Historical background

Translated by Kryštof Šámal

It would seem that after Albrecht's death, nothing prevents the Polish side from push its candidate to the throne. However, almost all the Catholic nobility and cities opposed it. But even the Poles were not too keen on the vacant throne. Hynce Ptáček, who was a skilled politician, understood that the choice of prince Casimir was politically impassable and abandoned the promotion of his candidacy. In January 1440, during the Prague diet, on 29th January 1440, concluded Hynce Ptáček and Oldřich II. of Rosenberg, together with members of their parties, an agreement called the “Peace letter of all estates of the kingdom of Bohemia”. This agreement included compliance with the Basel compacts, the requirement to confirm the election of Jan Rokycana as archbishop, the resumption of the activities of the provincial court to which both parties had sent their representatives, the invalidation of Albrecht's records to the detriment of the Czech crown or its opponents, and arrangements for the amicable settlement of future disputes.

In order to be able to effectively enforce the measures taken from the Letter, a system of landfrieds was put into operation. The landfrieds were security-military associations of the nobility and royal cities, which replaced the central government in a certain territory. While in Moravia there was already regional landfried established on 28th january 1440, in Bohemia, there were 12 such landfrieds established during the year 1440. On March 8th 1440, the Boleslav landfrýd was created, and Jan Smiřický of Smiřice and Jiří of Kunštát and Poděbrady were elected hauptmanns, who was after Hynek Ptáček and Aleš Holický of Šternberk, the third highest-ranking man of Ptáček's party. On the diet in Čáslav, 17th March 1440, four more eastern bohemian landfrieds were created: Hradec, Chrudim, Čáslav, and Kouřim, of which Hynce Ptáček himself was elected the hauptmann, however, he had defacto power over the whole lot of eastern bohemian landfrieds.

The landfrieds were originally supposed to ensure the administration of the country only until the Bohemian diet, which was to be held in June 1440 in Prague, where a new bohemian king was to be elected. A group of electors (18 Lords, 14 Knights and 14 burghers) decided to offer the Czech crown to the Duke Albrecht of Bavaria, who, however, on the 24th August 1440, politely refused. Thus, the question of the occupation of the Czech throne again appeared in the political foreground. In particular, the Rosenberg party returned to the question of the inheritance of the Czech throne in the House of Habsburg. For a time, the candidacy of Emperor Frederick III was considered. However, in the end, the opinion was established, that the hereditary crown belonged to the son of Albrecht II., Ladislus the Posthumus, who was born on 22nd February 1440, almost four months after Albrecht's death. Even the Ptáček's party did not reject Ladislaus, but defended the right of election, which belonged to the estates. However, with the selection of the minor Ladislaus the Posthumus, the end of interregnum disappeared out of sight, and the landfrieds became the local government power for the next few years.

On 27th of August 1444, Hynce Ptáček of Pirkštejn, suddenly died in Rataje nad Sázavou, probably of a stroke. At the Congress of Kutná Hora in September 1444, Jiří of Poděbrady was elected to his place at the head of the east bohemian landforms. At the Congress of Pelhřimov in June 1446, the idea of appointing a land governor fell apart. At the congress of Kutná Hora, in 24th June 1448, from the original Union of East bohemian landfrieds, a powerful Poděbrady union was formed, of which many Catholic noblemen were also a part. Here, too, Jiří was elected the administrator of “all Czech communities inclined to the law of God.” But in order to become a real ruler of the country, he had to have power over Prague. Under the pretext of invading Saxony, he gathered an army and suddenly ambushed on the night of 2nd to 3rd September 1448 Prague, including both castles. In response to the occupation of Prague, on 8th of February 1449 in Strakonice the Rosenberg party united with the remnants of the Tábor Union, formed Strakonice unipn and immediately began military action against Poděbrady union. The war with the Strakonice unity smoothly turned into a war against Frederick II. of Saxony, and on October 27th, 1451, Jiří of Poděbrady, returned to Prague, crowned with the laurels of victory. In November 1451, Oldrich II. of Rosenberg retired, and thus de facto Strakonice union ceased to exist. Oldrich's sons and heirs - Jindřich, Jan and Jošt needed to consolidate their rule over the Rosenberg Dominion and rather made peace with Jiří of Poděbrady. This virtually ended any opposition to Poděbrady union and Jiří of Poděbrady. On 23rd of April 1452, St. George Assembly gathered in Prague, and on April 27th of 1452, elected Jiří as the land governor for two years. At the end of August 1452, Jiří gathered an army of about 17,000 men and on the 30th August 1452 marched on Tábor. Tábor surrendered to Jiří without a fight on 1st September 1452. 18th September 1452, the townspeople of Písek, Klatovy, Domažlice and Sušice surrendered to George, and a week later the townspeople of Louny and Žatec. Thus, the Tábor Union ceased to exist, which was especially important from the point of view of the church administration. From that point,.one land governor had only one spiritual administrator of the hussite believers, Jan Rokycana. When Jiří returned to Prague on 30th September 1452, he was already a generally recognized a ruler of all Czech regions.

