Chapter IV: Part 4

“The troops, however, who had been voted by the diet, and assembled at Kathen, rose into mutiny on receiving orders from their general, Wertmuhle, to make an irruption into the Voigtland, a part of the electoral dominions. They clamorously urged, that by the vote of the diet, they were collected to defend the country, not to pass the frontiers; they therefore refused to march against their ally, the elector of Saxony; declared the war to be unjust, and expressed their reluctance to commit hostilities against their fellow Christians, who, as well as themselves, received the holy communion under both kinds. The greater part, however, being at length prevailed upon by emissaries from Ferdinand to obey their orders, they marched into the Voigtland, laid waste the country, defeated the electoral troops in two engagements, and after remaining in the field till the beginning of December, returned into Bohemia. At the close of the campaign, Ferdinand punished the disobedience of those troops who had refused to pass the frontiers; he arrested the ringleaders, condemned them to death, and after executing the most factious, pardoned the rest at the intercession of his queen.

“At the commencement of the next year, he hastened to mature his plan, and to liberate himself from the shackles imposed by the constitution, by an extraordinary act of authority, which none of his predecessors had ventured to exercise without the consent of the states.

“In a mandate bearing date the 12th day of January, 1547, he declared, ‘John Frederic, late elector of Saxony, is preparing to invade Bohemia, and the territory of Maurice, duke of Saxony, and margrave of Misnia, and has with this view occupied the convent of Dobroluc, and two villages. The states of Lower Lusatia, as members of the crown of Bohemia, and prince Maurice, in virtue of the hereditary compact recently concluded at the diet of Prague, require succours. We, as king of Hungary, will bring into the field 14,000 men; our brother, the emperor, has sent troops to our assistance, and the Lusatians, Silesians, and Moravians are in motion. The Bohemians must also send an army into the field.’ It then ordered certain levies of men to be raised according to the feudal tenures; and to appear at Leutmeritz, with a month’s provisions and pay. It concluded, ‘Either we the king, or our son the archduke, will lead the army in person; and all who do not obey these our commands, shall, according to the laws of the land, be deprived of their honours, lives, and property.’

“This unprecedented act of authority excited general indignation, and the three towns of Prague were the foremost to resist its execution. When the deputies presented their remonstrance, Ferdinand indignantly replied, ‘What we have commanded is for your advantage, and ye are culpable in acting contrary to our orders. We declare that you are guilty of all the former and present misfortunes in this war. God will punish your disobedience.’ The deputies excusing themselves, by replying that they could not control the inclinations of the people, the king rejoined, ‘We have told you our opinion, and we will give you no other answer, since we have commanded nothing that is unjust. This is not the first time that you have been disobedient.’ When the deputies presented a memorial, stating that the levy of troops ought to be approved by a general diet, he endeavoured to stimulate their pride by reproaches of disobedience and pusillanimity, and by recalling to their recollection the heroic courage of their ancestors. He concluded by saying, ‘We are determined to prosecute this warfare, whether you will go with us or not. If you accompany us, you do us a favour, and we shall be inclined to treat you with kindness; but, if you persist in your disobedience, you are alone accountable for all the misfortunes which may overwhelm you.’ These reproaches, being attended with no effect, Ferdinand quitted the city, full of indignation, and repaired to Leutmeritz. Here he found a numerous assembly of nobles, knights, and deputies of the towns who formed the states of that province which he had convoked. But from them he was assailed with the same remonstrances as had been made by the burghers of Prague. When the proposal for raising troops was laid before the meeting, they requested him to convoke a general diet, which could alone authorise the levy, and promised to support the proposition, if made according to custom and law; and they declared that the mandate of the 12th of January was contrary to their privileges and liberties. This remonstrance, conveyed in mild but firm expressions, convinced the king that it was necessary to have recourse to soothing measures. Having summoned the principal deputies into his presence, he condescended to inform them that the danger was too pressing to admit of delay, or to allow time for the convocation of a diet. He had promised assistance, he said, to Maurice of Saxony, who was encamped within only four miles of the enemy; he had already begun his march, and could not retreat without forfeiting his honour. He therefore entreated them not to forsake him, or compel him to disgrace himself by a breach of his promise. He engaged to recall the mandate of the 12th of January, and offered to give full security that no violation of their privileges should in future result from this step, and to declare that they took the field not from obligation, but from compliance with the request of their sovereign. The assembly, overcome by these professions, fulfilled his wishes as far as was consistent with the laws of their country. They gave to every baron, knight, and burgher, liberty to follow, or not to follow the king to the field, freely and uncompelled, not for the purpose of succouring prince Maurice, not in obedience to the mandate of the 12th of January, nor in virtue of the recent compact with Maurice, but solely to defend the person of the king, and to protect him from danger. They also promised to persuade the other states of the kingdom to follow their example; and Ferdinand, after tendering his acknowledgments for these resolutions, continued his march to Dresden.

“During these transactions, the capital was the scene of tumult and alarm. The Calixtine members of nine circles, as well nobles and knights as deputies from the towns, flocking to Prague, united themselves with the citizens in a solemn confederacy, to defend those rights and privileges, ancient laws and customs, which had been granted by their sovereigns, and recently confirmed by Ferdinand. They also signed a memorial to the king, in which they earnestly requested him to convoke a diet at Prague, for the purpose of laying before all the states the affair of the levies; and they concluded by observing, that if he did not himself summon the diet, the states would of their own authority assemble on that day, and deliberate on the business.

