HISTORY OF BOHEMIA. John Hus. HISTORY OF BOHEMIA BY ROBERT H. VICKERS Autnor of "Martyrdoms of Literature," etc., etc. ^V :? V CHICAGO CHARLES H. SERGEL COMPANY MDCCCXCIV ^^-n^ :b Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1894, by Robert H. Vickers, in the ofiSce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. A// Rights Reserved. PREFACE. Whatever may be the success of this book, the labor expended in the preparation of it has been very great. The unhappy land whose story is here recorded had, until very recently, almost sunk out of observation, and its very name had become understood more as a metonym for literary vagabondage than as expressing the dwelling place of a once great nation. The history of Bohemia is totally unknown to the great majority of English speaking people. But the presence of a large body of Bohemians in the United States, the association of some members of that nation with the very foundation of the American colonies and their experiences in Europe identical with those of the other pioneers of our Commonwealth, render the history of Bohemia's career essential to the education of every American. Citizens will perhaps hear with incredu- lity the assertion that the civil constitution of Bohemia is the parent of that of England and of our own. Well may the Americans study the story of centuries' struggle to maintain and transmit an institutional sys- tem, almost identical with that of the United States, during those dark ages when almost all semblance of a recognition of popular institutions had elsewhere disappeared. To the many struggles of Bohemia we owe the perpetuation of our boasted freedom in an era when only the Bohemian arm was raised in its de- fense. Lovers and champions of human rights, as Americans are, they may welcome the recital of a tale of rugged heroism in defense of strictly popular prin- ciples, five, six, yes, seven centuries before the sail of the Mayflower wafted a similar "body politic" to our shores. Americans will learn with still greater 5 6 PREFA CE admiration, and possibly with astonishment, that the spirit that maintained and fought, and held, and al- most died many times during six centuries, has never been subdued, though often beaten, and almost crushed into obliteration for two hundred and seventy years. Especially sad is the recital, and replete with narra- tion of agonies certainly unequalled since Jerusalem fell before Titus. So persistent has been the struggle for liberty, for a free mind, and a free body, for popu- lar self-government and national independence, and so fierce, relentless, and barbarous has been the vio- lence employed for the annihilation of these coveted rights, that the spirit of revenge has attempted, with large success, to obliterate the very record of the struggle, lest its purposes and its character should be known. Even the perpetrators of all these horrors against Bohemia have not scrupled to cast out the name of that land as a synonym of vagabondage. Bo- hemia's early enlightenment and free civil policy in one sense proved its misfortune, inasmuch as the rest of the world was then too barbarous and too cruel either to understand or to tolerate it. Hence the es- pecial difficulty of providing connected materials for a continuous narrative. The enemies of Bohemia have always directed their especial venom against its liter- ature. In every age when its efforts for enlightenment became conspicuous and palpably useful, the good was savagely beaten down and extirpated from the earth. Only by remnants discovered at intervals outside its borders,, from Italy to Sweden, and from Silesia to Scotland, have chroniclers and scholars been able to secure the memorials sufficient for a history. With a shocking brutality of inhumanity the persecutors of Bohemia repeatedly swept every discoverable and ac- cessible vestige of the native literature to utter de- PREFACE 7 struction. Again and again has the work of centuries been effaced by the fury of the devastator; and as late as A. D 1849, there were those who traversed the land destroying Bohemia's books with as much vindic- tivenessasof old, as many persons now citizens of the United States can testify. That this narrative may be the better understood, it is proper here to premise that five principal periods constitute the story of Bohemia : I. From the foundation of the nation to the death of Otakar II. A. D., 1278. II. From 1278 to the close of the Hussite wars, 1435- III. From the Hussite wars to the Reformation period and the calamities of 1545. IV. From 1545 to the dreadful disasters and cruel sufferings, 1620- 1635. V.' From that period to the revival of Bohemian language and life, 1848-1870. Of these periods the first is necessarily explanatory of the others. It exhibits the origin, character and persistenc}' of