s of Bohemia
took the oath of allegiance to him (December 19, 1741). The fortune of
war, however, changed shortly afterwards. Maria Theresa recovered
Bohemia and the other lands that had been under the rule of the house of
Habsburg. During the reign of Maria Theresa, and to a greater extent
during that of her son Joseph II., many changes in the internal
administration of the Habsburg realm took place which all tended to
limit yet further the autonomy of Bohemia. A decree of 1749 abolished
the separate law-courts that still existed in Bohemia, and a few years
later an Austro-Bohemian chancellor was appointed who was to have the
control of the administration of Bohemia, as well as of the German
domains of the house of Habsburg. The power of the royal officials who
constituted the executive government of Bohemia was greatly curtailed,
and though the chief representative of the sovereign in Prague continued
to bear the ancient title of supreme burgrave, he was instructed to
conform in all matters to the orders of the central government of
Vienna. Yet more extreme measures tending to centralization were
introduced by the emperor Joseph, who refused to be crowned at Prague as
king of Bohemia. The powers of the Bohemian diet and of the royal
officials at Prague were yet further limited, and the German language
was introduced into all the upper schools of Bohemia. Some of the
reforms introduced by Joseph were, incidentally and contrary to the
wishes of their originator, favourable to the Bohemian nationality. Thus
the greater liberty which he granted to the press enabled the Bohemians
to publish a newspaper in the national language. After the death of
Joseph in 1790 the Bohemian estates, whose meetings had been suspended
during his reign, again assembled, but they at first made but scanty
attempts to reassert their former rights. During the long Napoleonic
wars, in which the house of Habsburg was almost continuously engaged,
Bohemia continued in its previous lethargic state. In 1804 a merely
formal change in the constitutional position of Bohemia took place when
Francis I. assumed the hereditary title of emperor of Austria. It was
stated in an imperial decree that the new title of the sovereign should
in no way prejudice the ancient rights of Bohemia and that the
sovereigns would continue to be crowned as kings of Bohemia.

Revival of national aspirations.

Collapse in 1848.

After the re-establishment of European peac