Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- List of maps
- Acknowledgements
- Note
- List of common abbreviations
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 From paganism to Christianity in medieval Europe
- Chapter 3 The kingdom of Denmark
- Chapter 4 The kingdom of Norway
- Chapter 5 The kingdom of Sweden
- Chapter 6 Bohemia and Moravia
- Chapter 7 The Kingdom of Poland, with an Appendix on Polabia and Pomerania between paganism and Christianity
- Chapter 8 The kingdom of Hungary
- Chapter 9 Rus'
- Index
- References
Chapter 6 - Bohemia and Moravia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 June 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- List of maps
- Acknowledgements
- Note
- List of common abbreviations
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 From paganism to Christianity in medieval Europe
- Chapter 3 The kingdom of Denmark
- Chapter 4 The kingdom of Norway
- Chapter 5 The kingdom of Sweden
- Chapter 6 Bohemia and Moravia
- Chapter 7 The Kingdom of Poland, with an Appendix on Polabia and Pomerania between paganism and Christianity
- Chapter 8 The kingdom of Hungary
- Chapter 9 Rus'
- Index
- References
Summary
BEFORE CHRISTIANITY: RELIGION AND POWER
In the ninth century two independent and separate units existed, the Great Moravian Christian polity and the pagan gens of the Czechs. Moravia emerged as a political unit sometime after 830. It is traditionally referred to by the name Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus gave it: Great Moravia. Great Moravia collapsed under Magyar assault in 906. From the tenth century a Christian state developed consisting of two lands, Bohemia and Moravia. While nothing at all is known from the written record about the society of Great Moravia prior to the turn of the ninth century, there are numerous reports dealing with Bohemia in ninth-century Frankish annals and chronicles. The inhabitants of Bohemia appear in these sources under the name Bohemani and variations thereon, taken from the name of the country, either the Latin Bohemia or the Germanic Baiahaim. Their own name for themselves, Czechs (of unknown etymology), is first documented in the tenth century.
From the point of view of the Empire these Bohemani formed a single political unit on the territory of Bohemia; numerous princes (duces Bohemanorum), however, would often treat on their behalf. This apparently contradictory situation – with a unified ‘tribe’ on the one hand and a number of chiefs on the other – is resolved in the earlier literature by a preference for one of two alternatives.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Christianization and the Rise of Christian MonarchyScandinavia, Central Europe and Rus' c.900–1200, pp. 214 - 262Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
References
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