Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval kingdom of Bohemia which was at the crossroads of Europe and, during the 15th century, at the heart of the Holy Roman Empire. Under Charles IV, its cosmopolitan capital Prague became a cultural and intellectual centre, attracting scholars and artists from all over Europe. But Prague was awash with religious and political dissent. At its core stood the anarchist philosopher Jan Hus, whose ideas anticipated the Lutheran Reformation by a full century. He was burnt at the stake, but his followers, the Hussites, embarked on a series of wars that continue to mark the Czech and German characters even today. Why was Bohemia such a crucible of dissent and how were its ideas exported to the rest of Europe? What did it mean to be Bohemian then and how was the ancient kingdom of Bohemia, with its ferment of religious, national and ethnic ideologies, divided up to form the states of modern Central Europe? With Norman Davies, Professor Emeritus, University of London; Karin Friedrich, Lecturer in History, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London; Robert Pynsent, Professor of Czech and Slovak Literature, University College London.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
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| 0:47.2 | Hello the medieval kingdom of Bohemia was at the crossroads of Europe and during |
| 0:51.5 | the 15th century at the heart of the Holy Roman Empire. |
| 0:54.6 | Under Charles IV, its cosmopolitan capital Prague became a cultural and intellectual center, |
| 0:59.8 | attracting scholars and artists from all over Europe. But Prague was awash with religious |
| 1:04.2 | and political dissent. At its cause, stood the anarchist philosopher Jan Husse, whose ideas |
| 1:09.4 | anticipated the Lutheran Reformation by a full century. He was burnt at the stake, but his followers |
| 1:15.0 | the Hussites embarked on a series of wars that continue to mark the Czech and German characters |
| 1:19.8 | even today. Why was Bohemia such a crucible of dissent and how were its ideas exported to the |
| 1:25.1 | rest of Europe? What did it mean to be Bohemian then and how was the ancient kingdom of Bohemia |
| 1:30.2 | with its ferment of religious, national and ethnic ideologies divided up to form the |
| 1:34.8 | states of modern Central Europe. With me to discuss matters Bohemian are Norman Davis, historian, author of Europe and the Isles, whose latest book co-authored is Microcosm, portrait of a |
| 1:46.2 | Central European city. |
| 1:48.2 | Karen Friedrich lecture in history at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at University |
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