In February 1458, a constituent assembly was convened. In the game for the Czech crown were several candidates: Casimir Jagiellonian, William of Saxony, Emperor Frederick III., Albrecht of Bavaria, Albrecht of Brandenburg and King Charles VII of France. In the end, of all the foreign candidates, the two most prominent remained: William of Saxony and Charles VII. Jiři of Poděbrady remained in the background. He skillfully played on the nationalistic notes, giving as an example the election of a member of the domestic nobility - Matthias Corvinus as king of Hungary, which had already taken place on the 24th of January 1458. He won the opposition mainly by promising that there would be no restitution of church property seized during the Hussite Wars, on which, paradoxically, the Rosenbergs, as well as other noble families, both catholic and protestant, would lose the most. The election began on 27th February 1458, at the Old Town Hall in Prague. Jiří secured the result of the election by having the venue of the assembly surrounded by his gunmen and so he was the elected the King of Bohemia on the 2nd of March, 1458. After the election, Jiří sworn a secret oath in the hands of the Hungarian bishops Augustine of Rab and Vincent of Vacov that he would obey the commands of the papal see and that he would defend the true Christian faith. This secret oath later became an apple of contention, as the pope and other Catholic prelates understood it as a commitment that Jiří would give up the chalice and fight the hussites. But the czech hussites, including Jiří, considered themselves on the basis of the Compacts as part of the general, that is, at that time catholic, church. Jiří, therefore, understood his oath as a struggle against manifestations of heresy that were outside the content of the Compacts, as he had already done by the dissolution of the Tábor Union and the capture of the Tábor priests in the autumn of 1452. At this time, however, this secret oath allowed Jiří to be crowned on 7th of May 1458 in the presence of both bishops.

Although Jiří of Poděbrady received the Czech crown at the coronation in Prague, he still had to secure recognition of the Czech crown in other countries. The first was Moravia, where Jiří traditionally had followers in the nobility related to his family - Lords of Kunštát. Until now, especially the royal cities stood against him here, where the german urban patricians always defended the Catholic and pro-Habsburg policy. However, since there were no other candidates for the throne after Jiří's election as the czech king, by the summer of 1458, all moravian cities accepted him, save for Jihlava. King Jiří chose the proven tactics of war threats and peace negotiations against the patriciate of Jihlava , and so in November 1458, the burghers of Jihlava knelt before the king. After Moravia, Upper Lusatia and the County of Kladsko also joined Jiří's domain. As early as 1458, king Jiří also ruled the the “secondary lands of the czech crown” (this includes territories outside the Kingdom of Bohemia, i.e. Lusatia and Silesia, Gorlitz etc.) with the exception of Silesia, where Wrocław in particular expressed its disagreement with the choice of the hussite king. Jiří decided to postpone his fight with the wroclawians and went on to secure his recognition as a king abroad. He first met Emperor Frederick III. on a Danube island outside Vienna, and paid his tribute to him on the 25th of September 1458. The Czech lands were formally still part of the Holy Roman Empire. Jiří also promised the Emperor military assistance in the fight against the Austrian Estates and received from him the recognition of his coronation. Now it was time to put an end to the disputes with Saxony, which George did at the Congress in Cheb, which began on the 7th April 1459. In Cheb, the leading personalities of the Empire gathered, among others Frederick of the Palatinate, Otto of Bavaria, Frederick the Elector Count of Brandenburg, Albrecht of Brandenburg, archbishop Frederick of Magdeburg and many other counts and princes with their companions. However, the most important figures of the Congress were the brothers Frederick and William of Saxony. King Jiří arrived in Cheb accompanied by 900 horsemen and 100 wagons, with his whole family and with the leaders of the czech nobility. Patience finally bore fruit. William of Saxony renounced all claims to the Czech throne and offered to mediate between Jiří and Silesia. Both saxon dukes then gave up their claims to the lands around Duchcov and Most and withdrew beyond the land border. King Jiří, on the other hand, renounced the czech fiefs in Saxony. This border between Saxony and Bohemia is still valid today and is therefore one of the oldest still existing borders in Europe. The Czech-Brandenburg friendship treaty was also established in Cheb. In September 1459, Wrocław became a besieged fortress and on 1st of October 1459, the Czech army attacked the walls, however, unable to break them. Even the Pope Pius II. wrote a letter to the citizens of Wroclaw, asking them tu subdue. And so at the end of the year 1459, the city asks King Jiří for a truce and begins negotiations for peace. In January 1460, Wrocław accepted Jiří of Poděbrady as king.

