sign in sign up
<<
Home , Lusatia, Moravians

Introduction

The Bohemian Crown Lands (Czech země Koruny české) were a small but diverse group of lands in late medieval and early modern , which con- sisted of five major constituent territories: the Kingdom of , the Margraviates of , Upper and , and the duchies of , all under the rule of the Bohemian crown. The population of these lands, esti- mated at between 1.25 to 2 million by the sixteenth century, was both multilin- gual and multi-religious, and included Czech, German, Polish, and Sorbian speakers, as well as Catholics, Protestants, and one of the largest Jewish popu- lations in Europe.1 Bohemia and Moravia, the historical core of the Bohemian Crown Lands, sit on a plateau protected by bands of rich forests and mountains to the north and west, which have served throughout history as natural boundaries but not as barriers to adjacent societies: the German lands in the north and north- west, to the northeast, Austria to the south, and to the south- east. With the exception of the Elbe River, into which Bohemia’s longest river, the Vltava, flows in the north, and the nearby River in the south. The Crown Lands lack access to sea and to major navigable waterways and are, thus, positioned outside of Europe’s major trade routes. But these lands were situated on some important secondary trade routes of the period, linking them to markets in Nuremberg, Linz, and Leipzig with connections to major trade centers in the Low Countries, England, and Italy, and the Bohemian Crown Lands played a major role in regional trade, production, and consumption. Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia were settled as far back as the Neolithic Age (6000–5500 B.C.E.), and formed the eastern edge of ancient Celtic expansion (fourth century B.C.E.) before the Germanic, then the Slavic, peoples settled in the in fourth to seventh centuries C.E. The name Bohemia derives from the Celtic tribe of Boii (Boiohaemum), which became the root of the and German terms (Bohemia, Böhmen). and refer to

1 Sorbian is a west Slavic language that is closely related to Czech and Polish and is spoken primarily in Lusatia. The population estimate is from Ludmila Fialová et al., Dějiny obyvatel- stva českých zemí (Prague: Mladá fronta, 1998), 100–101. One estimate of the break-down of population estimates by territory at the beginning of the sixteenth century is Bohemia (1–2.25 million), Moravia (585,000–620,000), and Silesia (860,000–940,000); Joachim Bahlcke, Regionalismus und Staatsintegration im Widerstreit. Die Länder der Böhmischen Krone im ersten Jahrhundert der Habsburgerherrschaft (1526–1619) (Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1994), 9.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���4 | doi 10.1163/9789004277588_002 2 introduction their lands based on the names of Slavic tribes who replaced the Celts and Germanic peoples after 530 C.E. (Čechy and Morava; adj. český, moravský). In the tenth century, Silesia (Czech Slezko, Polish Śląsk, German Schlesien) was incorporated into the Polish state. With the fragmentation of Poland in the twelfth century, Silesia divided into independent duchies, which came under German, Bohemian, and Polish influence. and Lower Lusatia evolved out of territories settled and ruled by the Milzane and Lunsizi, respec- tively, the largest Slavic tribes between the Salle and Oder River. The latter tribe gave its name to the territories (Czech Lužíce, German Lausitz). The beginnings of the Bohemian state date back to the middle of the ninth and early tenth century when the Premyslid dynasty consolidated power along the Vltava River and eventually established a residence on a hill overlooking a bend of the river known today as Prague Castle Hill.2 The conversion of the Premyslids to Christianity (ca. 883) helped strengthen their home power base by because it led them gaining recognition from outside powers, especially the neighboring Eastern Frankish Empire whose leaders viewed Bohemia as a zone of influence. In the late ninth and tenth century, the Premyslids became more powerful and their relationship with political and ecclesiastical lead- ers in neighboring Regensburg, East Franconia, and Bavaria grew closer with the impending break-up of the Great Moravian Empire, a early state forma- tion, which extended over parts of Bohemia, Moravia, today’s , and the Danubian lowlands, and because of the threat of attack by Magyars (the people who settled neighboring Hungary). During the reign of Duke Václav (ca. 907–935 C.E.), Bohemia experienced an intensification of activity from Bavaria, especially the Cathedral Chapter of St. Emmeram in Regensburg. Reports of the first churches in Bohemia date from this period, especially the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, which later became the Metropolitan church and coronation and burial site of Bohemian kings. The foundation of the bishopric of Prague in 983, inde- pendent of Salzburg (Regensburg’s metropolitan) and subordinate to Mainz, shifted ties from the regional to the imperial sphere and strengthened the authority and standing of the Premyslids. In the twelfth century, imperial and local leaders first recognized the Bohemian rulers as kings. During this time, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa took over Moravia as an imperial appanage and declared it a free margraviate, but shortly thereafter

2 For an excellent, recent survey of Bohemian history from pre-historic times to the formation of the , see Jaroslav Pánek, Oldřích Tůma et al., A History of the , trans. by Justin Quinn, Petra Key, and Lea Bennis (Prague: Karolinum, 2009). See also Mikuláš Teich, ed., Bohemia in History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).