the German kings; but when, as at this period, Germany was strong and Bohemia weak, and divided against herself, the German kings claimed and exercised far greater rights; they, in fact, claimed the power of nominating the sovereigns of Bohemia, or at least of confirming their election.
We have already read by what arguments Frederick Barbarossa persuaded the Bohemian nobles to accept his settlement of their differences; and Henry VI is even said to have promised the crown of Bohemia to Přemysl Ottokar on payment of 6000 marks of silver.
While Bohemia thus became more dependent on Germany, the German element also acquired greater importance in the country itself. As early as the end of the eleventh century a small German settlement existed at Prague, which received certain privileges from Soběslav II; the clergy was largely of German nationality, and perhaps from dislike to the cust.om of holding the religious services in the language of the country—a custom that for a long time partially continued in Bohemia—favoured the German element in every way. Another cause of the spread of the German language and nationality at this period was the circumstance that all the wives of the Bohemian princes, with the exception of the peasant-princess Božena, were of foreign, frequently of German, nationality. These princesses often brought German chaplains and other dependents in their suite, and the Bohemian nobles also acquired the German language, which became to a certain extent the language of the court; the German princesses naturally taught their children their own language from earliest youth.
This feeling is strongly expressed by the contemporary chronicler Dalimil,[1] who makes the Bohemian prince Ulrich say—
"Rather would I entrust myself to a Bohemian peasant girl than that I should take a German queen for my wife. Every heart clings to its own nation; therefore would a German woman less favour my language. A German woman will have German servants; German will she teach my children."
- ↑ See my History of Bohemian Literature, 2nd ed. pp. 29–35.