the Bohemian civil institutions until the fatal intervention of the house of Habsburg. The second discloses the causes — many of them hitherto misrepresented — of the Hussite reformation and the splendid achievements which distinguished that great epoch. The third exhibits the unbroken continuity of the great religious reform until assumed and perpetuated by its strong advocates of the sixteenth century. The fourth represents Bohemia in bondage and in woe; but still true to her national principles, and si- lently resolved to re-assert them. The fifth exhibits the appalling cruelties and calam- ities of the seventeenth century unexampled and un- approached for barbarity in the annals of any other 8 PRE FA CE nation ancient or modern. No people have ever been made the victims of such atrocious malignity of per- secution as the Bohemians in that period. The suffer- ings of Holland indeed were dreadful — those of Bo- hemia wholly without parallel. The Bohemian people are more than entitled to the vindication accorded to them, however imperfectly, in this story. Their nation has been persistently insulted, their name made a mockery, their character maligned, and their most honorable efforts as industrious citizens sedulously calumniated. To the apprehension of most persons a Bohemian means a vagabond, a gypsy, a tramp, an anarchist, a conspirator. The least breath of popular discontent is attributed to Bohemians ; and yet they are a most orderly, industrious, peaceable and thrifty people, good citizens in every walk of life. To exhibit this story in its truth the author has re- ferred to original authorities. In the destruction of Bo- hemian literature, and the prohibition to publish any work in that language in force for centuries, the silence of the Bohemian tongue is accounted for. Fortunately other languages largely supply its place. Among other authorities, Cosmas the chronicler of Prague adorned the eleventh century, and his work is extant. Pontes Rerum Bohemicarum contains valuable ma- terials; both composed in Latin. ^neas Sylviias, pope Pius II, wrote his history of Bohemia in Latin. Melchior Goldast has preserved in Latin and Ger- man large volumes of most valuable state documents from the tenth century down to the seventeenth. They have been liberally used. Balbinus also wrote in Latin. His Suppleraentum contains a large amount of most valuable public rec- PREFACE 9 ords from Methodius to Matthias II. of Hungary, — 1611 — that are wanting in Goldast. All the German Annalists whose works shed light on our subject are in the same tongue. Amos Komensky, the illustrious educator and eye witness of the horrors of 1620-1635, wrote his Historia Persecutionum in Latin originally. Every copy of his work is supposed to have been destroyed; but for- tunately a Bohemian translation had been secured. Paulus Stransky another martyr and exile also wrote in Latin and his work is almost the only one known in England. It is replete with details of the institu- tions, rights, laws, and vicissitudes of Bohemia. Palacky composed his history, first published, in Ger- man — his last volume in Bohemian — a splendid triumph. Pelzel wrote in German. No early annalist or historical work of any kind ex- ists in Bohemian. Histories indeed now abound in that language, but all are translations. The author, howeyer, has freely used the most im- portant of these, including the excellent and recent work of Rezek ; and is indebted to the scholarly and pains-taking assistance of thoroughly competent Bo- hemians who do not care to be here quoted. The number of works included in the authorities employed is great; but their recapitulation would seem pedantic, as they consist of the well-known works of classic authors familiar to scholars. In the brief account of the biography of Genghis Khan, I have made use of DeMailla and other author- ities, as the subject is exhibited to illustrate the story in a phase generally unknown and to most readers obscure. On that subject I prefer De Mailla, and I have not quoted at second-hand from any writer on Bohemia. This book being produced partly as a friendly and lo PREFACE profoundly sympathetic offering to the Bohemian peo- ple, in token that their wrongs are not wholly forgot- ten or overlooked, and partly as a free contribution to general historical literature, it has been necessary to adapt the work perhaps more to the general reader than to the Bohemian. Names of cities and persons have been presented in English and also in Bohemian form as more suitable ; and the author has endeav- ored, however imperfectly, to present a work that shall fairly represent the special reverence of Bohemians for details of their own history, and also respect the broader views of the ordinary reader. To draw the line between the taste of the Bohemian who