PALACKY, FRANTISEK [FRANCIS] Czech historian and politician, was born on June 14, 1798, at Hodslavice (Hotzendorf) in Moravia, of a Protestant family. After some years spent in private teaching Palac147 settled in 1823 at Prague. Here he found a warm friend in Dobrovsky, whose good relations with the Austrian authorities shielded him from the hostility shown by the government to students of Slav subjects. intro duced him to Count Sternberg and his brother Francis, both of whom took an enthusiastic interest in Bohemian history. Count Francis was the principal founder of the Society of the Bohemian Museum, devoted to the collection of documents bearing on Bohemian history, with the object of reawakening national senti ment by the study of the national records. Public interest in the movement was stimulated in 1825 by the new Journal of the Bo hemian Museum (Casopis jeskeho Musea) of which was the first editor. The journal was at first published in Czech and German, and the Czech edition survived to become the most im portant literary organ of Bohemia.
had received a modest appointment as archivist to Count Sternberg and in 1829 the Bohemian estates sought to confer on him the title of historiographer of Bohemia, with a small salary, but it was ten years before the consent of the Vien nese authorities was obtained. Meanwhile the estates, with the tardy assent of Vienna, had undertaken to pay the expenses of publishing PalackS7's capital work, The History vf the Bohemian People (5 vols., 1836-67). This book, which comes down to the year 1526 and the extinction of Czech independence, was founded on laborious research in the local archives of Bohemia and in the libraries of the chief cities of Europe, and remains a standard authority. The first volume was printed in German in 1836, and subsequently translated into Czech. The publication of the work was hindered by the police-censorship, which was especially active in criticizing his account of the Hussite movement.
In 1848 was deputed to the Reichstag which sat at Kromefice (Kremsier) in the autumn of that year, and was a member of the Slav congress at Prague. He refused to take part in the preliminary parliament consisting of 500 former deputies to the diet, which met at Frankfort, on the ground that as a Czech he had no interest in German affairs. He was at this time in
favour of a strong Austrian empire, which should consist of a federation of the southern German and the Slav states, allowing of the retention of their individual rights. These views met with some degree of consideration at Vienna, and was even offered a portfolio in the Pillersdorf cabinet. The collapse of the federal idea and the definite triumph of the party of reaction in 1852 led to his retirement from politics. After the liberal con cessions of 186o and 1861, however, he became a life member of the Austrian senate. His views met with small support from the assembly, and with the exception of a short period after the decree of September 1871, by which the emperor raised hopes for Bo hemian self-government, he ceased to appear in the senate from 1861 onwards.
In the Bohemian Landtag he became the acknowledged leader of the nationalist-federal party. He sought the establishment of a Czech kingdom which should include Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, and in his zeal for Czech autonomy he even entered into an alliance with the Conservative nobility and with the extreme Catholics. He attended the Panslavist congress at Moscow in 1867. He died at Prague on May 26, 1876.
Among his more important smaller historical works are: Wfrdigung der alten b5hmischen Geschichtschreiber (Prague, 1830) , dealing with authors many of whose works were then inaccessible to Czech stu dents; Archiv eesky (6 vols., Prague, 184o-72) ; Urkundliche Beitriige zur Geschichte des Hussitenkriegs (2 vols., Prague, 1872-74) ; Docu menta magistri Johannis Hus vitam, doctrinam, causam . . . illus trantia (Prague, 1869). With Safarik he wrote Anfiinge der bohmischen Dichtkunst (Pressburg, 1818) and Die dltesten Denkmdler der bolt mischen Sprache (Prague, 1840). Three volumes of his Czech articles and essays were published as Radhost (3 vols., Prague, 1871-73). For accounts of Palacky see an article by Saint Rene Taillandier in the Revue des deux mondes (April, 1855) ; Count Ltitzow, Lectures on the Historians of Bohemia (London, 1905).