Page:Bohemia's claim for freedom.djvu/21

 membered in England as the blind warrior who died at Crécy.

The crowning manifestation of the national spirit in politics and the golden age in Bohemian history came with the advent to the throne of King Charles I (1346-1378). He had been educated in France and spoke the French, German, and Bohemian languages with equal facility, though he preferred Bohemian.

His principal qualification for the throne was his complete grasp of the part that Bohemia ought to play in the history of the world, and the importance of the retention of her own language in the attainment of her national ideals. He allowed both German and Bohemian to be spoken in the town councils, but steadily refused to countenance the giving of official appointments to Germans who could not speak the national language. He insisted that the children of Germans settling in Bohemia should be taught the native language and obtained the Pope's permission to use it in all church services, and in numerous other ways gave an impetus to the development of the Bohemian language and literature.

Early in his reign (1348) he founded the University of Prague, which preceded that of the German University by more than fifty vears and was the first institution of its kind in that part of Europe.

In 1356 Charles, as Emperor, published his famous "Golden Bull" in which were set forth rules and regulations for the election of future German Emperors. A very important part of B