King of Bohemia

“ Religious persecution and then general oppression of Bohemia follow. The freely chosen king becomes tyrant and before long the greatest enemy of Bohemia. Backed by the rest of his dominion, by Rome and Spain, he tramples over the privileges of Bohemia; depletes its man-power as well as treasury; by subterfuge or treachery occupies Prague and other cities, and follows with bloody reprisals and confiscations, which lead to an era of ruthlessness and suffering such as the country has not experienced in its history. ”

“ Prague in the beginning of the fifteenth century might have passed for a German city, for not only in its laws and commerce, but also in science and art it exhibited all the vigour and independence of German life. About 1289 the King of Bohemia rode as a German elector to the election of the Emperor, and waved the golden glass at the coronation; the Bohemian minstrels and chroniclers wrote in the Swabian language and style, and Bohemian artists painted pictures of saints and windows for the German churches. Under the Luxemburgers Bohemia became the centre of the empire. ”

“ The Bohemian lords did not object to this, since the chief of these was Peter, the Archbishop of Mayence, who had been greatly loved and honored by Václav II. Later, when the German lords began to grow too domineering, King John was held to the agreement, and ordered to dismiss them.
When the nobles had established King John and Queen Elizabeth upon the throne of Bohemia, they imagined that they had done their country a good service, and that his reign would be an era of peace and prosperity to all the people. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Although, therefore, the continual contests for the throne of Bohemia, which followed the death of Vladislav, made it impossible for the rival pretenders to make good their claim to the royal title, there was, nevertheless, no doubt that, from this time forth, any lawfully elected ruler of Bohemia had the right to call himself king. Yet, splendid as this proposal was, Vladislav felt it necessary to consult his chief adviser, Bishop Daniel of Prague, before he would give the promise which could alone secure him the new dignity. ”

“ It was further declared that no Bohemian, at the penalty of being deprived of honor, goods, and life, could separate his interests from those of his nation, but must retain his natural love for his country and help it in this hour of need. This proclamation was sent to all parts of the country, and proved so effective that one lord after another sent letters to the camp of Sigmund severing his allegiance from the crown. Indeed, the disaffection toward the emperor was so great that secret messengers were sent to the King of Poland offering him the crown of Bohemia. ”

“ It is also a matter of historic interest that as early as 1294 a King of Bohemia, Václav II., attempted to establish a university at Prague, but the plan failed because of dissensions between the ecclesiastics and the nobility.
The Bohemian people have abundant intellectual traditions of their own, and their devotion to their educational interests has been tested repeatedly and found not wanting.
4. The moral and ethical right.—Why should any other nation rule Bohemia? ”

“ Up to this time the rulers of Bohemia had been called princes or dukes, as was also the case in regard to Moravia. Henry further rewarded Vratislav by making his brother Jaromir (Gebhart) chancellor of the realm, and provided that at the death of the Bishop of Moravia, the two bishoprics should be reunited. Finally he accepted four thousand pounds of silver as full payment for all the tribute that Bohemia should ever pay to the empire; but after that the king was to furnish three hundred men to accompany the emperor whenever he went to Rome for his coronation. ”

“ Bořivoj's and Ludmila's grandson Václav, the sainted King of Bohemia, was a model of religious perfection to all of his people. Christianity spread over Bohemia rapidly, the people were deeply religious, although in the executive department of the church the Germanic influence, for which the Bohemians had ever in national affairs showed aversion and hostility, had perhaps somewhat a baneful influence upon the religious mind of the people. ”

“ In this great country, the richest part of the Austrian dominions, where over three-fifths of the population were Czech, racial feeling was supported by the appeal to historic law. A great party, led by Palacky and Rieger, demanded the restoration of the Bohemian monarchy in its fullest extent, including Moravia and Silesia, and insisted that the emperor should be crowned as king of Bohemia at Prague as his predecessors had been, and that Bohemia should have a position in the monarchy similar to that obtained by Hungary. ”

“ The fateful period for Bohemia comes in the sixteenth century. The people are weakened by wars, by internal religious strifes. A fearful new danger threatens central Europe—the Turks. In 1526 the Bohemian king, Ludvik, is killed in a battle with the Turks, assisting Hungary; and as there is no male descendant, the elective diet at Prague is influenced to offer the crown of Bohemia, under strict guarantees of all its rights, to the husband of Ludvik's daughter, Ferdinand of Habsburg, archduke of Austria. ”

“ They, more than any other event, have brought Bohemia into prominence in European history; and it was chiefly as fighters that the Bohemians were known to the surrounding nations at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Nevertheless, early traditions, whether legendary or historical, never entirely lose their influence on the character of a nation.
The gentle figure of Libus̆a presiding over a peaceable community is a marked contrast to the figures of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table ”

“ The Bohemians are still quite nice about accepting little acts of kindness and consideration from anybody.
Přemysl Ottokar I had reigned for twenty-eight years when his son Wenceslaus, first King of that name, succeeded him, and, strange to say, practically without opposition. By this time Bohemia had risen to a position of importance in the councils of Europe not only by the skilful, not to say artful, policy of its rulers, but also owing to the growing prosperity of the country which was reflected in the life of Prague its capital. ”

“ Strange as it sounds, in speaking of so turbulent a country, it is none the less true that, till this time, there had been no instance of a combined national resistance in Bohemia to a King who was the sole lawful claimant of the throne. There had been plenty of instances of setting up rival members of the royal family against each other; attempts by discontented nobles to call in a foreign King or Emperor to their help; and even something like a provincial insurrection of Moravia against Bohemia ”

