Prehistory The land where Prague came to be built has been settled since the Paleolithic Age. Several thousand years ago, trade routes connecting southern and northern Europe passed through this area, following the course of the river Vltava. From around 500 BC the Celtic tribe known as the Boii were the first inhabitants of this region known by name. The Boii gave their name to the region of Bohemia. The Marcomanni, a Germanic tribe, migrated to Bohemia with their king, Maroboduus, in AD 9. Meanwhile, some of the Celts migrated southward while the remainder assimilated with the Marcomanni. In 568, most of the Marcomanni migrated southward with the Lombards, another Germanic tribe. This was during the Migration period which extended from the 4th century to the beginning of the 10th century. The rest of the Marcomanni assimilated with the invading West Slavs. The Byzantine historian Prokopios mentions the presence of the Slavs in these lands in AD 512.
Medieval Prague
From around 900 until 1306, Czech Přemyslid dynasty rulers had most of Bohemia under their control. The first Bohemian ruler acknowledged by historians was the Czech Prince Bořivoj Přemyslovec, who ruled in the second half of the 9th century. He and his wife Ludmila (who became a patron saint of Bohemia after her death) were baptised by St Methodius (Metodej), who together with his brother St Cyril brought orthodox Christianity and a new alphabet called Glagolitic script to Moravia in 863. Bořivoj moved his seat from the fortified settlement Levý Hradec to a place called Prague (Praha). Prague Castle was initially built by Bořivoj around 880, and it is now one of the largest castles in the world. Since Bořivoj's reign the castle has been the seat of many Czech rulers, and today, it is the seat of the Czech president.
Bořivoj's grandson, Prince Wenceslas, initiated friendly relations with the Saxon dynasty. Wenceslas wanted Bohemia to become an equal partner in the larger empire, similar to how Bohemia was part of Samo's empire in the 7th century and Great Moravia in the 9th century). Orientation towards the Saxons was not favoured by his brother Boleslav, and it was the main reason why Wenceslas was assassinated on 28 September 935. He was buried in St. Vitus' Rotunda, the church which he founded; it stood on the ground where St Wenceslas' Chapel in the St Vitus Cathedral is now. A few years later, Wenceslas was canonized and became Bohemia's beloved patron saint; he is "Good King Wenceslas" from the Christmas carol. In 950, after long war, Boleslav was forced to accept the supremacy of Otto I the Great from the Saxon dynasty, who later became the Holy Roman Emperor. From 1041 onward (and perhaps as early as 1002), Bohemian dukes and kings were vassals of the Holy Roman Emperors and the Czech lands were appertained to the empire as autonomous territory.
By the early 10th century, the area around and below Prague Castle had developed into an important trading centre, where merchants from all over Europe gathered. In 965, Ibrahim ibn Ya'qub, an Arab merchant and traveler, wrote: "Prague is built from stone and lime, and it has the biggest trade centre. Slavs are on the whole courageous and brave... They occupy the lands which are the most fertile and abundant with a good food supply." The Duchy earned a significant income from the Prague slave trade, trafficking pagan Slavs, termed saqaliba, to slavery in al-Andalus in the 10th and 11th-centuries.World History Encyclopedia [21 volumes]: [21 volumes] Alfred J. Andrea Ph.D. p. 199
In 973, a bishopric was founded in Bohemia with the bishop's palace located on the Prague castle grounds. The first Czech bishop was Vojtěch (St Adalbert) from the Czech noble family of Slavník, who later evangelized Poles and Hungarians and became a patron saint to Czechs, Poles, and Hungarians after his canonization in 999.
In the 11th century, another Romanesque fortified settlement was established across the river from Prague at Vyšehrad. During the reign of Prince Vratislav II, who rose to the title of King of Bohemia in 1085 (as Vratislav I), Vyšehrad became the temporary seat of Czech rulers.
In 1158, Prince Vladislav II also rose to the title of King of Bohemia (as Vladislav I). Many monasteries and churches were built during his rule. In Prague, the Strahov Monastery, built in the Romanesque style, was founded in 1142. The first stone bridge over the river Vltava, the Judith Bridge, was built in 1170.
In 1212, Bohemia became a hereditary kingdom when Vladislav I's son, Prince Přemysl Otakar I, rose to the title of king by inheritance per Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor from 1215, a political development that was legalised in the "Golden Bull of Sicily". The king's daughter, Agnes, became another Bohemian saint. Agnes preferred to enter a convent rather than marry Emperor Frederick II. During the reign of King Přemysl Otakar I, peaceful colonisation started as German colonists were invited to both Bohemia and Moravia. This immigration of Germans caused the Bohemian towns to increase in population, as did the institution of German town law. Three settlements around the Prague Castle gained the privilege of a town: across the river Vltava, the Old Town of Prague (Staré Město) gained the privilege of a town in 1230; the settlement below Prague Castle became the New Town of Prague in 1257 under King Otakar II - it was later renamed Malá Strana or the "Lesser Side" of Prague; and Hradčany, the "Castle District" built just outside Prague Castle, dates from 1320.