According to an ancient ceremony, each new czech King was formally obliged to take a vow of obedience to the pope. To that end, czech entourage entered Rome on 13th of March, 1462. Jiří also wanted the Pope to legitimize the chalice and confirm Jan Rokycana in the office of archbishop. The public hearing of the czech message before the Pope took place on   20th March 1462. The czech Chancellor Prokop of Rabštejn took an oath of obedience to the pope in the name of King Jiří. Then Václav Koranda Jr. took the stage and defended the validity of the Compacts. The Pope immediately replied to him and expressed the opinion that the chalice was allowed in Basel only to the first generation of Hussites, but on the validity of the Compacts promised to express an opinion later. That happened on 31st October 1462, in the presence of about 4,000 witnesses. Pope Pius II proclaimed the Compacts for canceled. But Jiří was not surprised. He had been preparing diplomatically for a conflict with the papal curia for some time. He could not and would not renounce the Compacts, the central point of his lifelong political program. He managed to quell the religious unrest in Bohemia and the centrifugal tendencies of the countries of the Czech crown, which occurred after the unilateral abolition of the Compacts, and for some time the situation in the Kingdom stabilized again. Old and sick, Pope Pius II. watched this development with displeasure. In the end, he ran out of patience, despite the intercession of Emperor Frederick III. and many princes of the Empire, invited Jiří to rome for ecclestial court to Rome on 16th of June 1464. However, he dies before Jiří can even respond, on  14th of August 1464 in Ancona. The new Pope, Paul II., invited Jiří to the Roman tribunal on   2nd of August 1465: if Jiří does not appear within 180 days, he will be expelled from the church and the ecclesiastical curse with all the punishments that belong to heretics will rest on him. At the same time, Paul II. increased the pressure on the Czech Catholics and tried to force them to renounce obedience to the King, accused of heresy. On the 28th of November, 1465, 16 catholic lords from southern and western Bohemia gathered at the castle of Zelená Hora near Nepomuk and created the Zelená Hora Union - political opposition against the king Jiří. The King did not intervene immediately because he did not want to plunge the Czechs back into a devastating civil war. Nor did the Union take any military action, for the lords well knew that Jiří had complete military superiority. Thus, the two sides concluded a long-term truce until February 1467. At the intercession of Louis of Bavaria, Pope Paul II. extended the period, during which Jiří was to appear in court, until the end of 1466. But this did not happen, and so was the Czech King, in the presence of four thousand people, excommunicated from the church with his whole family and deposed from the throne on 23rd of December 1466. This encouraged the Zelená hora union, and its representatives refused to extend the armistice in February 1467. The Zelená hora union also rejected reconciliation because its ranks gradually grew with other Catholic Lords and cities. In March 1467, the pope confirmed Zdeněk Konopišťský of Šternberk as the hauptmann of the Zelená hora union and at the same time gave him a blessing for the fight against heretics. An amicable solution was no longer possible and so Jiří, on 19th of April, 1467, publicly challanged the pope to a life and death fight, and appealed to the future church council against the Pope Paul II. Immediately after the release of this statement, Jiří issued declarations of war against the Zelena Hora Union. The Union went on a deep defense, and its hopes were pinned on organizing a crusade against Jiří. Jiří's diplomatic efforts in recent years were now paying off, and there was no one around the Czech Kingdom who wanted to take on the organization and leadership of the crusade. In particular, the Polish king and many imperial Dukes openly defended Jiří. At the beginning of 1468, however, Jiří's son, Victor, Duke of Münsterberg, invaded Austria, where he plundered the estates of Emperor Frederick III. The Emperor turned to the Hungarian king, Matthias Corvinus, who had just freed his hands from the battles with the Turks. In March 1468, in Trnava, Matthias Corvinus declared war on Victor, and practically became the executor of the papal curse. The Czech-Hungarian wars began, which lasted more than 10 years. At first, Matthias Corvinus was more successful, but in the course of 1469 the luck of the war turned. Even though, Matthias had himself proclaimed the king of Bohemia in May 1469 in Olomouc, with part of the czech nobility being witness. He was never coronated however, because the traditional place of coronation, the cathedral of St. Vitus in Prague, as well as the coronation jewels, were held by Jiří. Víta měl v držení Jiří z Poděbrad. Jiří's health declines rapidly thoug, and during the preparation for retaliatory campaign into Hungary, the king Jiří of Poděbrady and Kunštát, dies on March 22, 1471.