“ In spite of the dislike of the Turk, which was then common to all Christian nations, the Bohemians looked with alarm on any increase in those burdens of taxation which already weighed so heavily upon them; and, as already hinted, they dreaded the rule of a King, who might find it more convenient to reign at Presburg than at Prague. So strong was this feeling, that the [377] Bavarians, who had hoped to win the crown of Bohemia for their Duke, now believed that they could form a Bohemian party, which should commit itself openly to the side of Zapolya. ”

“ Adventurers of all kinds came from every part of Europe to help the king in his war against Bohemia, and in place of the ancient Czech nobles a new aristocracy was created by the sovereign, who handed over to them the land of people suspected of heresy. This foreign aristocracy naturally showed itself very ready to fall in with the schemes of the Habsburgs, since its members received grants of land as a recompense for their docility; they made the feudal yoke weigh heavily upon the Czech nation, always using the defence of religion as a pretext for their oppression. ”

“ Leopold II was succeeded by his son Francis, who was crowned King of Bohemia in 1792.
During the first years of Leopold’s reign, the Bohemian States continued in their efforts to regain their ancient rights and privileges. The French Revolution having broken out some time before, and Austria being involved in the wars that followed, Francis postponed all consideration of the demands of the States until after peace should again be restored. ”

“ It is now that the strong and cruel aristocracy of Bohemia begin to show their power both against king and people. Even in heathen times we hear of at least one family who claimed a sort of equality with the royal line, and who continued during the tenth and eleventh centuries to play much the same part as that of the Douglases in Scotland in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. ”

“ The dangers which seemed most to threaten Bohemian liberty were the possibility of Ferdinand’s election to the throne of Spain, and the extreme probability of his election to the throne of Hungary; while the subjects which ranked next in importance to these were the maintenance of the right of the Assembly to elect their future King, and the preservation of the supremacy of Bohemia over the dependent crown lands.
Never, perhaps, did the controversies at the beginning [375] of a reign more completely fail to foreshadow the events which should make it memorable. ”

“ Men, hardly recovered from years of starvation and plague, seemed at once convinced that at last a better time was coming; and on June 9, 1283, barons, knights, clergy, citizens, and peasants flocked out to meet the young king, Bishop Tobias leading the motley throng, and all singing the hymn of St. Adalbert, the opening words of which had served Ottakar as a war-cry at the fatal battle of the Marchfeld.
But the troubles of Bohemia were not yet at an end. The boy followed his most natural instinct in appealing to his mother to join him in Prague. ”

“ The uprising of the Bohemians against Ferdinand II was the beginning of that long and bloody struggle known in history as the Thirty Years’ War. Although the emperor had conquered Bohemia, King Frederick was still at large, enlisting in his cause, or perhaps more in the cause of Protestantism, the various German princes, and also the great warrior Christian, the King of Denmark. This brought on a war in which almost the whole of Europe was involved. ”

“ Stephen's Cathedral, at Vienna, to celebrate the victory of Rome over Bohemia's religious freedom. It would seem as if the King had moulded his policy on the text of the sermon preached by Brother Sabrinus, the Capuchin friar, on that occasion: "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." In carrying out this policy the King of Bohemia was ably assisted by the Jesuits. This congregation had been introduced into Bohemia by a former Ferdinand whose acquaintance we have made ”

“ The powerful Bohemian nobles who at this moment appear as the leaders of the people had, during the reign of the weak King Venceslas, obtained an almost independent position, and they bitterly resented the interference of foreigners in the affairs of their country. Bohemia was at that moment intellectually more advanced than Germany, and many of its nobles, though they were brave warriors, felt a genuine interest in religious questions, and had anxiously hoped for the very necessary reform of the Church. ”

“ At first, King Václav looked upon this innovation with displeasure, and severely reprimanded Hus for constantly causing disturbances; but being convinced of the justness of the request, he issued the following proclamation:
“Although it is necessary to love all men, yet charity ought to be regulated by the degrees of proximity. Therefore, considering that the German nation, which does not belong to this country, has, as we have learned, appropriated to itself, in all the acts of the University of Prague, three votes, whilst the Bohemian nation, the legitimate heir of this realm, has but one ”

“ His eyes were burned out, and he was cast into prison in a strong fortress, where, after many years, he ended his miserable existence. Boleslav the Brave then went to Prague, where he compelled the people to accept him as their rightful ruler.
The Polish yoke, however, soon grew too heavy to bear, and the people turned their eyes to Germany, where dwelt the rightful heirs, Ulric and Jaromir. A secret treaty was made; and while the Polish ruler was away from Prague, carrying on a war with the German king, the two brothers came with an army to the capital, whose gates were opened to them. ”

“ During the reign of George Poděbrad the country enjoyed peace and prosperity, and this notwithstanding the continued efforts of the Pope to bring it back into complete subjection to the Church.
In this age the Bohemians proved that they were abundantly able to manage their own affairs, if only they were left unmolested by the surrounding nations. King George, the people’s own choice, proved to be one of the best and ablest rulers that ever ascended the throne of Bohemia ”

“ Some of the people, indeed, saved their lives by escaping to the forests, where they perished from sickness and starvation.
The army destined to invade Bohemia first fought a battle at Yobrem, in Poland. The Bohemian army was hastening to the assistance of the Poles, but did not reach them in time. King Václav wrote to Prague as follows: “When the Tartars were in Poland, we were so near that we could have reached the army of Duke Henry in a day; but he, alas! asking neither our help nor advice, alone risked a battle and woefully perished. ”