Czech nobility (also Bohemian nobility; ) consists of the nobility from historical Czech lands, especially in their narrow sense, i.e. nobility of Bohemia proper, Moravia and Austrian Silesia – whether these families originated from those countries or moved into them through the centuries. These are connected with the history of Great Moravia, Duchy of Bohemia, later Kingdom of Bohemia, Margraviate of Moravia, the Duchies of Silesia and the Crown of Bohemia, the constitutional predecessor state of the modern-day Czech Republic.
Noble titles were abolished by law (No. 61/1918 Sb. z. a n.)[Exact wording of this "Law of 10 December 1918, which abolished the nobility, medals and titles" is available on the Czech Wikisource] in December 1918, shortly after the establishment of the independent Czechoslovak Republic. The public use of noble titles could be punished by a fine or imprisonment. During the period of Nazi occupation some sections of the law No. 61/1918 were abolished and the public use of noble titles was no longer punishable as a misdemeanor.
History
The beginnings of the Czech nobility can be seen in the time of the first Přemyslid princes and kings, i.e. in the 9th century. As a legally defined state of nobility in the
Czech lands, it arose in the course of the 13th century, when members of noble families began to own newly built stone
. The influence of the nobility rose rapidly, which became the cause of a strained relationship between the king and the nobility during the last Přemyslid kings and especially during the reign of John of Bohemia and his grandson, Wenceslaus IV at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries.
After the burning of
Jan Hus in 1415, Czech society and therefore the Czech nobility was divided into two groups - Catholic and Hussite (later Protestant). Both groups were at war with each other both during the
Hussite Wars and long after them. After the end of the Hussite Wars and the rule of the Luxembourgers in the 1530s, the country was controlled by various noble associations. In 1452, they agreed on a land administrator, who became the noble George of Poděbrady. Five years later he was elected King of Bohemia, but disputes between the Catholic and Protestant nobility continued until the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in 1618.
The status of the nobility further increased in 1500, when the Vladislav land constitution was issued. In 1526, Ferdinand I of Habsburg was elected King of Bohemia. He, along with his successors, tried to reduce the influence of the nobility. This process was interrupted during the reign of Rudolf II in the years 1576-1611. In 1618, the Protestant part of the Czech estates started the
Bohemian Revolt by throwing imperial officials out of the windows of
Prague Castle. Czech Protestants were defeated in the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, and the following year 27 leaders of this rebellion were executed. Thus, the Catholic aristocracy definitively won over the Protestant aristocracy in Bohemia, but at the same time the absolutist monarchy won over the
The Estates.
During the Thirty Years' War after the Battle of White Mountain, a large part of the Protestant nobility had their property confiscated. Many new noble families came to the Czech lands at this time, originally usually from Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria or Scotland. Of the old Czech noble families, for example, the Kinsky, Sternberg, Kolowrat family, Czernin family, Lobkowicz family, Pernštejn or Lichtenstein families remained in Bohemia, while the Eggenberg family, Bucquoy, Colloredo-Mannsfeld, Gallas, Piccolomini, Schwarzenberg and others arrived.
After the First World War, the monarchy disappeared in the Czech lands and a republic was established. Most of the Czech nobility held monarchist positions, but remained loyal to the newly established Czechoslovak Republic. Some nobles even entered the service of the Czechoslovak Republic and worked in diplomacy (for example, representatives of the Lobkowicz family, Schwarzenberg and others). The Czechoslovak Republic confiscated the property of the Habsburgs and Hohenbergs, and the Clam-Martinic family also lost their property. During the following years, the property was sold off and the Fürstenbergs, for example, left the country.
