During the earlier and more prosperous part of his reign the policy of King George was founded on a firm alliance with Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, through whose influence he was crowned by the Romanist bishop of Waitzen. The reign of King George, whose principal supporters were the men of the smaller nobility and of the towns, was at first very prosperous. After a certain time, however, some of the Romanist nobles became hostile to the king, and, partly through their influence, he became involved in a protracted struggle with the papal see. It was in consequence of this struggle that some of George’s far-reaching plans—he endeavoured for a time to obtain the supremacy over Germany—failed. After the negotiations with Rome had proved unsuccessful George assembled the estates at Prague in 1452 and declared that he would to his death remain true to the communion in both kinds, and that he was ready to risk his life and his crown in the defence of his faith. The Romanist party in Bohemia became yet more embittered against the king, and at a meeting at Zelena Hora (Grünberg) in 1465 many nobles of the Roman religion joined in a confederacy against him. In the following year Pope Paul II. granted his moral support to the confederates by pronouncing sentence of excommunication against George of Poděbrad and by releasing all Bohemians from their oath of allegiance to him. It was also through papal influence that King Matthias of Hungary, deserting his former ally, supported the lords of the league of Zelena Hora. Desultory warfare broke out between the two parties, in which George was at first successful; but fortune changed when the king of Hungary invaded Moravia and obtained possession of Brünn, the capital of the country. At a meeting of the Catholic nobles of Bohemia and Moravia at Olmütz in Moravia, Matthias was proclaimed king of Bohemia (May 3, 1469). In the following year George obtained some successes over his rival, but his death in 1471 for a time put a stop to the war. George of Poděbrad, the only Hussite king of Bohemia, has always, with Charles IV., been the ruler of Bohemia whose memory has most endeared itself to his countrymen.
George of Poděbrad had undoubtedly during the more prosperous part of his reign intended to found a national dynasty. In later years, however, hope of obtaining aid from Poland in his struggle against King Matthias induced him to offer the succession to the Bohemian throne to Vladislav (Wladislaus, Ladislaus), son of Casimir, king of Poland. No formal agreement was made, and at the death of George many Bohemian nobles supported the claim of Matthias of Hungary, who had already been proclaimed king of Bohemia. Protracted negotiations ensued, but Vladislav of Poland. they ended by the election of Prince Vladislav of Poland at Kutna Hora, the 27th of May 1471. This election was a victory of the national party, and may be considered as evidence of the strong anti-clerical feeling which then prevailed in Bohemia; for Matthias was an unconditional adherent of Rome, while the Polish envoys who represented Vladislav promised that he would maintain the Compacts. At the beginning of his reign the new king was involved in a struggle with Matthias of Hungary, who maintained his claim to the Bohemian throne. Prolonged desultory warfare continued up to 1478, when a treaty concluded at Olmütz secured Bohemia to Vladislav; Matthias was to retain the so-called “lands of the Bohemian crown”—Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia—during his lifetime, and they were to be restored to Bohemia after his death. Though Vladislav was faithful to his promise of maintaining the Compacts, and did not attempt to prevent the Bohemians from receiving the communion in both kinds, yet his policy was on the whole a reactionary one, both as regards matters of state and the religious controversies. The king appointed as government officials at Prague men of that section of the Utraquist party that was nearest to Rome, while a severe persecution of the extreme Hussites known as the Bohemian Brethren took place (see [Hussites]). Serious riots took place at Prague, and the more advanced Hussites stormed the three town halls of the city. The nobles of the same faith also formed a league to guard themselves against the menaced reaction. A meeting of all the estates at Kutna Hora in 1485, however, for a time restored peace. Both parties agreed to respect the religious views of their opponents and to abstain from all violence, and the Compacts were again confirmed.
