Lands of the Bohemian Crown

Lands of the Bohemian Crown
Země Koruny české (Czech)
Länder der Böhmischen Krone (German)
Corona regni Bohemiae (Latin)
1348–1918
Lands of the Bohemian Crown within the Holy Roman Empire (1618)
Lands of the Bohemian Crown within the Holy Roman Empire (1618)
StatusStates of the Holy Roman Empire (1348–1806),
Crown lands of the Habsburg monarchy (1526–1804),
of the Austrian Empire (1804–1867),
and of the Cisleithanian part of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918)
CapitalPrague
Common languagesCzech, German, Latin
Religion
GovernmentMonarchy
King 
• 1346–1378
Charles I (first)
• 1916–1918
Charles III (last)
History 
• Bohemian Crown established
7 April 1348
• Inauguration of the
   Luxembourg dynasty
7 April 1348
• Became main part of
   Bohemian Crown lands
5 April 1355
25 December 1356
16 December 1526
• Dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy

31 October 1918
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Kingdom of Bohemia
Margraviate of Moravia
Duchies of Silesia
Upper Lusatia
Lower Lusatia
Bohemian Crown lands controlled by the Hussite movement
Egerland
Upper Palatinate (Electoral Palatinate)
First Czechoslovak Republic
Electorate of Saxony
Free State of Prussia
Second Polish Republic
Today part of

The Lands of the Bohemian Crown were the states in Central Europe during the medieval and early modern periods with feudal obligations to the Bohemian kings. The crown lands primarily consisted of the Kingdom of Bohemia, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire according to the Golden Bull of 1356, the Margraviate of Moravia, the Duchies of Silesia, and the two Lusatias, known as the Margraviate of Upper Lusatia and the Margraviate of Lower Lusatia, as well as other territories throughout its history. This agglomeration of states nominally under the rule of the Bohemian kings was referred to simply as Bohemia.[1] They are now sometimes referred to in scholarship as the Czech lands, a direct translation of the Czech abbreviated name.

The joint rule of Corona regni Bohemiae was legally established by decree of King Charles IV issued on 7 April 1348, on the foundation of the original Czech lands ruled by the Přemyslid dynasty until 1306. By linking the territories, the interconnection of crown lands thus no more belonged to a king or a dynasty but to the Bohemian monarchy itself, symbolized by the Crown of Saint Wenceslas. During the reign of King Ferdinand I from 1526, the lands of the Bohemian Crown became a constituent part of the Habsburg monarchy. A large part of Silesia was lost in the mid-18th century, but the rest of the Lands passed to the Austrian Empire and the Cisleithanian half of Austria-Hungary. By the Czechoslovak declaration of independence in 1918, the remaining Czech lands became part of the First Czechoslovak Republic.

The Bohemian Crown was neither a personal union nor a federation of equal members. Rather, the Kingdom of Bohemia had a higher status than the other incorporated constituent countries. There were only some common state institutions of the Bohemian Crown that did not survive the centralization of the Habsburg monarchy under Queen Maria Theresa in the 18th century. The most important of them was the Bohemian Court Chancellery which was united with the Austrian Chancellery in 1749.[2]

  1. ^ The Cambridge Modern History. The Macmillan Company. 1902. p. 331.
  2. ^ Geschichte der tschechischen öffentlichen Verwaltung Karel Schelle, Ilona Schelleová, GRIN Verlag, 2011 (in German and Czech)

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