prizes every syllable of his country's story, and the minute deeds of its heroes, and the general student who cares only for a narration of political institutions in their general influence on the fate of nations is perhaps not possible. But sufficient of both has been presented to exhibit the character of the events set forth. Above all things truth has been sought, and it is fully believed ex- pressed, although it may be in some directions distaste- ful. He who undertakes to write history must set forth history and not merely a sentimental fragment of it. The real causes of Bohemia's wrongs and downfall have been investigated and exhibited however the statement of them may be regarded. If the real causes of the events be not described the events themselves are of little importance. This book attempts to occupy a space at present wholly eimpty in the English language; and if the good the volume can do will only represent .a frac- tion of the many years of toil — though it must be said, enthusiastic toil, involved in it, the writer will be thankful. It is cordially presented as friendship's sympathetic offering to the Bohemian people. I. II. Ill IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. CONTENTS. PAGE Geographical Conditions ^^ Early Occupants— First Roman Aggression i8 Settlement and Political Institutions of the Chekh. .,. 35 Bohemia Assumes a Place among Nations 4^ Division of the German Empire; and war with Louis the Pious 49 Separation of the Eastern and Western Churches and its^ Relation to Bohemia— War with Germany 54 Internal Polity of Bohemia. 72 The Great Era of Bretislav— Administration of Bohe- mia strictly Native and Local ■ 85 Vratislav— Gregory VII— Bohemia becomes a King- dom • ••■ 108 Clerical Celibacy Introduced into Bohemia— First Crusade— Civil War— Education—Great Victory over the Germans — Religious Sects 125 Interference of Barbarossa in Bohemia— Death of that _ Prince— Clerical Celibacy, and Connection of this Subject with the Hussite Reformation — In- crease and Spread of Sects — Premysl Otakar I, — Cardinal Guido and the Cumanians — Andreas, the Thomas a Becket of Bohemia 159 Wenzel I.— Otakar II— The Tartars 195 Otakar II 230 Disorganized Condition of Bohemia after the Death of Otakar 29: Internal Commotions to the Death of King John 323 Reign of Charles IV 357 The Growthof- the Hussite Reformation . ...... 378 ^-^ Council of Constance and Martyrdom of Hus 402 Period of the Hussite War 421 L^ Council of Basle— Rise of George Podebrad 446 The Decadence of Bohemia 499 14 CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER XXII. Emperor Maximilian, Rudolph II., Matthias, Ferdi- nand II 560 XXIII. Bohemia prostrated and Crushed 594 XXIV. Carnival of Devastation and Cruelty in Bohemia 612 XXV. Destruction of the Nobility ... 627 XXVI. Waldstein, Carafa, Monks, Jesuits and their Cruelties. 631 XXVII. The Thirty Year's War Continued 659 XXVIII. Bohemia from 1648 to 1782 686 XXIX. Bohemia from 1782 to 1848 706 XXX. Bohemia from 1848 to the Present Time 721 APPENDIX 753 INDEX 759 MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE. John Hus , Frontispiece. Map of Bohemia 13 Early Bohemian Art 46 Cosmos, Dean of Prague 134 Coin of King Wenzel. ] 196 Seal of Otakar II ig6 Karlstein 358 Bethlehem Church 378 Birthplace of Hus 386 John Zizka 410 Hussite Weapons 438 View of Vysehrad 550 John Amos Komensky 656 Joseph Debrovsky 706 Joseph Safarik 710 Joseph J ungmann 710 John Kollar 710 Francis L. Celakovsky 710 Charles Harrlicek 728 Francis Palacky 734 Bohemian National Theatre 740 tr vschberq IxC--- .. ^BusbluKu "5 MtsW Sm "^^ ^r^Sia4 tioloMV i?« « aMoKBuJljovtce ^ Brfinnj Vy XK«n ^P^j*^y Hal UhersMBro liujitape MiKxrieTu "yf A* Prague /? ^ jlC Bolriemia. leiiiian Population; blue, the Gerinaii. Bet- OPl IVLeip o1 The pii'ts colored red indicate B 'n HISTORY OF BOHEMIA CHAPTER I. GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS. Bohemia is a small and somewhat isolated country situated in the heart of Europe, between 9° 45' 35" and 14° 31' 22" east of Paris, and 48° 33' 53" and 51° 3' 27" degrees of north latitude. It is a geographical picture framed with mountains ; and the forests, pla- teaux and plains with their abrupt ravines and spread- ing undulations, and the numerous streams that di- rect their bright currents to the central Elbe provide the successive light and shade of the panorama. The various groups of mountains which establish at once the isolation and the compactness of the country fairly represent the principal geological periods of mount- ain formation. The primitive mountains proper oc- cupy chiefly the south and southeast, and include the Bohmervald, the northern, and the Sumava the southern portion of the great chain which constitutes in general the southern boundary of the country. This