As regards matters of state the reign of Vladislav is marked by a decrease of the royal prerogative, while the power of the nobility attained an unprecedented height, at the expense, not only of the royal power, but also of the rights of the townsmen and peasants. A decree of 1487 practically established serfdom in Bohemia, where it had hitherto been almost unknown. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this measure for the future of Bohemia. The rulers of the country were henceforth unable to rely on that numerous sturdy and independent peasantry of which the armies of Žižka and the Prokops had mainly consisted. Various enactments belonging to this reign also curtailed the rights of the Bohemian townsmen. A decree known as the “regulations of King Vladislav” codified these changes. It enumerated all the rights of the nobles and knights, but entirely ignored those of the towns. It was tacitly assumed that the townsmen had no inherent rights, but only such privileges as might be granted them by their sovereign with the consent of the nobles and knights. Civil discord was the inevitable consequence of these enactments. Several meeting? of the diet took place at which the towns were not represented. The latter in 1513 formed a confederacy to defend their rights, and chose Prince Bartholomew of Münsterberg—a grandson of King George—as their leader.
Vladislav was elected king of Hungary in 1490 and many of the events of his later life belong to the history of Hungary. He married in 1502 Anna de Candale, who was connected with the royal family of France. He had two children Louis. by her, Anna, who afterwards married the archduke Ferdinand of Austria, and Louis. Vladislav died in Hungary in 1516. His successor was his son Louis, who had already been crowned as king of Bohemia at the age of three. According to the instructions of Vladislav, Sigismund, king of Poland, and the emperor Maximilian I. were to act as guardians of the young king. The Bohemian estates recognized this decision, but they refused to allow the guardians any right of interference in the affairs of Bohemia. The great Bohemian nobles, and in particular the supreme burgrave, Zdeněk Leo, lord of Rožmital, ruled the country almost without control. The beginning of the nominal reign of King Louis is marked by an event which had great importance for the constitutional development of Bohemia. At a meeting of the estates in 1517 known as the diet of St Wenceslas—as the members first assembled on the 28th of September, the anniversary of that saint—they came to terms and settled the questions which had been the causes of discord. The citizens renounced certain privileges which they had hitherto claimed, while the two other estates recognized their municipal autonomy and tacitly sanctioned their presence at the meetings of the diet, to which they had already been informally readmitted since 1508. At the first sitting of this diet, on the 24th of October, it was declared that the three estates had agreed henceforth “to live together in friendly intercourse, as became men belonging to the same country and race.” In 1522 Louis arrived in Bohemia from Hungary, of which country he had also been elected king. On his arrival at Prague he dismissed all the Bohemian state officials, including the powerful Leo of Rožmital. He appointed Charles of Münsterberg, a cousin of Prince Bartholomew and also a grandson of King George, as regent of Bohemia during his absences, and John of Wartenberg as burgrave. The new officials appear to have supported the more advanced Hussite party, while Rožmital and the members of the town council of Prague who had acted in concert with him had been the allies of the Romanists and those Utraquists who were nearest to the Church of Rome. The new officials thus incurred the displeasure of King Louis, who was at that moment seeking the aid of the pope in his warfare with Turkey. The king therefore reinstated Leo of Rožmital in his offices in 1525. Shortly afterwards Rožmital became involved in a feud with the lords of Rosenberg; the feud became a civil war, in which most of the nobles and cities of Bohemia took sides. Meanwhile Louis, who had returned to Hungary, opened his campaign against the Turks. He requested aid from his Bohemian subjects, and this was granted, by the Rosenberg faction, while Rožmital and his party purposely delayed sending any forces to Hungary. There were, therefore, but few Bohemian troops at the battle of Mohács (August 29, 1526) at which Louis was decisively defeated and perished.