“To their memorial the king made the same reply as to the states assembled at Leutmeritz; he promised to hold a diet in person at Prague, eight days after Easter; forbade them in the interim to assemble, and at the same time issued his summons to all the circles and towns.

“This measure might have pacified the states, had not the elector of Saxony gained a considerable advantage over the margrave of Brandenburgh, who was marching to the assistance of prince Maurice. The victory encouraged the Bohemians to persist in their opposition, while it filled Ferdinand with new apprehensions. He instantly despatched general Wertmuhle to Commotau, and ordered all the states of the kingdom to send troops under his command, and to supply with provisions the army of the emperor, who was advancing to Egra to protect Bohemia, and succour prince Maurice. But this mandate was not obeyed; the states, which had assembled at Prague, declared the summons of the king and Wertmuhle illegal, and expressed their resolution to maintain the hereditary compact with the elector of Saxony; they dispersed a printed letter through all the circles, exhorting the nobles, knights, and towns, to join in their confederacy, and declared that those who did not present themselves before Easter should not be admitted. ‘As numerous bodies of men were collecting in the neighbouring countries,’ they gave directions for assembling an army to defend Bohemia, their native land, from all foreign attacks; to protect their wives and children, property and vassals, from the hand of violence, and to support each other against all aggressors. They even imposed a tax on all property for the maintenance of the national army, appointed a commander-in-chief, and made arrangements according to ancient custom. In case of extreme necessity, they summoned all who were capable of bearing arms into the field, and denounced confiscation of property and banishment against all who should refuse to serve. They moreover named a committee consisting of four nobles, four knights, and the magistrates of Prague, to act as delegates, with full powers, in the name of the three estates.

“Notice being brought that prince Maurice and his brother Augustus of Saxony had marched with more than 7000 troops to Brix, they issued instant orders throughout all the circles, to assemble levies for the purpose of resisting this invasion. They sent a remonstrance to the king, in which they expressed their surprise that foreign troops had entered Bohemia without the knowledge and approbation of the states, and with an implied threat of resistance, they exhorted him to induce the two dukes of Saxony to return. They also despatched messengers to the states of Moravia and Lusatia, announcing their common danger, and requesting succours.

“Ferdinand, in reply to these remonstrances, informed them that he was arrived at Brix, and in company with the two dukes of Saxony, was marching through Bohemia, to join the army of the emperor. His object, he declared, was to protect the kingdom against the elector of Saxony, who had been put under the ban of the empire, and who had not only occupied Joachimsthal and Presnitz, but had extorted an oath from the inhabitants to arm in his defence. The irruption of the emperor, with 20,000 Spanish veterans, into the province of Egra, excited general indignation and alarm; and the committee circulated their mandates, ordering all persons to repair to Prague for the purpose of marching against the enemy, while the burghers of the capital flocked in crowds to offer their personal services.

“Ferdinand, informed of these movements, testified his surprise and dissatisfaction that troops should be levied when no enemy was at hand, and when he himself was marching to join the emperor at Egra. He promised to prevail on the emperor not to pass through the kingdom, assured the states that he had no inclination to infringe their liberties, and again exhorted them to lay down their arms, and to wait in tranquillity his arrival at Prague. These representations from a sovereign who had excited the jealousy of his subjects by his innovations, were attended with no effect; the delegates justified their proceedings, and declared that they had taken up arms because the states had certain information of a design to overturn the constitution, destroy the kingdom, and extirpate the language of Bohemia. And, as the king and the chief burgrave to whom the defence of the crown belonged, were absent, they were compelled for their own security to levy an army, and appoint a commander, not to act against the king, but for the purpose of protecting his daughter, the archduchess, who was consigned to their care, and to secure their country from the invasion of foreign troops. They could not, they observed, revoke the summons, and prevent the levies; they therefore entreated his majesty to divert the emperor from the effusion of Christian blood, and to return to the capital without delay. At the same time the delegates assured the elector of Saxony of their fixed resolution to maintain and renew the ancient compact, summoned the states to come forward in defence of the crown, of their liberties, and native tongue; and earnestly exhorted them to remain true to the electoral house of Saxony, since the hereditary compact was a principal prerogative of the crown, and a rock of defence to the subjects. To the emperor, who remonstrated against their taking up arms, they replied they did not rise against him or their king, but in defence of their privileges, and in support of their ancient alliances. They exhorted him, as the head of Christendom, to spare the effusion of Christian blood, to be reconciled to the elector, and lead his own forces, with those of the Christian world, against the Turks, the inveterate enemies of the Christian faith.

“In the midst of these transactions the diet assembled at Prague, and the importance of the occasion drew such numbers of deputies, that they overflowed the place of assembly, and crowded in the square before the palace. The hereditary compact between George Podiebrad and the elector of Saxony was read, and the public discontents were inflamed by the complaints of several officers, that the king had threatened to punish them with death if they refused to pass the frontiers.

“Two days afterwards, the royal commissaries being introduced, required the states in the king’s name to dismiss their troops, and dissolve their confederacy. These commands were enforced by an embassy from the emperor, who exhorted the states to lay down their arms, and pay due obedience to their lawful sovereign.

