The Christianization of Bohemia refers to the spread of the Christian religion in the lands of medieval Bohemia. [1] As in many other countries, Christianity was related to the establishment of a new state (first the Duchy of Bohemia, later the Kingdom of Bohemia), and was implemented from the top down. [1]
According to Annales Fuldenses 14 Bohemian dukes were christianized in Regensburg in 845. [2] The process continued with the conversion of Bořivoj I, Duke of Bohemia, the founder of the Přemyslid dynasty, in 884. [1] It was an outgrowth of the Christianization of Moravia, traditionally attributed to the Byzantine missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius, in 863. [3] At first, the Christian rite in Bohemia was the Slavic one of the Eastern Orthodox Church, but it was soon replaced by the Roman Catholic rite, introduced due to Western influences, and also tensions between the Bohemians and the Moravians. [1] [4] In 895, Prague became part of the Bavarian Roman Catholic Diocese of Regensburg. [1] In 973 a bishopric was established in Prague. [4] [5]
By the 10th century, several native saints emerged in Bohemia: Saint Ludmila of Bohemia (wife of Bořivoj I), their grandson Saint Wenceslas and Saint Adalbert, Bishop of Prague. [6] Saint Wenceslas is said to have completed the Christianization of Bohemia in the early 10th century, shortly before his assassination in 935 by his own brother, Boleslav the Cruel. [3] Boleslav's daughter, Dobrawa of Bohemia, married Mieszko I of Poland, and became instrumental in converting him, his court, and Poland itself to the Christian religion. [7] [8]
By the early 11th century, Bohemia gained an upper hand over Moravia, which was annexed to Bohemia. [4] Moravians were allowed to practice their Slavic Eastern Orthodox rites, but eventually they were replaced by Franco-Latin Catholic practices. [1] A parish network was created around the 13th century. [1]
Wenceslaus I, Wenceslas I or Václav the Good was the duke (kníže) of Bohemia from 921 until his death probably either in 935 or 929. His younger brother, Boleslaus the Cruel, is commonly considered the perpetrator of Wenceslaus' assassination by the Czech public and the Roman Catholic Church. However, there is a debate on whether his death was an accident or a murder. According to some historians it was the result of a quarrel between the two brothers or their parties. Boleslaus' men then killed Wenceslaus in the subsequent chaotic fight.
Boleslaus I, a member of the Přemyslid dynasty, was ruler of the Duchy of Bohemia from 935 to his death. He is notorious for the murder of his elder brother Wenceslaus, through which he became duke. Despite his complicity in this fratricide, Boleslaus is generally respected by Czech historians as an energetic ruler who significantly strengthened the Bohemian state and expanded its territory. His accomplishments include significant economic development due to an expansion in trade, the introduction of silver mining and the minting of the first local coinage, the Prague denarius.
Moravians are a West Slavic ethnographic group from the Moravia region of the Czech Republic, who speak the Moravian dialects of Czech or Common Czech or a mixed form of both. Along with the Silesians of Czechia, a part of the population to identify ethnically as Moravian has registered in Czech censuses since 1991. The figure has fluctuated and in the 2011 census, 6.01% of the Czech population declared Moravian as their ethnicity. Smaller pockets of persons declaring Moravian ethnicity are also native to neighboring Slovakia.
The Czech lands or the Bohemian lands are the three historical regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia. Together the three have formed the Czech part of Czechoslovakia since 1918, the Czech Socialist Republic since 1 January 1969 and the Czech Republic since 1 January 1993. The Czech lands are also referred to as Czechia.
The Duchy of Bohemia, also later referred to in English as the Czech Duchy, was a monarchy and a principality of the Holy Roman Empire in Central Europe during the Early and High Middle Ages. It was formed around 870 by Czechs as part of the Great Moravian realm. Bohemia separated from disintegrating Moravia after Duke Spytihněv swore fealty to the East Frankish king Arnulf in 895.
Bořivoj I was the first historically documented Duke of Bohemia and progenitor of the Přemyslid dynasty. His reign over the Duchy of Bohemia is believed to have started about the year 870, but in this era Bohemia was subordinated to Great Moravia. One of the most important clues to the approximate time of his accession is the contemporary Frankish chronicle Annales Fuldenses, which mentions several West Slavic princes in the year 872, among them one Goriwei, who may be identical with Bořivoj.
