Václav II of Bohemia

“ Václav (St. Václav is honored as patron saint of Bohemia) was reduced by Vienna to a position of semi-vassalage and given equal rank with a medley of outlying and insignificant provinces. Dualism condemned the Slavs to be the unwilling [71] tools of a policy to which they had been opposed. Bohemia, the richest and most productive land in the empire, was made to bear the heaviest quota of the burden with which statesmen had saddled the Austrian half of the monarchy.” Condemning dualism, Dr. ”

“ Fear of the Teutonic peril has always harried the soul of the nation. Every historian, every poet, every patriot has admonished the people to be on their guard. One of the oldest chorals extant contains the pathetic invocation to the patron saint of the country. “St. Václav, Duke of the Bohemian Land, do not let us perish nor our descendants.”
In course of time many Germans and denationalized Bohemians were Bohemianized, so that it is hazardous to guess whether in Bohemia and Moravia more Germans adopted the Bohemian language than Bohemians the German. ”

“ Falkenstein had numerous friends and relatives among some of the most powerful noblemen of the kingdom. These now took up his cause, securing the aid of the King of Hungary and the Prince of Breslau, and commenced a war with the young king. Václav secured the aid of his father-in-law, who sent an army to Bohemia under the command of his son Rudolph. ”

“ Like his predecessors, the reigning emperor was glad of the opportunity to meddle in the affairs of Bohemia, and so at once summoned Sobeslav to appear before him and explain how he dared accept the crown of Bohemia without the consent of the emperor. Sobeslav replied to the messengers as follows: “I hope, through God’s mercy, and through the help of St. Vojtech and St. Václav, that our country shall not be delivered into the hands of strangers.” In order that this confidence might not appear to be misplaced, he immediately began to make vigorous preparations for war. ”

“ German settlements or colonies in the cities, having special privileges, were to be prohibited.
At this Diet of 1615 an event occurred that shows how powerful the States were when they dared assert themselves. Václav Vchynsky, a certain nobleman, received from the king the estates of Chlumec and Kolin as a reward for helping him to win the crown of Bohemia. One of the laws of the land provided that, should any one help a candidate to win the crown of Bohemia before he had been elected by the States, he was to lose his honor, life, and property. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ The displeasure of the nobility at being pushed aside and the offices of the kingdom given to the lower classes, finally found expression in a conspiracy to deprive Václav of the government.Revolt of the Nobles. The conspiracy was headed by his brother Sigmund and cousin Jost of Moravia. King Václav was seized by the conspirators and held prisoner until he should promise that henceforth all offices of the crown were to be filled from the nobility, and that the king should not undertake anything of importance without their consent. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The country was overrun by couriers bearing fiery appeals to all the lords to urge them to make every possible preparation to meet the enemy. Václav saw that new fortresses were built, and old ones repaired, and all was done with such haste that even priests and monks were impressed into service to help in digging trenches and building fortifications. In a short time the country was well fortified, and Václav, at the head of 46,000 men, 6,000 of whom were German allies, went to meet the enemy. ”

“ Ludmila and Borivoi had two sons, Spytihnév and Vratislav. The elder, Spytihnév, first ruled in Bohemia, and was followed by his brother Vratislav. Both brothers were very pious, caring more for the spread of Christianity than for their own glory.
Vratislav married a Lutician princess named Drahomira, or Dogmar. Several children were born to them; but those that became of importance in history were Boleslav and Václav. Václav being the elder, was regarded as the heir to the throne ”

“ 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 ”

“ The continual contact with the German nations, during the reigns of both Premysl and Václav, made the Bohemian people acquainted with the intellectual progress of Western Europe; but, at the same time, it was the means of introducing into the country many evil customs hitherto unknown. The higher classes became more and more luxurious in their mode of life, and in the same proportion as the lords waxed fat, the peasants upon their estates waxed lean, until servitude as grievous as slavery gradually became introduced into the country. ”

“ In this way Ottokar gained much wealth, but also the deadly enmity of these lords; and, in time, their vengeance. Besides depriving his nobles of the unlawfully-gained estates, Ottokar humbled them by curtailing many of the rights and privileges granted them by his father. Indeed, the reign of Václav was the golden age of the Bohemian nobility; they had become rich and strong, and consequently very unruly. As an offset to this power, Ottokar established another privileged class; these were corporate cities, the inhabitants of which, enjoying many privileges, were very loyal to their king. ”

