Good King Wenceslaus

"Good King Wenceslaus" was actually Duke Vaclav I (907-935) of Bohemia, which now is the Czech Republic.  He converted to Christianity under the influence of his Christian grandmother.  Vaclav's mother then had the grandmother strangled, so he exiled his mother.  Come on, guys, we're talking about medieval Slavic rulers.  If he didn't fill the river with corpses, he was considered soft.

Vaclav/Wenceslaus was indeed known as a generous, compassionate ruler.  He fed the poor, built churches, and truly cared for his people.  He also kept his country out of war - in 929, Arnulf the Bad invaded from Hungary to try to "raise" (read: pillage) money to pay off his debts to the Magyars.  Wenceslaus met him personally and paid him off, thus avoiding war.

Unfortunately, Wenceslaus was assassinated by his brother, Boleslav the Cruel.  As an aside, whatever happens in any presidential election... if we aren't going from Wenceslaus the God to Boleslav the Cruel, I think we're doing okay.  In fact, let's look at this a little bit closer:  Boleslav the Cruel. A Slavic ruler.  Vlad Dracula is considered a hero, and he impaled people like it was going out of style.  What does this say about Boleslav?

Yikes

So, what does all this have to do with a Christmas carol?  After his death, Wenceslaus was canonized as the patron saint of the Czech people, and became sort of a folk hero.  All sorts of stories and miracles were attributed to him, and he grew so much in popularity that there was even a prophecy that one day he would return to save the Czechs in their hour of greatest need (note: Wenceslaus did not appear between 1946 and 1991.  Just saying).  The Christmas carol is a small offshoot from that movement.

As a final note, remember how in the carol, Wenceslaus talks with his butler?  That was a real person, too - Podevin, his personal servant.  Podevin is mostly known for avenging Wenceslaus's death by killing nearly all of the conspirators, and spouting action-movie lines like, "God has forgiven my sins, but not yours!"  That's kind of a historical feature of the area.  I mean, look at Vlad again - when he was a child, Vlad's father (also Vlad) was betrayed and his throne usurped, and young Dracula had to flee.  He came back as an adult to retake the throne, and defeated his father's killer in a one-on-one duel in the throneroom.

Wow.

That's Eastern Europe for you!  If you're not spouting Kill Bill lines while avenging your master, you're swordfighting your father's killer in a throne room.  And you just might get a Christmas carol written about you.