Duchy of Bohemia
Duchy of Bohemia | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c. 870–1198 | |||||||||||||||
| Capital | Prague | ||||||||||||||
| Common languages | Czech, Latin | ||||||||||||||
| Religion |
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| Government | Duke | | |||||||||||||
• c. 875–888/9 | Bořivoj I (first duke) | ||||||||||||||
• 1192–93, 1197–98 | Ottokar I (last duke, king to 1230) | ||||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||||
• State of the Holy Roman Empire | 1002 | ||||||||||||||
• Raised to Kingdom | 1198 | ||||||||||||||
• Confirmed by Golden Bull of Sicily | 1212 | ||||||||||||||
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The Duchy of Bohemia, also later referred to in English as the Czech Duchy,
While the Bohemian dukes of the
in September 935, became the land's patron saint.While the lands were occupied by the
History
The lands encompassed by the Bohemian Forest, the Ore Mountains, the Sudetes and the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands were settled by Bohemian tribes about 550. In the 7th century the local Czech people were part of the union led by the Frankish merchant Samo (d. 658). Bohemia as a geographical term, probably derived from the Celtic (Gallic) Boii tribes, first appeared in 9th-century Frankish sources. In 805, Emperor Charlemagne prepared to conquer the lands, invading Bohemia in 805 and laying siege to the fortress of Canburg. However, the Czech forces shirked from open battle and retired into the deep forests to launch guerilla attacks. After forty days the emperor had to withdraw his forces for the lack of supplies. When the Frankish forces returned the next year burning and plundering the Bohemian lands, the local tribes finally had to submit and became dependent on the Carolingian Empire.
Great Moravia
While the Frankish realm disintegrated in the mid-9th century, Bohemia fell under the influence of the
Great Moravia briefly regained control over the emerging Bohemian principality upon Bořivoj's death in 888/890 until, in 895, his son Spytihněv together with the Slavník prince Witizla swore allegiance to the East Frankish king Arnulf of Carinthia in Regensburg. He and his younger brother Vratislaus then ruled over Central Bohemia around Prague. They were able to protect their realm from the Magyar forces which crushed an East Frankish army in the 907 Battle of Pressburg during the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin. Cut off from Byzantium by the Hungarian presence, the Bohemian principality existed as independent state though still in the shadow of East Francia; the dukes paid tribute to the Bavarian dukes in exchange for the confirmation of the peace treaty. Vratislaus' son Wenceslaus, who ruled from 921, was already accepted as head of the Bohemian tribal union; however, he had to cope with the enmity of his neighbour Duke Arnulf of Bavaria and his mighty ally, the Saxon king Henry I of Germany. Wenceslaus maintained his ducal authority by submitting to King Henry in 929, whereafter he was murdered by his brother Boleslaus.
Assuming the Bohemian throne in 935, Duke Boleslaus conquered the adjacent lands of
Overwhelming the marauding Hungarians had the same benefits for Germans and Czechs. Less obvious is what
Significantly, the
Holy Roman Empire
In 1002,
The son of Bretislaus,
In 1147, the Bohemian duke,
Economy
Mining of tin and silver began in the
Kingdom of Bohemia
During the German civil war between the Hohenstaufen king Philip of Swabia and his Welf rival Otto IV, Duke Ottokar I of Bohemia decided to support Philip, for which he was awarded with a royal coronation in 1198, this time as a hereditary title. In 1200, however, Ottokar abandoned his pact with Philip and declared for the Welf faction. Both Otto and Pope Innocent III subsequently accepted Ottokar as hereditary King of Bohemia. The Bohemian principality was then reborn into the Bohemian kingdom.
In 1212, Ottokar I, bearing the title "king" since 1198,[8] extracted the Golden Bull of Sicily—a formal edict by the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II confirming the royal title for Ottokar and his descendants, whereby his duchy was formally raised to a kingdom. The Bohemian king would be exempt from all future obligations to the Holy Roman Empire except for participation in the imperial councils. The imperial prerogative to ratify each Bohemian ruler and to appoint the Bishop of Prague was revoked. The country then reached its greatest territorial extent and is considered its Golden Age.
After the extinction of the Přemyslid dynasty, the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were ruled by the House of Luxembourg from 1310, until the death of Emperor Sigismund in 1437. After the Middle Ages, the Kingdom of Bohemia remained under the rule of the Austrian House of Habsburg from 1526 until the collapse of Austria-Hungary after the First World War.
See also
References
- ^ Bradshaw, George (1867). Bradshaw's illustrated hand-book to Germany. London. p. 223. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ISBN 80-86161-61-7.
- ^ Bohemia to the Extinction of the Premyslids, Kamil Krofta, Cambridge Medieval History:Victory of the Papacy, Vol. VI, ed. J.R. Tanner, C.W. Previte-Orton and Z.N. Brooke, (Cambridge University Press, 1957), 432.
- ^ Berend, Urbańczyk & Wiszewski 2013, p. 58.
- ^ Ruckser, David. "Boleslav I (the Cruel) - c. 935-c. 972" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
- ^ "Boje polabských Slovanů za nezávislost v letech 928 – 955" (in Czech). E-středověk.cz. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
- ^ "Národní archiv". Archived from the original on 2013-01-11.
- ^ Bradbury 2004, p. 70.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Country Studies. Federal Research Division.
Sources
- Berend, Nora; Urbańczyk, Przemysław; Wiszewski, Przemysław (2013). Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary and Poland, c.900–c.1300. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107651395.
- Bradbury, Jim (2004). The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare. Routledge. ISBN 978-1134598472.