BOHEMIA. 



581 



Ambigatus, king of the Bituriges, but were after- 

 wards almost all driven out by the Marcomanni. 

 About the middle of the fourth century, B., then 

 inhabited by German nations, enjoyed a settled and 

 quiet government under its dukes, who were, as yet, 

 but little known. In the middle of the sixth century, 

 a numerous army of Sclavonians (Czec/iowe, Tsc/iec/ien, 

 as the Bohemians still call themselves), who had 

 hitherto inhabited the shores of the Black Sea, in- 

 vaiied B. (as some say, under the command of one 

 Zecko,) conquered the country, and put it under cul- 

 tivation. According to others, Zecko was entirely 

 unconnected with the Sclavonians, and his successors 

 were hard pressed by that people, although his des- 

 cendants were never quite expelled from the land. 

 The first of them who is known to us by name was 

 Przemislas, a peasant, whom the princess Libussa 

 espoused, 632, and raised to the throne. Although 

 Charlemagne and some of his successors compelled 

 B. to pay tribute, this subjection did not continue 

 long. In 840, B., Silesia, and Moravia, were free 

 from all foreign dominion, and governed by their own 

 dukes, although still maintaining a sort of confede- 

 racy with the German empire. In 1061, Henry IV. 

 gave the title of king to the duke of B., which was 

 not, however, generally recognised till the time of 

 Wratislaus, in 1086. Afterwards, about 1230, Philip 

 conferred the royal dignity on Przemislas and his 

 successors. It was confirmed by Frederic II., since 

 whose time B. has remained a kingdom. The male 

 descendants of the old kings ceased with Wenzel V., 

 in 1305, on whose death, John of Luxemburg ob- 

 tained the crown by marriage, in 1310, and left it to 

 his descendants. After this, Charles IV. (of the 

 house of Luxemburg, under the name of Charles /., 

 who very much improved the kingdom), and his sons, 

 Wenzeslaus and Sigismund (the latter nearly lost B. 

 in the religious war with the Hussites), united the 

 crown of B. to that of the German empire. After 

 Sigismund's death, 1437, B. came into the possession 

 of his son-in-law, Albert of Austria, who died in 1 439, 

 and the crown descended to his son Ladislaus, born 

 after his death, 1440 (hence surnamed PostAumns), 

 who being at the same time king of Hungary, B. was 

 separated again from the German states. After his 

 death, 1457, the people chose George von Podiebrad, 

 who had been regent, for their king, in 1458, and, in 

 1469, when he was excommunicated by the pope, 

 they elected the Polish prince Wladislaus, who, how- 

 ever, did not come into possession of the throne till 

 the death of George, in 1471. He was succeeded, 

 1516, after a reign of 45 years, by his son Louis. 

 These were both also kings of Hungary. Louis be- 

 ing killed in a battle with the Turks near Mohatz, in 

 1526, B. fell to the house of Austria. The brother- 

 in-law of Louis, Maximilian's second grandson, the 

 archduke Ferdinand, succeeded to the crown. This 

 prince desired the Bohemians to bike up arms in the 

 Smalkaldic war against the elector of Saxony ; but, 

 finding them averse to his wishes, and threatening to 

 rebel against him, he conducted himself towards them 

 with great harshness, after the victory of Charles V., 

 at Muhlberg, and declared B. an absolute monarchy. 

 He was succeeded by his son Maximilian (1564), and 

 he by his sons Rodolph (1576), and Matthias (1612). 

 Towards the close of the reign of the latter prince, 

 in consequence of the infringements upon the reli- 

 gious liberty of the Protestants, troubles arose, which 

 threatened the house of Austria with the loss of B. 

