Why go
The Bohemian estates chose Jagiellonian rulers after 1471; the death of Louis II at Mohács opened the way for Ferdinand I in 1526. In 1583 Rudolf II moved his court from Vienna to Prague, again making the city a centre of politics, art and science. This sequence places Prague's later Renaissance layers in a wider royal story.
The full story
After the death of Jiří z Poděbrad in 1471, the Bohemian estates chose rulers from the Jagiellonian dynasty. The second Jagiellonian king, Louis II, died at the Battle of Mohács in 1526. Ferdinand I of the Habsburg family then took the Bohemian throne, beginning a long connection with Habsburg rule. This was a political change rather than an abrupt replacement of every local institution or building. Prague's role shifted again under Emperor Rudolf II, who moved his court there from Vienna in 1583. The city became an important centre of politics, art and scholarship during his reign. Rudolf's 1609 decree on religious freedom belongs to the tensions that carried into the next chapter of Bohemian history. When viewing Prague's Renaissance layers, it helps to distinguish the early Jagiellonian succession, the Habsburg accession and Rudolf's later court. Each explains a different part of the city's royal story.