Syllabus
Jakub Izdný: 1. (4. 10. 2023) Introduction. Geography of the Bohemian basin.
Basic questions of the local historiography. State structures, pre-state formations in the area. 2. (11. 10. 2023) The Great Moravian Empire.
The Beginning of the Bohemian State. 3. (18. 10. 2023) Přemyslid-duchy, Early and High Middle Ages in Bohemia.4. (25. 10. 2023) Kingdom of the Last Přemyslids. 5. (1. 11. 2023) The first Luxembourgs on the Bohemian Throne. 6. (8. 11. 2023) The fall of the Luxembourg era. Hussite revolution Eva Jarošová: 7. (15. 11. 2023) The heretic king George of Poděbrady and the Jagiellonian dynasty.
Rise of the State of Estates. 8. (22. 11. 2023) The first Habsburg rulers: Ferdinand, Maximilian and the Golden Age of the Bohemian aristocracy. 9. (29. 11. 2023) Rudolph II, his splendid Era, and Turkish wars 10. (6. 12. 2023) The Estates’ uprising, Prague defenestration, Thirty Years War and the restoration of the Habsburg dynasty 11. (13. 12. 2023) Maria Theresa, Joseph II, and the Czech lands in the era of absolutism and Enlightenment 12. (20. 12. 2023) The fire of revolution. Bohemia during and after the Napoleonic wars.
Possibly both:13. (3. 1. 2024) Excursion: Old Prague in the eyes of historian14. (10. 1. 2024) Final colloquium, Q&A-s, possible first test term
Annotation
The first Bohemian monarchy created and developed by the local dynasty of Přemyslids from a duchy to the kind of typical Latin-West high-medieval kingdom. The tradition of home dynasty and their saintly ruler Wenceslas then affected the choice of a new king who, by marriage with the “heiress” of Přemyslid dynasty, established the new ruling dynasty of Luxembourg, which deepened the relations with the Holy Roman Empire with Charles IV being the first Bohemian king and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire at the same time. The period of the Luxembourgs, however, ended with a pre-reformation revolution of the John Hus followers. Their initial success later created a “kingdom of two confessions” governed by a ruler controlled by the powerful estates and nobles. The local king George of Poděbrady was too weak to fulfill his reign by the creation of his own dynasty and gave the throne to a cadet branch of the ruling Polish Jagiello-house. A central European confederation was created with the Hungarian kingdom joining the “personal union” which only after two generations of rulers fell victim to the Turkish invasion to the Balkans. The Habsburg dynasty was elected to lead the Bohemian state of the chaos of particularism and state-debt which eventually created a new Central European confederation - the Early New Age Habsburg Empire surviving until the 20th century. The population and powerful estates however not willingly participated in the new Habsburg family project which caused periodical uprisings culminating with the Bohemian prequel to the Thirty Years War. The stalemate of Westphalia gave Bohemia to the Catholic Habsburgs who then started the three hundred years era of relatively stable, but not always appreciated absolutistic rule. The Habsburgs introduced the baroque culture, catholic reform, later even the moderate Enlightenment and bureaucratic reforms with certain modernization and industrialization (even though slower one). The robust Habsburg state was able to defeat the Turks and later play a vivid part of the “concert of superpowers” of the 18th and 19th Century. On the other hand, Bohemian national tradition often denounced the forced “recatholization” of people, the diminishing of the tradition of the Bohemian crown inside the unifying Habsburg state and finally the silent support the Habsburg rule indirectly provided to the German nationalism growing since the end of 18th century. The course will end with a summary of the first parts of the “Czech national revival”.
In case of online education, the course will occur as realtime online meetings in the given dates.