Ulrich and Božena In all this unseemly wrangling among the members of the Přemysl family I find only one bright spot of human interest, and that is the little affair of Ulrich and Božena...

Břetislav I Ulrich reverted to type, and once again the stout peasant stock of Czech came to the rescue of a fading dynasty; the son of Ulrich and Božena, Břetislav I, was destined to restore the house of Přemysl to a position more in keeping with its great traditions...

St Adalbert Břetislav failed to realize his ideal of forming a strong national Slavonic State, independent of German rule—he had too strong an Emperor against him, Henry III; but he certainly restored Bohemia and the Přemysl dynasty to a position of some importance in Europe...

Prague in the 11th and 12th centuries With the best will in the world it is difficult to rise to any enthusiasm over the majority of Bohemia's rulers in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. There seems to have been nothing of beauty or interest in individual Přemysls to break the monotony of endless quarrels between brother claimants to the throne and appeals of unsuccessful rivals to their German neighbour, whose decision would be entirely guided by the desire for a further weakening of Bohemia.

King Vratislav The Czechs have always been good hearty fighters, and of the three hundred who set out to help the Emperor against Rome only nine returned home to Bohemia.

Czech Illuminated Manuscripts It is probable that Duke Bretislav II, grandson of the first prince of that name, encouraged the expression of his people's religious and national sentiments, in those illuminated manuscripts of the Bible, of Missals, and the "Cantionales," those works so beautiful in design, so loyal and sincere of execution, their colours as fresh as when the artist's hand withdrew reluctantly from the finishing touch...

Břetislav II It was not safe to indulge in heathen rites at home, but there were places abroad where it was still possible. One of these places is still a fashionable holiday resort, the Island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea...

Soběslav beats Lothair and becomes Cupbearer of the Empire Cupbearer in perpetuam to an Empire sounds very important and suggests great possibilities of influencing people. As a matter of fact the office gave Bohemia certain rights within the Empire which went some way to balance the obligations; nevertheless German ties were fastened yet more securely on the sons of Czech...

Vladislav crowned by Frederick Barbarossa The royal crown was bestowed on Vladislav a few years later by another romantic personage, Frederick Barbarossa, in consideration of Bohemian assistance against the Emperor's enemies in Northern Italy.

Strahov Monastery So stands Strahov, Mount Zion, between the Castle Hill and Petřin looking out over Prague from its terraced gardens and its bower of fruit-trees. It is always beautiful, this haunt of old-world peace, whether the garden and the orchard be all a mass of blossom creamy white in the sunshine, pale purples in the shadows, in the shade of midsummer foliage when Golden Prague below glitters in the midday heat, or in autumn when the valley is all a blaze of gold and russet, and the distant hills stand out in strong blue masses.

Ottokar I By the time Ottokar I had settled himself firmly on the throne he found that the confused, almost anarchic, state which Germany had drifted into could mean many advantages to Bohemia, if the situation were properly handled.

St Agnes Ottokar had married Constance of Hungary, and it was their daughter Agnes who next joined the distinguished and hallowed company of Ludmilla and Wenceslas.

Wenceslas I By the time Wenceslas I came to the throne, the changes were in full swing which were to lead up to the golden age of Prague a century or so later.

Prague's Jewish Ghetto The life of the Ghetto centred round the old Jewish Town Hall, with its quaint, indeed rather unsightly, tower on which is a clock that you are expected to treat as one of the sights of the place. On the face of this clock the numbers are marked by Hebrew letters and the hands of this clock move from right to left.

Old Jewish Cemetery Rabbi Loew is supposed to have been in league with the Powers of Darkness which bestowed on him superhuman gifts. He is said to have created a Homunculus - the Golem - which became so troublesome that it had to be incarcerated. The spot chosen as prison for this evil being was high up in the wall of the temple. A row of iron clamps leads up to a small door on the outside wall facing the Mikulašska Třida, leads up to where the Golem is still believed to be in durance.

Wenceslas I defeats the Tartars Wenceslas rose to the occasion - he fortified the passes leading into Bohemia from Silesia, and there thoroughly defeated the Tartars, who turned off towards Moravia, Hungary and Austria, and vanished again from Europe as quickly as they had come.

Ottokar II The power Ottokar had concentrated round the Slavonic nucleus of his native country lay almost entirely in German-speaking districts, so that a situation arose in which Count Lützov finds some analogy between the policy of this Přemysl Ottokar and that pursued by the Austrian Government from 1815, when the Habsburgs finally abandoned the notion of a Holy Roman Empire, to 1864 and 1866, when Prussia took the first decisive step towards reviving the same idea under the title Deutsches Reich.

1278 Rudolf of Habsburg defeats Přemysl Ottokar II Ottokar was deprived of all the lands he had acquired, betrayed by his own nobles, and finally killed on August 26, 1278 in the Battle of Duernkrut, near the scene of his own victory over the Hungarians. This was effectively the birthday of the most enduring, most numerous and most powerful dynasty in Europe - the Habsburgs.

Prague - City of Many Towers Despite the troubled times of the two Ottokars and of Wenceslas I, the city of Prague, or rather the communities composing it, had expanded into a place of considerable extent and importance, and was already spoken of as the City of many Towers.

Wenceslas II It was yet some centuries before the power of the Habsburg should become absolute in the lands of the Přemysl dynasty, but that family's light was nearing extinction. Whether good or bad, the rulers who sprang from the soil, from the peasant stock of Libuša's choosing, had been of the people and had on the whole served their people's interests.

Gothic and Renaissance Prague It is just at this spot, with its lingering memories of Queen Judith, of Přemysl Ottokar, and a yet greater King of Bohemia, that you realize how much Prague is the Golden City of Gothic and the Renaissance, and not of the baroque superimposed by the Jesuits after Bohemia's glory had departed on the gentle slopes of the White Mountain.

John of Luxembourg In 1311 John, Count of Luxembourg, and Elizabeth, daughter of Wenceslas II, were crowned in Prague. No doubt the ceremony took place on the Hradčany, and the steep approaches to the Castle Hill would be thronged with well-wishers.

King Arthur's Round Table According to Count Lützow, John intended to re-establish the Round Table of King Arthur, and to this end he invited all the most celebrated knights of Europe to a tournament at Prague; "nobody responded to the call."