Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/82

 its convent. She was abbess of this convent for forty-eight years. However pious her life, and full of good works, she never forgot the slight put upon her by Henry, and, through her influence upon King Václav, she made that prince feel both her power and her enmity.

Premysl Ottokar died in 1230, and his son Václav, already crowned during the life of his father, ascended the throne without any opposition. This ruler, twenty-five years of age at the time he assumed the government, was a brave and spirited young man, energetic in his actions, but estranged from his people by his German education. Indeed, Václav loved everything that was foreign, and during his reign foreign manners and customs were introduced into the country as never before. This tendency to push Slavic customs into the background was already marked at his coronation. In the old days, the chosen prince was led to the simple stone seat, which was a sort of throne, and installed into his office in a very simple manner. He was given the leathern hand-bag and wooden shoes brought to Vyšehrad by the first Premysl, to remind him that princes come from the people, and hence derive their authority from them. But in the coronation of Václav, he was taken in great pomp to the cathedral, where, with magnificent ceremonial, he was crowned by the archbishop, thus indicating that his authority was derived from the Church, and not from the people.

The continual contact with the German nations, during the reigns of both Premysl and Václav, made the Bohemian people acquainted with the intellectual