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Hello, the medieval kingdom of Bohemia was at the crossroads of Europe and during the 15th century at the heart of the Hullurum and Empire

Under Charles IV its cosmopolitan capital Prague

became a cultural and intellectual center attracting scholars and artists from all over Europe

But Prague was a wash with religious and political dissent at its course to the anarchist philosopher

Jan Hus whose ideas anticipated the Lutheran Reformation by a full century

He was burnt at the stake, but his followers the Husites embarked on a series of wars that continued to mark the Czech and German characters even today

Why was Bohemia such a crucible of dissent and how were its ideas exported to the rest of Europe?

What did it mean to be Bohemia in then and how was the ancient kingdom of Bohemia with its ferment of religious

National and ethnic ideologies divided up to form the states of modern central Europe

With me to discuss matters Bohemian our Norman Davies historian author of Europe and the Isles whose latest book co-authored is

microcosm portrait of a central European city

Karen Friedrich lecture in history at the school of Slovakian East European Studies at University College London and author of the other

Prussia and Robert Pinson professor of Czech and Slovak literature at University College London and author of the path to decadence

Norman Davies the very idea of Bohemia

And it's almost like reclaiming parts of Europe that feel that they've only just joined Europe recently or they were there so long ago

It didn't matter recently the idea of the east slipped our half the European map didn't it?

That's a very western view of course

On lived in Bohemia well always thought was almost in the the centre of affairs

Yes, central Europe is as a concept which has

Come in and out over the 20th century

...