Charles IV of Bohemia

“ It will be remarked at once, that the names of the heroes are German rather than Bohemian. This is to be accounted for by the fact, that during the latter part of the long reign of the Emperor Charles IV. in Bohemia (1346–1378) and also during part of that of his son, King Wenceslas IV., Prague was the capital of the whole German empire. It being the aim of Charles IV. to constitute it such permanently, every exertion was made to render the German language fashionable and general, and many purely Bohemian places and families received German names, which they bear at the present day. ”

“ In short, in his position as King of Bohemia, Charles generally appears as one of those exceptional rulers who combine a genuine zeal for reform with a real sense of justice, and that statesmanlike self-restraint which teaches a man the difference between the desirable and the possible, between the ultimate ideal and the immediately practicable. But it is impossible to separate Charles the Emperor from Charles the King of Bohemia. ”

“ The explanation was, that Charles’s idea, however grand, was self-contradictory; and, while inconsistent [186] schemes may work very well, as long as all who are interested in them wish them to do so, they must fall to pieces at once if they are administered by two antagonistic parties with directly opposite ideals about the welfare of the institution. Charles had undoubtedly wished, as the Germans said, to make Prague an intellectual centre for Europe; he had also desired, as the Bohemians said, to call out the national life and encourage the national literature of Bohemia. ”

“ Charles V would have nothing to do with these innovations. He left it all to his brother Ferdinand, King of Bohemia and Hungary, who was more elastic and pliable than himself. With the Turk over the border, he could not exist without the goodwill of both parties; and he desired the vote of Lutheran electors to make him emperor. He had no Inquisition in one part of his dominions contradicting and condemning toleration in the rest. He was an earnest promoter of reform in the shape of concession. The embers of Hussitism were not extinct in the region of which Bohemia was the centre. ”

“ The codex was frequently lent to others, sometimes placed as security for loans, but finally the Swedes in the Thirty Years’ War took it away with them to Stockholm, where it is found today in the royal library.
When Charles IV. was king, Prague was the heart of Europe, for Charles was also emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. His reign is a time of rapid growth of Bohemian art; and for the first time now the Czech individuality leaves its distinct impress up on the arts of Bohemia. ”

“ Emperor Charles of Austria-Hungary, as far as the Bohemians are concerned, and even from the legal point of view, is nothing but a usurper, never having been crowned King of Bohemia, and thus not having performed the ceremony which would give him the legal sanction to govern Bohemia, and the throne of Bohemia is therefore vacated.
6. The Czechs demand now an independent republic. ”

“ Between the legal titles which form the foundation of the right of the dynasty to the throne in Hungary and Bohemia there is not merely an analogy, but a complete identity. That is true of their origin and time, method, conditions and principles, as well as their literal wording. The Bohemian land is not a patrimonium, no so-called hereditary land, no mere appendage of Austria, but a land which may appeal to diplomatic negotiations and mutual agreements. ”

“ Although five centuries have passed since this Father of Bohemia lived—and since that time fearful storms and changes have come over the country—yet, at the present time, no one can travel over the land without meeting on every side works that perpetuate the name of Charles IV, rendering it dear to every Bohemian heart. ”

“ The steward remembered well the coronation of Charles VI., which took place in Prague amid general rejoicing. It was just sixty-seven years since an Emperor of Austria had been crowned in Prague as King of Bohemia. The Bohemian nobility, the steward said, already had much anxiety lest Charles should do as had been done by his brother, Joseph I., who reigned without being crowned as King of Bohemia. The nobility thought that he intended in many things to curtail their rights and privileges, and for that reason would refuse to be crowned as their king. ”

“ The estates of Bohemia, at a meeting that took place at Prague on the 16th of October 1720, sanctioned the female succession to the Bohemian throne and recognized the so-called Pragmatic Sanction which proclaimed the indivisibility of the Habsburg realm. The archduchess Maria Theresa, in whose favour these enactments were made, none the less met with great opposition on the death of her father the emperor Charles VI. Charles, elector of Bavaria, raised claims to the Bohemian throne and invaded the country with a large army of Bavarian, French and Saxon troops. ”

“ When Charles ascended the throne in 1346, Bohemia’s intellectual relations with Western Europe became very close, all the spiritual currents that moved men’s souls in France, England, and Italy, were felt here, and the Czech lands began to breathe the air of Europe. Charles gave art an important place in his court, and only two years after his accession a brotherhood of painters was founded in Prague. ”

“ Though, as we have just seen, Charles I of Bohemia better known as the German emperor Charles IV was a valiant warrior, yet it is as a patron of art and literature that he is best known to his Bohemian countrymen. Charles particularly encouraged the study of history, not only by the patronage which he granted to historians. Of the historians of the time Beneš of Weitmil, of whom I have already spoken, was most in touch with the king, but we find that he afforded his protection also to many of the writers known as the continuators of Cosmas. ”

“ Still more unquestionably well-meant was the attempt of Charles IV. to combine the greatness of the German Empire with the growth of culture and learning in Bohemia; but, as unquestionably, it ended in failure, and its benefit chiefly consisted in the preparation that it afforded for the purely Bohemian movement which rose from its ruins. Hus in the fourteenth century, Peter of Chelc̆ic and his followers in the fifteenth and sixteenth, were the people through whom Bohemia was really able to develop a distinctive life, and thereby to do most essential service to the other nations of Europe ”

“ The Czechs are intensely conscious of their nationality. Bohemia, once one of the most powerful of European states, lost its independence only as a result of the application of brute force. The Czech people never voluntarily surrendered their right to independence, and against the rights of nations there is no statute of limitations. When the war broke out, of all the belligerent countries only Austria failed to convoke its parliament, such as it is. ”