chain is composed chiefly of the primitive rocks, — granite, schiste, and mica-schiste. A second chain of primitive mountains protects the northwest; and is divided into three principal por- tions, one of which stretches away into Saxony. The formation of this group is chiefly granitic. In the midst 11 12 HISTORY OF BOHEMIA of these mountain ranges last named is found a small elevated plateau named Labska Louka (Elbewiese) which gives rise to the Labe River or Elbe. The elevation of the principal peaks varies from 3,000 to 5,000 feet. A third chain of primitive mountains called in geography Adlergebirge (Orlicke Hory), con- stitutes a group apart from the others and is com- posed of gneiss and mica-schiste. The Silurian epoch is well represented by the Brdy Hills; and in this formation fossils of crustaceans, cephalopods, and marine zooliths are found in abund- ance. Still more important are the coal deposits, several of which are still worked with excellent re- sults; and one at least was extensively mined as early as the fifteenth century but is now exhausted. A third system of mountain elevations occupies a place between the former two. Known under the general title of Stony, this group contains coal, iron and chalk; and furnishes excellent quarry stone in several places, A fourth system consists of numer- ous hills of volcanic origin which range from 1,000 to 2,000 feet in height. The river system of Bohemia is abundantly capable of supplying all that is needed for inland navigation. It occupies about a two hundredth part of the surface of the country, and is remarkable for the facility with which it can be made available for boats and barges. But while the portion of water surface available for boats amounts to nearlj^ one hundred and thirty miles in length, the navigable portion extends to about one- third of that distance. The canal system is not ex- tensive and covers only about thirty miles. In general the streams are but tributaries to the Elbe which is the great water way of Bohemia. Many small lakes GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS 13 diversify the landscape; and they are noticeable for the softness of the water. Very little marsh land ex- ists, and the entire amount does not exceed fifteen hundred acres. The climate of Bohemia is mild and salubrious, and has always favored the nurture of a very vigorous population. Thunder and hail storms in the mount- ain regions are frequent and severe, and the transition from winter to summer, and again to winter, is notice- abl}^ abrupt; but the summer season partakes much of the character of spring. The surface is undulating and the soil fertile, and produces with ordinary attention and skill every de- scription of food known, usually, in the center of Eu- rope. Extensive regions are covered with valuable timber forests containing oak, elm, maple, ash, ha- zel, whitethorn, wild plum, buckthorn, cornel, and wild fruit trees of many kinds. The more elevated regions produce pine and red oak of excellent quality. The mulberry, the chestnut, the poplar, and the aca- cia, adorn the level country and the river banks in great abundance. The flora of Bohemia is very diver- sified, and includes many Alpine plants usually dis- covered only in a warmer latitude. Mines of silver, copper, iron and lead afford the source of a highly remunerative industry; and tin, antimony, zinc, nickel, tungsten, uranium, sulphur, and alum contrib- ute a very important portion of the general wealth. Carp, pike, perch, salmon in the Elbe, and trout, are found usually in the streams, and in the south form a valuable addition to the food of the people ; while the parks and farms are fairly stocked with deer and the usual varieties of game and domestic animals. The natural elements of comfort and wealth are furnished 14 HISTORY OF BOHEMIA in sufficient abundance to maintain a hard}^, robust, en- lightened and independent people. Bohemia is fully supplied not only with the means to feed and invigorate her children, but also with those natural palliatives of disease and debility com- monly knovv^n as mineral waters. The springs of 'Top- litz, Karlovary (Carlsbad), Marienbad, Franzensbad, Bilin, Kysibel, and Libverda are all resorted to by the feeble and suffering. The first named locality is a resort of wide celebrity. Two abundant springs of warm water known respectively as the Hauptquelle, and the Steinbadquelle, issue from the porphyry, and form the stream of the Schonau. Numerous other springs are found at different levels in the little val- ley, and all contain the same mineral properties. These various springs when united form a considerable stream of warm water whose beneficent qualities are sufficient for a far more numerous body of health seek- ers than resort to them; while the character of warmth has supplied, as usual, the title of the locality.