Trutnov is located on a 12th-century Slavic settlement named after the Upa River; the first written mention of this settlement is from 1260. In order to develop the countryside, King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia granted German settlers the right to establish a town at the pre-existing settlement. The first mention of the German name Trautenau, from which the modern name Trutnov is derived, is from a document of King Wenceslaus II in 1301. Since the end of the 14th century, Trutnov was a dowry town for the Bohemian queen. Its stout defenses repelled all enemies except for a capture by Jan Zizka during the Hussite Wars in 1421 and sieges by the Swedes during the Thirty Years' War in 1642 and 1647. It also was the site of the Battle of Trautenau in 1866 during the Austro-Prussian War.