APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110008-5
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Karlstein, perched in the mountains near Prague
Although frequently torn by dynastic rivalries, the embryonic state not only survived but eventually expanded its territories into parts of Austria and Poland. A brief interregnum followed the death of the last Premyslid king, during which several European royal houses contested for the vacant throne. The victor, John of Luxembourg, rarely visited his new domain, preferring to leave the business of government to his nobles while he sought his fame on the battlefield and his amusement at the French court. But the right of his son, Charles I (1346-78), is generally considered to be the most brilliant in the history of the Kingdom of Bohemia. Charles was elected Holy Roman Emperor (as Charles IV) in 1355, and Prague for a time became the chief city of the empire.
Charles quickly elevated Bohemia to a position that rivaled those of the greatest states of Europe. Among other things, he established the Prague Archbishopric and founded the first university in central Europe. In 1356, acting in his capacity as Holy Roman Emperor, he issued the Golden Bull, which gave the King of Bohemia first rank among the electors of the empire. In addition, he promoted the use of the Czech language, promulgated a code of laws, and encouraged the growth of cities and commerce. He also imported foreign architects and artisans and initiated a program of public construction that contributed to Prague's later renown as one of Europe's most beautiful cities.
After Charles' death, however, Bohemia entered a prolonged and ultimately fatal period of decline. The line of succession became uncertain, and, together with flagrant church corruption, frequent struggles between successive kinds and the entrenched nobility generated considerably popular unrest. Finally, early in the 15th century, the bold rhetoric and martyr's death of Jan Hus—the Prague pastor and university rector who became central Europe's first champion of religious reform—brought matters to a head. His followers, the Hussites, established fortified towns in southern Bohemia and, in 1419, rose in open rebellion against their country's establishment which was con-
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110008-5
