection with the legacy of his late father, who died that year. Hynek was the youngest among his brothers and inherited the Poděbrady headquarters with the associated Lordship. Jan, the eldest brother died between 1407 and 1409, during the lifetime of their father. The third-born son Boček III inherited together with the fourth-born Victor the Moravian estates, while Victor additionally received the Bohemian estates Náchod, Hummel and Litice Castle.
During the Hussite Wars, Hynek initially fought with the eastern Bohemian Orebites; he was their captain. During the collision with the moderate Hussites in Prague, he was taken prisoner by them. However, a year later, he entered in their service. In 1423 he participated with his brother Victor in a campaign in Moravia. In 1425 he arrested Jan Puška of Kunštát, the marshal of Nymburk at Mydlovar Castle and kept him prisoner at his own Poděbrady Castle. The reason for the arrest was probably a long-standing land dispute between the Poděbrady and the Lisice branches of the Kunštát family. After Jan Puška died in his prison, Hynek appropriate his Mydlovar Castle and the associated Lordship of Kostomlat, and added it to his Poděbrady possessions. In 1426, he participated in the Battle of Aussig. When the Taborites besieged Poděbrady, he fled to Nymburk, where he died on 16 October 1426 of a gunshot wound. He was not married and left no descendants.