Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Carolinian Prague
The crisis was finally solved when the Czech nobles offered the throne to
John of Luxem-
bourg
(1310-46),whowasmarriedtoVáclavIII'syoungestsister.Germanbybirth,butedu-
cated in France, King John spent most of his reign participating in foreign wars, with Bo-
hemia footing the bill, and John himself paying for it first with his sight, and finally with his
life, on the field at Crécy in 1346.
His son,
Charles IV
(1346-78), was wounded in the same battle, but thankfully for the
Czechs lived to tell the tale. It was Charles - Karel to the Czechs - who ushered in Prague's
goldenage
. Although born and bred in France, Charles was a Bohemian at heart (his mother
was Czech and his real name was Václav). In 1344, he had wrangled an archbishopric for
Prague, independent of Mainz, and two years later he became not only king of Bohemia, but
also, by election, Holy Roman Emperor. In the thirty years of his reign, Charles transformed
Prague into the new imperial capital. He established institutions and buildings that still sur-
vive today and founded an entire new town,
Nové Město
, to accommodate the influx of stu-
dents and clergy. He promoted Czech as the official language alongside Latin and German
and, perhaps most importantly of all, presided over a period of peace in central Europe while
western Europe was tearing itself apart in the Hundred Years' War.
Sadly,Charles'sson,
VáclavIV
(1378-1419),wasnomatchforsuchaninheritance.Stories
that he roasted an incompetent cook alive on his own spit, shot a monk while hunting and
tried his own hand at lopping off people's heads with an axe are almost certainly myths.
Nevertheless, he was a legendary drinker, prone to violent outbursts and so unpopular with
the powers that be that he was imprisoned twice - once by his own nobles and once by
his brother, Sigismund. His reign was also characterized by religious divisions within the
CzechLandsandinEuropeasawhole,beginningwiththe
GreatSchism
(1378-1417),when
rival popes held court in Rome and Avignon. This was a severe blow to Rome's centralizing
power,whichmightotherwisehavesuccessfullycombatedtheassaultontheChurchthatwas
already under way in the Czech Lands towards the end of the fourteenth century.
The Bohemian Reformation
From the start, Prague was at the centre of the
Bohemian Reformation
. The increased in-
fluence of the Church, and its independence from Mainz established under Charles, led to a
sharp increase in debauchery, petty theft and alcoholism among the clergy - a fertile climate
for militant reformers such as Jan Milič of Kroměříž, whose fiery sermons drew crowds to
hear him at Prague's Týn church. In Václav's reign, the attack was led by the peasant-born
preacher
Jan Hus
, who gave sermons at Prague's Betlémská kaple.
Hus's main inspiration was the English reformist theologian John Wycliffe (founder of the
Lollard movement), whose heretical works found their way to Bohemia via Václav's sister,