“Instead, however, of paying attention to these representations, the states drew up an apology for their conduct, and appointed ambassadors to the king and the emperor, who were commissioned to represent that the state of Bohemia had been, from time immemorial, accustomed for the sake of peace and unanimity, to contract confederacies with each other, of which the documents had been recently destroyed by fire. In regard to the levy of forces, their forefathers, they said, had always raised troops whenever a foreign army approached the frontiers, and they themselves had only acted in conformity with this ancient custom without the least intention of injuring the emperor or the king, their sovereign. They concluded by observing, that as the states had prorogued their meeting till the ensuing Whitsuntide, they hoped the ambassadors would, in the interim, obtain the king’s approbation, and induce him to mediate a peace between the emperor and the elector of Saxony, and then to lead an army against the Turks.

“Before the departure of the ambassadors, a messenger from Ferdinand announced the total defeat and capture of the elector of Saxony at Muhlberg; and, to discourage the states, the intelligence was publicly read before the diet. On this occasion, this numerous assembly evinced all the versatility of a popular body, easily roused, and as suddenly depressed. Those very men, who, with the hope of foreign assistance, had displayed such resolution to assert their liberties, the descendants of those who under Ziska had singly resisted or deposed their sovereigns, and spread terror throughout Germany, no sooner saw themselves deprived of foreign support, than they sank into a servility and despondency as degrading as their former presumption and petulance were imprudent. Many of the members hastened from Prague, others who had unwillingly united in the confederacy, rejoiced, and all affected to join the royalists in their eager demonstrations of loyalty. The states congratulated the king on the victory, and represented, that as the war was now concluded, and as they fully confided in his gracious promise not to introduce foreign troops into Bohemia, they were willing to dismiss their levies, and permit the free transport of provisions to the imperial army. On the following day orders were issued to their commander-in-chief to disband their forces.

“Ferdinand made no other reply to these tardy offers of submission than threats and reproaches; and without a moment’s delay prepared to avail himself of the advantages which he possessed over his humiliated subjects. He took his departure from Wittemberg with a considerable body of troops and heavy artillery, and on the 3rd of June reached Leutmeritz, where he received the submission of the inhabitants. Here he issued a circular letter to the towns of Prague and the provincial states, in which he reproached them for their recent misconduct, commanded them to renounce their confederacy, summoned those who were well affected to repair to Leutmeritz, under the promise of pardon, and threatened those with punishment who persisted in their contumacy.

“In consequence of these letters, nobles, knights, and deputies flocked in great numbers to Leutmeritz. The citizens of Prague alone gave symptoms of their former resolution; they proposed to occupy the castle, and fortify the White Mountain; and were not, without much difficulty, prevailed upon to renounce their fruitless opposition, and to dispatch their deputies. The states assembled at Leutmeritz, presented to the king a memorial, in which they declared that their only object in joining the confederacy was to promote the advantage of their country, and protect the prerogatives of the crown; and they promised that they would the next day erase their signatures, tear off their seals, and defend their king against all his enemies with their lives and fortunes. The king thanked them for this proof of returning loyalty, and granted them his pardon, but reserved his severest vengeance against the contumacious citizens of Prague. He refused to admit their deputies into his presence; he announced his intention to give an answer in person, on the Sunday following, in the palace; he commanded the magistrates to prepare quarters for his troops, and, before the departure of the deputies, despatched a corps of Germans, who, entering Prague by night, anticipated the design of the citizens by occupying the castle.

“On the 2d of July, Ferdinand himself made his public entry, at the head of a numerous army. His troops occupied the gates and the bridge, quartered themselves in different parts of the city, and encamped on the banks of the Moldau. But even his own presence, and the awe inspired by so great a force, could not repress the indignation of the citizens. A wanton insult of the Germans, who fired on the burghers of the old town, and the sacking of a neighbouring village by the hussars, provoked the populace into a tumult, which nearly occasioned the renewal of the civil war. The burghers dislodged the royal troops from the bridge, and drew cannon to the banks of the Moldau to batter the castle where the king resided; they even prepared to renew the national confederacy, and sent letters to their adherents in the different circles, exhorting them to furnish speedy and effectual succours. But the revival of a contest which would have deluged the kingdom in blood, was prevented by the intervention of those leaders who were inclined to more moderate measures, and by the policy and affected mildness of the king, who disavowed the perpetrators of the outrages, and promised redress.

“The whole conduct of Ferdinand was calculated to increase the terror of the inhabitants; he prohibited the usual demonstrations of joy paid to the sovereign on his arrival, and forbade the magistrates to approach his person. On the 3rd, he summoned to the palace, the mayor, burgomasters, magistrates, councillors, jurors, elders, and two hundred and forty of the most distinguished citizens of the three towns. On the day appointed, these persons, amounting to more than six hundred, repaired to the palace, and had no sooner entered than the gates were closed and guarded. The king being thus master of the principal members of the three towns, and those who by their talents or influence might have roused the people to a desperate resistance, was enabled to impose his own terms. To impress them with additional terror, he appeared in all the parade of majesty, and with all the pomp of justice. He was habited in his royal robes, and seated on a lofty throne; beneath him was his second son the archduke Ferdinand; and he was surrounded by the magnates of Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia, who bore the highest offices of state, the duke of Teschen, the bishops of Olmutz and Troppau; the count of Lobcowitz stood before him with a drawn sword. Silence being proclaimed, numerous charges against the prisoners were read, after which the king expatiated on their rebellious proceedings, and commanded them to give an answer to each article of accusation.