In 1945, the properties of most Czech noble families were returned. However, there was a deportation of the majority of the population of German nationality, in which both the nobles who collaborated with the Nazis and the nobles who did not collaborate with the Nazis, but only claimed German nationality before the war, lost their property. For example, Trauttmansdorff, Windisch-Graetz, Clam-Gallas, Thurn-Taxis, Desfours family, or one branch of the Kinsky, Czernin family and Rohan families had to leave the Czech lands. Due to the growing influence of the communists in Czechoslovakia in the years 1945-1948, the return of some property was also withheld (the Colloredo-Mannsfeld case), or the unjust confiscation of the primogeniture property of the Schwarzenberg family (based on the Lex Schwarzenberg Act of 1947
In 1948, there was a communist coup in Czechoslovakia. Subsequently, the property of all noble families was confiscated. A large part of the Czech nobility therefore emigrated (for example, the Schwarzenberg, Colloredo-Mannsfelds, Kolowrat family, Hildprand, some Lobkowicz family or Sternberg). The nobles who stayed at home (such as the Kinsky, Wratislav, Czernin family, some Sternberg and Lobkowicz family) were variously persecuted, for example they were prevented from studying, usually they were also evicted to unsuitable dwellings. Some members of the Czech nobility were imprisoned.
After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, properties seized by the communist regime were returned to their original owners. Members of the Czech nobility who emigrated abroad returned to their estates. Some subsequently returned to public life (for example, Karel Schwarzenberg as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Member of Parliament and Senator, Michal Lobkowicz as Minister of Defense and Member of Parliament, Tomáš Czernin as Senator). Other Czech nobles devote themselves, for example, to business, culture, science, the church, or knightly orders.
Oldest noble families
The oldest founding families (numbering around twenty) of the Czech and Moravian nobility include:
List of important noble families
Gallery
File:Votivni obraz Ocko - Vojtech inverse.jpg|Saint Adalbert (c. 956–997), the second bishop of Prague and later a missionary among the Old Prussians is for his life and deeds honoured as a patron saint of three countries
File:Petr z Rožmberka.jpg|Peter I of Rosenberg (?–1347), important politician and philanthropist, associated with the Book of Rosenberg, the oldest legal publication written in Czech
File:Jensky kodex Zizka.jpg|Jan Žižka of Trocnov and Kalich (c. 1360–1424), a small yeoman, later main commander of Hussites who thanks to his innovative tactics, although blind, didn't lose a single battle
File:Martin Kuthen-George of Podebrady.jpg|George of Kunštát and Poděbrady (1420–1471), the only Bohemian lord who managed to gain the royal rank (via election), remembered especially for his proposal to create peaceful all-European union of Christian states
File:Vojtěch z Pernštejna.JPG|Vojtěch I of Pernštejn (1490–1534), aristocratic magnate and supreme court master
File:Vilém z Rožmberka, obraz.jpg|William of Rosenberg (1535–1592), an important statesman and philanthropist, a moderate representative of the Catholic nobility in the period before the Thirty Years' War
File:Hajek.jpg|Hagecius (1525–1600), astronomer, naturalist and personal physician of Emperor Rudolph II, who invited Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler at Prague to scientific collaboration
File:Vok.jpg|Petr Vok of Rosenberg (1539–1611), the last descendant of powerful and wealth "viceroyal" Rosenberg family, benefactor of the oldest Protestant church Unity of the Brethren
File:Kryštof Harant.jpg|Kryštof Harant of Polžice and Bezdružice (1564–1621), writer, military leader, diplomat, traveler and composer, one of the leaders of the Estates Protestant uprising of 1618, executed after the Catholic victory in the Battle of White Mountain
File:Aegidius Sadeler - Albrecht Jan Smiřický on deathbed.jpg|Albrecht Jan Smiřický of Smiřice (1594–1618), the wealthiest lord of its era, possible candidate to the Bohemian throne and one of main heads of the anti-Habsburg Bohemian Revolt
File:Heřman Černín.jpg|Czernin family (1576–1651), traveler, diplomat and politician, highest provincial court master and chamberlain
