Sicilian Golden Bull

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Sicilian Golden Bull

The Sicilian Golden Bull (Latin: Bulla Aurea Siciliæ , Czech: Zlatá bula sicilská ) is the name given to the privilege granted in Basel on September 26, 1212 by the Sicilian King and future Emperor Friedrich II . Frederick II confirms the royal dignity of the Bohemian King Ottokar I Přemysl and his successors and determines the rights and duties of the Bohemian kings within the Holy Roman Empire . The Sicilian Golden Bull, which in fact consists of three documents, is one of the most famous and important documents in Bohemian history. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was used as evidence of the historical right of the Czech people to their own state.

Emergence

Two of Ottokar's predecessors were already given the royal dignity by the emperor, Duke Vrastislav II in 1085 and Duke Vladislav II in 1158. They received this title for their support of the emperor, but only personally, not hereditary. Their successors ruled again as dukes.

It was only Ottokar I. Přemysl who succeeded in obtaining a hereditary royal title and thus elevating the country of Bohemia to a kingdom. Ottokar made himself after the death of Emperor Heinrich VI. the rivalry between the Guelph Otto IV of Braunschweig and the Staufer Philip of Swabia for the imperial crown. He supported Philip, received from him the title of king as a hereditary privilege in 1198 and was crowned as the Bohemian king in Boppard . In 1203 Ottokar I. Přemysl changed sides and supported Otto IV of Braunschweig, who confirmed his privilege. Thereupon Ottokar was crowned again on August 24, 1203 in the army camp outside Merseburg by Cardinal Guido von Praeneste. In 1204 Pope Innocent III. recognized the hereditary Bohemian royal crown.

When Otto IV was excommunicated from Braunschweig in 1210, Ottokar I Přemysl and his brother, the Moravian Margrave Vladislav Heinrich , again sided with the Hohenstaufen. In the election of the future emperor on November 18, 1211 in Nuremberg , he voted for Friedrich II, the nephew of Philip of Swabia, who was King of Sicily at the time. The imperial princes then sent a delegation to Sicily (Anselm von Justingen and Heinrich von Neuffen) to inform the young Staufer about the election. Frederick II accepted the election, left Sicily and made his way to Germany. He crossed the Alps and then had three privileges - the Sicilian Golden Bulls - issued in Basel on September 26, 1212 for his influential Bohemian allies, Ottokar I. Přemysl and Vladislav Heinrich.

There is no evidence that Ottokar I. Přemysl or Vladislav Heinrich were personally present in Basel. But the documents were probably created with her participation. It is difficult to assume that there was a person in the surroundings of the Sicilian king who would be well informed about the conditions in Bohemia and the demands of Ottokar. It is possible that Ottokar had given one of the legates in Nuremberg a list of the Bohemian demands that the scribe, notary Henricus de Parisius , used in Basel as the basis for drawing up the bulls.

Gold bull of Frederick II as King of Sicily

Surname

The name "Sicilian Golden Bull" is derived from the Sicilian royal seal in gold, with which Frederick II certified the three documents. At that time he did not have the seal of the Roman emperor. This name has only been used by Czech historians since the beginning of the 20th century. Earlier they only spoke of the Basel privileges of September 26, 1212. The first of the three privileges is the best known and most important, often only this one is called the “Sicilian Golden Bull ".

In all three documents, Frederick II introduces himself not only as rex Sicilie (King of Sicily), but also as Romanorum imperator electus (elected Roman emperor). It is not clear why Frederick II used this title, as he was not yet elected emperor at the time. The correct translation would therefore be: “chosen”, i.e. future emperor.

Contents of the first bull

  • Frederick II confirms to the Bohemian King Ottokar I Přemysl and his future successors the royal dignity that his uncle King Philip of Swabia had given him earlier (1198). The reason for this is that Ottokar supported him and voted for him when he was elected Roman emperor.
  • Frederick II further affirms that he and his successors will confirm all kings elected by the Bohemian nobility in office. This guaranteed the Bohemian nobility the right to choose their own king. The only task of the emperor was to confirm the king elected in Bohemia.
  • The Czech state is guaranteed its territorial extension and borders (without specifying them).
  • Frederick II granted the Bohemian kings the right to invest new bishops in their own country. This increased the power of the Bohemian kings, because until now it was the right of the emperor.
  • The Bohemian king is not obliged to attend court days that have been convened unless they take place near the national borders: namely in Bamberg , Nuremberg or Merseburg. If the Polish duke accepts the invitation, the Bohemian king is to provide an escort for him.
  • In the event of an imperial coronation in Rome , the Bohemian king is obliged to provide a retinue of 300 mounted men or to pay an amount of 300 marks in silver as a replacement.

Contents of the second bull

  • Frederick II grants and confirms to Ottokar I Přemysl smaller imperial estates and fiefs near the national borders, in the Upper Palatinate , in the Vogtland and in Pleißenland .

Contents of the third bull

  • The third bull is intended for Vladislav Heinrich, who as margrave administered the Moravian territories. He is said to receive an enigmatic “Mocran et Mocran” . Behind this incomprehensible expression one suspects either an imperial fief of an unknown location or the words “Moravia and Moravia”, which would have been mutilated by a mistake during the production of the Mocran et Mocran certificate. In the latter case, like his brother, Vladislav Heinrich would have achieved recognition of his rule.
Detail of the Sicilian Golden Bull

meaning

The Sicilian Golden Bull is an important founding document of the Kingdom of Bohemia and regulated the kingdom's relations with the Holy Roman Empire. Its emergence shows the prestige of the Bohemian rulers and the growing influence they had gained in Central Europe in the 13th century. In the opinion of today's historians, however, it does not have the overriding state-building significance that Czech historians of the 19th and early 20th centuries gave it.

