The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Monday 11 October 2004

Bohemian Crowns - Part II

click here for Part I

Mention royalty and most people don’t immediately think of the Czech Republic. Sure, the country hasn’t had a royal ruler since 1918, or even a terribly high-profile royal class for nearly as long, but the incredibly rich royal history of the Czech people is deserving of far more notice than it is usually given.  

As we discovered last week in Part I, between King Samo in the 7^th century and the end of the royal House of Premyslid in 1306, the early Czech state went from a coalition of independent tribes to a distinct kingdom with both valid claims and tenuous pretensions to even greater territories. From the time Bohemia became a kingdom in 1198, it took less than 120 years for the fledgling monarchy to acquire the dukedom of Austria and the kingdoms of Poland and Hungary, either through marriage, reputation, or military might. After 1306, however, the Czech monarchy would exist almost entirely in foreign hands.   

Foreign Rule and the Hapsburgs

Historically and otherwise, a small country often has little chance of escaping the notice of a greater, more powerful country. For Bohemia, staying under the radar of the Holy Roman Empire was next to impossible; but, miraculously, it managed for a while to maintain a semblance of autonomy, and even political and military power, beneath the shadow of the great Empire, although it couldn’t last forever. 

In 950, the Principality of Bohemia had become a fief of the Holy Roman Empire and, shortly thereafter, the Empire’s power was further extended to the Church when the bishopric of Prague was subordinated to the German archbishopric of Mainz. In spite of – or perhaps because of – these connections, the country thrived in many ways. Wars were won, profitable marriages were made and – perhaps most significantly for the future – unmanageable and power hungry Czech aristocrats and competing royals were temporarily contained. Best of all, cooperation with the Empire resulted in the ultimate prize – becoming a kingdom. But the connection between the Bohemian crown and the Holy Roman Empire would become much more intimate after Wenceslaus III was murdered in 1306.  

In 1212, King Otakar I of Bohemia had secured a Golden Bull from the Holy Roman Emperor that confirmed the Premyslid’s hereditary right to the throne. But with the death of Wenceslaus III, who left behind no heir, the right of succession was open to question and the ultimate authority on who would succeed was left with the Czech nobility. Erring on the side of heredity, they elected Henry, Duke of Carinthia – who was married to Anne of Premyslid, daughter of Wenceslaus II and sister of Wenceslaus III – as king of Bohemia in 1306. But it was not going to be this easy. 

Although Anne was the niece of the reigning Holy Roman Emperor, Albert I of Habsburg (Hapsburg), he nevertheless used his power to replace Henry with his own son, Rudolph, that same year. This time, however, fate would take precedence over power. Barely a year later, Rudolph I of Bohemia died and the Emperor’s own power had waned enough that the Czech nobility was able to reinstate Henry of Carinthia. With the death of the Emperor in 1308, Henry’s position should have been secure, but his unpopular policies alienated him from the ruling elite, who deposed him in 1310. He was quickly replaced by none other than his brother-in-law – yet another son of a Holy Roman Emperor. This time, the new king of Bohemia was not a Habsburg, but John, Count of Luxemburg, who was married to another daughter of Wenceslaus II, Elizabeth of Premyslid. Their son, Charles of Luxemburg, would become the first king of Bohemia who was also a Holy Roman Emperor. 

Crowned Charles I of Bohemia in 1346 and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1355, Charles reigned in both roles until his death in 1378. In that 32 year period, he did more to influence the modern Czech state than perhaps any ruler before him. My Czech friend calls Charles IV “a righteous dude” – a sentiment historians seem to agree with, even if it’s not quite in those words. In any case, Charles reigned over what many consider to have been the “Golden Age” of Czech history. Among his greatest achievements, he elevated the bishopric of Prague to an archbishopric and gave the archbishop the right to crown Czech kings, he restored the kingdom’s autonomy by removing it as a fief of the Empire, and he began the process of making Prague a center of politics, education, and architecture. Clearly, having a Holy Roman Emperor as king was a good thing. Well, almost… 

Confirming that sometimes the apple does indeed fall far from the tree, Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia – also known as “the drunkard” – succeeded his father’s glorious reigns in 1378, becoming both king of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor. With a nickname like that, it may come as no surprise that Wenceslaus was deposed as Emperor in 1400 and barely limped along as king of Bohemia until 1419, when he made what was perhaps the best move of his reign – he died. The throne then passed to his half-brother, Sigismund – the third Bohemian king/Holy Roman Emperor, although he was emperor before he was king of Bohemia, having gained his imperial position in 1410. Through his marriage to Mary, Queen of Hungary, Sigismund was also king of that country. He died in 1437, leaving the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary to his only child, Elizabeth, or – more precisely – to her husband, Albert II of Habsburg, Duke of Austria, thus ending the relatively brief Luxemburg dynasty in Bohemia.  