File:Wallenstein Reiterbild.JPG|Albrecht Václav von Wallenstein (1583–1634), famous military leader and politician during the Thirty Years War, the first holder of title generalissimo in history
File:Polyxena Pernstejn (cropped).jpg|Polyxena of Lobkowicz (1566–1642), née Pernštejn, most powerful and influential noblewoman of Early Modern Age in Czech history, her political engagement and intrigues have greatly helped forcible re-Catholization of Bohemia after 1620
File:Brandl, Petr - Špork.jpg|František Antonín Sporck (1662–1738), important benefactor and visionary, founder of the Kuks
File:Wenzel Anton Graf von Kaunitz-Riethberg.jpg|Václav Antonín of Kaunitz-Rietberg (1711–1794), statesman and diplomat, state chancellor of the Habsburg Monarchy, initiator of the Diplomatic Revolution
File:Schwarzenberg, Joseph Adam.jpg|Josef I. Schwarzenberg (1722–1782), politician and philanthropist, founder of the Schwarzenberg Pension Institute for Employees
File:Giovanni Battista Lampi Johann Rudolf Graf Czernin-Chudenitz.jpg|Jan Rudolf Czernin of Chudenice (1757–1845), patron and art collector, president of the Academy of Sciences, supreme chamber and hofmeister
File:Kaspar Maria Sternberg Litho.JPG|Kašpar Maria of Sternberg (1761–1838), botanist, geologist, paleobotanist and founder of the Bohemian National Museum in Prague (1818)
File:Radetzky Dauthage Litho 01.jpg|Josef Václav Radetzky von Radetz (1766–1858), Austrian field marshal and viceroy of Lombardy–Venetia, called the "Saviour of the House of Habsburg" during the revolution year of 1848 in Italy
File:Karel Filip Schwarzenberg.jpg|Karl Filip Schwarzenberg (1771–1820), diplomat and military leader, victor over Napoleon in the Battle of Leipzig
File:Jiří Buquoy de Longeval-Georg Franz August de Longeval (1771–1851).jpg|Jiří Buquoy de Longueval (1781–1851), economist, writer, politician, businessman, inventor, founder of the first nature reserve in Bohemia
File:Franz Anton von Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky (1778–1861) engraving crop.jpg|František Antonín Kolovrat (1778–1861), politician, prime minister
File:Wilhelmine von Sagan.jpg|Vilemína Zaháňská von Sagan (1781–1839), salon owner, writer, supporter of the writer Božena Němcová
File:Schwarzenberg.jpg|Cardinal Bedřich Schwarzenberg (1809–1885), Archbishop of Salzburg and Prague, theologian, mountaineer, public figure, initiator of the completion of the St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle
File:František L Rieger.jpg|František Ladislav Rieger (1818–1903), politician, co-founder of the National Party, knighted for his merits
File:Emil Skoda.jpg|Emil Škoda (1839–1900), entrepreneur and engineer, founder of Škoda Works – one of the largest European industrial conglomerates of the 20th c., knighted for his merits
File:Dvorak.jpg|Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904), one of the most important Czech and European music composers, knighted for his merits
File:Bertha von Suttner 1860s.jpg|Bertha von Suttner (1843–1914), née Kinsky, peace activist and writer, the first woman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1905) and probably the most known noblewoman of Bohemian origin
File:Sophiechotek1868-2.jpg|Žofie Chotková (Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg) (1868–1914), wife of the heir to the Austrian throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914
File:Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky (1886–1927).jpg|Alexander Kolowrat - Krakowský (1886–1927), car racer, aviator, owner of film studios and co-owner of the Laurin & Klement car company
File:Adolf Schwarzenberg.jpg|Adolf Schwarzenberg (1890–1950), businessman, anti-Nazi
File:187-b. Jindřich Vilém Albrecht Pavel hrabě Krakowský z Kolowrat.jpg|Jindřich Kolowrat-Krakowský (1897–1996), diplomat, politician, philanthropist, anti-Nazi
File:Zdeněk Bořek Dohalský (1900-1945).jpg|Zdeněk Bořek Dohalský (1900–1945), journalist and anti-Nazi resistance fighter, executed by the Nazis in 1945
File:Jiří Stránský (2015).jpg|Jiří Stránský (1931–2019), writer, screenwriter, translator
File:Karel Schwarzenberg 2019.jpg|Karel Schwarzenberg (1937–2023), politician, businessman, philanthropist and fighter for human rights
File:Kinsky Frantisek 16778v.jpg|František Kinský (born 1947), producer, moderator and regional politician
File:Biskup František Václav Lobkowicz.jpg|František Václav Lobkowicz (1948–2022), Roman Catholic priest, bishop of Ostrava-Opava
File:Tomáš Czernin in 2016.jpg|Tomáš Czernin (born 1962), businessman and politician, senator
Further reading