The death of Louis found Bohemia in a state of great disorder, almost of anarchy. The two last kings had mainly resided in Hungary, and in spite of the temporary agreement obtained at the diet of St Wenceslas, the Bohemians had not succeeded in establishing a strong indigenous government which might have taken the place of the absentee monarchs. Archduke Ferdinand Origin of the Habsburg dynasty. of Austria—afterwards the emperor Ferdinand I.—laid claim to the Bohemian throne as husband of Anna, daughter of King Vladislav. King Sigismund of Poland, the dukes Louis and William of Bavaria, several other German princes, as well as several Bohemian noblemen, of whom Leo of Rožmital was the most important, were also candidates. The diet resolved to entrust the election to twenty-four of their members, chosen in equal number from the three estates. These electors, on the 23rd of October (1526), Ferdinand. chose Ferdinand of Habsburg as their king. This date is memorable, as it marks the permanent accession of the Habsburg dynasty to the Bohemian throne, though the Austrian archdukes Rudolph and Albert had previously been rulers of Bohemia for short periods. Though Ferdinand fully shared that devotion to Rome which is traditional in the Habsburg dynasty, he showed great moderation in religious matters, particularly at the beginning of his reign. His principal object was to establish the hereditary right of his dynasty to the Bohemian throne, and this object he pursued with characteristic obstinacy. When a great fire broke out at Prague in 1541, which destroyed all the state documents, Ferdinand obtained the consent of the estates to the substitution of a charter stating that he had been recognized as king in consequence of the hereditary rights of his wife Anna, in the place of the former one, which had stated that he had become king by election. This caused great dissatisfaction and was one of the principal causes of the troubles that broke out shortly afterwards. Ferdinand had in 1531, mainly through the influence of his brother the emperor Charles V., been elected king of the Romans and heir to the Empire. He henceforth took a large part in the politics of Germany, particularly after he had in 1547 concluded a treaty of peace with Turkey, which assured the safety of the eastern frontiers of his dominions. Charles V. about the same time concluded his war with France, and the brothers determined to adopt a firmer policy towards the Protestants of Germany, whose power had recently greatly increased. The latter had, about the time of the recognition of Ferdinand as king of the Romans, and partly in consequence of that event, formed at Schmalkalden a league, of which John Frederick, elector of Saxony, and Philip, landgrave of Hesse, were the leaders. War broke out in Germany in the summer of 1546, and Charles relied on the aid of his brother, while the German Protestants on the other hand appealed to their Bohemian co-religionists for aid.
Since the beginning of the Reformation in Germany the views of the Bohemian reformers had undergone a considerable change. Some of the more advanced Utraquists differed but little from the German Lutherans, while the Bohemian Struggles in the war against German Protestantism. Brethren, who at this moment greatly increased in influence through the accession of several powerful nobles, strongly sympathized with the Protestants of Germany. Ferdinand’s task of raising a Bohemian army in support of his brother was therefore a difficult one. He again employed his usual tortuous policy. He persuaded the estates to vote a general levy of the forces of the country under the somewhat disingenuous pretext that Bohemia was menaced by the Turks; for at that period no armed force could be raised in Bohemia without the consent of the estates of the realm. Ferdinand fixed the town of Kaaden on the Saxon frontier as the spot where the troops were to meet, but on his arrival there he found that many cities and nobles—particularly those who belonged to the community of the Bohemian Brethren—had sent no men. Of the soldiers who arrived many were Protestants who sympathized with their German co-religionists. The Bohemian army refused to cross the Saxon frontier, and towards the end of the year 1546 Ferdinand was obliged to disband his Bohemian forces. Early in the following year he again called on his Bohemian subjects to furnish an army in aid of his brother. Only a few of the Romanists and more retrograde Utraquists obeyed his order. The large majority of Bohemians, on the other hand, considered the moment opportune for recovering the ancient liberties of Bohemia, on which Ferdinand had encroached in various ways by claiming hereditary right to the crown and by curtailing the old privileges of the land. The estates met at Prague in March 1547, without awaiting a royal summons,—undoubtedly an unconstitutional proceeding. The assembly, in which the influence of the representatives of the town of Prague and of the knights and nobles who belonged to the Bohemian Brotherhood was predominant, had a very revolutionary character. This became yet more marked when the news of the elector of Saxony’s victory at Rochlitz reached Prague. The estates demanded the re-establishment of the elective character of the Bohemian kingdom, the recognition of religious liberty for all, and various enactments limiting the royal prerogative. It was decided to entrust the management of state affairs to a committee of twelve members chosen in equal number from the three estates. Of the members of the committee chosen by the knights and nobles four belonged to the Bohemian Brotherhood. The committee decided to equip an armed force, the command of which was conferred on Kaspar Pflug of Rabenstein (d. 1576). According to his instructions he was merely to march to the Saxon frontier, and there await further orders from the estates; there seems, however, little doubt that he was secretly instructed to afford aid to the German Protestants. Pflug marched to Joachimsthal on the frontier, but refused to enter Saxon territory without a special command of the estates.
