Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/17

 popular favour against the efforts of Rome, appears to have become confined to a single monastery, and to have been at length absolutely forbidden by Pope Gregory VII. in 1094; but the Slavonic monks were not ejected from their monastery on the Sazava till 1096. The history from that time to 1197 is comparatively uninteresting, and the only thing to remark in it is the increase of power obtained by the bishops and clergy, and their constant interference in state affairs.

With Przemysl Ottakar I. matters took a decisive turn, and Bohemia became, and continued for several centuries, a powerful and independent kingdom. Under this king and his successor, Wenzel I, new orders of monks and nuns were introduced into the country. But Bohemia’s greatest splendour was reached under the next king, Przemysl Ottakar II, who ruled from the Riesengebirge in the north to the Adriatic in the south, and whose protection was sought not merely by many dukes in Poland and Silesia, but even by Verona, Friuli, and many other important Italian towns. But it was the fate of Ottakar to be encompassed by treacherous friends, and he was finally defeated and killed by the Emperor Rudolf of Hapsburg in 1278. Wenzel II, succeeded to a kingdom greatly reduced in power, and with Wenzel III, the ancient dynasty of the Przemyslides ended in 1306.

During the preceding century the people had been gradually forming themselves into regular hereditary classes, which were now legally recognized. Great intestine troubles were finally healed by the marriage of the Bohemian Princess Elizabeth with John, the only son of the King of the Romans, Henry VII. of Luxemburg, in 1310. Till 1333, King John ruled alone, when he associated with him his son Charles, under the title of Margrave of Moravia. In 1340, King John became blind, and, in 1346, he fell at Creçy,