nd eventful reign, from 936 to 967, long at least for those
days when rulers were apt to be removed abruptly. None knew this better
than Boleslav himself. Monkish chroniclers have little good to say of
Boleslav I--allegedly on account of that little affair at Stara
Boleslav and of Boleslav's persistent paganism; actually, I imagine, on
account of the anti-German attitude he adopted at the outset of his
reign. Boleslav ruled with a firm hand; he subdued a number of Bohemian
nobles who had allied themselves with the national enemy the German,
before he resumed the conflict with Henry the Fowler which his mother
had started. Henry, no doubt, was quite ready to quarrel, using the
murder of his ally as a pretext, but he died before he had had time to
settle down in the saddle, and left his son Otto to carry on. Now Otto,
first German Emperor of that name, was a strong man, and is called Great
on account of his success in reviving the Holy Roman Empire. Boleslav
was a strong man too: Palacky, the famous Bohemian historian, describes
him as "one of the most powerful monarchs that ever occupied the
Bohemian throne." He succeeded in defending his country from the armies
that Otto launched against it, and even the invasion of 950, led by the
Emperor himself, brought no decisive victory for the Germans. Boleslav
seems to have considered it futile to continue quarrelling with his
western neighbour, especially as the usual trouble continued in the
east, in which direction the Prince proposed to extend his dominions. By
955 we find Germans and Bohemians allied against the Magyars, who had
acquired a habit of ravaging Western Europe once a year. They met their
match on the Lechfeld, near Augsburg, and were utterly defeated in one
of the most sanguinary and decisive battles fought during the Middle
Ages. According to Count Luetzow it appears that a Bohemian contingent of
a thousand men formed part of the victorious army. Boleslav himself,
with the greater part of his troops, remained to guard the frontiers of
his country. The defeated Magyars suffered another defeat at the hands
of Boleslav on their retreat through Bohemia, and their leader, Lehel,
was taken prisoner. With peace and friendliness on his western front and
his eastern enemy thoroughly beaten, Boleslav was in a position to carry
out his ambitious plans. He freed Moravia from the Magyars and united it
to Bohemia, and he is said to have conquered a considerable part of the
cou