Kings & Queens of Bohemia

Bohemia was an early proponent of religious reform – the Hussite movement, a proto-Protestant group arose there in the late fourteenth century, but, unlike in the rest of Europe where similar movements were suppressed, religious tolerance was instituted in 1436, although the Catholic Church again came to the fore. In 1471, aged fifteen, Vladislaus, son of Casimir IV of Poland-Lithuania was elected as king. He was a weak monarch, much to the delight of the Bohemian nobles, who increased their power at royal expense. He was invited to take the crown of Hungary in 1490, and thereafter ruled both kingdoms. His son, Louis, and daughter, Anna, were married to the grandchildren of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian.

Louis succeeded to the crown in 1513, but was killed at the Battle of Mohacs in 1526. The Bohemian nobles accepted the transfer of the crown to Ferdinand of Austria, husband of Anna. Thenceforward, Bohemia was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperors until 1617, when the Protestant nobility invited Frederick V, Elector Palatine (and son-in-law of James VI & I of Great Britain) to take the throne. The disastrous attempt to free Bohemia from the Hapsburgs sparked the horrific Thirty Years’ War, in which it is estimated that as much as 40 per cent of the population of the various German states died.