Frantisek Palacky (1798 – 1876) was a Czech historian, politician, writer, and one of the most influential personas of the Czech national revival. He is considered the founder of modern Czech historiography and is held as one of the three fathers of the nation, as he is responsible for the cultural awakening of the Czech nation. 

Frantisek Palacky was born on June 17, 1798, in the village of Hodslavice in eastern Moravia. His family, comprised of 12 children, was of the protestant faith, despite years of  religious persecution. Jiri Palacky, Frantisek’s father, was a teacher at a local school and he was responsible for the early education of Frantisek and his siblings. Between the years 1807 – 1809, Frantisek studied at Kunin Chateau in a philanthropinium run by duchess Maria Walburga von Zeil-Walburg, later studying at a Latin school in Trencin until the year 1812 and finishing his studies in 1818 at the Evangelic Lutheran Lyceum of Pressburg, current-day Bratislava, Slovakia. 

After successfully finishing his studies, he made his living as a private teacher while spending his free time writing, learning languages, and studying Czech history. Shortly after his studies, he contacted Josef Jungmann, asking him for his help with gathering historiographical sources and methodology. Jungmann happy with Palacky’s eagerness and interest, obliged and the two became life-long friends. In March 1823, Palacky wrote a similar letter to Josef Dobrovský a month later, Palacky joined Dobrovksy in Prague. Dobrovsky oversaw Palacky’s beginnings as a historian, employing him as a genealogist and later acquainting him with count Francis Sternberg, who chose Palacky as the family archivist. 

By the year 1827, Palacky was a well-known historian and the Czech estates decided to appoint him the historiographer of Bohemia, an appointment Palacky gladly accepted and started working on his magnum opus, History of the Czech Nation in Bohemia and Moravia. The first part of this work was published in 1836 and in German, by the year 1844, he started working on the Czech version with the first part being released in 1848. 

In 1848 Palacky also entered politics amidst the revolutions of 1848. In April he published his Psani do Frankfurtu ( a Letter to Frankfurt), stating that he as a Czech cannot partake in the preliminary parliament in Frankfurt and the theoretical subsequent unification of Germany. In that letter, he also formulated his view of Austroslavism, a movement centered around the thought of a strong Austrian empire consisting of autonomous german and Slavonic states. This met with a degree of consideration and Palacky was elected a member of the Imperial Diet, but within a year, he left the Austrian parliament. 

Palacky spent the majority of the 1850s away from politics, concerning himself mostly with his historical works. In the year 1861, he became a life member of the Austrian senate but after gaining little support for his views, he chose to not appear in the senate, rather concentrating on the Bohemian diet and acting as the leader of the National Party, better known as the Old Czech Party. While he did not achieve his goal of gaining more independence for the Czech lands, he was nonetheless held in high regard, speaking at many national festivities and also having the honor of placing the foundation stone of the National Theater. 

Frantisek Palacky died on May 26 1876 in Prague. His funeral was met with national mourning with thousands coming to pay their respects to the Old Town Hall of Prague where his embalmed body was visible until May 31 when it was laid to rest in Lobkovice, next to Palacky’s wife Terezie. 

To this day, Frantisek Palacky is regarded as one of the most important people responsible for the formation of the Czech national identity. His historical work and the History of the Czech Nation in Bohemia and Moravia not only helped formulate the Czech nation but to this day is regarded as the best historical work of Czech history and has yet to be surpassed.