Duchy of Bohemia
The Duchy of Bohemia, also later referred to in English as the Czech Duchy,[1][2] (Czech: České knížectví) 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 Great Moravia after Duke Spytihněv swore fealty to the East Frankish king Arnulf in 895.
Duchy of Bohemia
Imperial State of the Holy Roman Empire
(from 1002)
Bořivoj I (first duke)
Ottokar I (last duke, king to 1230)
c. 870
875
1002
1198
1212
While the Bohemian dukes of the Přemyslid dynasty, at first ruling at Prague Castle and Levý Hradec, brought further estates under their control, the Christianization initiated by Saints Cyril and Methodius was continued by the Frankish bishops of Regensburg and Passau. In 973, the Diocese of Prague was founded through the joint efforts of Duke Boleslaus II and Emperor Otto I.[3] Later Duke Wenceslaus I of Bohemia, killed by his younger brother Boleslaus in September 935, became the land's patron saint.
While the lands were occupied by the Polish king Bolesław I and internal struggles shook the Přemyslid dynasty, Duke Vladivoj received Bohemia as a fief from the hands of the East Frankish king Henry II in 1002 and the duchy became an Imperial State of the Holy Roman Empire. The Duchy of Bohemia was raised to a hereditary Kingdom of Bohemia, when Duke Ottokar I ensured his elevation by the German king Philip of Swabia in 1198. The Přemyslids remained in power throughout the High Middle Ages, until the extinction of the male line with the death of King Wenceslaus III in 1306.
Economy[edit]
The Duchy earned a signficiant income from the Prague slave trade, trafficking Pagan Slavs, termed as saqaliba, to slavery in al-Andalus in the 10th- and 11th-centuries. [8]
Mining of tin and silver began in the Ore mountains in early 12th century.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the . Country Studies. Federal Research Division.
