Page:Bohemia An Historical Sketch.djvu/32

Rh Slavonic tribes in Bohemia—appears to have exercised a certain supremacy over the other voyvodes, and to have been known as the kněz (prince). When some of the tribes increased in number the voyvodes divided them into several župa (districts), over each of which they appointed a župan (chief). The voyvodes, as well as the supreme voyvode or kněz, were elected by the members of their tribe; but this selection soon tended to become merely nominal, as it became established that the choice should be limited to members of certain powerful families.

The kněz or prince, as well as the voyvodes and župans, seem to have united all civil and military authority in their persons. The prince was judge over the whole people, and the voyvodes and župans acted in the same capacity with regard to their tribe or district. These same chiefs were also the leaders in time of war.

Hardly any record of the conquest of Bohemia by the Čechs has reached us, and the date is also uncertain, though it seems sure that this event occurred during the fifth century. The modern Bohemian historians, Palacký and Tomek, consider the year 451 the most probable date. According to old legends, Čechus, or Čech, a noble of Croatia ), having committed homicide, fled from his country, and with his companions sought a new abode in Bohemia. Old traditions tell us that Čechus and his followers, after having crossed three rivers, first fixed their abode on the mountain Rip (Georgsberg, mountain of St. George), a hill near Róudnice, overlooking the Elbe.

Scarcely anything is known to us of the history of the Čechs in the earliest times after their settlement in Bohemia. The old legends referring to this time tell us of numerous wars with the neighbouring German tribes, probably the Thuringians and the Franks, and already show a spirit of racial hatred against the western neighbours.

At some period in the sixth century the Bohemians, or Čechs, became tributary to the Avares, a tribe of Asiatic