About three weeks after the coronation of Frederick, Bethlen had invaded Austria, and was on his march to Vienna. The Austrians were again panic-struck; and when the peasantry discovered that they suffered as much from the forces of Ferdinand as from the Hungarian army, they refused to bestir themselves on the side of the Emperor. Suddenly, however, the news arrived that a Roman Catholic nobleman, who had been defeated by Bethlen in the earlier part of the struggle, had now returned to Hungary at the head of a Polish force, and had gained a signal victory over some of Bethlen’s supporters. Bethlen thereupon hastened back to Hungary, and Ferdinand hoped to get rid of this formidable opponent on moderate terms. But this hope speedily disappeared. Bethlen’s return to the scene of action at once restored success to his supporters. In January, 1620, the Hungarian Assembly formally deposed Ferdinand, and declared Bethlen Prince of Hungary; nor could even the acceptance of this election by his deposed rival detach Bethlen from the Bohemian cause; and he refused to make terms with Ferdinand until the latter had abandoned his claim on Bohemia. This encouraged the Bohemians yet further in their resistance; and the Austrian Protestants also showed considerable zeal in their cause. Tschernembl even came to Prague and took an active part in the organisation of the war; but he saw plainly that the oppressed condition of the peasantry prevented the struggle from assuming that popular character which alone could make it successful. He therefore strongly urged upon his colleagues the abolition of serfdom, as a means of securing the sympathy of the peasantry. But it was one of the weaknesses of the movement that the Bohemian nobles were hampered throughout by their class prejudices; and Tschernembl’s proposals were rejected.
About the same time Ferdinand strengthened his cause by the complete union of his forces with those of the Catholic League. Maximilian of Bavaria, the founder of that League, had cherished for some time his hereditary suspicion and dislike to the House of Austria; and he had been even mentioned as a rival when Ferdinand was first proposed as Emperor. But the increase of the power of the Protestants gradually brought the Catholic rivals together; and towards the end of July, Maximilian had already consented to assist in suppressing an Austrian rising. Now, in September, he entered Bohemia; and his general, Tilly, became the chief person in the Imperialist army. This seems to have been the turning-point in the war. Christian of Anhalt, who had joined the Bohemian forces, was compelled to retreat to Moravia; while one of Ferdinand’s generals was despatched to Presburg to prevent Bethlen from marching to the assistance of the Bohemians. One of the ablest generals on the Bohemian side was Count Mansfeld, a lawless soldier of fortune. He, unable to pay his troops, had taken to plundering the Bohemian peasantry; and, finding that Frederick and Anhalt were both opposed to this method of warfare, he consented to accept a bribe from the Imperialists, which kept him quiet during their advance to Prague. This at once led Maximilian to hope for a speedy conquest; and, abandoning the siege of Pilsen, Bucquoi and Tilly at once marched forward to Prague.
Anhalt, who had been defending Pilsen, hastened to Rakonic, a town about thirty miles west of Prague, in order to cut off the advance of the Imperialists. But, in spite of his energy, the Imperialist forces came upon the Bohemians at Rakonic before they expected them, and utterly routed them. Frederick at once lost heart, and sent off a messenger to Elizabeth to tell her to fly from Prague, as all was lost. But the Queen seems to have inherited something of the courage, as well as of the beauty, of her unfortunate grandmother, Mary Queen of Scots; and she indignantly refused to accept this advice. Anhalt in the meantime had succeeded in rallying his forces, and holding the Imperialists in check before Rakonic. But on the 3rd of November, Maximilian received a new supply of provisions; and, encouraged by this refreshment, the Imperial army once more broke up their camp, and continued their march to Prague. Anhalt again attempted to anticipate their march; and, on the night of the 7th of November, he reached the White Hill, about an hour’s journey from Prague.
