František Palacký
František Palacký | |
---|---|
MP of Bohemian provincial diet | |
In office 1861–1876 | |
MP of Imperial Diet | |
In office 1848–1849 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Habsburg Monarchy | June 14, 1798
Died | May 26, 1876 Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary | (aged 77)
Nationality | Czech |
Political party | Old Czech Party |
Spouse | Terezie Měchurová |
Children | Jan Křtitel Kašpar Palacký Marie Riegrová-Palacká |
Profession | Politician Historian |
František Palacký (Czech pronunciation: [ˈfraɲcɪʃɛk ˈpalatskiː]; 14 June 1798 – 26 May 1876) was a Czech historian and politician, the most influential person of the Czech National Revival, called "Father of the Nation".[1]
Life
František Palacký was born on 14 June 1798, at
(he mastered 11 languages and became familiar with a few others).After some years spent in private teaching, Palacký settled in 1823 at Prague. Here he found a warm friend in Josef Dobrovský, whose good relations with the Austrian authorities shielded him from the hostility shown by the government to students of Slav subjects. Dobrovský introduced him to Count Sternberg and his brother Francis, both of whom took an enthusiastic interest in Bohemian history. Count Francis was the principal founder of the Society of the Bohemian Museum, devoted to the collection of documents bearing on Bohemian history, with the object of reawakening national sentiment by the study of the national records.[4]
Joining of Czech national movement
Public interest in the movement was stimulated in 1825 by the new Časopis Českého musea (Journal of the Bohemian Museum), of which Palacký was the first editor. The journal was at first published in Czech and German, and the Czech edition survived to become the most important literary organ of Bohemia. Palacký had received a modest appointment as archivist to Count Sternberg and in 1829 the Bohemian estates sought to confer on him the title of historiographer of Bohemia, with a small salary, but it was ten years before the consent of the Viennese authorities was obtained.[4]
Meanwhile, the estates, with the tardy assent of Vienna, had undertaken to pay the expenses of publishing Palacký's capital work, Dějiny národu českého v Čechách a v Moravě (History of the Czech Nation in Bohemia and Moravia). This book, which covers the period up to 1526 and the extinction of Czech independence (Palacký admitted that in writing about the national history since 1526, he "would have to lie"), was founded on laborious research in the local archives of Bohemia and in the libraries of the chief cities of Europe, and remains the standard authority. The first volume was printed in German in 1836, and subsequently translated into Czech. The publication of the work was hindered by the police censorship, which was especially active in criticizing his account of the
Palacký, though entirely national and Protestant in his sympathies, was careful to avoid an uncritical approbation of the Reformers' methods, but his statements were held by the authorities to be dangerous to the
Political activism
The
After the liberal concessions of 1860 and 1861, however, he became a life member of the Austrian senate. His views met with small support from the assembly, and with the exception of a short period after the decree of September 1871, by which the emperor raised hopes for Bohemian self-government, he ceased to appear in the senate from 1861 onwards. In the Bohemian Diet (zemský sněm) he became the acknowledged leader of the nationalist-federal party (staročeši). He sought the establishment of a Czech kingdom that should include Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, and in his zeal for Czech autonomy he even entered into an alliance with the Conservative nobility and with the extreme Catholics. He attended the Panslavist congress in Moscow in 1867. He died in Prague on 26 May 1876.[4]
Legacy
Palacký is considered as one of the three
Honours
- Knight of the Order of the Iron Crown, Second Class, 27 October 1862[6]
Works
Poetry
- Na horu Radhošť – poem
- Má modlitba dne 26. července 1818 – hymnus
- Ideál říše – ode from year 1920
Other works
- Würdigung der alten böhmischen Geschichtschreiber (Prague, 1830), dealing with authors of many of whose works were then inaccessible to Czech students
- Dějiny národu českého v Čechách a v Moravě I–V (History of the Czech Nation in Bohemia and Moravia), 1836–1867
- Archiv český (6 vols., Prague, 1840–1872)
- Urkundliche Beiträge zur Geschichte des Hussitenkriegs (2 vols., Prague, 1872–1874)
- Documenta magistri Johannis Hus vitam, doctrinam, causant ... illustrantia (Prague, 1869)
- with Šafařík he wrote Anfänge der böhmischen Dichtkunst (Pressburg, 1818) and Die ältesten Denkmäler der böhmischen Sprache (Prague, 1840)
- Three volumes of his Czech articles and essays were published as Radhost (3 vols., Prague, 1871–1873)[4]
See also
- František Ladislav Rieger
- Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
- Palacký University, Olomouc
Notes
- ^ Baar, 2010
- ^ "Digital Archives of the Regional Archives in Opava". digi.archives.cz. Retrieved 2020-11-28.
- ^ "Digital Archives of the Regional Archives in Opava". digi.archives.cz. Retrieved 2020-11-28.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Chisholm 1911.
- ISBN 978-80-87173-47-3, pages 51–53, 162.
- ^ "BLKÖ:Palacký, Franz – Wikisource". de.wikisource.org (in German). Retrieved 2023-07-07.
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Palacký, František". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 523. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
- Baar, Monika. Historians and Nationalism: East-Central Europe in the Nineteenth Century (2010) excerpt, pp 29–34 and passim