This study looks at sentiments within Hussite Bohemia in the early 1430s after a decade of war in which, although the Hussites had defeated five crusades, they were failing to secure public discussion of the Hussite programme. These sentiments were expressed by a Hussite spokesman, Master of the Arts Faculty of Prague University, Laurentius of Březová, in a poem responding to the Bohemians’ victory over the fifth crusade at Domažlice on 14 August 1431.
The Cistercians and the culture of history in the Middle ages: The author deals with the birth of written culture, especially historiography, of the Cistercians in the Western Europe during the High Middle Ages. Despite the radical refusal of education and the ban on writing books in the Cistercian Order, its origins go back to time not too distant from the Order‘s beginning. Particularly, the author follows the Cistercian documents from the Czech lands, which were written at the time when the Order has abandoned the initial strict policies.
In her paper Hagiografie v 10. a 11. Století, Marie Bláhová of Charles University in Prague examines the early history of the development of this genre. First, she discusses what hagiography is and when and under what circumstances this branch of the Latin literature was born. The author points out to the ancient roots of hagiography (the second century). Next to the history and the causes of the emergence of hagiography, the paper presents the development of its forms and changes in the choice of types of holiness, which could be included in such works since the late antiquity until the eleventh century. Marie Bláhová has presented readers with a wide panorama of centers and individuals distinguished in creating and rewriting hagiographic literature, noting their role at the time of birth of a given work and its subsequent dissemination. This panorama is made up of activities of both various centers and literary circles in older Europe, i.e., Empire, England, France, Italy, and in Central Europe, namely Hungary, Czech and Poland.
As with most of the Latin cultural circle countries, the oldest written texts, including the historical writings, in the Czech Lands were written in Latin. In Bohemia, the first translations of texts on historical topics into vernacular languages appear in the second half of the 13th century. It begins with loose adaptations of “common historical” topics, such as the life of Alexander the Great, in German and from the end of the 13th century also in Czech. In the first half of the 14th century we can find real translations of historical texts, not from Latin into vernacular language, but on the contrary from Czech into Latin and into German (Chronicle of so called Dalimil). Following are the German chronicles in verse, already translated from Latin. While the Latin translation was probably meant for a highlevel laic, the German texts were written for the German monks living in the Bohemia, and perhaps for the Prague patricians. Further translations of historical texts were being written from the second half of the 14th century. Those are the translations of the official historical works from the Charles IV era into Czech, later also into German for the citizens of “incorporated lands of the Bohemian Crown”. At the end of the 14th and at the beginning of the 15th century, even the “common” texts of Latin culture were translated into Czech, such as Peter Comestorʼs Historia scholastica, Martin of Opavaʼs Chronicon pontificum et imperatorum or the German chronicle of Jacob Twinger of Königshofen. However, the readers were much more interested in pseudo-historical light literature. The translators were among the clergymen, but also laymen, and the translated texts were primarily meant for laic readers. In the 15th century, the Czech history was being translated also outside the Czech borders, mainly in Bavaria.
The origins of the Czech Přemyslid state overlap time wise with the acknowledgement and proliferation of Christianity in Bohemia, further on, the Přemyslid state develops in symbiosis with Christianity. This fact is reflected in the Czech monarch’s position and conduct, and also in the „historians’” presentation informing about it. The symbiosis between the profane power of the monarch and the Church’s authority is also integrated in the Přemyslid era. Not only did the monarch rely on the representatives of the Church as the only experts in written culture, needed for the state administration, but the Czech princes, who wouldn’t govern through their own sacred charisma, relied on their predecessor on the Czech throne and a saint at the same time, Saint Wenceslas, when it came to the matters of ruler’s legitimacy and the monarch’s ideology and propaganda. They relied on the Saint Wenceslas’ charisma during battles, but they would use him for propaganda on coins and seals as well. Saint Wenceslas appeared on Přemyslid coins during the reign of Jaromír at the latest. Another phase of the Saint Wenceslas’ change into political saint took place during the reign of Vratislaus II, when a spear became the saint’s attribute. In the battle of Chlumec in 1126 he had the Wenceslas’ spear with the St. Adalbert of Prague’s flag. Since then, this has become a permanent attribute of Saint Wenceslas. According to the official propaganda, Saint Wenceslas helped the monarch and his people in battle, ensured „peace” for the people and their monarch. The „peace” of the ruling prince, meaning the security, law and justice for those ruled by living prince, were all in the hands of Saint Wenceslas, as the transcriptions of the monarch’s seals claimed. Wenceslas as the „eternal ruler” bestowed his power to the ruling prince and ensured the „peace” for those ruled by the prince. This prince would take care of the peace, win the battles, come to help his people in need. The company of the protectors of the Czech monarch and the Czechs grew in the twenties in the 12th century while accepting Saint Adalbert of Prague and Sanit Procopius in the beginning of the sixties in the 13th century. However, Saint Wenceslas became the main and permanent protector of Czech people.
The study shows the importance of marriages of the daughters of Czech rulers of Přemyslide period to the political goals of their fathers. An analysis of the known facts about the marriages of the Přemyslids and their partners shows that the choice of partners of the ruler’s descendants was subordinated to their political interests and goals.
The article focuses on the known details of the arranged marriage of Elizabeth of Luxembourg (1390–1451), the only daughter of Duke John of Görlitz, the grand daughter of the Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia Charles IV, and her wedding with Anthony of Valois (1384–1415), Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, on July 16, 1409. The main source of information was the Chronicle of noble dukes of Lorraine and Brabant and kings of France (Chronica nobilissimorum ducum Lotharingiae et Brabantiae ac regum Francorum), written by Emond Dynter (1370/80–1449), the court historiographer of Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good of Valois. The chronicle describes the negotiations between the Brabant messengers and King Wenceslas IV and on the bride’s journey to Leuven and the representative wedding ceremony.
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