Meanwhile the great victory of the imperialists at Mühlberg had for a time crushed German Protestantism. The Bohemians were in a very difficult position. They had seriously offended their sovereign and yet afforded no aid to the German Protestants. The army of Pflug hastily dispersed, and the estates still assembled at Prague endeavoured to propitiate Ferdinand. They sent envoys to the camp of the king who, with his brother Charles, was then besieging Wittenberg. Ferdinand received the envoys better than they had perhaps expected. He indeed always maintained his plan of making Bohemia a hereditary kingdom under Habsburg rule, and of curtailing as far as possible its ancient constitution, but he did not wish to drive to despair a still warlike people. Ferdinand demanded that the Bohemians should renounce all alliances with the German Protestants, and declared that he would make his will known after his arrival in Prague. He arrived there on the 20th of July, with a large force of Spanish and Walloon mercenaries, and occupied the city almost without resistance. Ferdinand treated the nobles and knights with great forbearance, and contented himself with the confiscation of the estates of some of those who had been most compromised. On the other hand he dealt very severely with the towns—Prague in particular. He declared that their ancient privileges should be revised—a measure that practically signified a broad confiscation of lands that belonged to the municipalities. Ferdinand also forced the townsmen to accept the control of state officials who were to be called town-judges and in Prague town-captains. These royal representatives were given almost unlimited control over municipal affairs. The Bohemian Brethren were also severely persecuted, and their bishop Augusta was imprisoned for many years.
Ferdinand’s policy here was as able as it always was. The peasantry had ceased to be dangerous since the establishment of serfdom; the power of the cities was now thoroughly undermined. Ferdinand had only to deal with the nobles and knights, and he hoped that the influence of his court, and yet more that of the Jesuits, whom he established in Bohemia about this time, would gradually render them amenable to the royal will. If we consider the customs of his time Ferdinand cannot be considered as having acted with cruelty in the moment of his success. Only four of the principal leaders of the revolt—two knights, and two citizens of Prague—were sentenced to death. They were decapitated on the square outside the Hradĉany palace where the estates met on that day (August 22). This diet therefore became known as the “Krvavy’sneěm” (bloody diet). In one of the last years of his life (1562) Ferdinand succeeded in obtaining the coronation of his eldest son Maximilian as king of Bohemia, thus ensuring to him the succession to the Bohemian throne. As Ferdinand I. acceded to the Hungarian throne at the same time as to that of Bohemia, and as he also became king of the Romans and after the death of Charles V. emperor, many events of his life do not belong to the history of Bohemia. He died in 1564.
