Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor in the context of "Czech Lands"

The Czech lands (Czech: České země, pronounced [ˈtʃɛskɛː ˈzɛmɲɛ]) is a historical-geographical term which denotes the three historical regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia out of which Czechoslovakia, and later the Czech Republic and Slovakia, were formed. Together the three have formed the Czech part of Czechoslovakia since 1919, and the Czech Republic since 1 January 1993.

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.

The Lands of the Bohemian Crown were the states in Central Europe during the medieval and early modern periods with feudal obligations to the Bohemian kings. The crown lands primarily consisted of the Kingdom of Bohemia, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire according to the Golden Bull of 1356, the Margraviate of Moravia, the duchies of Silesia, and the two Lusatias, known as the Margraviate of Upper Lusatia and the Margraviate of Lower Lusatia, as well as other territories throughout its history. This agglomeration of states nominally under the rule of the Bohemian kings was referred to simply as Bohemia.

The joint rule of Corona regni Bohemiae was legally established by decree of King Charles IV issued on 7 April 1348, on the foundation of the original Czech lands ruled by the Přemyslid dynasty until 1306. By linking the territories, the interconnection of crown lands thus no more belonged to a king or a dynasty but to the Bohemian monarchy itself, symbolized by the Crown of Saint Wenceslas. During the reign of King Ferdinand I from 1526, the lands of the Bohemian Crown became a constituent part of the Habsburg monarchy. A large part of Silesia was lost in the mid-18th century, but the rest of the Lands passed to the Austrian Empire and the Cisleithanian half of Austria-Hungary. By the Czechoslovak declaration of independence in 1918, the remaining Czech lands became part of the First Czechoslovak Republic.

Prague (/ˈprɑːɡ/ PRAHG; Czech: Praha [ˈpraɦa] ) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan area is home to approximately 2.3 million people.

Prague is a historical city with Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque architecture. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia and residence of several Holy Roman Emperors, most notably Charles IV (r. 1346–1378) and Rudolf II (r. 1575–1611). It was an important city to the Habsburg monarchy and Austria-Hungary. The city played major roles in the Bohemian and the Protestant Reformation, the Thirty Years' War, and in 20th-century history as the capital of Czechoslovakia between the World Wars and the post-war Communist era.

Wenceslaus II Přemyslid (Czech: Václav II.; Polish: Wacław II Czeski; 27 September 1271 – 21 June 1305) was King of Bohemia (1278–1305), Duke of Cracow (1291–1305), and King of Poland (1296–1305).

He was the only son of King Ottokar II of Bohemia and Ottokar's second wife Kunigunda. He was born in 1271, ten years after the marriage of his parents. Kunigunda was the daughter of Rostislav Mikhailovich, lord of Slavonia, son of a Grand Prince of Kiev, and Anna of Hungary, daughter of Béla IV of Hungary. His great-grandfather was the German king Philip of Swabia. Wenceslaus II was the grandfather of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV. He was a member of the Přemyslid dynasty.

The Golden Bull of 1356 was a decree issued by the Imperial Diet at Nuremberg and Metz (Diet of Metz, 1356/57) headed by the Emperor Charles IV which fixed, for a period of more than four hundred years, important aspects of the constitutional structure of the Holy Roman Empire. It was named the Golden Bull for the golden seal it carried.

In June 2013, the Golden Bull was included in the UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.

This article lists the Margraves and Electors of Brandenburg during the time when Brandenburg was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Mark, or March, of Brandenburg was one of the primary constituent states of the Holy Roman Empire. It was created in 1157 as the Margraviate of Brandenburg by Albert the Bear, Margrave of the Northern March. In 1356, by the terms of the Golden Bull of Charles IV, the Margrave of Brandenburg was given the permanent right to participate in the election of the Holy Roman Emperor with the title of Elector (German: Kurfürst).

The election of a Holy Roman Emperor was generally a two-stage process whereby the King of the Romans was elected by a small body of the greatest princes of the realm, the prince-electors. This was then followed shortly thereafter by his coronation as king, originally at Aachen and later at Frankfurt. The king was then expected to march to Rome, to be crowned Emperor by the pope. In 1356, the Emperor Charles IV promulgated the Golden Bull, which became the fundamental law by which all future kings and emperors were elected. After 1508, rulers usually were recognized as "Emperor elect" after their first, royal coronation.

An Electress (German: Kurfürstin, Latin: electrix) was the consort of a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, one of the Empire's greatest princes.

The Golden Bull of 1356 established by Emperor Charles IV settled the number of Electors at seven. However, three of these were Roman Catholic archbishops, and so had no consorts; while of the four secular Electors, one was King of Bohemia, and his consort was always known by the more prestigious title of "Queen of Bohemia". The consorts usually referred to as Electresses, therefore, were:

John of Bohemia, also called the Blind or of Luxembourg (Luxembourgish: Jang de Blannen; German: Johann der Blinde; Czech: Jan Lucemburský; 10 August 1296 – 26 August 1346), was the Count of Luxembourg from 1313 and King of Bohemia from 1310 and titular King of Poland. He is well known for having died while fighting in the Battle of Crécy at age 50, after having been blind for a decade. In his home country of Luxembourg, he is considered a national hero. Comparatively, in the Czech Republic (anciently the Kingdom of Bohemia), Jan Lucemburský is often recognized for his role as the father of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, one of the more significant Kings of Bohemia and one of the leading Holy Roman Emperors.

Sigismund of Luxembourg (15 February 1368 – 9 December 1437) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1433 until his death in 1437. As the husband of Mary, Queen of Hungary, he was King of Hungary and Croatia (jure uxoris) from 1387. He was elected King of Germany (King of the Romans) in 1410, and was also King of Bohemia from 1419, as well as prince-elector of Brandenburg (1378–1388 and 1411–1415). He was the last male member of the House of Luxembourg.

Sigismund was the son of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and his fourth wife Elizabeth of Pomerania. He married Mary, Queen of Hungary in 1385 and was crowned King of Hungary soon after. He fought to restore and maintain authority to the throne. Mary died in 1395, leaving Sigismund the sole ruler of Hungary.