PV1B69 The Czech Lands in the Middle Ages

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2024
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. David Kalhous, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. David Kalhous, Ph.D.
Department of Auxiliary Historical Sciences and Archive Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Olga Barová
Supplier department: Department of Auxiliary Historical Sciences and Archive Studies – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Fri 8:00–9:40 B2.22, except Fri 19. 4.
Prerequisites
Interest in (Czech) history
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 12 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
In this course we will look at key moments in the Medieval history of the Czech lands. Participants will also acquire a basic understanding of the existing historical sources and the techniques used in their analysis.
Learning outcomes
Student will understand long-term trends in the developement of the central European region and esp. of the Czech lands and will know the basic sources of information.
Syllabus
  • The Czech Lands in the Middle Ages
  • 1. The Barbarians are coming! Slavs (and Avars) in Central Europe until 800
  • a. Archaeology on Ethnicity
  • b. Linguistic evidence
  • c. Avars
  • d. Samo and his principality
  • 2. Beyond the borders of the empires: Carolingians, Moravians and Bohemians
  • a. The fall of the Avar khaganate
  • b. New material culture
  • c. Great Moravia and Bohemia
  • 3. Building the Duchy or creating an Empire? Churches, castles, cavalrymen and slaves
  • a. The Přemyslid retinue
  • b. The elites of early Přemyslid Bohemia and their evidence
  • c. Formation of the Church organization in the Přemyslid regnum (Prague bishopric)
  • d. Castles
  • e. Latin, or Old Church Slavonic?
  • 4. Constructing a holy man: the cult of St. Wenceslas
  • a. St. Wenceslas legends and their manuscript transitions
  • b. Coins and seals
  • 5. Who could have been called Bohemian? “Accelerators” of Bohemian identity in the Přemyslid Duchy
  • a. The image of Bohemians in the Holy Roman Empire
  • b. Constructing Bohemians in Bohemian written sources
  • 6. For the crown of the kings: Přemyslids, their politics and representation
  • a. Loyalty towards the Empire: Vratislav II (1061-1092) and Vladislav II (1140-1172)
  • b. Promoting status: Vyšehrad as the new royal residence
  • c. “Realpolitik” as the way to success? Přemysl Ottokar I. (1198-1230)
  • 7. Transformation of the land
  • a. Power and society in Early Přemyslid Bohemia
  • b. Constructing institutions: the beginnings of the Provincial Court
  • c. . From hill fort to town
  • d. Village
  • 8. The accession of the Luxemburg dynasty to the Czech throne (the reign of John of Bohemia and the beginning of the government of Charles IV) – The “bad” father and the “good” son?
  • a. The internal political, economic and social situation at the time of the Luxemburg dynasty's entrance to the Czech scene
  • b. Foreign policy and Luxemburg diplomacy
  • c. The “evil” King John: antagonism between the king and the Queen Elisabeth, his oldest son and the Czech political representation
  • d. Charles as the Moravian margrave
  • 9. The heyday of the Czech lands during the reign of the King and Emperor Charles IV and John Henry, Margrave of Moravia
  • a. Charles IV as the Roman King and Emperor and the concept of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown
  • b. Moravia under the rule of John Henry
  • c. Cultivation of the land: new institutions, new horizons, royal and margravial policy towards the towns, development of architecture and fine arts
  • d. Late Medieval Czech society
  • 10. Towards the end of the Middle Ages in the Czech lands
  • a. “It´s hard to be a perfect son of the perfect father” – Wenceslas IV in the shadow of Charles IV's external and internal policy
  • b. Fights over successions in Moravia – the Luxemburg family with no common interests
  • c. (Proto)nationalism as one of the roots of the revolution? Towns and the university on the eve of the upheaval of the Czech reformation
  • 11. The period of the Hussite wars
  • a. Social, economic and doctrinal background of the revolution
  • b. Anti-Hussite crusades and their stellar cast: Sigismund of Luxemburg, Jan Hus, Jan Želivský, Jan Žižka, Albert the Magnanimous and too many popes
  • c. A divided country: Bohemia versus the rest of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown
  • d. A complicated end to the wars and their consequences
  • 12. Turbulences continue…
  • a. Realignment of the players on the domestic political scene, Catholics and non-Catholics under the same roof
  • b. George of Poděbrady as regent and as king