Some of the Hungarian forces, whom Bethlen had previously despatched to the aid of the Bohemians, remained at the village of Rusin, at the foot of the hill; but they were there attacked and driven into flight by the cavalry of the Imperialists, neither their German nor their Bohemian allies attempting to rescue them. Again the wretched King of Bohemia was seized with a panic; and this time he actually fled from the army, and did not stop till he reached Prague. Bucquoi desired to leave the enemy unattacked, and to advance straight to Prague; but Tilly did not think it safe to leave Anhalt’s army in the rear; and, while they were still discussing the point, Dr. Angelini, a chaplain of Maximilian’s, exhorted them to fight, as God would protect them. This at once decided the Generals; and, as Bucquoi was wounded, Tiefenbach took his place at the head of his forces. The first opening of the battle was favourable to the Bohemians. Count Thurn repelled an attack of the Imperialist cavalry, and Anhalt followed up this success by advancing in his turn. But Tilly came to the rescue, drove back Anhalt’s forces, and stormed the fortifications which had just been erected. Then a complete panic seized the Protestant army; the soldiers fled in confusion, and many were drowned in the Moldau in their endeavour to escape from the Imperialists. Anhalt did his best to rally the fugitives; but he soon found that further resistance was hopeless. Tschernembl, indeed, still wished to defend Prague, and even to organise a new attack; but the rest of the Council decided to open negotiations with Ferdinand. It was resolved, however, that the Queen and her child should at once be sent away into safety; and Frederick went to make arrangements for this purpose. But, with the departure of his wife, the wretched King had lost all remains of hope; and, no sooner had he despatched her on her journey, than he suddenly mounted his horse and galloped off after her, followed by Ruppa and other members of the Provisional Government. Count Thurn’s son endeavoured, indeed, to rally his forces once more for the defence of the Karlsbrücke; but the soldiers were too terrified to fight; the Imperialist army entered the town with little resistance; and on November 23rd Ferdinand received, at Vienna, a chest containing the charters of all the Bohemian privileges.
Of the causes of this final collapse of Bohemian independence there are three which stand out with special vividness: the first connected solely with the events of the insurrection; the second, with the condition of Bohemia ever since the fall of Tabor; the third, with a fatal weakness that had reappeared continually through the greater part of Bohemian history. The first was the character of the leaders who undertook to guide this movement. With the exception of Budovĕc and Tschernembl there seem to be none of those heroic figures at the helm of affairs which are indispensable for a struggle for independence; and, of these two exceptions, Budovĕc had been speedily thrust into the background by his more ambitious colleagues, and Tschernembl’s advice was disregarded in most vital points. Of the rest, Ruppa seems to have been cowardly and colourless; Count Thurn, rash and unscrupulous to the last degree; Christian of Anhalt, an ambitious self-seeker; Mansfeld, a mere soldier of fortune, with rather less principle than Dugald Dalgetty; and as for the Elector Palatine, the story has shown how deficient he was in every kingly quality.
The second cause of weakness was the fatally aristocratic character of the movement. The rejection of the petitions of the serfs was in only too faithful harmony with the course of Bohemian history since the fall of Tabor. The Brotherhood alone had witnessed for wider sympathies and a higher conception of humanity and religion; but, as we have seen, even the Brotherhood had often found it difficult to resist the encroachment of aristocratic principles on its own organisation. The cry for freedom for a class could not animate a nation to resist the enthusiasm of sincere bigots like Ferdinand of Austria and Maximilian of Bavaria, nor the military ability of Tilly.
The third error, which hastened the ruin of Bohemia, was the connection which the Bohemian leaders had formed with the alien policy and the unsympathetic schemes of the German intriguers.
From the time when Vratislav received his crown from Henry IV., to the time when Budovĕc and Thurn called Christian of Anhalt into their counsels, this seems to have been the fatal mistake running through the history of Bohemia. Doubtless both Vratislav and Vladislav meant well by their country, and they secured it a more brilliant position for a time; but they involved that country in many wars and disputes which hindered its progress, and which often encouraged unpatriotic intrigues. Doubtless, too, Wenceslaus and Ottakar promoted the trade and, for a time, even the freedom of Bohemia, by the introduction of German laws and German settlers into their towns; but this innovation, intended by them as a development of good government in Bohemia, was easily perverted by Otto of Brandenburg into a means of new tyranny. Still more unquestionably well-meant was the attempt of Charles IV. to combine the greatness of the German Empire with the growth of culture and learning in Bohemia; but, as unquestionably, it ended in failure, and its benefit chiefly consisted in the preparation that it afforded for the purely Bohemian movement which rose from its ruins. Hus in the fourteenth century, Peter of Chelc̆ic and his followers in the fifteenth and sixteenth, were the people through whom Bohemia was really able to develop a distinctive life, and thereby to do most essential service to the other nations of Europe; and we shall see, from the fragments of national history which still remain to be told, that it is through such representatives as these that Bohemia, even after the loss of its political independence, could still do some work, which other countries may be the better for studying.
