Images of Přemysl dynasty in the Austrian Plutarch by Joseph von Hormayr

The paper deals with an issue of integrating the secondary ethnic community into a unified historical memory discourse in the Habsburg empire. Since the Holy Roman Empire suffered from disintegration processes and the Habsburgs shifted their attention towards their Empire in 1804–1815 due to Napoleonic wars, the Habsburg state required a new historical discourse. It was designed to assist the mobilization of citizens against a common enemy, and to enforce the emerging conservative ideology alongside with the Austrian imperial patriotism. In order to enforce the Habsburg legitimacy in Czech lands, Joseph von Hormayr, the Austrian historian, conservative ideologist and politician included several essays devoted to Czech princes and kings from Premyslid dynasty into «The Austrian Plutarch». These texts have tapped into the identitarian policy of the early Austrian conservatism. In addition to it, they turned out to be one of the Romantic historiography manifestos and demonstrated the role of historical memory in political life of the Habsburg monarchy. The «Austrian Plutarch» also put a deep impact on the Austrian Empire in general, and so on integration of Czechia, Moravia and Silesia into an imperial community. The works by Hormayr faced a growing interest later, when the «national» historical narratives were coined without reference to the Habsburgs and Austria in order to assist the emerging Czech national identity with the following autonomy or sovereignty acquisition.