Albert also became Holy Roman Emperor in 1438, but died in 1439, leaving the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary and the duchy of Austria to his son, Ladislav. The only catch was that Ladislav came into this great inheritance four months before his own birth in 1440. This minor detail would earn him the name, Ladislav Posthumous. But if you think this is where the Hapsburg dynasty in Bohemia begins in earnest, sit back and relax a moment, we’re almost there.  

Ladislav’s premature death in 1457 ushered in 68 years of royal chaos in Bohemia. As the 17-year-old King had left no heirs, the Czech nobility elected a Bohemian noble named George of Podebrady, who was no newcomer to the Bohemian crown. In 1451, the Holy Roman Emperor – who was Ladislav’s guardian – granted Podebrady administrative control of the kingdom. He was subsequently named regent and held that position until Ladislav was crowned in 1453. Although Podebrady was widely blamed for Ladislav’s mysterious death, he was unanimously chosen as king in 1458. But while possible implication in the death of a young king might be overlooked, “crimes” against the Roman Catholic Church were most certainly not ignored. When Podebrady renounced the Catholic faith and officially established the Hussite religion in Bohemia, he was duly excommunicated and ordered deposed by Pope Paul II. Neighboring rulers and the Czech nobility united against Podebrady, but he successfully fought them off until his death in 1471.  

With Podebrady out of the way, a foreigner was once again elected as king of Bohemia – this time Polish Prince Vladislav II of Jagellon, who also became king of Hungary in 1490. He was succeeded in 1516 by his son, Ludwig II. But the Jagellon dynasty would not last long either – ending with Louis’ death in battle in 1526.  

The Czech nobility went back to work and elected Archduke Ferdinand – brother of the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V – as king of Bohemia. It’s interesting to note that Ferdinand was married to Anne of Bohemia, the sister of the late King Louis II of Bohemia, who had been married to Ferdinand’s sister, Maria of Habsburg. Ferdinand acted quickly to make Bohemia (as well as Hungary) the hereditary possession of the Hapsburgs, ensuring that the fate of the crown of Bohemia would almost exactly mirror that of the Hapsburg Empire right up to 1918 and the birth of the republic of Czechoslovakia.  

Czech Royalty Today

All of this brings us back (roughly) to the reason I wrote this column to begin with – the Prague Post article I read in June about the issues surrounding a recent visit to the Czech Republic by the exiled Princess Mercedes Dietrichstein. With virtually no knowledge of historical – never mind, current – Czech royalty, I was keen to find out who this exiled Princess was. What I discovered was both interesting and disappointing. Disappointing because the Princess was not what I hoped she would be – a native Bohemian royal. That group, it would seem, is a mere shadow of what it once was. Interesting because of why there are today so few native Czech royals and why the vast majority of the not-really-Czech royals are exiled from the Czech Republic. 

So, why the dearth of “true” Czech royals today? For one thing, the Premyslid sovereigns did just about anything to undermine the power – and even existence – of the indigenous nobility and royalty around them, including replace them with Germans and other foreigners. This is not to say that there are no descendents of the early Bohemian nobility and royalty remaining today. Notable examples include the Lobkowicz family – considered one of the oldest Bohemian noble families. Although royal titles were banned in 1918, a modern descendent of the ancient family, William Lobkowicz, is today a prince in all but name. 

But while the erosion of native Czech nobility is partially due to the early Bohemian kings, it perhaps goes without saying that much of the responsibility can be put at the feet of dozens of Hapsburg rulers who, over several centuries, gave property and titles in the Czech lands to their German friends and Hapsburg relatives. Today, the descendants of those individuals make up the vast majority of the non-native Czech nobility. 

While the machinations to weaken the native Czech nobility and create a new German nobility in the country may have been effective at keeping the Czech and Hapsburg monarchs in power, they sealed a problematic fate that would haunt the country in years to come – native mistrust and dislike of the power of German influence in the Czech lands. The problem came to a head after World War I, when the Beneš Decrees expelled approximately three million ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia, including much of the German nobility and royalty – like the Dietrichstein’s – who had become fixtures in the country over the past several hundred years. Today, many of these noble and royal families are still trying to contest their rights in the Czech Republic, while a few have been successful in their bids to reclaim their rights and their property. Some, like the family of Princess Dietrichstein, argue that they and their ancestors were never German citizens and, therefore, should not have been expelled. Ironically, some native Czech noble families like Lobkowicz’s are also struggling to reclaim lost land, which was taken from them during World War II.  

Clearly, this can’t be the end of the story of Czech royalty. With so many claims to dynasties and valuable properties as yet unresolved, it’s likely we’ll hear more about the subject in the future. Similarly, there’s so much more to the history than meets the eye and, in my opinion, it’s a subject worthy of much deeper study. Unfortunately, it’s also far more than can be uncovered in a two-part column; but, for me, it’s gratifying to have a better, more knowledgeable perspective on an article that caught my attention those five months ago. It’s also been a fascinating journey to discover the history of a monarchy that, up until June, I knew almost nothing about.

Until next week, 

- Tori Van Orden Martínez