In the 13th century, King Přemysl Otakar II, known as the "Iron and Golden King", was the most powerful king in the Holy Roman Empire during his reign. He ruled in Bohemia, Moravia, Austria, Styria, Carniola, Carinthia, Egerland, and Friuli. His domain stretched from the Sudetes to the Adriatic Sea. Otakar II had hoped that the other six prince-electors would choose him as the King of Romans, but at the imperial election in 1273 the other electors thought that Otakar II was too risky and so they chose Rudolf I Habsburg as the emperor. Rudolf I was a weak ruler, which was the primary reason the electors chose him, as they would more easily keep the power and land that they acquired during the Great Interregnum (1250–73). Otakar II was outraged and so he refrained from attending Rudolf's coronation. When Rudolf requested that Otakar II be present at the imperial diet in Nuremberg, Otakar II refused. As a result Rudolf placed an imperial ban on him which caused him to lose all the territory he had acquired during the interregnum. Otakar II's plan was to challenge Rudolf and he assembled an army, but unfortunately he lost and died against Rudolf I in the Battle of Marchfeld on 26 August 1278. His son Wenceslaus II was still very young and would have to burden the great turmoil that has arisen in Bohemia.
The Přemyslid dynasty ruled until 1306 when the male line died out with the assassination of Wenceslaus III. The inheriting dynasty was the House of Luxembourg as emperor Henry VII, to prevent Henry of Carinthia from obtaining the Bohemian throne, offered it to his own son, John of Luxembourg, if he would marry Wenceslaus III's sister Elizabeth of Bohemia. Young John married Elizabeth on 7 September 1310 and headed to Prague to be crowned, but Henry of Carinthia had claimed the throne before he could arrive. John mustered a large army with the help of his father and when he arrived to Prague, Henry of Carinthia fled, allowing John to claim the Bohemian throne and be crowned on 7 February 1311.
Renaissance The city flourished during the 14th century during the reign of Charles IV of the Luxembourg dynasty. Charles was the eldest son of Czech Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia and John of Luxembourg. He was born in Prague on 14 May 1316 and became King of Bohemia upon the death of his father in 1346. Due to Charles' efforts, the bishopric of Prague was raised to an archbishopric in 1344 and the first archbishop was Arnošt z Pardubic, a close advisor to Charles. On 7 April 1348 Charles IV founded the University of Prague, the first university in central, northern, and eastern Europe, now known as Charles University (Univerzita Karlova). In the same year, using the inspiration of Paris, he also founded the New Town (Nové Město) of Prague immediately adjacent to the Old Town. Charles rebuilt Prague Castle and Vyšehrad, and in 1357 a new bridge over the Vltava, now known as the Charles Bridge, was erected to replace the Judith Bridge which had collapsed in 1342. Construction of the St Vitus' Cathedral had also begun and many other new churches were founded. In 1355, Charles was crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and Prague became the capital of the empire. Charles wanted Prague to become one of the most beautiful cities in the world and to make it a new center of art, science, and prestige. He also wanted Prague to be the dominant city of the whole empire, with Prague Castle as the dominant site in the city and the stately Gothic cathedral to be even more dominant than the castle. Everything was built in a grandiose Gothic style and decorated in an independent art style, called the Bohemian school. During the reign of Emperor Charles IV, the Czech lands were among the most powerful in Europe.
Unfortunately, all that changed during the reign of Charles IV's son, Wenceslas IV (Václav IV). During his reign (1378–1419), Master Jan Hus, a preacher and the university's rector, gave sermons in Prague in the Bethlehem Chapel, speaking in Czech in order to widely disseminate his ideas about the reformation of the church. Hus was accused of heresy and executed in Constance, Germany (Konstanz) in 1415. This led to the first Defenestration of Prague (1419), when the people rebelled under the command of Prague priest Jan Želivský and threw the city's councilors from the New Town Hall. This led to further violent dissent and the conflicts known as the Hussite Wars.
King Wenceslas IV died 16 days after the defenestration. His younger half-brother Sigismund (Zikmund) was now the legitimate heir to the throne. However the Hussites opposed Sigismund's coronation and so he came to Prague with an army of 30,000 crusaders. He planned to make Prague capitulate and take the crown. In 1420, peasant rebels and Hussite troops, led by general Jan Žižka, defeated Sigismund's army at the Battle of Vítkov Mountain. This was followed by more crusades, all of which ended in failure. But after Žižka died, the Hussites lost their focus and split into factions. The most radical Hussites were finally defeated at the Battle of Lipany in 1434 after the moderate Hussites sided with the Czech Catholics.
In 1458, the Utraquist Hussite nobleman George of Poděbrady was chosen as the Bohemian king by both the Catholics and the Utraquist Hussites. He was called "The King of Two Peoples" for his continual efforts to maintain peace between the Catholics and the Hussites. During his reign, however, Pope Paul II excommunicated George, declared him deposed as King of Bohemia, and called for a crusade against the Czech heretics. The crusade was led by the King of Hungary Matthias Corvinus who, after the crusade, also became the King of Bohemia (as supported by the Papacy). George, however, did not abdicate, and so Bohemia had two kings. George, before his death, made an arrangement with the Polish King Casimir IV that the next Bohemian king would come from the Jagiellon dynasty. This is because Elizabeth of Austria, the wife of Casimir IV, was the sister of former Bohemian king Ladislaus the Posthumous and thus her son Vladislaus was related to the Luxembourg dynasty and also to the original Bohemian Přemyslid dynasty. The Jagiellonian dynasty ruled only until 1526 when it died out with Ludwig Jagiellon, son of Vladislaus II Jagiellon.