  • c. External pressure increases – the King, the Pope and an overly ambitious Hungarian neighbour
  • 13. The Jagiellonian age in the Czech lands
  • a. Jagellonian power in Central Europe
  • b. The decline of royal power in favour of provincial institutions
  • c. Religious equilibrium
  • d. Czech society at the cusp of the Early Modern Era
  • Relevant literature
  • Bohemia in History. Red. M. Teich. Cambridge University Press 1998. Péporté, P.: “John of Bohemia: The Vicissitudes of a National Hero”. In: Idem: The Midde Ages. Historiography, Collective Memory and Nation-Bilding in Luxembourg. Leiden and Boston 2011, pp. 221–269 Autobiography of Emperor Charles IV; And, His Legend of St. Wenceslas: Karoli IV Imperatoris Romanorum Vita Ab Eo Ipso Conscripta; Et, Hystoria Nova de Sancto Wenceslao Martyre. Edd. Balázs Nagy – Frank Schaer. Central European University Press 2001. Sedlar, Jean W.: East Central Europe in the Middle Ages, 1000–1500. A history of East Central Europe. Vol. III. University of Washington Press, 1994. Thomas, Alfred: Anne's Bohemia: Czech Literature and Society, 1310-1420. Minnesota 1998. Klassen, J.: Household composition in medieval Bohemia, Journal of Medieval History 16, 1990, s. 55–75. Rosario, I.: Art and Propaganda: Charles IV of Bohemia, 1343–1378. Boydell Press 2000. Michaud, C.: The Kingdoms of Central Europe in the Fourteenth Century. In: Jones, M.: New Cambridge Medieval History vol. VI. c. 1300–c. 1415. Cambridge 2000, pp. 735–63. Perett, Marcela K.: Vernacular Songs as “Oral Pamphlets”: The Hussites and Their Propaganda Campaign. Viator 1, 2011, pp. 1–21. Wolverton, L.: Hastening Toward Prague: Power and Society in the Medieval Czech Lands. Philadelphia 2001. Wolverton, L.: Cosmas of Prague. Narrative, Classicism, Politics. Washington D. C. 2015. Cosmas of Prague, The Chronicle of the Czechs. Transl. L. Wolverton. Washington D. C. 2009. Curta, F.: The Making of the Slavs. History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c.500–700. Cambridge 2007. Curta, F.: The 'Prague type'. A critical approach to pottery classification. In: Hoi skoteinoi aiones tou Byzantiou (7os-9os ai.). The Dark Centuries of Byzantium (7th-9th c.). Red. E. Kountoura-Galake (Diethne Symposia 9). Athens 2001, pp. 171-188. Curta, F.: The early Slavs in Bohemia and Moravia: a response to my critics. Archeologické rozhledy 61, 2009, pp. 725-754. Curta, F.: Slavs in Fredegar and Paul the Deacon: medieval gens or ‘scourge of God?’ Early Medieval Europe 6, 1997, pp. 141-167. Goląb, Z.: The Origins of Slavs. A Linguist´s View. Columbus 1992. Klápště, J.: The Czech Lands in Medieval Transformation. Leiden 2012. Wihoda, M.: Vladislav Henry. Leiden 2015. Grant, J. E.: For the Common Good. The Bohemian Land Law and the Beginning of the Hussite Revolution. Leiden 2014. Medieval Slavic Lives of Saints and Princes. Transl. M. Kantor. Ann Arbor 1983. Kantor, M.: The second Old Slavonic legend of St. Wenceslas: problems of translation and dating. In: American Contributions to the Ninth International Congress of Slavists. Kiev, September 1983, 2: Literature, Poetics, History. Red. M. S. Flier – P. Debreczeny. Columbus, Ohio 1983, pp. 147-159. The Origins of Christianity in Bohemia. Sources and Commentary. Ed. et transl. M. Cantor. Evanston 1990. Wood, I.: The Missionary Life. Saints and Evangelisation of Europe, 400-1500. Harlow 2001, pp. 187-206. Kalhous, D.: The Anatomy of a Duchy: The Political and Ecclesiastical Structures of Early Přemyslid Bohemia. East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages. Leiden 2012. Curta, F.: The history and archaeology of Great Moravia: an introduction. Early Medieval Europe 17, 2009, pp. 238-247. (Conf. other texts in EME written by Jiří Macháček, Naďa Profantová and David Kalhous.) Betti, M.: The Making of Christian Moravia (858-882). Papal Power and Political Reality. Leiden 2013. Kalhous, D.: The Anatomy of a Duchy: The Political and Ecclesiastical Structures of Early Přemyslid Bohemia. East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages. Leiden 2012.
Literature
    recommended literature
  • Bohemia in History. Red. M. Teich. Cambridge University Press 1998. Péporté, P.: “John of Bohemia: The Vicissitudes of a National Hero”. In: Idem: The Midde Ages. Historiography, Collective Memory and Nation-Bilding in Luxembourg. Leiden and Boston 2011,
Teaching methods
Lectures - analysis of the written sources
Assessment methods
Active participation (75 % attendance), presentation
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught once in two years.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2015, Spring 2017, Spring 2019, Spring 2021, Spring 2025.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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