“Unable to justify themselves against the abrupt and heavy charge, Sixtus of Ottersdorf, secretary of the old town, humbly replied, in the name of all, that they would not presume to enter into any defence of their conduct with their king and master; but submitted themselves to his royal mercy, beseeching the intercession of the nobles, bishops, and counsellors, who were present; and the whole body falling on their knees, entreated pardon for their disobedience. They were suffered to continue for some time in this posture, and at length commanded by one of the officers of state to retire into the hall of justice, and therein remain imprisoned until the king had taken the advice of his judges. They retired, and, after several hours of suspense and agitation, the same officer of state informed them that the king, at the intercession of the archduke, princes, and lords, and of his own natural clemency, graciously pardoned their offences under certain conditions. They were to renounce their confederacy with the other states, and at the next diet to break their seals, erase their signatures, and to deliver up their letters and writings relating to their confederacy; to surrender without exception all the acts of their privileges and immunities, and to be satisfied with whatever the king should ordain or graciously restore; to bring all their artillery and ammunition to the palace, and the burghers their muskets, and all other arms except swords to the town house; to resign all their vassals and property to the king, and to his heirs the sovereigns of Bohemia; to cede all the tolls of the three towns, and to bind themselves to pay his majesty and his successors for ever a certain tax on beer and malt. They were informed, that if they would agree to these conditions, the king would pardon the whole people, and would punish none except a few persons who had behaved disrespectfully, and whom he had determined to chastise for the sake of justice and the welfare of the kingdom.

“On the recital of these hard terms, the prisoners required a short interval to obtain the consent of their fellow burghers. But it was too dangerous and too critical a moment for Ferdinand to permit the terror which he had impressed on their minds to subside, or allow men driven to despair, an opportunity of rousing the people by a public discussion of these rigorous articles. He therefore sternly rejected their request, and extorted from them an immediate ratification. Several of the least dangerous were then deputed to conciliate the burghers, and the remainder closely guarded in the apartments and vaults of the palace.

“On the following morning some of the prisoners were restored to liberty, on the condition of not retiring from Prague, and others released in the ensuing days. At length the remainder were all liberated, except forty of the most tumultuous and most dangerous, who were reserved as objects of public punishment.

“During this period, Ferdinand had sent a similar summons to all the towns of the kingdom, except the loyal towns of Pilsen, Budweiss, and Aussig. The chief burgomasters, counsellors, and elders were compelled to repair to the palace, and, like those of Prague, were imprisoned until they had surrendered all their estates, tolls, revenues, and privileges, and paid considerable penalties. But so rigorous was the confinement experienced by these unfortunate victims, and so deeply were their minds affected by the terrors of their situation, that many died, and others became frantic. Many of the nobles were also summoned before a court of justice to be tried for the crimes of which they were accused. Some flying from the terrors of such a tribunal, their goods were confiscated, and they were condemned to death; others appearing and surrendering themselves, twenty-six were selected and imprisoned; of these some were deprived of their possessions, others were compelled to pay heavy fines and to hold their estates as fiefs from the king; and two only were sentenced to public execution.

“As a close to these proceedings, a diet was summoned by the king, to meet at the palace of Prague on the 22d of August, 1547, and was attended by a numerous assembly, as all were now eager to give proofs of their loyalty. With a view to strike additional terror, Ferdinand opened the diet with the execution of four of his principal prisoners, two of whom were knights, and the others of the third estate, of whom one Jacob Fikar, high judge of the kingdom, and burgrave of the old town, was in the seventieth year of his age.

“At the close of this tragedy, the assembly, which, from these executions, was stigmatised with the name of the _Bloody Diet_, was opened, and the king experienced the fullest submission to his decrees. The burgrave, or president, declared in the name of the lords and knights, that they had entered into the confederacy with no other view than to maintain peace and union in the kingdom; and as it was the pleasure of their sovereign that the confederacy should be dissolved, they were ready to obey his commands. Instantly a committee of nobles tore the seals from the acts of the confederacy, which contained the signatures of one thousand seven hundred and thirty-six lords and knights, besides those of the towns. The high chancellor then declared, in the king’s name, to the deputies of the towns, that on account of their disobedience they deserved to be deprived of their seat at the diet, but, as a particular mark of favour, they were allowed to retain that right. All their privileges were to be examined, and those only restored which the king thought proper to confirm. The artillery, arms, and ammunition, which had been delivered up, were sent in thirty wagons to Vienna, and an additional fine was laid on the corporation of Prague.

“The forty prisoners who still remained in confinement were now brought from their dungeons. Eight were publicly whipped in each of the three towns; and, before each flagellation, the executioner proclaimed, ‘These men are punished because they were traitors, and because they excited the people against their _hereditary_ master,’ a title which Ferdinand now thought proper to assume. These eight, with a similar number, were banished, and the remaining four-and-twenty, after paying heavy fines, were restored to liberty.

