Czech lands

In a historical context, Czech texts use the term to refer to any territory ruled by the Kings of Bohemia, i.e., the lands of the Bohemian Crown (země Koruny české) as established by Emperor Charles IV in the 14th century.

This includes territories like the Lusatias (which in 1635 fell to Saxony) and the whole of Silesia, which at the time were all ruled from Prague Castle.

Since the conquest of Silesia by the Prussian king Frederick the Great in the First Silesian War in 1742, the remaining lands of the Bohemian Crown—Bohemia, Moravia and Austrian Silesia—have been more or less co-extensive with the territory of the modern-day Czech Republic.

In the course of the decline of the Great Moravian realm during the Hungarian invasions of Europe in the 9th and 10th centuries, the Czech Přemyslid dynasty established the Duchy of Bohemia.

Backed by the East Frankish kings, they prevailed against the reluctant Bohemian nobility and extended their rule eastwards over the adjacent Moravian lands.

Attached to his Kingdom of Bohemia was the Margraviate of Moravia established in 1182 and Kłodzko Land, the later County of Kladsko.

The Silesian lands north of the Sudetes mountain range had been ruled by the Polish Piast dynasty from the 10th century onwards.