Ottokar I of Bohemia

“ Ottokar was, justly or unjustly, [10] accused of favouring the Germans to the disadvantage of his own countrymen, and he had thus become unpopular with the Bohemians. The stimulus of national pride, which has sometimes animated the Bohemians to most heroic deeds, did not therefore incite them to rally round their king, whom many of them considered nearly as much a German as his opponent. Rarely has the death of one man had such melancholy results for a whole empire. ”

“ With Wenceslaus III murdered by an unknown assassin while on his way to Poland, the male line of the Přemysl dynasty died out. It continued in the indirect line by the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter of Wenceslaus II, with Rudolph, a grandson of the Habsburg who dealt the death-blow to Bohemia's native rulers.
Whether for good or evil, alien influence was working strongly in Bohemia, and notably in Prague. Ottokar II had encouraged it as part of his policy towards keeping in check his turbulent nobles and towards raising up a reliable middle class. ”

“ As Premysl Ottokar was a very promising young man, possessed of many qualities that would enable him to be a better ruler than his father, the lords determined to secure to him the succession, even against the wishes of Václav. A conspiracy was formed, and in 1248, while the king was gone to one of his fortresses in the country, the lords met in Prague, formally deposed him, and elected his son in his place. ”

“ King Bela now renounced all rights on Styria; and Ottokar, to strengthen his hold on that country, induced the German King Richard of Cornwall to invest him with it as a fief. After their great defeat at Kressenbrunn the Hungarians, though they were in 1270 already again in arms against Ottokar, avoided meeting the Bohemian army in the open field till they obtained a powerful ally in Rudolph of Habsburg.
In 1268 King Přemysl Ottokar concluded a treaty with his nephew Duke Henry of Carinthia, by which that prince recognized him as his heir in case of his dying without male descendants. ”

“ As Duke of Upper and Lower Austria, and later of Styria and Carinthia, Ottokar had become lord of vast German lands, and indeed the most powerful prince of the German Empire, over which he aspired to rule either with the title of king or by his influence over an insignificant and nominal king [6] It was therefore good policy for him to strive to hide his Slav origin, and to appear as a German prince ruling over a mainly German population. ”

“ Probably in consequence of this successful campaign, the German princes (1256) offered the sovereignty of their country to Ottokar. The Bohemian king at this period does not seem to have desired the German crown, but to have favoured the choice of a weak and powerless prince, who would be unable to interfere with his plans for the aggrandizement of Bohemia. Ottokar, therefore, contributed to the election of Richard of Cornwall, with whom he remained on terms of friendship during the whole of his nominal reign. ”

“ When the Bohemian king saw that the battle was lost he plunged into the thickest ranks of the enemy, and died fighting desperately.
The reign of Přemysl Ottokar II, one of Bohemia's greatest kings, ended with complete disaster; and it is difficult to understand the complete and sudden downfall of such a powerful empire. The fact that Ottokar had, by the privileges he granted the towns, alienated many of the powerful Bohemian nobles, who therefore deserted him in the hour of peril, was undoubtedly one of the principal causes of his downfall. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This time she had left suddenly, without asking permission, and after a hasty kiss on the brow of the sleeping Ladislas; for she was almost mad with disgust and shame. The King’s debauchery was becoming more notorious every day; he now had establishments and families in all the towns of Bohemia, at all his hunting-resorts. It was food for derision everywhere, and satirical verses were sung in the streets of Prague, asking what was to become of this illegitimate race, and if Ottokar, like Augustus the Strong in his day, would not form a squadron of Life Guards from his bastards. ”

“ A decisive battle was fought upon the very grounds where Premysl Ottokar had won such a brilliant victory over the Hungarians in the earlier part of his reign. But in those days the army of the king fought as one man; while now, there was division—treachery in the camp. During the action, while the tide seemed to be turning in favor of the Bohemians, one of the chief lords cried that all was lost, and that who could, should save his life. ”

“ Premsyl Ottokar had been a good and just ruler, and had often taken up the cause of the poor against the wealthy classes that oppressed them; and this very virtue in him led, ultimately, to his ruin.
The death of the king brought the country into a state of anarchy. The selfish lords, caring nothing for the people, did nothing to oppose the approach of the enemy, and thus Rudolph marched through Moravia without any let or hindrance, leaving misery and death behind him. Among the distinguished prisoners in his train was the Bohemian queen, with her seven-year-old Václav. ”

“ Of interest also is the author's account of the reign of the great King Ottokar II. He writes as a violent enemy of that king, and attributes the disastrous close of his reign to the fact that he neglected his Slavonic countrymen and showed too great favour to the Germans.
The geographical position of Bohemia, which is the outpost of the Slavonic race that advances farthest westward, has been the cause why that country has always been the scene of racial feuds. ”

“ By an agreement between him and the king, it was decided that the Bishop of Prague should in future be elected by the canons of the cathedral. The right of investiture, which had been exercised first by the German and later by the Bohemian kings, was abolished. This right, as in Germany, appears to have been the principal cause of discord; the minor differences were also settled favourably for the Church. Shortly before his death Ottokar caused his son Venceslas, whom the nobles had already recognized as heir to the throne, to be crowned as king of Bohemia (1228) . ”

“ The Slavonic races were open to the teachings of Christianity when presented to them in the right spirit, which is shown in the cases of Moravia, Bohemia, and Russia, all of which received the new religion from choice, and not from compulsion. It is not pleasant to reflect that Premysl Ottokar, a prince of their own blood, should join their inveterate enemies to invade their country, offering them the new faith, while, at the same time, they secretly hoped it would not be accepted; in which case they would have a plausible pretext to murder them and obtain possession of their wealth. ”

