Bohemia, from the earliest times to the fall of national independence in 1620 / With a short summary of later events

by C. Edmund Maurice

In the meantime the appeals of the Assembly for foreign help had been producing their effect. Matthias, indeed, seemed for a time unwilling to press his victories further, and declined to interfere between Rudolf and the Estates; but the German princes were so zealous in their appeals to the Emperor to make concessions, that he seemed at last disposed to set aside the opinion of his more fiery Councillors, and he summoned a General Assembly for the 25th of May, 1609. No sooner, however, did the Assembly meet, than Lobkovic recovered his former influence over the Emperor; and Rudolf began to hope that he might make divisions between the Catholics and Protestants. On the other hand, the demands of the Protestants appear to have grown more extreme at this time; for they not only required the free profession of their creed and the right to build churches, but they also insisted that the University of Prague and the Utraquist Consistory should be placed under the control of the Estates.

This last demand excited more interest than the fallen condition of Utraquism might have led one to expect. But traditions of former greatness have an incalculable influence; and many of the Protestants believed that the failure of Utraquism had been due as much to the control which the king exercised over the Consistory as to any internal weakness. Therefore the Assembly’s demand for control over the Consistory excited considerable sympathy among all classes of Protestants. Rudolf, while unwilling to surrender his power in this matter, was yet willing to propose a compromise, to the effect that the Consistory should be managed by a special tribunal composed half of Protestants and half of Catholics. As, however, he no doubt intended that these should be appointed by himself, the Assembly considered this answer as a complete rejection of their proposal; and on June 22, 1609, the Estates resolved, on the motion of Count Thurn, to make arrangements for the arming of the whole population. Their indignation was still further roused by the oppression inflicted on the Protestants of Braunau by the abbot of that town; and the resolution for universal arming was soon followed by the election of thirty Defenders for carrying on the struggle.

It is a curious proof of the aristocratic influences which still prevailed in the Assembly, that Peter Vok of Rosenberg was the first Defender chosen. He had been the only prominent Bohemian who had sympathised with Matthias’s invasion of Bohemia; and, though he had not supported him by force of arms, he had supplied money to his troops. Apart also from this difference of policy, Rosenberg must have been a distasteful ally to the stricter Protestants, on account of his profligate life. Other names of powerful families also appear in the list, and at the same time Count Thurn was made general of the forces.

The Protestants now withdrew from their attendance at the Assembly; Count Thurn quickly gathered five hundred men together in three days; the alliance with the Silesians was formally confirmed; and application was made to Christian of Anhalt for further help.

Rudolf, alarmed at these proceedings, was yet further startled by the news that Matthias had just granted to the Austrian Assembly all its demands for religious freedom. Moreover he found that the Roman Catholic part of the Assembly, which had at first been disposed to resist Budovĕc, were now ready to make terms with the Protestants. He therefore declared his willingness to accept the proposals of the Assembly on three conditions: (1) That they would substitute “Utraquist” for “Evangelical” in their description of the Protestants; (2) that they would accept the present concessions as a provisional arrangement, until the general peace could be made with the Protestants; and (3) that they would abandon the proposal for universal arming. Budovĕc answered by accepting the two first conditions; but he declared that the Defenders could not consent, at present, to lay down their arms without special authority from the Estates, and special sanction from the Silesians. Even this refusal Rudolf was obliged to accept; and on the 9th of July he signed the Letter of Majesty which practically decreed the points demanded by the Protestants. For the moment it seemed as if the victory of religious freedom was complete; for while, on the one hand, the power of the Estates was extended over the University and the Consistory, and was still supported by an armed force, on the other hand the concession of religious liberty was no longer confined to communities or privileged classes, but extended to every man and woman in the Bohemian kingdom.

Nevertheless, the apparent peace was a very hollow one. Christian of Anhalt, arriving in Prague very shortly after this decision, was at first somewhat startled to find the matter settled without his intervention; but he soon discovered that neither Rudolf nor the Assembly were satisfied. Budovĕc and his friends were eager to follow up their victory by securing the removal of Lobkovic from the councils of Rudolf, while they wished to guard themselves against future attacks by an amnesty for any offences committed during the struggle. Rudolf, on his part, while conceding the amnesty, tried hard to throw difficulties in the way of the complete equality between Protestants and Catholics; and he further hoped to stir up division between the different sections of the Protestants. Had Rudolf been left to himself, these intrigues might have proved the mere fitful caprices of a weak mind, and might have been followed by equally startling concessions. But he had now fallen into the hands of a much more daring and unscrupulous adviser than any who had hitherto swayed his counsels.

This was his young kinsman, the Archduke Leopold, who had stood by him when the rest of the family had demanded his submission to Matthias, and who now flattered him with the hopes of recovering his power in Bohemia. Leopold seems, from first to last, to have been as self-seeking in his objects as he was unscrupulous in his methods. His first wish was to secure for himself that province of Jülich which was the subject of so much controversy between several of the Protestant princes, and which Leopold had been allowed by Rudolf to occupy in the Emperor’s name. Soon, however, he discovered that his hopes of Jülich would be frustrated even by Powers to whom he had looked for support; and, from that time, he fixed his hopes on the succession to the Bohemian crown. Rudolf, while listening to the violent proposals of Leopold, was anxious to secure, if possible, the recovery of the lands which Matthias had conquered; and for that recovery he expected help from the discontented Austrian Protestants and from some of the princes of the Empire. He therefore summoned a Convention of princes to Prague, and distinctly demanded the restoration to him of Austria, Hungary, and Moravia.

The times were terribly critical. The occupation of Donauwörth by the Elector of Bavaria, the controversy about the succession to Jülich, the formation of the Protestant Union by Christian of Anhalt, and of the Catholic League by Maximilian of Bavaria, all seemed to point to an approaching war in the Empire; while the military preparations which Henry IV. was making in France foreshadowed a European character for any conflict that might take place. Under these circumstances, however, the wiser statesmen in the Empire were anxious to minimise the evil as far as possible, and to make efforts for the preservation of peace.

Foremost among the peacemakers was the Archbishop of Köln; but unfortunately he was too much in advance of his age to produce the results which a more commonplace politician might have accomplished. He proposed a scheme of universal disarmament, and he suggested the reference of the Jülich controversy to the arbitration of the Universities. These proposals were cut short by a new outbreak of war between some of the claimants to the Jülich estate; while the assassination of Henry IV. once more raised the hopes of Rudolf and his friends, and made them disinclined to concession. But others besides the Archbishop of Köln desired to reconcile Rudolf to Matthias; and in spite of evasions and resistances, Rudolf was forced, in September, 1610, to recognise his brother as holding under him the lands of Hungary, Moravia, and Austria.

This concession was, if possible, even less honest in intention than the confirmation of the Letter of Majesty had been; for the coldness with which he had been treated by the princes of the Empire had made Rudolf even more inclined than before to throw himself into the dangerous plans of the Archduke Leopold. Even while the Convention of Princes was sitting and the negotiations with Matthias were proceeding, Leopold was raising troops in the Bavarian district of Passau, and by the time that the agreement was concluded this force had grown to a considerable size. Peter Vok of Rosenberg had called attention to the danger incurred by his town of Krumov through the neighbourhood of these soldiers; and the Bohemian Assembly demanded that, since peace had now been made, this force should be disbanded. Rudolf pleaded that he could not yet dismiss them, because he had no money for the payment of their wages; and he proposed that, to secure them better quarters, they should be sent to Krumov and Budweis (Budejóvice). The Bohemian Assembly indignantly protested against the introduction of foreign troops into their country, and they refused to vote any money for their support.