“Having thus restored tranquillity and suppressed almost all seeds of future insurrections, Ferdinand introduced various regulations, which were calculated to strengthen his authority. He appointed in each town a court judge, who was to assist in all public meetings, and to take care that the royal authority received no detriment; and, as he attributed the opposition made to his designs to the influence of the Lutheran doctrines, he used every means to prevent their diffusion. He accordingly, in 1556, established in Bohemia the order of Jesuits, which he had introduced into his Austrian territories, and encouraged them to undertake the care of public education, which was the great instrument of their power. He appointed a committee for the revision and censure of all publications, and forbade the importation of all foreign works without their consent.

“Finally, he changed Bohemia from an elective to an hereditary monarchy; he obtained the consent of the diet that his son Maximilian should be declared his successor, and in 1562 the prince was crowned as eldest son and heir to his father. By these measures, Ferdinand greatly extended the regal prerogative, and abolished the evils arising from elective monarchy; he also restored tranquillity, and suppressed the factions of a volatile and turbulent people; yet he, at the same time, depressed that energy of mind and military ardour which are inseparable from a free government and are fostered by civil contests, and checked that active commercial spirit which flourishes in the consciousness of independence. From this cause the towns, which had hitherto been remarkable for their commerce, wealth, and population, exhibited under his reign the first symptoms of decline, and the Bohemians began to lose that military fame which had rendered them the example and the terror of Europe.”

Thus was Bohemia subdued in 1547. But in the reign of Ferdinand II., seventy-two years after, at the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War, there was a second conquest of this unhappy country, by the Austrian power, which seems still more atrocious, inasmuch as then the Bohemians did not fail in heart, but were overpowered when exerting themselves to the utmost. It seems to have been wholly owing, in fact, to the want of skill and energy of their elected king, Frederic, Count Palatine, that they sustained a defeat at White Mountain, two years after the commencement of their movement, which was both for religious and political freedom. We cannot here enter into the whole history of the rise of the Thirty Years’ War, but must refer our readers to Coxe, Schiller, and others. It arose directly from the character of Ferdinand II., whose intolerance and inveteracy were its occasion, if not its cause. Educated by Jesuits, “from their instructions he derived that inflexible bigotry and intolerance, and that hostility to the Protestants, which, at this period, formed the great characteristics of their order. He frequently expressed a resolution to live with his family in banishment, to beg his bread from door to door, to submit to every insult and calamity, to lose even his life, rather than suffer the true church to be injured. When he assumed the reins of government, he proved that these declarations were not the effusions of idle enthusiasm. He refused to confirm the privileges which his father Charles had granted to his Protestant subjects, and sent his commissaries to eject their preachers from the archducal domains; these commissaries being expelled, he collected troops to enforce the execution of his orders. In the interim he made a pilgrimage to Loretto, and bound himself by the most solemn vows, before the miraculous image, not to rest till he had extirpated all heresy in his dominions; at Rome he was consecrated by the hands of Clement VIII, and his resolutions were strengthened by the exhortations of the pontiff.

“Animated with a new spirit of intolerance, he returned in 1598 to his dominions. The first act of his government was a new order for the banishment of all the Protestant preachers and schoolmasters, and, in opposition to the remonstrances of the states, he carried this rigorous measure into execution by force. He supplied the place of the Protestant seminaries, by founding two convents of Capuchins at Gratz and Bruck, and colleges of Jesuits at Gratz, Laybach and Clagenfurth. Although two thirds of his subjects were Protestants, he ordered all who would not embrace the Catholic faith, to quit his dominions; and supplied the places of those who preferred banishment to the desertion of their faith, by introducing numbers of Catholics from Wallachia and the neighbouring provinces. To complete the expulsion of heresy, his commissaries, accompanied by an escort, passed from town to town, and from village to village, restoring the ancient temples to the Catholics, and demolishing the new churches and schoolhouses, which had been erected by the Protestants.

“The first symptoms of those troubles, which commenced in the Austrian territories and afterwards overspread all Europe, appeared in Bohemia. Ferdinand had not long received the crown before the Protestants perceived that the alarms derived from his principles and former conduct were not without foundation; for, from that moment, a new spirit seemed to animate the counsels of the sovereign, and various acts of hostility to their doctrines evinced his baneful influence. Slavata and Martinetz, the two nobles who had proved their zeal for the Catholic faith by refusing to sign the peace of religion, were introduced into the council of regency, honoured with an unusual degree of confidence, and displayed their attachment to their future sovereign by persecuting their Protestant vassals. The zealous Catholics followed the example, and exulted in the prospect of a change of government which was likely to restore their ascendency; the Jesuits presumptuously proclaimed the new influence and favour which they had attained; and one of the confidential ministers of Ferdinand himself did not scruple to point out the future objects of their vengeance, and to declare, that the restoration of tranquillity could only be effected by executions and confiscations, and by the revocation of the royal edict which had been extorted by force. These threats and rumours were aggravated by fear and religious antipathy; and the Protestants looked forward to the commencement of the new reign as an era no less pregnant with horrors than the abominable massacre of St. Bartholomew. In the midst of this ferment the disclosure of the treaty with Spain contributed to add civil to religious grievances; the illegal engagement for the eventual transfer of the crown to the Spanish branch, without even the knowledge of the states, alarmed a great part of the Catholics, who were no less tenacious of their elective rights than the Protestants of their religious privileges. In this situation it was impossible to restrain so turbulent a people as the Bohemians, animated with all the fury of political and religious animosity, and in count Thurn appeared another Ziska, who was capable of rousing, directing, and organising an insurrection.