“ By means of this custom the wealth of the nobility kept constantly increasing, while that of the peasants decreased in like proportion; for the noble could sell or lease the land to another peasant under more and more limitations, and the peasants thus were reduced to slavery.
This custom had no authority in the law of the land, and at length there arose a man who had the moral courage to raise his voice against it. This was John of Jenstein, the Archbishop of Prague during, the reign of King Václav. The archbishop declared that he found the custom in vogue upon the episcopal estates ”

“ 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. ”

“ The reign of Boleslav is noted for great centralization of power. From the time of Libuse till to the death of Václav, the form of government remained the same. The Bohemian rulers, generally called princes, were the elders of the people, their power being limited, and their actions governed by the decisions of their lords or lechs, as expressed in their assemblies. The lechs, on the other hand, possessed absolute power upon their own estates, being entirely independent of their prince. This state of things being very detrimental to the central Government. ”

“ They smile on us never to yield.
Only concord, concord, brothers,
Shield us, St. Václav, with thy shield.
With concord then on to the battle,
The east is ablaze—and I dream,
I hope that the hour is nearing,
When the God of nations will seem
To call us once more unto fame,
Once more to the honorable field.
Only concord, concord, brothers,
Shield us, St. Václav, with thy shield.
↑ * This poem received the poetic prize in Prague.
↑ † St. Vàclav (Wenzel) , patron saint of Bohemia, was murdered by his brother, a heathen, in a church. He was king of Bohemia, A.D. 928. ”

“ While under the influence of liquor, he was very generous, and gave away the crown estates to his favorites, as if it were but a pastime. Shortly after making peace with Albert, he gave away the crown of Hungary to his friend Otto, the Duke of Bavaria. He doubtless would have disposed of Poland in an equally summary manner, had he not been awakened to a sense of duty by the earnest exhortations of the Abbot of Zbraslay, who had formerly been one of the chief counselors of King Václav II. As rebellion had broken out in Poland, he raised an army and began his march into that country ”

“ Learning of the death of the abbot, the archbishop, through his vicargeneral, John of Nepomuk, immediately appointed a successor. When Václav heard of this, his rage knew no bounds, and he swore a fearful vengeance upon the proud priest. His courtiers, fearing that serious evils might result from such an open rupture with one of the dignitaries of the Church, did all in their power to quiet him, and finally he consented to have an interview with the offending prelate. ”

“ Then I at length arising
⁠Accompanied her home,
And still I gave her kisses—
⁠What’s that to any one?
⁂ This song is extremely popular with the “lower orders” in Bohemia, I have therefore employed extremely popular language in the translation. ”

“ For many reasons, notably out of deference to the feelings of the Russian Government, a Czech Republic is quite impracticable, but in restoring the ancient Kingdom of Bohemia, the Czechs have no national dynasty to whom they can turn. A German prince is of course out of the question, and they may perhaps experience some difficulty in finding a suitable candidate for the new throne among the reigning families of the West. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The attainment of their independence may not enable them to overcome all these disadvantages, but it is obvious that at the worst the Czechs can scarcely be worse off when they have complete economic and financial control of their own destinies and are thus able to consult their own peculiar interests, than in their present situation, when in all matters economic and political alike the main decision lies at Vienna and Budapest rather than at Prague. ”

“ The only offense of the Bohemian king is that he is Slav, but that, with the jealousy of his power, the democratic institutions, and the wealth of his country, which contains the richest mines of silver in Europe, is sufficient. Great armies, German and Hungarian, are raised against him; finally he is treacherously slain in battle, his kingdom torn apart, and Bohemia is ravished and reduced almost to a "possession" or a fief of the Empire.
Yet the wound is not mortal, the nation is too strong ”

“ In 1912 there was no country where the victories of the Balkan League aroused greater delight than in Prague; and to-day it is scarcely an exaggeration to assert that every man, woman, and child in Bohemia sympathizes with Russia, and longs for the victory of Russia and her Western allies, as Bohemia’s only hope of salvation. As a famous Bohemian put it to me during the war, even the Austrian police spies in Prague—so far as they are of Czech nationality—would welcome the Russians! ”