Page:Edvard Beneš – Bohemia's case for independence.pdf/110

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BOHEMIA'S CASE FOR INDEPENDENCE

Dream," in which Shakespeare placed Bohemia on a sea-shore! But the Czechs and Bohemia were spoken of in England as early as the end of the ninth century in the books of travels written by Other and Wulfstan, who described the Scandinavian, Baltic, and Germanic countries, mentioning also the Slav Bohemians. Real relations, however, between the two countries commenced only later, in the first half of the twelfth century, under the Bohemian king, Přemysl Otakar I., when the sister of the Bohemian ruler was to marry the English king, Henry III. The negotiations, however, fell through, and it was not until 1382 that Anne, the daughter of the celebrated Bohemian king, Charles IV., was betrothed to Richrad II., since when, regular mutual relations have been established. Passages relating to Bohemia and the Czechs in the Latin records of the contemporary English chroniclers testify to the fact that the country and people were by no means unknown in England. Moreover, it is asserted that many works of Chaucer were written under the auspices of Queen Anne of Bohemia, or dedicated to her. It seems that the relations between England and Bohemia which had their origin in the marriage of the daughter of Charles IV. had an unexpected influence on the whole national history of Bohemia. From this dynastic tie arose the relations between the Universities of Prague and Oxford, in con-