“ The male line of the house of Habsburg became extinct after the death of Charles VI., and a European coalition was formed for the purpose of excluding his daughter Maria Theresa from the throne. The Elector of Bavaria, who claimed the Bohemian crown, entered the country with an army of Frenchmen and Bavarians, while a Saxon army also invaded Bohemia. These armies met before Prague, and carried the town by assault on November 26, 1741. The Elector of Bavaria immediately assumed the title of King of Bohemia, and was crowned in St. Vitus’s Cathedral by the Archbishop of Prague. ”

“ It is conceivable [163] that even so bitter a controversy as this might have been guided into more peaceable channels by a king who combined zeal for the Church, hearty appreciation of German learning, and a real enthusiasm for Bohemian traditions. But whether or not Charles would have been equal to such a task, there can be little doubt that his death in 1378, and the accession of his son Wenceslaus IV., did prepare the way for the more violent explosion which followed.
A great name is, in any case, a very dangerous inheritance ”

“ It was undoubtedly in connection with this foundation [5] that King Charles decided on enlarging the town of Prague by building the "new town" (Nové Město) between the Vyšehrad hill and the banks of the Vltava. [6]
Among the many efforts of King Charles to increase the prosperity of Bohemia, we must not omit the protection he afforded to the commerce of the country. "Every one of the treaties of peace and conventions he made, as a rule, contained stipulations in favour of the Bohemian merchants." ”

“ The Roman Church had already decided to revoke the concessions which Žižka's and Prokop's victories had once forced it to make.
The successful policy of Poděbrad—though his most ambitious plan failed had secured Bohemia against all foreign enemies, and peace and order were also maintained. The prosperity of the country had greatly increased in consequence, and the people began to hope that the happy times of King Charles IV were returning. The University of Prague, which had suffered greatly during the troublous times, now again entered into full activity. ”

“ George of Poděbrad, the only Hussite king of Bohemia, has always, with Charles IV., been the ruler of Bohemia whose memory has most endeared itself to his countrymen.
George of Poděbrad had undoubtedly during the more prosperous part of his reign intended to found a national dynasty. In later years, however, hope of obtaining aid from Poland in his struggle against King Matthias induced him to offer the succession to the Bohemian throne to Vladislav (Wladislaus, Ladislaus) , son of Casimir, king of Poland. ”

“ During his later years the emperor took little part in German affairs beyond securing the election of his son Wenceslas as king of the Romans in 1376, and negotiating a peace between the Swabian league and some nobles in 1378. After dividing his lands between his three sons, he died on the 29th of November 1378 at Prague, where he was buried, and where a statue was erected to his memory in 1848.
Charles, who according to the emperor Maximilian I. was the step-father of the Empire, but the father of Bohemia, brought the latter country to a high state of prosperity. ”

“ Before Joseph could carry into effect any of his reforms he died (1711) , and his brother Charles became the ruler. As King of Bohemia, he is known in history as Charles II, but as Emperor of Germany as Charles VI.
The unexpected death of Joseph I gave a new turn to the Spanish war; for the European princes, seeing that, by the death of Joseph, Charles would become ruler both of Spain and Austria, objected to the formation of so strong a power as dangerous to the peace of Europe. ”

“ The period during which the new Luxemburg dynasty linked Bohemia to the Empire and the French West coincided with a Czech literary revival which repudiated the influx of unwonted luxury and refinement, and was brought home to the masses of the nation by able preachers. The University of Prague, founded by Charles IV. in 1349, became the centre of culture for Bohemia and her neighbours. John Hus and his noble friend, Jerome of Prague, became the great torchbearers of the Reformation. Their death inflamed the whole Bohemian nation against Rome and the treacherous Emperor Sigismund. ”

“ Francis I, King of France, Joachim Margrave of Brandenburg, Duke Frederick of Leignitz, and the noblemen Charles Duke of Münsterberg, Zdeněk Lev Lord of Rožmital, and Adalbert Lord of Pernstein, were also mentioned as candidates. There appear to have been two parties among the Estates, whose duty it was now to elect a king and establish a new dynasty in Bohemia. The adherents of one party were strongly opposed to the choice of a Bohemian noble, as they objected to a king who was their equal by birth. ”

“ This guaranty was obtained in treaties with the several powers, as follows: Spain in 1725; Russia, 1726, renewed in 1733; Prussia, 1728; England and Holland, 1731; France, 1738; the Empire, 1732. The inheritance which Charles thus endeavored to secure to his daughter was vast and imposing. "He was by election Emperor of Germany, by hereditary right sovereign of Hungary, Transylvania, Bohemia, Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, the Tyrol, and the Brisgau, and he had recently obtained Naples and Sicily, the Milanese and the Netherlands." ”

“ The return of peace enabled the Empress Maria Theresa to carry out the plans she had previously formed of reorganizing the vast Habsburg dominions. Even during the reign of Charles VI, the Empress's father, these various racially and historically distinct countries were, to a great extent, governed according to their ancient laws and traditions. Beside the high officials of Prague, no longer indeed elected by the Estates, but appointed by the Austrian Government, Bohemia was administered by the "Bohemian secret court chancellery" (Böheimische Geheime Hof Kanzlei) . ”

“ It is the Czech problem which worries the ministers of Emperor Charles the most. The people of Bohemia are becoming bolder and are talking and acting more radically every day. Bohemia’s political developments in the last few months revolved around the interpretation of the memorable declaration which had been made in common by all the Czech deputies at the opening of the Reichsrat on May 30. ”