“The impolicy and intolerance of the court soon furnished him with an opportunity to inflame a trivial discussion into open hostilities. It is a misfortune attending religious disputes in a peculiar degree, in which all parties act and reason on such discordant principles, that no public instrument can be worded in terms sufficiently clear and explicit to prevent all occasions of cavil. This was the case of the royal edict, [of Ferdinand’s predecessor] which seems by the spirit to grant liberty of worship with the privilege of constructing churches and schools only to the Calixtine or Protestant members of the states, whether nobles, knights, or towns. But an explanatory clause in general terms, instead of rendering the meaning more specific, only made it more doubtful, and furnished the towns and vassals of ecclesiastics and lay Catholics with a pretext for claiming the same privilege. In consequence of this interpretation, the Protestant inhabitants of the town of Brunau and of Clostergraben, a village in the vicinity of Prague, began to erect churches and to perform divine service according to the Protestant ritual. The archbishop of Prague and the abbot of Brunau, to whom the respective places belonged, considering these acts as an infringement of their feudal rights, obtained a prohibition from the government. The Protestants, however, instead of obeying the order, were encouraged by the defenders of their religion to persevere; and these and other prohibitions of the sovereign induced the Protestant states of Bohemia and its dependencies to enter into a formal confederacy for the security and defence of their rights and privileges. They followed this engagement by a petition for redress in the affair of Brunau and Clostergraben; and at the same time renewed their compacts and treaties with some of the Protestant princes of Germany.

“Encouraged by this confederacy, the Protestants proceeded with new vigour, and the churches were completed, notwithstanding Matthias himself expressed his disapprobation to count Thurn, and declared their conduct an infraction of the royal edict. But though he was disposed to connive at this disobedience, Ferdinand was not inclined to the same acquiescence, and soon after his coronation, an order, obtained by his influence, was issued by the court, commanding the surrender or demolition of the newly constructed churches. The archbishop instantly executed the order at Clostergraben; but at Brunau the people opposed their abbot, and sent deputies to Matthias, requesting the revocation of his mandate. Instead, however, of obtaining redress, their deputies were arrested, and an imperial commission despatched to shut up the church, and suppress the Protestant worship in Brunau.

“These acts, of which numerous precedents had been given in Germany and in the Austrian territories, might at any other time have produced a trifling dispute, which would have soon sunk into oblivion; but amidst the general ferment, and in the powerful hands of count Thurn, they became the instrument which excited an insurrection, and occasioned the Thirty Years’ War.”

We omit the account of the ensuing hostilities, and of the process by which the Bohemians came to the point of making an effort to eject Ferdinand from the throne of their kingdom, just at the moment that he attained the imperial dignity.

“A general diet of the states of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia assembled at Prague, soon after the departure of Ferdinand from Vienna. Having formed a confederacy for the maintenance of their civil and religious privileges, they were joined by the Protestants of Upper and Lower Austria, as well as by many of the discontented magnates of Hungary, and were encouraged by assurances of immediate support from Bethlehem Gabor. They then proceeded to draw up a list of their grievances, in which they urged that the election of Ferdinand had been informal, that he had broken his coronation oath, by interfering in the government during the life of Matthias, had commenced the war by his own authority, and sent foreign troops to devastate their country; finally, that he had infringed their right of election, by entering into engagements, without the consent of the states, to transfer the eventual succession of the crown to the Spanish princes, and thus to reduce them under a foreign, hateful, and despotic yoke. On these grounds they declared that Ferdinand had forfeited his dignity, and, in virtue of their supposed right of election, proceeded to nominate a new sovereign.

“On this important article, they were, however, less unanimous than on the point of exclusion. The Catholics being too weak and inconsiderable to take any essential share in the election, the remainder of the states were divided between the choice of a Lutheran or Calvinist sovereign. The Lutherans were the most numerous, the Calvinists the most active and artful, and supported by the Picards, or Bohemian brethren, a remnant of the ancient Hussites. The Calvinists suffered the Lutherans to offer the crown to the elector of Saxony, who, they were aware, would refuse the proffered dignity; and he had no sooner declined it than they turned the choice of the states in favour of the elector Palatine, who was nominated with only six dissenting voices, two days before Ferdinand was raised to the imperial throne. To give an appearance of greater weight to the new election, the states of Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia were allowed to participate in the choice, a right before often claimed, but never admitted.

“Although Frederic had anxiously laboured to secure this dignity, and had previously resolved to accept it, yet he had no sooner gained his object, than he hesitated to encounter the dangers with which the crown was surrounded. He sought advice and encouragement from those with whom he was connected by blood or interest. He was earnestly dissuaded by his mother, by the electors of Saxony and Brandenburgh, by the duke of Bavaria, and, above all, by his father-in-law, the king of England, who declared, that he would not patronise revolted subjects against their lawful sovereign, and would neither acknowledge his title nor afford him support. On the other hand, the wavering resolutions of Frederic were strengthened by his uncles, Maurice, prince of Orange, and the duke of Bouillon, by his favourite counseller, Christian of Anhalt, by the majority of the Protestant league, and by Bethlehem Gabor, with whom he had entered into the closest connection.”