Maximilian succeeded his father as king of Bohemia without any opposition. Circumstances were greatly in his favour; he had in his youth mainly been educated by Protestant tutors, and for a time openly avowed strong sympathy Maximilian. for the party of church reform. This fact, which became known in Bohemia, secured for him the support of the Bohemian church reformers, while the Romanists and retrograde Utraquists were traditionally on the side of the house of Habsburg. The reign of Maximilian did not fulfil the hopes that met it. Though he published new decrees against the Bohemian Brethren, he generally refused to sanction any measures against the Protestants, in spite of the advice of the Jesuits, who were gradually obtaining great influence in Bohemia. He did nothing, however, to satisfy the expectations of the partisans of church reform, and indeed after a time began again to assist at the functions of the Roman church, from which he had long absented himself. Indifference, perhaps founded on religious scepticism, characterized the king during the many ecclesiastical disputes that played so large a part in his reign. In 1567 Maximilian, who had also succeeded his father as king of Hungary and emperor, visited the Bohemians for the first time since his accession to the throne. Like most princes of the Habsburg dynasty, he was constantly confronted at this period by the difficulty of raising funds for warfare against the Turks. When he asked the Bohemians to grant him supplies for this purpose, they immediately Abolition of the “Compacts.” retorted by bringing forward their demands with regard to matters of religion. Their principal demand appears somewhat strange in the light of the events of the past. The estates expressed the wish that the celebrated Compacts should cease to form part of the laws of the country. These enactments had indeed granted freedom of worship to the most moderate Utraquists—men who, except that they claimed the right to receive the communion in both kinds, hardly differed in their faith from the Roman church. On the other hand Ferdinand I. had used the Compacts as an instrument which justified him in oppressing the Bohemian Brethren, and the advanced Utraquists, whose teaching now differed but little from that of Luther. He had argued that all those who professed doctrines differing from the Church of Rome more widely than did the retrograde Utraquists, were outside the pale of religious toleration. Maximilian, indifferent as usual to matters of religious controversy, consented to the abolition of the Compacts, and these enactments, which had once been sacred to the Bohemian people, perished unregretted by all parties. The Romanists had always hated them, believing them not to be in accord with the general custom of the papal church, while the Lutherans and Bohemian Brethren considered their suppression a guarantee of their own liberty of worship.
In 1575 Maximilian, who had long been absent from Bohemia, returned there, as the estates refused to grant subsidies to an absentee monarch. The sittings of the diet that met in 1575 were very prolonged. The king maintained a vacillating attitude, influenced now by the threats of the Bohemians, now by the advice of the papal nuncio, who had followed him to Prague. The latter strongly represented to him how great would be the difficulties that he would encounter in his other dominions, should he make concessions to the Protestants of Bohemia. The principal demand of the Bohemians was that the “Confession Confessio Bohemica. of Augsburg”—a summary of Luther’s teaching—should be recognized in Bohemia. They further renewed the demand, which they had already expressed at the diet of 1567, that the estates should have the right of appointing the members of the consistory—the ecclesiastical body which ruled the Utraquist church; for since the death of John of Rokycan that church had had no archbishop. After long deliberations and the king’s final refusal to recognize the confession of Augsburg, the majority of the diet, consisting of members of the Bohemian brotherhood and advanced Utraquists, drew up a profession of faith that became known as the Confessio Bohemica. It was in most points identical with the Augsburg confession, but differed from it with regard to the doctrine of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Here the Bohemian profession agreed with the views of Calvin rather than with those of Luther. This is undoubtedly due to the influence of the Bohemian Brethren. The Confessio Bohemica was presented to Maximilian, who verbally expressed his approval, but would not consent to this being made public, and also refused his consent to the inclusion of the Confessio among the charters of the kingdom. Maximilian rejected the demand of the Bohemian estates, that they and not the king should in future appoint the members of the consistory. He finally, however, consented to exempt the Lutherans and advanced Utraquists from the jurisdiction of the consistory, and allowed them to choose fifteen defenders—five of whom were to belong to each of the estates—who were to have supreme control over the Lutheran church. These defenders were to appoint for each district a superintendent (moderator), who was to maintain order and discipline among the clergy. As the Bohemian Brotherhood had never recognized the consistory, that body now lost whatever influence it had still possessed. It became, indeed, subservient to the Romanist archbishopric of Prague, which had been re-established by Ferdinand I. Its members henceforth were men who on almost all points agreed with Rome, and sometimes even men who had joined the Roman church, but continued by order of their superiors to remain members of the consistory, where it was thought that their influence might be useful to their new creed.