* While nature has been thus bountiful her beneficence has been liberally imitated. Not alone the wealthy and exalted among men are cared for at Toplitz. Two large establishments are well sustained for the accom- modation of those whose only passport to admission is a certificate of their poverty. Hundreds of poor per- sons find shelter and medical aid in these establish- ments; and there is another especial hospice for the Jews; and still a fourth for the poor of the locality. So valuable — even indispensable is considered a re- course to the therapeutic power of the springs of Top- litz that the German and Austrian governments main- * Teplice (Toplitz) means "hot springs" in Bohemian. Teply — warm, hot. GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS 15 tain large military hospitals at this place, each con- taining accommodation for many hundred patients. These natural advantages of soil, climate and posi- tion did not escape the scrutiny of the tribes who have occupied Bohemia in succession. In an age when a mountain chain covered with forest, and wholly im- passable during the greater portion of the year by any small body of uncivilized wanderers, was justly considered a most valuable bulwark against foreign aggression, and in some directions a complete de- fense, and among tribes unacquainted with any princi- ple of concern for other interests than their own, the possession of a rich region protected on nearly all sides by mountain barriers, and providing abundant local wealth would be most fiercely disputed by every occupant. The isolation of the successful holder or invader would necessarily create a sense of hostility toward all intrusion which the inhabitant of an open countr}' would not always acquire. As population and unity of tribal feeling would grow under such circum stances every step of progress would naturally create a sense of pride and superiority. The primitive ideas of men in regard to the advantage if not necessity of treating every stranger as an enemy have been in all cases intensified by isolation. This habit of thought, this community of mind constitutes and supplies the golden thread that stretches through the central line of their progress and creates national individuality. Rulers cultivate this feeling, and educate this ten- dency; and the result is either a fierce and continuous conflict for existence on one side or for mastery on the other; or a complete absorption into the stronger power. Unhappy are the remnants of the former pro- cess, permitted only to recall in a wiser epoch the 1 6 HISTORY OF BOHEMIA terrors and the cruelties, the appalling tyrannies that found no other means, and still worse refused to search for other means to reconcile differences but the spread of dissension, and the promotion of slaughter, in a word treachery, the sword, the gibbet and the rack. National sentiment has always found its earliest as well as its most enduring expression through poetic composition. Music, a twin sister, has always has- tened to give aid. The early poetry of Bohemia is therefore no strange phenomenon. Groping, as we must do among the fragmentary relics left to us of what was once a great creation, and obliged to form an estimate from the sculpture of a capital here, a frieze there, and a pedestal in another place, all mu- tilated, and to gather the character of the structure from the ruins, we are impressed by the simple bold- ness of the style and the union of strength and skill in the entire composition. If any one of the sixty thousand volumes of histories and poetic narrations, as well as Bibles that formed at once the triumph and the shame of only one of the destroying persecutors who extirpated — for the third time — the entire national literature of Bohemia after the disastrous slaughter of 1620, when even the name of old Bohemia was ex- tinguished, were oow presented to us in its complete- ness, we should have a better memorial of the people than any mere fragments can supply.. But literature shelters itself in obscure places; and sufficient has been recovered for comparison out of the wreck of Bohemian literary treasures. Differing in tone and origin as well as in substance from the mediaevalism of the Latins against which it struggled for centuries it encouraged its people to resist with all the energy GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS 17 of their nation the invading spirit of foreign dogma, and a dominating political aggressiveness that sought to elevate itslf on the ruins of Bohemia. In the pro- gress of this long conflict, and into the narrow space of five* thousand square miles were crowded more suffering and more heroismf than into any other equal space in the world. * In English miles, 20 thousand, \. Bold I KeXtixov eBvo