The closing catastrophe of the hostilities that immediately followed the election of Frederic, is all we have room to insert.

“They took post on the White Mountain, as the last resource for the defence of the capital, and behind its ravines and declivities began to construct intrenchments, in order to defy the assaults of the enemy. The duke of Bavaria, however, did not allow them time to prepare for defence; he resolved to drive them from their last refuge before they had recovered from the confusion of a retreat, and while his own troops were warm in the pursuit. He reached the vicinity of Prague on the morning of the 8th of November, 1620, and ere noon had reconnoitred their position and commenced his attack. His troops overcame all obstacles; the Hungarian cavalry was instantly defeated and dispersed: and although the Moravians, under the prince of Anhalt and the young count Thurn, balanced the fortune of the day by their heroic resistance, the victory was decided in favour of the imperialists within the short space of an hour. With the loss of only three hundred men, they took all the artillery, a hundred standards, left 4000 of the enemy dead on the field, and drove 1000 into the Moldau; and thus, at one blow, dissipated the short-lived hopes of Frederic, and decided the fate of Bohemia.

“The citizens of Prague, deserted by their elected sovereign, had no other alternative than to submit themselves to the mercy of the emperor, and on the following day opened their gates to the conqueror. All the indulgence they could obtain was an exemption from plunder; the states who were immediately convened, took an unconditional oath of allegiance, dissolved their confederacy, and surrendered their arms. These arrangements being completed, the duke of Bavaria delivered the reins of government to prince Charles of Lichtenstein, in obedience to the appointment of the emperor; and after leaving a garrison in the town under the command of Tilly, returned triumphantly to Munich, laden with the spoils of the unfortunate kingdom.

“Three months elapsed without the slightest act of severity against the insurgents of Bohemia. Many, lulled into security by this doubtful calm, emerged from their hiding places, and the greater part remained quiet at Prague, though secretly warned of their danger even by Tilly himself, who was no pattern of lenity or forbearance. But in an evil hour all the fury of the tempest burst upon their heads. Forty of the principal insurgents were arrested in the night of the 21st of January, 1621, and after being imprisoned four months, and tried before an imperial committee of inquiry, twenty-three were publicly executed, their property confiscated, and the remainder either banished or condemned to perpetual imprisonment. A sentence of proscription and confiscation of goods was published against count Thurn, and twenty-seven of the other chiefs, who had fled from the country. Nor were these examples confined only to those who had been openly concerned in the rebellion; for a mandate of more than inquisitorial severity was issued, commanding all landholders who had participated in the insurrection to confess their delinquencies, and threatening the severest vengeance if they were afterwards convicted. This dreadful order spread general consternation: not only those who had shared in the insurrection acknowledged their guilt, but even the innocent were driven by terror to self-accusation; and above seven hundred nobles and knights, almost the whole body of landholders, placed their names on this list of proscription. By a mockery of the very name of mercy, the emperor granted to these unfortunate victims their lives and honours, which they were declared to have forfeited by their own confession; but gratified his vengeance and rapacity by confiscating the whole or part of their property, and thus reduced many of the most loyal and ancient families to ruin, or drove them to seek a refuge from their misfortunes in exile or death.”[4]

We might naturally suppose that this was the end of Bohemia; but “in the lowest deep a lower deep, still threatening to devour them, opened wide.”

Not ten years had elapsed before in a temporary truce of the Thirty Years’ War, Ferdinand II. commenced a persecution of his Protestant subjects everywhere.

“But it was in Bohemia, so long exposed to his antipathy as the seat of religious liberty, and where three-fourths of the natives were Protestants, that he acted with a rigour and cruelty which surpassed all the horrors of the inquisition itself. He commenced his persecutions by ejecting the preachers, schoolmasters, and professors, and delivering the churches to monks, whom he collected indiscriminately from all quarters of Europe. He then prohibited all persons who were not Catholics from exercising any trade or handicraft, laid the severest fines on those who preserved even in secret the slightest remnant of their former worship, declared Protestant marriages and baptisms null, wills made by Protestants invalid, and even drove the poor, the sick, and the distressed from the almshouses and hospitals. Then began a series of persecutions, from the recollection of which the mind recoils with horror. In the capital the Protestant burghers were expelled with their wives and children, and the poorer orders compelled to become Catholics. The other towns, and even the remotest villages, were visited by missionary deputations of Jesuits and Capuchin friars, accompanied by a military force, and were abandoned to every species of monkish barbarity and military licentiousness. Those who were enabled to seek a refuge in exile were comparatively fortunate. The slightest degree of persecution inflicted on those who remained was, to imprison the men, give up their houses to pillage, and expose their wives and children to all the outrages of the soldiery. Some were massacred without mercy; some hunted and driven like wild beasts to the woods and mountains, some dragged to processions and masses with every species of insult and cruelty, and those who ventured to oppose these enormities were racked and mutilated, or put to death with tortures too shocking for humanity to describe.