“ On November 26, 1276, Ottokar appeared in the German camp to do homage to the German king. In presence of the German princes, most of whom were his bitter enemies, the King of Bohemia bent his knee before Rudolph, who was seated on the throne, swore fidelity to him, and was invested with Bohemia and Moravia as fiefs of the Empire. ”

“ National animosities were as violent at the beginning of the fourteenth as they unfortunately are at the end of the nineteenth century. Ottokar's part in this struggle belongs to the political history of Bohemia; but it may be incidentally remarked that, as regards the accusation of having unduly favoured the Germans to the detriment of his own countrymen, the greatest of Bohemia's kings has found an eloquent defender in Palacký, the greatest Bohemian historian. ”

“ Ottokar was again subservient to the wishes of Rome; and Otho attempted unsuccessfully, though aided by an insurrection in Bohemia, to revenge himself on Ottokar for his desertion. The Bohemian king became an ally of Frederick II, who, besides confirming all former privileges of the Bohemian princes, granted them permission to liberate themselves, whenever they wished it, from the obligation of sending three hundred men to escort the German kings on their journey to Italy by the payment of three hundred marks of silver. ”

“ The Hungarian king could not expose his country to the dangers involved in the erection of such a Slavic empire along the western borders, and was therefore opposed, from the beginning, to Ottokar’s aspirations. The contest between Hungary and Bohemia was at first waged for the Babenberg possessions, but its original cause was lost sight of, and the war continued for many years, to terminate only with the overthrow of Ottokar and the ruin of his empire. ”

“ Eighteen thousand men of the Hungarian army remained upon the field of battle, while fourteen thousand more perished in the waves of the Danube.
King Bela, humbled in spirit, sued for peace. It was made upon conditions that Styria should remain under the government of Bohemia, and the Hungarian king should give his son Bela in marriage to Kunigunda, the daughter of the Viscount of Brandenburg, and niece of Ottokar. This victory over the Hungarians won much renown for both King Ottokar and the Bohemians. ”

“ Rudolph's victorious army immediately marched into Moravia, and the German king was favourably received by a part of the inhabitants, specially by the population of the Moravian towns, most of whom were Germans. In Bohemia complete anarchy prevailed, and it was at first uncertain who had the strongest right to the guardianship of Ottakar's son Venceslas, then only seven years of age. After some dispute the Bohemian nobles recognized Ottokar's nephew, Otho of Brandenburg, as the guardian of the young Prince Venceslas. ”

“ Ottokar II succumbed to the first Habsburger that threw his shadow over Bohemia. The successors of Charles and George Podiebrad could not stand up against the forces of reaction that beat down Bohemia's efforts towards finding herself and taking her rightful place in the comity of nations. Of Waldstein's plans and ambitions there are only dark traces, obscure indications; he, a man of penetrating vision, must have realized the possibilities of his country, and must have been bent on securing for it the place it is entitled to. ”

“ Daniel Romanovic, King of Russia and Prince of Kiew, the Prince of Cracow, and many of the tribes of Eastern Europe, Servians, Bulgarians, and Wallachians, joined the Hungarian standard. In the meantime Ottokar had also assembled an army of 100,000 men, and—a mountainous country like Styria not being adapted to the movements of enormous armies, which largely consisted of cavalry—the plains on the frontier of Hungary and the duchy of Austria, through which the river March flows, became the seat of war. ”

“ That the power of the nation was not entirely gone, however, was shown by the cheering fact, casting a ray of light into the gloom of those days, that at the very time when the authority of royalty had sunk to the lowest ebb, the Hungarian arms were able to cope with the powerful Slavic empire ruled by Ottokar,133 king of Bohemia, and to assist in establishing the power of the Hapsburgs. ”

“ Frederic was the last of the145 Babenberg line, and the inheritance of the Babenbergs, the Austrian principalities, were, through his death, left without a master. Béla coveted for himself the masterless countries, but was opposed in his schemes in that direction by Ottokar, the powerful king of Bohemia, who then already labored for the realization of his ambitious dream, the founding of a great Slavic empire. ”

“ Ottokar collected his troops from Bohemia, Moravia, and Austria, several German princes also sending some troops. His army numbered 100,000 men, among them a regiment of 7,000 cavalry, composed entirely of Bohemians, and clad in steel armor from head to foot. ”

“ Himself a German by birth, he warmly encouraged the introduction of German town rights into the cities of Moravia; while, on the other hand, he always succeeded, until the final catastrophe of Ottakar’s life, in strengthening the good understanding between the Pope and the King of Bohemia.
Thus there were now growing up in Bohemia the elements of internal liberty, under the patronage of a king strong and wise enough to hold his own against the nobles. Had Ottakar been content to remain King of Bohemia alone, the effect of his reign on his country might have been permanently beneficial. ”

“ A beautiful rainbow was the source of bright prophecies; and a half belief began to arise in some minds that King Ottakar was not really dead, and would return in triumph. Suddenly a definite announcement took the place of dreams and fancies. Not Ottakar, but his son Wenceslaus, was to return to reign in Bohemia. Base and sordid to the last, Otto had demanded from the half-starved Bohemians a ransom of 35,000 marks, as compensation for what he called his care and expense in [112] guarding the young Bohemian king, in reality as a bribe not to break any more promises. ”

“ In Austria, as in Bohemia, Ottakar looked chiefly for his support to the great cities. Vienna flourished under his rule; and he granted special privileges to the neighbouring town of Neustadt. But the hostility of the nobles still continued; and they were resolved that, at all events, the German province of Styria should not fall into Bohemian hands. The difficulty [86] of Ottakar’s position on this question lay in the fact that the most important rival claimant was Bela, King of Hungary, who, like Ottakar, was a special favourite of the Pope ”