People

Bishop of Passau (739)

Helped spread Christianity into Central Europe

Cyril(826-869)+ Methodius (815-885)

Byzantine missionaries who created the Glagolitic alphabet (basis for Cyrillic) and spread Christianity to the Slavs

Václav, Duke of Bohemia (d.929)

Later canonized as st. Wenseslaces, patron saint of Bohemia

St. Stephen (c. 1000, Hungary)

First king of Hungary, consolidated Christianity into the region

Charlemagne (742-814)

Frankish king, crowned emperor in 800, first holy Roman emperor, started the Hapsburg dynasty’s rise.

Rudolf I of Habsburg(1218-1291)

First Habsburg holy Roman emperor, started the Habsburg dynasty’s rise

Otakar II (1230 - 1278)

Last Přemyslid king, expanded bohemian power, died at the battle of marchfeld

Charles IV (1316-1378)

Luxembourg dynasty, holy Roman emperor, founded Charles university(1348), made Prague imperial capital

Jiří z Poděbrad (1420-1471)

Czech Hussite king, promoted religious tolerance, unusual as a non-dynastic Czech king

Vladislaus II (1456-1516)

Jagiellonian dynasty, ruled Hungary and Bohemia, period of relative weakness for Czech crown

Ludvík (Louis II, 1506-1526)

Last Jagiellonian king, killed at the battle of Mohács (1526) fighting the ottomans

Ferdinand I (1503-1564)

Brother Charles V, began Hapsburg rule in Bohemia/hungary

Maximilian II (1527-1576)

Advocated some religious tolerance, issued bohemian confession (1575)

Rudolf II (1552-1612)

Holy Roman Emperor who lived in Prague, known for alchemy, science, and art patronage

Matthias (1557-1619)

Brother of Rudolf II, became emperor, faced religious conflict

Ferdinand II (1578-1637)

Rigidly catholic Habsburg, sparked the thirty years war after the defenestration of Prague

John Wyclif (1330-1384)

English critic of Church corruption, inspires Jan Hus

Jan Hus (1372-1415)

Czech reformer, executed at the council of Constance, sparked Hussite wars

Jan žižka (1360-1424)

Brilliant Hussite military leader, won major battle using wagon forts

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

German reformer, 95 theses (1517), sparked Protestant reformation

Frederick V (1596-1632)

“Winter King” of Bohemia, lost crown after battle of white mountain (1620)

Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556)

Founder of the Jesuits, counter-reformation figure

Joseph II (1741-1790)

Habsburg Emperor, enlightenment ruler, reforms like religious toleration, limited serfdom

Francis I (1768-1835)

Conservative ruler, resisted liberal/nationalist movements

Alexander von Bach (1813-1893)

Austrian minister, known for centralization and restricting liberal reforms

Casimir Badeni (1846-1909)

Austrian Prime Minister, issued language reforms (Moravian compromise, Paragraph 20)

Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803)

Philosopher, emphasized language as key to national identity

Josef Dobrovský (1753-1829)

Czech philologist, helped codify Czech language

František Palacký (1798-1876)

“Father of the Czech Nation”, historian, nationalist leader

Karel Havlíček Borovský (1821-1856)

Journalist, satirist, criticized Habsburgs, early Czech nationalist

Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872)

Italian nationalist, “Young Italy,” major figure in Italian unification.

Guiseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882)

Italian general, unification fighter, symbol of the revolutionary nationalism

Victor Emmanuel II (1820 -1878)

First king of unified Italy (1861)

Theodor Herzl (1860-1904)

Founder of modern Zionism, author of the Jewish State (1896)