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, and it received a charter in 1340. From 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 Žižka 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. Germans were the ethnic majority in the town until their expulsion in 1945.