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troduce ; and epcampincr on a mountain in the vicinity of 

 Prague, tliey were exptlied thence by the Ctirilliaiis, with 

 t!ie alHllance of tlie Jews, a:^d obliged to remain in peace. 

 In recompence of this ferv'ce, the Jews were allowed to 

 build a fyna.Togue at Prague. In the eleventh century, 

 Breiiilaus, the fo:i of Udalricus, having obtained the go- 

 vernment of Moravia, kept pofrefiion of it by rcpnlfing the 

 Poles who invaded it ; and, f'.iccteding to the government of 

 Bohemia, on the death of his father, A. ID. 104^, he again 

 defended it again!! Hungarian robbers, by whom it was 

 ravaged ; and having conchided a perpetual peace with Ca- 

 Cmir, king of Poland, he died, leaving five fons, of whom 

 the eldeft inherited Bohemia ; and Moravia was divided 

 among the four youngell. Wratitlaus II. fucceeded his 

 brother, A. D. 1061 ; and, in 1086, was honoured with 

 the regal tiile by the emperor Henry IV. who alfo in.vefted 

 him with the domains of L.ufatia, Moravia, and Silefia. 

 This dignity, however, was merely perfonal ; and the con- 

 ftant title of king only com.mences with Prcmiflaus II. in 

 1 199. He, and his immediate fucceffors, were ilyled Otto- 

 cari, or Othogari, on account of their attachment to the 

 ir.tere!! of the emperor Otho. Upon the death of Wcncef- 

 laus IV. A.D 1255, his fon Premiflaus Othogar fucceeded 

 I him ; and having fettled his affairs in Bohemia, took pofief- 

 fion of Auilria, i^lina, part of Carinthia, and other provinces 

 to the fouth,and carried his arms into PruHiafor the defence 

 of the Chrillians ; and having defeated his oppofers in fevcral 

 engagements, he prevailed on many of the people to abandon 

 Paganifm. After his return to Bohemia, in 1271, he is 

 faid difdainfully to have rejected the imperial crown, which 

 was afterwards given to Rodolpluis, count of Hapfburg ; 

 but Othogar refuling to do him homage, and to take from 

 him the inveftiture of his ilates, alleging that he owed him 

 nothing, and that he had paid him his wages, Rodolph 

 having been great marfhal of his court, was at length obliged 

 to comply, and to deliver five ftandards to the emperor for 

 the five fiefs which he pofTcflTed. A reconciliation, however, 

 afterwards took place, and Othoear received the inveftiture 

 of Bohemia and Moravia, on condition of renouncing Auf- 

 tria, Carinthia, and Stiria. Wenceflaus V. fucceeded his 

 father in 127S, and was elefted king of Poland ; but refuftd 

 the fccptre of Hungaiy, that was offered him, in favour of his 

 fon. In 1310, the ancient lineage failed ; and John, the 

 fon of the emperor Henry VII. of the family of Luxem- 

 bourg, who had married the yo'jngeft fitter of Wencefiaus 

 VI., obtained pofiefiion of the kingdom of Bohemia. John, 

 having refigned Bohemia to his fon Charles, and procured 

 for him the imperial dignity, proceeded with him to France, 

 to the affillance of Philip againft the £nglifh, and was fl^in 

 in the famous battle of Crecy, in 1346. Charles IV. em- 

 peror, having fucceeded his father, created his brother John 

 marquis of Moravia, erefted an univerfity at Prague upon 

 the plan of that at Paris, and engaged pope Clement VI. to 

 erect the fee of Prague into an archbilhopric, with this privi- 

 lege annexed to it, that the archbilhop fliould have the honour 

 of crowning the king of Bohemia. He enlarged and beautified 

 his capital, by adding what is called the New City, in which he 

 founded the college of Carlftcin. With the afiiiiar.ce of feve- 

 ral learned perfons, he reduced the laws of the kingdom to 

 writing, which are ftill extant, under the name of " Caroline 

 Contlitutions." He greatly extended the boundaries of his 

 hereditary dominions, and caufed his fon Wencellaus to be 

 crowned king, in the fecond year of his age. He alio 

 prevailed vnth the eleftors to chufe him king of the 

 Romans, in the fixteenth year of his age ; and having 

 commenced the junftion of the Moldaw with the Danube, 

 he died before he had executed his defign ; and in I.J/S, was 

 fucceeded by his fon Wenceflaus VII. In the reign of this 



prince, who was notorioufly diffohite, prodigate, and favage, 

 and who, by hib lice-n'oufncfs and cruelty, incurred the ha- 

 tred of his fuhjecls, John Hufs • ud Jerome of Prague intro- 

 duced the do&rints of the reformation into Bohemia. See 

 Huss, and Jerome. Wenceflaus died fuddenly in 1419; 

