Prague was not destined long to enjoy the blessings of peace. In 1757,
the second year of the Seven Years' War, Frederick the Great arrived
before Prague with a large army on May 2 and encamped on the White
Mountain. He crossed the Vltava on the 5th to unite his army with the
Prussian forces on the right bank of the river, and on the following
day a great battle took place between the Prussians and Austrians
between the village of Sterbohol, four and a half miles from Prague, and
the city itself. Carlyle has given us a very spirited, though somewhat
inaccurate, description of this great battle, which he calls 'the famed
Battle of Prag; which sounded through all the world--and used to deafen
us in drawing-rooms within man's memory.' The battle ended with a
complete defeat of the Imperialists, and the Austrian army had--as
Carlyle words it--'to roll pell-mell into Prague and hastily close the
door behind it.' The town was again so fiercely bombarded that whole
streets were in ruins, and St. Vitus's Cathedral and other historical
buildings greatly suffered. The Austrian victory at Kolin obliged the
Prussians to raise the siege of Prague.
The battle of 1757 is the last warlike event with which Prague is
connected, if we except the civil tumult in 1848. The town played no
part in the later events of the Seven Years' War, nor in the long
struggle between Austria and France that, with short intervals, lasted
from 1792 to 1815.
In the peaceful years that followed the Congress of Vienna (1815) the
Bohemian nation strove--as far as the jealousy of a strictly absolutist
Government permitted--to recover some of its ancient rights and
privileges, and particularly to revive the national language. Prague was
the centre of this movement, particularly after the foundation of the
Bohemian Museum.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account