116 Bohemian Brethren
annexed to Bohemia. In 906 Bohemia even granted
the Magyars passage through their land, formally break-
ing with the Carolingians in 911. Henry I the Fowler
(r. 919–936), the king of Germany, invaded Bohemia and
forced WENCESLASto accept his overlordship. Wenceslas’s
brother, Boleslav I (r. 929–972), with the help of some
nobles, murdered his brother and claimed independence
again. In 950 the emperor OTTO I defeated him and
imposed German control. There were further attempts to
assert independence, but they all failed.
BOLESLAVI the Brave (r. 992–1025), king of POLAND
conquered Bohemia in 1003 but was compelled to give
up his conquest by the emperor Henry II (r. 1002–1024).
Fear of the Poles usually influenced the dukes of
Bohemia to remain faithful to the emperor. In the 11th
century, a prosperous Bohemia was no longer considered
a mere imperial fief. Its national dynasty was given hered-
itary rights. During the INVESTITURE Controversy, the
dukes were faithful to the emperor Henry IV
(1050–1106), who in 1085 rewarded Vratislav II (r.
1061–92) by granting him the title of king.
EXPANSION, LOSS, UPHEAVAL, DYNASTYIn 1157 FREDERICKI BARBAROSSAawarded Vladislav II
(r. 1140–73) the title of king, but in 1174, his squab-
bling heirs lost it, and Bohemia was transferred from the
duchy to direct imperial control. In 1198, after the death
of HENRYVI, the royal title was restored to Ottokar I
(1197–1230), the real founder of the duchy, as part of
the Holy Roman Empire. In 1212 he obtained from
FREDERICKII a charter that recognized him as the king of
Bohemia and transferred the church from imperial to
royal authority. Ottokar also introduced the feudal sys-
tem into Bohemia and transformed its archaic tribal
structures into a more efficient system, even as German
cultural influence grew. During an interregnum in Ger-
many (1254–72), Ottokar II (1253–78) seized AUSTRIA
and Carinthia. He was recognized as one of the seven
electors of the empire. In 1272, he was a candidate for
the imperial crown. RUDOLFof HABSBURGdefeated him
and forced him to surrender land, where the Habsburgs
then established the seat of their power. Ottokar was
killed at the Battle of Marchfeld in 1278. In 1300 King
Wenceslas II (r. 1278–1305) became king of Poland and
an unsuccessful candidate for the Hungarian Crown. In
1308, that last member of the Premyslid dynasty,
Wenceslas III (r. 1305–06), was murdered. In 1310 the
Crown was finally conferred on John of Luxembourg (r.
1310–46), who established a new German–Czech
dynasty that reigned in Bohemia until 1437. Under the
Luxembourg dynasty, Bohemia was opened to German
colonization and the towns became more Germanized.
The villages remained Slav, and continued a traditional
life under a native nobility. Heretical trends due to a
mixture of CATHAR doctrines and opposition to the
establishment developed; in the latter half of the century,
the movement was led by a Czech, Jan or John Milíc, a
forerunner of HUSS. The 14th and 15th centuries were
dominated by the career of the emperor CHARLESIV and
the Hussite religious wars.
See also BOHEMIAN BRETHREN;HUS,JOHN;SIGIS-
MUND OFLUXEMBOURG,HOLYROMANEMPEROR; PRAGUE;
UTRAQUISTS.
Further reading: Jan Bialostocki, The Art of the
Renaissance in Eastern Europe: Hungary, Bohemia, Poland
(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1976); Jerzy
Strzelczyk, “Bohemia and Poland: Two Examples of
Slavonic State-Forming,” in The New Cambridge Medieval
History,Vol. 3, c. 900–c. 1024,ed. Timothy Reuter (Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 514–535;
Marvin Kantor, The Origins of Christianity in Bohemia:
Sources and Commentary(Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern
University Press, 1990).Bohemian Brethren Bohemian Brethren, sometimes
called the Moravian Brethren, were a subgroup within the
UTRAQUISTS. They led a separate existence from the rest
of those religious believers. The Bohemian Brethren sepa-
rated formally under the leadership of Brother Gregory in
1467, to follow more closely the teaching of Peter Chelci-
cky (d. ca. 1460). Emphasizing faith above the practice of
works, they rejected oaths, military service, town life, and
private property. They promoted an ascetic Christian dis-
cipline. The Brethren were organized as a church in the
second half of the 15th century by Lukas of Prague. They
were persecuted by the other utraquists but survived and
prospered in the 16th century. Their ideas influenced
some later labor reform movements.
Further reading:Peter Brock, The Political and Social
Doctrines of the Unity of Czech Brethren in the Fifteenth and
Early Sixteenth Centuries(s’-Gravenhage: Mouton, 1957);
Petr Chelcicky ́, Peter Chelcicky ́: Treatises on Christianity
and the Social Order(Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press, 1964).Bohemond I of Taranto(Bohemund, Marc) (ca.
1050/58–1111)prince of Antioch, a chief lay leader of the
First Crusade who proclaimed himself prince of Antioch
Born in about 1050 as the eldest son of the NORMAN
adventurer Robert GUISCARD and his wife, Alberada,
Bohemond became involved after 1080 in several
Norman expeditions against the BYZANTINEEmpire in
southern ITA LYand on the Greek mainland. But when his
father died in 1085, the Greek invasion halted, and
Bohemond returned to Italy to take what lands he could,
including Taranto, from his half brother, Roger I,
the successor to their father’s fiefs in APULLAand Cal-
abria. In 1096 Bohemond joined the First CRUSADEon its
way to CONSTANTINOPLE.
In spite of his reputation as an enemy of the Byzan-
tines, he soon reached an agreement with Emperor