Imperial authority having thus failed, Matthias once more fell back on his old attempt to sow division among his subjects. This time, however, he appealed not to provincial jealousies, but to the old class rivalries between citizen and noble. He had, no doubt, heard how his original conquest of Moravia had been hindered by the opposition of the city burgomasters to the decision of the nobles; and he therefore hoped that, now that the nobles were his most dangerous enemies, the municipal authorities might be induced to rally round him. He was further strengthened in this belief by the recollection that his aristocratic supporters had been willing to abandon on behalf of the towns those religious liberties which they had claimed to exercise on their own estates.
This time he hit the mark. The Town Councils of Brünn and Olmütz readily responded to his appeal to support him against his rebellious nobles; and they even denounced to the King those citizens who had complained of the exclusion of Protestants from the government of the towns. Matthias encouraged these appeals, and disregarded the protest of Z̆erotin, who maintained that the towns could only approach the King through the Captain of Moravia.
Having secured this weapon, Matthias determined to use it to the uttermost. Hitherto, the houses of the nobles had been free from any interference, in the matter of religious worship; and citizens, who had been excluded from Protestant services elsewhere, had been allowed to attend them when celebrated in a nobleman’s house. Now, however, Matthias not only took away this liberty, but summoned to Vienna some of the citizens who attended these services.
Yet no threats nor tyrannies could induce the Estates to sanction the Transylvanian war; and Matthias’s insistence on this expedition only roused the suspicion of the German Princes, and once more drew Christian of Anhalt into alliance with the Protestants of Bohemia, Austria, and Hungary.
Had Matthias been a shrewder politician, he would have abstained from giving artificial stimulus to the local jealousies of his subjects, and would have suffered them to grow into importance of their own accord. It soon appeared that, whatever reaction might be exerted by the king’s mischief-making policy, the rivalry between Moravia and Bohemia was still an important force in national politics. It is not easy to estimate the exact force of all the considerations which influenced the leaders of the rival provinces. The name of liberty, for instance, could be appealed to, with some sincerity, on either side of the controversy. Z̆erotin, for his part, was thoroughly convinced that a centralised administration at Prague would hinder the free play of the local institutions of Moravia, and would also weaken the possibilities of that independent alliance between Austria, Bohemia, Silesia, Moravia, and Hungary, which seemed to him the best protection for the Protestants against the encroachments of the Catholic party.
On the other hand, the Bohemians could justly maintain that Rudolf’s Letter of Majesty gave them, and all who united with them, wider liberties than any which were secured by the laws of Moravia; and, curiously enough, the most dependent classes of Moravia had been deprived by their separation from Bohemia of a right of appeal to a court at Prague which still gave them some slight protection against the power of their lords.
But, important as all these questions were, they were gradually driven into the background by one of more immediate interest to the rival leaders. Z̆erotin had, as already mentioned, a special feeling of loyalty to the House of Hapsburg, which was not shared in the same degree by the leaders of the Bohemian Protestants. So Budovĕc and his friends were rapidly arriving at the conclusion that the best security for their liberties was to be found, not in the substitution of one Hapsburg for another, but in the deposition of the whole family in favour of some king who had a real respect for religious liberty. To such a step Z̆erotin could not consent; and it was no doubt because he was aware of this difference, that Matthias now began to recognise the Bohemian leaders as his chief enemies, and to devote himself to the special oppression of their province.
In 1613, the freedom of the press was suspended in Bohemia, and a censorship was re-established. A Jesuit preacher denounced the Letter of Majesty, declaring that it had never been formally sanctioned by Rudolf. The Archbishop of Prague began to close Protestant churches and to turn out Protestant priests. But a still more ominous hint of the bitterness of the approaching struggle was to be found in the character of the man whom the Archdukes now chose as the representative of their family in the controversy. The conciliatory policy of the Archduke Maximilian seemed a hopeless failure. Matthias, in the opinion of his kinsmen, was becoming as incapable as Rudolf had been. They therefore resolved to choose from their family a man of strong and determined character, who would be willing if necessary to take the most extreme measures for enforcing their policy.
This champion of the family reaction was found in Ferdinand, Duke of Styria. He had been trained by the Jesuits in a fierce enthusiasm for the Catholic faith. He had carried out a ruthless policy in Styria against the Protestant preachers; and he had there compelled both citizens and peasants to attend the Catholic services. He had already been proposed by the extremer Catholics as a candidate for the Imperial throne; and it was to hinder his election that Z̆erotin supported the election of Matthias. Matthias, indeed, was now weary of his position, and he was particularly glad that Ferdinand should take his place in facing the hostility of the Moravian Assembly; but a new, and perhaps unexpected, opponent came forward at the next meeting of that Assembly, to resist the policy of the Emperor and his champion. Bishop Khlesl had never been popular with the main body of the House of Hapsburg. They considered that his personal influence over Matthias tended to separate the policy of that prince from the general schemes of the House. The Bishop therefore understood that the rise of Ferdinand to power would be the prelude to his own fall. His recent elevation to the rank of Cardinal encouraged him to venture on a more independent policy; and, with the help of Z̆erotin, he succeeded in defeating another proposal for a grant in aid of the Transylvanian war.
But Matthias’s old policy of ruling by dividing was at last to obtain an unexpected and signal success. It will be remembered that Silesia, like Moravia, had secured, after Matthias’s coronation in Prague, a much more independent position than had been conceded to it in earlier days; and it was one result of the new position of these provinces, that they were now able and eager to contend against each other, like independent kingdoms, for the possession of territory which might have been previously accepted by them as a part of their common Kingdom of Bohemia. The land specially in dispute was the district of Troppau, which appears to have had some separate Assembly of its own, but which some of the dukes of Silesia considered to be closely connected with their province. The Moravians, on the other hand, believed that Troppau more properly belonged to them; and, as they were more ready to recognise the rights of the Troppau Assembly, it seems probable that the popular feeling in that district would incline to the Moravian side. But Matthias, remembering that Moravia had successfully opposed his military projects, eagerly advocated the cause of Silesia; and, while securing to that province a more complete independence of the Bohemian Chancellor, he declared at the same time that the ruler of Troppau must be a prince of Silesia. To weaken the Moravians still further, by sowing division in their own ranks, he chose Karl von Lichtenstein as Duke of Troppau and Prince of Silesia. The bitter quarrel which followed this decision had an important effect on the future of the country; for Charles of Z̆erotin was thereby convinced that his hope for a peaceful league between the three provinces had become a vain dream; and, in February, 1615, he resigned his Captaincy of Moravia, and was succeeded by a member of the Catholic party.