It does not seem to have played an important role for the Premyslid kings of the 13th century. It is not quoted in the so-called Ulm Golden Bull of 1216, in which Frederick II confirmed the succession plan for the Bohemian kings, and there is also no evidence that it was used in the enthronement of Ottokar's successors. There is also no evidence that Ottokar I. Přemysl claimed the possessions that were awarded to him with the second bull.

Awareness of the importance of the Sicilian Golden Bull was first created by the Bohemian King and Emperor Charles IV , who included it in the Crown Archives, reissued it together with nine other key privileges of the kingdom, gave it a new seal, and on April 7, 1348 on the Had the state parliament's negotiations solemnly confirmed. Charles IV wanted to build on old Premyslid traditions with his kingship. After the Battle of White Mountain (1620), the bull was almost completely forgotten and was only rediscovered as a key document of Czech history in the 19th century movement of the Czech national revival.

The Czech historians of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century saw the year 1212 as a turning point at which Ottokar I. Přemysl succeeded in gaining the status of a hereditary monarchy for the Bohemian lands and extensive legal independence with the Sicilian Golden Bull to secure from the " German Reich ". This interpretation then found its way into textbooks and the public consciousness. The Sicilian Golden Bull also served as evidence of the historical right of the Czech people to their own state.

Another fate of the documents

It is not known how the three documents came from Basel to Prague in 1212 and whether their content corresponded to the recipient's expectations. They were later kept temporarily in Prague Castle and (e.g. during the Hussite Wars ) in Karlštejn Castle until they were transported to Vienna in 1750 together with most of the Bohemian Crown Archives . They stayed there until 1920, when the Kronachiv was brought back to Prague on November 21 under the Treaty of Saint-Germain .

Today the originals of the three documents are kept in the National Archives of the Czech Republic in Prague, in the "Archives of the Czech Crown", ( České koruny Archive ), No. 2.

The Latin text was published by G. Friedrich in: Codex diplomaticus et epistolaris regni Bohemiae , II, Prague 1912, No. 96, 97, 98, pp. 92-97.

On the 800th anniversary of the publication of the Golden Sicilian Bull, the document was publicly exhibited in the National Archives for four days in September 2012 under strict security measures.

literature

  • Martin Wihoda: Zlatá bula sicilská: Podivuhodný příběh ve vrstvách paměti . Argo, Praha 2005, ISBN 80-7203-682-3 (Czech, 316 pages).
  • Martin Wihoda: The Sicilian Golden Bulls of 1212: Emperor Frederick II. Privileges for the Přemyslids in the memory discourse . Böhlau, Vienna Cologne Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-205-78838-6 (330 pages).
  • Josef Žemlička : Počátky Čech královských 1198–1253 . Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, Praha 2002, ISBN 80-7106-140-9 , p. 109-110 (Czech, 964 pp.).
  • Josef Žemlička: Zlatá bula sicilská . Melantrich, Praha 1987, ISBN 80-7106-140-9 (Czech, 40 pages).
  • Jan Randák a kol .: Dějiny českých zemí . Euromedia Group, as, Praha 2016, ISBN 978-80-242-5503-3 , p. 70-71 (Czech, 432 pp.).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Wihoda: The Sicilian Golden Bulls of 1212: Emperor Frederick II. Privileges for the Přemyslids in the memory discourse . Böhlau, Vienna Cologne Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-205-78838-6 , p. 38-39 (330 pp.).
  2. ↑ Martin Wihoda: The Sicilian Golden Bulls of 1212: Emperor Frederick II. Privileges for the Přemyslids in the memory discourse . Böhlau, Vienna Cologne Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-205-78838-6 , p. 85, 92-93 (330 pp.).
  3. ↑ Martin Wihoda: The Sicilian Golden Bulls of 1212: Emperor Frederick II. Privileges for the Přemyslids in the memory discourse . Böhlau, Vienna Cologne Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-205-78838-6 , p. 39, 95 (330 pp.).
  4. ↑ a b Martin Wihoda: The Sicilian Golden Bulls of 1212: Emperor Frederick II. Privileges for the Přemyslids in the memory discourse . Böhlau, Vienna Cologne Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-205-78838-6 , p. 42-44 (330 pp.).
  5. ↑ a b Martin Wihoda: The Sicilian Golden Bulls of 1212: Emperor Frederick II. Privileges for the Přemyslids in the memory discourse . Böhlau, Vienna Cologne Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-205-78838-6 , p. 253-260 (330 pp.).
  6. ↑ a b Zlatá bula sicilská Josef Žemlička and Martin Wihoda in an interview on October 15, 2012 (in Czech), accessed on February 2, 2018
  7. ↑ CBD II, Num. 96, 97, 98 annotated texts of the three bulls (Latin), accessed on February 2, 2018
  8. ↑ Golden Bull of Sicily goes on display at National Archive ( Memento from February 8, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) Prague Daily Monitor, February 8, 2014 (English), accessed on February 2, 2018