“In the midst of these horrors Ferdinand himself repaired to Prague to nominate and crown his son as his successor. After affecting to display his clemency, by confirming to the states their power of taxation and other civil privileges, he abolished their right to elect a king, forbade the use of the Bohemian tongue in all public transactions, and set the seal to all the enormities which had been perpetrated under his authority, by abrogating the royal edict of toleration. He formally restored the order of the clergy to their rank in the states, from which they had been expelled during the Hussite wars; finally, he consummated his vengeance against the Protestants, by declaring that he would tolerate no religion except the Catholic; and he banished all those who within a specified time refused to return to the bosom of the church. By this act of persecution he drove 30,000 families, with all their servants and retainers, from the kingdom, including the most learned, the richest, and most industrious portion of the community, and thus inflicted on Bohemia a wound from which it has never recovered.

“It is a tribute of justice to sound policy, as well as to humanity, to finish this picture by introducing the reflections of the native historian, who, being a Catholic and a subject of the house of Austria, cannot be suspected of exaggeration or partiality. The records of history scarcely furnish a similar example of such a change as Bohemia underwent during the reign of Ferdinand II. In 1620, the monks, and a few of the nobility only excepted, the whole country was entirely Protestant; at the death of Ferdinand it was, in appearance at least, Catholic. Till the battle of the White Mountain the states enjoyed more exclusive privileges than the parliament of England; they enacted laws, imposed taxes, contracted alliances, declared war and peace, and chose or confirmed their kings; but all these they now lost. Previous to that period the Bohemians were considered as a warlike nation, and had often won military fame; the annals of history recorded, ‘The Bohemians took the field; the Bohemians stormed the fortifications; the Bohemians gained the victory;’ but they are now blended with other people, they are no longer distinguished as a nation in the field of battle, and no historian has consigned their posterity to glory. Till this fatal period the Bohemians were daring, undaunted, enterprising, emulous of fame; now they have lost all their courage, their national pride, their enterprising spirit. They fled before the Swedes like sheep, or suffered themselves to be trampled under foot. Their courage lay buried on the White Mountain. Individuals still possessed personal valour, military ardour, and a thirst of glory, but, blended with other nations, they resembled the waters of the Moldau which join those of the Elbe. These united streams bear ships, overflow lands, and overturn rocks; yet the Elbe only is mentioned, and the Moldau forgotten. The Bohemian language, which was used in all the courts of justice, and was in high estimation among the nobles, fell into contempt; the German was introduced, became the general language among the nobles and citizens, and was used by the monks in their sermons; the inhabitants of the towns began to be ashamed of their native tongue, which was confined to the villages, and called the language of peasants. The arts and sciences, so highly cultivated and esteemed under Rodolph, sank beyond recovery. During the period which immediately followed the banishment of the Protestants, Bohemia scarcely produced one man who became eminent in any branch of learning. The Caroline university was under the direction of the Jesuits, or suppressed; by order of the pope all promotions were stopped, and no academical honours conferred. A few patriots, both among the clergy and laity, murmured openly, though ineffectually; others sighed in secret over the downfall of literature. The greater part of the schools were conducted by Jesuits and other monkish orders, and nothing taught therein but bad Latin. It cannot be denied, that several of the Jesuits were men of great learning and science; but their system was, to keep the people in ignorance; agreeably to this principle, they gave their scholars only the rind, and kept to themselves the pulp of literature. With this view they travelled from town to town as missionaries, and went from house to house, examining all books, which the landlord was compelled, under pain of eternal damnation, to produce. The greater part they confiscated and burnt, so that a Bohemian and a rare book are synonymous terms. They thus endeavoured to extinguish the ancient literature of the country, laboured to persuade the students that, before the introduction of their order into Bohemia, nothing but ignorance prevailed, and carefully concealed the learned labours, and even the names of our ancestors. Such was their despotism, that the collections and writings of the patriotic Balbinus, on the literature of the ancient Bohemians, could not be published till after the extinction of their order. In a word, from this period the history of Bohemia ceases, and the history of every nation in Bohemia begins.”

We must content ourselves with giving only so much of the atrocities of the Thirty Years’ War. Nothing less than a detail of all its events would truly fill out the programme suggested by the title of our little book. It was in this war that was first invented the terrible system of provisioning an army at the expense of the country invaded or defended, which was acted out so terrifically by Tilly and Wallenstein, and served to increase a hundredfold all the former horrors of war.

The picturesque pages of Schiller can be consulted for these details. We extract only his account of the sack of Magdeburg.

“Two gates were now opened by the storming party for the main body, and Tilly marched in with part of his infantry. Immediately occupying the principal streets, he drove the citizens with pointed cannon into their dwellings, there to await their destiny. They were not long held in suspense; a word from Tilly decided the fate of Magdeburg.

“Even a more humane general would in vain have recommended mercy to such soldiers; but Tilly never made the attempt. Left by their general’s silence masters of the lives of all the citizens, the soldiery broke into the houses to satiate their most brutal appetites. The prayers of innocence excited some compassion in the hearts of the Germans, but none in the rude breasts of Pappenheim’s Walloons. Scarcely had the savage cruelty commenced, when the other gates were thrown open, and the cavalry, with the fearful hordes of the Croats, poured in upon the devoted inhabitants.