Spytihněv I, a member of the Přemyslid dynasty, was Duke of Bohemia from 894 or 895 until his death.
Sigrid the Haughty, also known as Sigríð Storråda, is a queen appearing in Norse sagas. Sigrid appears in many late Icelandic sagas composed generations after the events they describe, but there is no reliable evidence correlating to her story as they describe her. She is sometimes listed as wife of Eric the Victorious of Sweden, then Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark, while more contemporary sources such as Thietmar of Merseburg and Adam of Bremen instead claim that Sweyn was married to a Polish princess, identified as Świętosława. Snorri Sturluson gives conflicting information and in one place says that Sweyn was married to Sigrid and in another that he was married to a Gunhild of Wenden.
Vladislaus I was Duke of Bohemia from 1109 to 1117 and from 1120 until his death.
The Kingdom of Bohemia, sometimes later in English literature referred to as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe, the predecessor of the modern Czech Republic. It was an Imperial State in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Bohemian king was a prince-elector of the empire. The kings of Bohemia, besides the region of Bohemia proper itself, also ruled other lands belonging to the Bohemian Crown, which at various times included Moravia, Silesia, Lusatia, and parts of Saxony, Brandenburg, and Bavaria.
The Přemyslid dynasty or House of Přemyslid was a Czech royal dynasty which reigned in the Duchy of Bohemia and later Kingdom of Bohemia and Margraviate of Moravia, as well as in parts of Poland, Hungary, and Austria.
The Christianization of Poland refers to the introduction and subsequent spread of Christianity in Poland. The impetus to the process was the Baptism of Poland, the personal baptism of Mieszko I, the first ruler of the future Polish state, and much of his court. The ceremony took place on the Holy Saturday of 14 April 966, although the exact location is still disputed by historians, with the cities of Poznań and Gniezno being the most likely sites. Mieszko's wife, Dobrawa of Bohemia, is often credited as a major influence on Mieszko's decision to accept Christianity.
Soběslav I was Duke of Bohemia from 1125 until his death. He was a member of the Přemyslid dynasty, the youngest son of Vratislaus II, by his third wife Świętosława of Poland.
The People's Party was a Polish political party, active from 1931 in the Second Polish Republic. An agrarian populist party, its power base was mostly farmers and rural population.
The pagan reaction in Poland was a series of events in the Kingdom of Poland in the 1030s that culminated in a popular uprising or rebellion, or possibly a series of these, that destabilized the Kingdom of Poland.
The Battle of Chlumec was the culmination of a 12th-century war of succession in the Duchy of Bohemia. It occurred on 18 February 1126 in the vicinity of the village of Chlumec near Chabařovice on the southern slopes of the Eastern Ore Mountains. The Bohemian forces led by Duke Soběslav I defeated an Imperial contingent of troops under King Lothair III of Germany and his Moravian ally Duke Otto II the Black.
The Christianization of Moravia refers to the spread of the Christian religion in the lands of medieval Moravia.
The history of Christianity in the Czech Lands began in the 9th century. Moravia was the first among the three historical regions of what now forms the Czech Republic whose ruling classes have officially adopted Christianity, between 830s and 860s. In 845 Bohemian chieftains or duces also converted to the new faith, but it was just short-lived political gesture ; real beginning of efforts to promote Christianity in Bohemian territory have to be put to the period after 885. Moravia was the earliest center of Old Church Slavonic liturgy after the arrival of Constantine (Cyril) and Methodius in 863, but their opponents, mainly priests of German origin, achieved the banishment of their disciplines in the 880s. Bohemia became the center of Christianization following the fall of Moravia in the early 10th century. Changes in burials and the erection of churches throughout the Czech Lands demonstrate the spread of the new faith in the 10th century.
The Greater Poland Civil War refers to the conflict that took place during 1382–1385 in the Greater Poland province of the Kingdom of Poland during the interregnum period following the transition of power between the Piast dynasty, Angevin dynasty and the Jagiellon dynasty.
The Bohemians or Bohemian Slavs, were an early Slavic tribe in Bohemia. Their land became recognized as the Duchy of Bohemia around 870.