 and before his brother Sigifmund, who luccecded him as 

 king of Bohemia and tniperorof Germany, could come from 

 Hungary to take pofft:fiion of the crown, the Hufiites, under 

 John Zifca, had acquired great Itrength, and, up n his ap- 

 proach to the kingdom, they lent deputies to him, defiring 

 liberty of confciencc ; b'.:t, inllead of granting their requell, 

 he only declared, that he intended to govern the kingdom 

 as his father had done. A civil war enfued, in which the 

 troops of Sigifmund fuftained feveral defeats ; and which, 

 after a continuance of fixteen years, cccafioned by his breach 

 of faith to Hufs and Jerome, terminated in feveral concef- 

 fions, and in his admiflion into Prague with great folemnity 

 and rejoicing. Upon the death of Sigifmund, in 1438, Al- 

 bert of Audria, who had married his daughter, received the 

 crowns of Bohemia and Hungary. The fucceflion was, 

 however, afterwards difputed and infringed by George Po- 

 diebrad, a Huffite chief ; by Uladiflaus, ion of Cafimir, king 

 of Poland ; and by Matthias, king of Hungary. Uladiflaus 

 ultimately fucceeded, being elerted, in 147X, by the ma- 

 jority of the rtates, and foon after receiving the invelliture 

 trom the emperor. Upon the death of Uladiflaus, in the 

 45th year of his reign over the Bohemians, and the 23d 

 over the Hungarians, he was fucceeded by his fon Lewis in 

 both the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungarv, A.D. 1516; 

 but, in 1526, he engaged the Turks at Mohatz, and being 

 utterly defeated, was drowned in the Danube, in his flight. 

 After the death of Lewis, his dominions fell to Ferdinand, 

 archduke of Auftria, infant of Spain, and afterwards empe- 

 ror, who had married Anne, the only daughter of Uladif- 

 laus : and both the empire, and the kingdom of Bohemia, 

 have ever fince continued in the houfe of Auftria. Ferdi- 

 nand, at a diet of the ftates held in 1547, declared the king- 

 dom hereditary and abfolute ; and when Ferdinand II., in 

 1620, had routed the army of his rival Frederick at the 

 White Mountain near Prague, Bohemia was reduced fully 

 to the co: dition of an hereditary kingdom ; fo that from 

 that time the ftates had no concern with the right of fuc- 

 cefiion. The crown, however, is conferred with fome ap- 

 pearance of election, which right the ftates of that kingdom 

 pretend to claim ; altliongh, by the treaty cf Wcftphalia, 

 Bohemia is declared hereditary in the houfe of Auftria. The 

 king of Bohemia is the firft fecular eleftor, and as fnch pays 

 homage to the emperor and the empire for his ftates ; and 

 with this exception, he has a right to exercife, through all 

 his dominions, the royal authority agreeably to the laws of 

 the kingdom, which prohibit his raifing contributions or 

 taxes otherwife than at the time when the ftates are af- 

 fembled, the appointment of which is entirely in their own 

 power. He gives his opinion, as eledtor, after the elector 

 of Cologne, and formerly afufted at the afft-mbly of the 

 electors only at the election of an emperor, nor did he appear 

 always at the diets of th.e empire. He is arch-butler, or 

 arch-cup-bearer, of the holy Roman empire ; and on this 

 office his right to chufe a king of the Romans is faid to de- 

 pend. It has been alleged, that Bohemia has been of old 

 time a genuine ftate of the German empire, without contri- 

 buting to its taxes, which was a privilege conferred upon it by 

 Frederick II. in i 212, who at the fame time exempted it from 

 the jurifdiftion of the fupreme judicatory of the empire. In 

 1 708, it was acknowledged by the three colleges of the empire, 

 at an aft of the diet called "the admifiion," that the king and 

 eleftor of Bohemia has an undoubted rieht of feat and voice in 

 all its afTcmblies ; in confequence of which the emperor oro- 

 a miied. 



