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Czechoslovakia Bohemian Kingdom
Foundation
When the Great Moravian Empire disintegrated, a new political
entity, the Bohemian Kingdom, emerged. It would play an important
role in the development of the Czech nation. The Bohemian Kingdom
was a major medieval and early modern political, economic, and
cultural entity and subsequently was viewed by many Czechs as one
of the brightest periods of Czech history. But whatever its longrange implications for Czech history, it is important to remember
that the Bohemian Kingdom was a medieval state in which ethnic or
national questions were far overshadowed by dynastic politics.
The Bohemian Kingdom emerged in the tenth century when the
Premyslid chiefs--members of the Cechove, a tribe from which the
Czechs derive their name--unified neighboring Czech tribes and
established a form of centralized rule. Cut off from Byzantium by
the Hungarian presence, the Bohemian Kingdom existed in the
shadow of the Holy Roman Empire. In 950 the powerful emperor Otto
I, a Saxon, led an expedition to Bohemia demanding tribute; the
Bohemian Kingdom thus became a fief of the Holy Roman Empire and
its king one of the seven electors of the emperor. The German
emperors continued the practice of using the Roman Catholic
clergy to extend German influence into Czech territory.
Significantly, the bishopric of Prague, founded in 973 during the
reign of Boleslav II (967-99), was subordinated to the German
archbishopric of Mainz. Thus, at the same time that Premyslid
rulers utilized the German alliance to consolidate their rule
against a perpetually rebellious regional nobility, they
struggled to retain their autonomy in relation to the empire.
After a struggle with Poland and Hungary, the Bohemian
Kingdom acquired Moravia in 1029. Moravia, however, continued to
be a separate margravate, usually ruled by a younger son of the
Bohemian king. Because of complex dynastic arrangements,
Moravia's link with the Bohemian Kingdom between the eleventh and
sixteenth centuries was occasionally severed; during such
interludes Moravia was subordinated directly to the Holy Roman
Empire or to Hungary
(see
fig. 2). Although Moravia's fate was
intertwined with Bohemia's, in general it did not participate in
Bohemia's civil and religious struggles. The main course of Czech
history evolved in Bohemia proper.
Data as of August 1987
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