king[1] It was therefore good policy for him to strive to hide his Slav origin, and to appear as a German prince ruling over a mainly German population.
At the beginning of his reign Přemysl Ottokar II, aided by several German princes, engaged in a campaign against the heathen Prussians (1255), and after defeating them in several battles succeeded m converting a large part of the population to Christianity. The town of Königsberg was founded at this time, and called after the King of Bohemia.
Probably in consequence of this successful campaign, the German princes (1256) offered the sovereignty of their country to Ottokar. The Bohemian king at this period does not seem to have desired the German crown, but to have favoured the choice of a weak and powerless prince, who would be unable to interfere with his plans for the aggrandizement of Bohemia. Ottokar, therefore, contributed to the election of Richard of Cornwall, with whom he remained on terms of friendship during the whole of his nominal reign.
By the treaty concluded with Hungary in 1254, that country had retained the supremacy over Styria; but this soon became very irksome to the Styrian nobles. In the year 1259 they chose the occasion of a new dispute, that had arisen between King Přemysl Ottokar II and Bela, King of Hungary, for revolting against the Hungarians; and Ottokar, arriving at Gratz in the same year, took possession of Styria and appointed a Bohemian governor of the country.
The Hungarians immediately decided to repel this aggression, and during the following winter they raised an
- ↑ Though the comparison may seem far-fetched, there is some analogy between Přemysl Ottokar II's policy and that pursued by the Austrian Government during the earlier part of the nineteenth century (1815–1866). Austria, holding the right of presidency over the German Diet at Frankfort, was still nominally the greatest German Power; and the Austrian Government constantly endeavoured, by attempts of "Germanizing" the non-German populations of the Empire, to justify the predominance of that country in Germany. It may be remembered that the Austrian ministers several times attempted to obtain the inclusion of the whole Empire in the Germanic confederation. It is only a natural reaction against this attempted "Germanization" that, since the treaty of Prague (1866) has dissolved all the bands that connected Austria and Germany, the German influence and language have constantly receded and still recede in Austria.
