Page:Bohemia's claim for freedom.djvu/19

 "District Assemblies" were created, usually sitting during the session of the Courts, and these date as far back as the eleventh century. That century also saw the approaching realisasion of the national aspirations of the Czechs under Bretislau I (1037-1055), whom Palacky calls the restorer of Bohemia. Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Poland were united under one ruler, and as Count Lützoff remarks, "The idea of a West Slav Empire seemed on the point of being realised, but Germany stepped in to prevent the formation of a powerful Slav State on her borders."

Germany, however, realised that she would never make her influence paramount by sheer force of arms, so she adopted other methods. She resolved to foment the quarrels and petty jealousies which were rife amongst the aspirants to the throne of Bohemia, and in the soil ready to her hand she sowed the seed of discord and unrest. She even went so far as to aid by force of arms in the struggles between rival princes or between a prince and his nobles, thus laying the foundation of that policy "divide et impera," which has ever since been so faithfully followed by the Austrian monarchs.

Beside this the Germans endeavoured to strengthen their influence by marrying their princesses to Bohemian princes, a rôle which has been played by them in Slavonic countries right down to the present day, and has caused no little internal dissension, and partly accounts for the collision which was the forerunner of the present war. 15