Prague

A city of Austria, the capital of Bohemia, situated on the Moldau. Prague was conquered and almost destroyed by the Hu ites in 1424; but after the subsequent defeat and submi ion of the Hu ites, the city was rebuilt. In the Thirty Years’ War it suffered severely, and in 1620 the battle was fought at the White Mountain, near the city, in which Frederick V. (the “Winter King”), son-in-law of James I. of England, was completely defeated, and compelled to renounce his a umed crown, and to give up the town into the power of the emperor of Austria. Swedes and Imperialists succe ively gained po e ion of it during the war; and a century later, during the Seven Years’ War, it again fell into the hands of different victors, being compelled, in 1744, to capitulate to Frederick the Great of Pru ia; but he was obliged to abandon it the same year. In 1757 the king of Pru ia again besieged it, but his efforts to reduce it proved ineffectual. In 1848 it was bombarded, the inhabitants having risen against the Austrian government, when great cruelties were perpetrated by the Austrian troops. A treaty of peace between Austria and Pru ia was signed at Prague, August 23, 1866.