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The Kingdom of Bohemia (Czech: České království; German: Königreich Böhmen; Latin: Regnum Bohemiae) was a country in Central Europe, a de-facto independent member of the Holy Roman Empire and thereafter a part of the Austrian Empire.
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History
The kingdom was formally established in 1212 by the Golden Bull of Sicily issued by Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, promoting the Duchy of Bohemia to the kingdom status, although some former rulers of Bohemia had enjoyed a non-hereditary royal title. It was dissolved in 1918 with the fall of Austria-Hungary when the last king of Bohemia, Charles III of Habsburg-Lorraine, abdicated. The national assembly at Prague then deposed the Habsburg dynasty and proclaimed the Czechoslovak Republic.
Bohemia (Čechy) proper with the County of Kladsko (Hrabství kladské) was the main area of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (země Koruny české), together with the incorporated provinces:
- The March of Moravia (Markrabství moravské), acquired by Přemyslid and Slavník Bohemian rulers after the 955 Battle of Lechfeld, lost in 999 to Kingdom of Poland and reconquered by Duke Břetislav I Přemyslid in 1019/1029 (uncertain dating);
- Upper Lusatia (Horní Lužice), incorporated by King John of Luxembourg in 1319 (Bautzen) and 1329 (Görlitz), and Lower Lusatia (Dolní Lužice, former Margraviate of Lusatia), acquired by John's son Charles IV from Otto V of Wittelsbach, Margrave of Brandenburg in 1367. Ferdinand II of Habsburg lost Lusatia to the Electorate of Saxony with the 1635 Peace of Prague;
- The Duchies of Silesia (Slezsko), acquired by the 1335 Treaty of Trencsén between Jan Lucemburský and King Casimir III of Poland. Maria Theresa of Habsburg lost Silesia in 1742 to King Frederick II of Prussia, with the exception of Austrian Silesia
and, at times:
- The Duchy of Austria in 1251, the Duchy of Styria in 1261, the Egerland in 1266, the Duchy of Carinthia with the March of Carniola and the Windic March in 1269 and the March of Friuli in 1272, all acquired by King Ottokar II Přemyslid and lost to Rudolph of Habsburg in the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld. The Egerland (Chebsko) was again given in pawn to Bohemia by German King Louis IV of Wittelsbach in 1322;
- The northern part of the Upper Palatinate ("New Bohemia") at Sulzbach, incorporated by Charles IV in 1355. Charles' son Wenceslaus lost the Upper Palatinate in 1400 to the Electoral Palatinate under King Rupert of Germany;
- The Brandenburg Electorate, acquired by Charles IV from Duke Otto V of Wittelsbach in 1373. Charles' son Sigismund lost Brandenburg in 1415 to Frederick of Hohenzollern.
During the reign of the last Přemyslids and the succeeding House of Luxembourg the Bohemian kingdom was the most powerful state of the Holy Roman Empire[citation needed]. King Wenceslaus II Přemyslid was crowned King of Poland in 1300, his son Wenceslaus III King of Hungary one year later. Though both crowns were lost after Wenceslaus' III assassination in 1306, the rise of Bohemia continued, when in 1346 the heir to the Bohemian throne, Charles of Luxembourg was elected King of the Romans and crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1355. The issue of the 1356 Golden Bull together with the following acquisition of the Brandenburg Electorate gave the Bohemian Kingdom two votes in the electoral college. Charles made Prague the Imperial residence and his son King Sigismund again acquired the Hungarian crown by marriage with queen regnant Mary in 1385. His successors of the Jagiellon and Habsburg dynasty ruled both countries in personal union, strengthening the status of Bohemia as an autonomous part of the Empire. Thus the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were not part of the Imperial Circles established by the 1500 Imperial Reform.
After the early death of King Louis II Jagiellon at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Bohemian kingdom was inherited by his brother-in-law, the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand I of Habsburg. The subsequent incorporation of Bohemia into the Habsburg hereditary lands against the resistance of the local Protestant nobility sparked off the 1618 Defenestration of Prague and the Thirty Years' War.
With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Bohemian kingdom - consisting only of Bohemia, Moravia and Austrian Silesia - was incorporated into the Austrian Empire. In the course of the 1867 Austro-Hungarian Compromise these three provinces became crown lands of Cisleithania.
The current Czech Republic consisting of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia still uses some symbols of the Kingdom of Bohemia: a two-tailed lion in its coat-of-arms and the royal castle as the president's office.
Administration
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Kraje of Bohemia |
Kraje of Moravia |
Lusatias |
See also
References
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