St. Wenceslas, duke of Bohemia, was the son of Wratislas and Drahomira.  In proportion as his father was a model of all Christian virtues, his mother was the possessor of all vices, besides being a great enemy to the Christian Religion.  Wratislas, upon his dying bed, gave Wenceslas in charge of his grandmother Ludmilla, while Boleslas, his younger, was kept by Drahomira.  As both women were totally different in their morals, so also the conduct of the two children became entirely unlike.  Wenceslas became pious and holy; Boleslas, godless and licentious.  Drahomira seized the government of the state and persecuted the Christians most cruelly.  She banished the priests, dismissed the Christians from all public places, which she filled with heathens of whom the faithful had nothing to expect but cruelty.  The nobles would not submit to this administration, and deposing Drahomira, placed Wenceslas on the throne, and bound themselves to him by an oath of allegiance.  Drahomira, burning with rage when she perceived that the Christians were again protected by the pious Ludmilla, was determined to revenge herself.  She sent some hired assassins who strangled her with her own veil, while she was at her devotions in her private chapel.  Not satisfied with this murder, Drahomira sought to make away with her son Wenceslas... (Lives of the Saints, Weninger, v.2, 1876)