63G 



11 H E M I A. 



Bohemia, blish it throughout his dominions. Upon the death 

 <*"""" ' of his son Wratislaus, his widow, Drahomira, an in- 

 veterate enemy ;o the Christians, massacred about 

 300 of them in one night, bHrnt their temples, and 

 compelled them to surrender their arms. Her son, 

 Wenceslaus II. was a zealous friend of the Christians, 

 but had not reigned many years when he was mur- 

 dered by his brother, Boleslaus I. surnamed the 

 Cruel, who persecuted the Christians with unrelent- 

 ing rigour, and forced them to abandon the kingdom. 

 They were again protected and cherished by his son, 

 Boleslaus II. surnamed the Pious, who founded and 

 endowed a number of churches, and obtained leave 

 from Pope John IX. to create a bishop at Prague. 

 An insurrection of his ..subjects, occasioned by their 

 dislike to some reforms which he attempted to intro- 

 duce, was quelled by the Christians, aided by the 

 Jews, who, in return for this service, were allowed to 

 build a synagogue in the capital. The ducal form of 

 government continued till the year 1086, when Wra- 

 tislaus II. was invested with the dignity of king by 

 the Emperor Henry IV. who at the same time gave 

 kirn possession of Lusatia, Moravia, and Silesia. The 

 regal title, however, was at this time confined to 

 Wratislaus himself ; and it was not till the close of 

 the twelfth century, or the commencement of the 

 thirteenth, that the sovereigns of Bohemia were per- 

 manently honoured with the appellation of kings. 

 From their attachment to the interest of the Empe- 

 ror Otho, Premislaus II. who began to reign in 

 1199, and his immediate successors, were styled Otho- 

 gari. Premislaus Othogar III. who succeeded to the 

 throne in 1255, obtained possession by conquest of 

 Austria, Carinthia, Stiria, and other southern pro- 

 vinces, and, marching into Prussia for the defence of 

 the Christians, defeated his opposers in several en- 

 gagements, and prevailed on many of the people to 

 embrace the Christian faith. On his return to Bo- 

 hemia, the imperial crown was tendered to him, but 

 he rejected it with disdain. It was afterwards given 

 to Rodolph, count of Hapsburgh, to whom Pre- 

 mislaus refused to do homage, or to receive from him 

 the investiture of his estates. He was at length 

 compelled, however, to submit, and to deliver five 

 standards to Rodolph, for the five fiefs which he 

 held. A reconciliation took place between these 

 rival monarchs, and Othogar was invested in Bohe- 

 mia and Moravia, on condition of renouncing Austria, 

 Stiria, and Carinthia. Premislaus was succeeded, in 

 1278, by Wenceslaus V. who was likewise elected 

 king of Poland, and was offered the sceptre of Hun- 

 gary, which he refused in favour of his son. In 

 1310, this dynasty became extinct; and the Bohe- 

 mian sceptre fell to John, son of the Emperor Henry 

 VII. of the family of Luxembourg, who had mar- 

 ried the youngest sister of Wenceslaus VI. John 

 resigned the kingdom of Bohemia to his son Charles, 

 and, having procured for him the imperial dignity, 

 proceeded with him to France to assist Philip against 

 the English. He fell in the battle of Cressy, in 

 1S46. The Emperor Charles IV. created his bro- 

 ther John, Marquis of Moravia ; established an univer- 

 sity at Prague, upon the plan of that at Paris ; and 

 engaged Pope Clement VI. to erect the see of Prague 

 'to an archbishopric, assigning to the archbishop 



the official privilege of crowning the king of Bohe- Bohemia, 

 mia. This public spirited monarch enlarged his ca- v~ 

 pital by the addition of the new city, in which he 

 founded the college of Carlstein ; reduced the laws 

 of the kingdom into a written code, known by the 

 name of the Caroline Constitutions ; and projected 

 the junction of the Moldau and the Danube by 

 means of a canal, which was begun before his death, 

 but the completion of which has been found imprac- 

 ticable. He was succeeded by his son Wenceslaus 

 VII. a profligate and tyrannical prince, during whose 

 reign the doctrines of reformation were introduced 

 into Bohemia by John Huss and Jerome of Prague. 

 On the sudden death of Wenceslaus, the Hussites, 

 headed by John Zisca, acquired considerable strength ; 

 and when Sigismund, who succeeded his brother as 

 king of Bohemia and emperor of Germany, advanced 

 from Hungary to take possession of the throne, he 

 was met by their deputies, who entreated that he 

 would allow them to worship God according to 

 their conscience. Their petition was rejected ; and a 

 civil war ensued, in which the troops of Sigismund 

 were frequently defeated. At length, after an oppo- 

 sition of sixteen years, he made several important 

 concessions in favour of the Hussites, and was ad- 

 mitted into the capital with great solemnity, and 

 much apparent joy. Sigismund was succeeded, in 

 1438, by his son-in-law, Albert of Austria, who 

 continued in possession of the crown, though not 

 without considerable opposition, for 33 years, when 

 Uladislaus, already king of Poland, was elected by 

 a majority of the sates, and soon after invested by 

 the emperor. His son Lewis, who succeeded him in 

 1516, had reigned only ten years, when he was de- 

 feated by the Turks at Mohatz, and was drowned 

 the Danube, in endeavouring to make his escape. 

 The sceptres of Bohemia and of Hungary now passed 

 into the hands of Ferdinand, archduke of Austria, 

 and infant of Spain, who had married Anne, the 

 only daughter of Uladislaus. He was afterwards 

 elected emperor, and, at a diet of the states, held in 

 1547, he declared the kingdom hereditary and abso- 

 lute. Since that time, both the imperial crown and 

 that of Bohemia have continued in the house of Aus- 

 tria. The immediate successors of Ferdinand made 

 no unwarrantable abuse of their arbitrary power ; 

 but the cruel and violent proceedings of Ferdinand 

 II. roused the Bohemians to revolt, and induced the 

 Protestant princes to combine for his destruction. 

 The crown was torn from his head, and presented 

 to the elector palatine. A civil war continued for 

 30 years to distract Bohemia, and so dreadful were 

 its horrors, that more than 30,000 families are said 

 to have taken refuge at this time in foreign countries. 

 Some idea may be formed of the desolations occa- 

 sioned by this revolution, from this striking fact, 

 that, in the reign of Rodolphus, scarcely two cen- 

 turies ago, the population of Bohemia amounted to 

 three millions of souls, whereas, after the civil wars, 

 it did not exceed four hundred thousand. After the 

 peace of Westphalia, Ferdinand III. and his succes- 

 sors remained in tranquil possession of the throne of 

 Bohemia, till the death of Charles VI. in 1740, when 

 the elector of Bavaria preferred his claim to the 

 sovereignty of that country. Thts claim gave riie 



