Page:Bohemia An Historical Sketch.djvu/36

Rh attracted the ambition of the great Emperor; particularly after that his coronation in Rome (800) had, according to the then prevalent ideas, invested him with supreme power over Western Europe.

There are no historical records as to the direct cause which induced Charles the Great to attempt the conquest of Bohemia; we only learn from contemporary German chroniclers that he (805) attacked that country from several directions, the main army being commanded by the Emperor's son Charles. The campaign does not appear to have been a successful one, nor do the Germans seem to have remained long in Bohemia. It is, however, probable—though evidence is very contradictory—that Bohemia became to a certain extent tributary to the Carlovingian monarchs. Should the Bohemians then have consented to pay a tribute, we have every reason for supposing that such payments only took place during the lifetime of Charles the Great, and not during the reigns of his successors. During the intestine disturbances, which broke out in the empire of the Franks after the death of Charles the Great, his successors were too much occupied to think of attempting any new attack on their Slavonic neighbours. It was only after the treaty of Verdun (843) that the Bohemians again had to defend their independence against the Germans. By the partition which had been agreed on at Verdun, Louis, surnamed the German, had become ruler of Germany, and, as such, heir to the claims of supremacy over the neighbouring Slavonic tribes. It was not, however, against Bohemia that he first turned his arms, but against the sister-land, Moravia.

The earliest history of Moravia, up to the beginning of the ninth century, is involved in even more complete obscurity than that of Bohemia. We have, however, every reason to believe that in those days it shared the fate of that country; that it was conquered by the Avares, then liberated by Samo; and that it formed part of his empire. About the middle of the ninth century Moravia was governed by Mojmir, who, from the scanty record that has reached us, appears to have been a ruler of great ability. He united the scattered tribes under his dominion, and was the real founder of the great Moravian Empire, which for some time included Bohemia also. In 846 Louis "the German" sent a large army into Moravia, and appointed