 In 1619, the people invited Frederic V., elector of 

 the Palatinate, to the throne, to the exclusion of Fer- 

 dinand II., who had been already crowned king dur- 

 ing the life-time of his cousin Matthias. But, when 

 the victory at Prague, November 9, 1620, had de- 

 cided the war in favour of the emperor, those who 



had joined in the rebellion were most rigorously deah 

 with : twenty-seven of them were executed, sixteen 

 banished or imprisoned for life, and their goods con- 

 fiscated. The sentence of confiscation was also ex- 

 tended to those who had already died, and to twenty- 

 nine who had escaped, as well as to seven hundred 

 and twenty-eight wealthy lords and knights, who had 

 voluntarily acknowledged their offence. The Pro- 

 testant religion, which was held by three-fourths of 

 the people, was rooted out ; Rodolph's imperial edict 

 was revoked (1627), and B. reduced to an absolute 

 and hereditary monarchy, and the Roman catholic 

 faith established, to the entire exclusion of all others. 

 From this time B. continually declined. History 

 hardly furnishes a parallel instance of such a com- 

 plete triumph of mere brute force over the spirit of a 

 people. The house of Hapsburg has to answer for 

 this violation of human rights. More than 30,000 

 families (185 of which were of the rank of lords and 

 knights), all the Protestant ministers and teachers, a 

 multitude of artists, tradesmen, and mechanics, who 

 refused to become Catholics, emigrated to Saxony, 

 Brandenburg, Holland, Switzerland, c. In the 

 mountain and forest villages, however, out of the 

 way of the Jesuits and soldiers, many secret Protes- 

 tants still remained. Since that period, the Bohemian 

 language has been disused in public transactions. In 

 the thirty years' war, B. was entirely desolated ; it 

 lost the best of its strength and wealth. When Fer- 

 dinand II. died, in 1637, there remained of the 732 

 towns, 34,700 villages, and 3,000,000 of inhabitants, 

 which B. contained in 1617, only 130 towns, a little 

 more than 6000 villages, and 780,000 inhabitants. 

 After the death of Charles VI. (1740), Charles Albert, 

 elector of Bavaria, laid claim to the crown, and the 

 oath of allegiance was taken to him in Prague ; but 

 Maria Theresa succeeded in obtaining possession of 

 B., which has remained ever since one of the richest 

 jewels in the Austrian diadem. 



The kingdom of Bohemia is bounded on the west 

 by Bavaria, on the east by Moravia and Silesia, on the 

 north by Lusatia and Misnia, and on the south by 

 Austria and Bavaria. It contains 20,200 square 

 miles, and above 3,380,000 inhabitants (of whom 

 2,170,000 are Czechs, and more than 50,000 Jews) ; 

 286 large towns (stadte), 275 market-towns, and 

 11,924 villages. The prevailing religion is the Ro- 

 man Catholic ; other sects, however, are tolerated. 

 The language of the country is Bohemian, a dialect 

 of the Sclavonic : in some districts, and in most of 

 the cities, German is spoken. B. is surrounded on 

 all sides by mountains, is covered with large forests, 

 and considerable ponds. The number of the latter 

 is reckoned at 20,000. Its plains are remarkably 

 fertile. The largest rivers are the Elbe and the 

 Moldau. All sorts of grain, flax, hops (the best in 

 Europe), and fruits are exported. Wine is not abun- 

 dant, but, in the neighbourhood of Melnic, of pretty 

 good quality. The raising of sheep, horses, swine, 

 and poultry, is carried on to a considerable extent. 

 The mines yield silver (1823, 13,873 marks), copper, 

 excellent tin (1800 cwt.), garnets, and other precious 

 stones, iron 200,000 cwt.), cobalt, arsenic, uranium, 

 and tungsten, antimony, vitriol, alum, calamine, sul- 

 phur, and coal in abundance. There ore also nu- 

 merous mineral springs (150), but little salt. 



Manufactories of different kinds are established in 

 all parts of the country. The most important of 

 these are the linen, cambric, lace, thread, and veil 

 factories, and others of a similar kind. These, in 

 1801, yielded goods to the value of more than 

 20,000,000 florins : half of this amount was exported 

 from tie country. The woollen manufactories pro- 

 duced an amount of 10,000,000 florins. The woollens 

 have advanced, of late years, both in quantity nnd 



