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 FERDINAND

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FERDINAND

eompassed with perils. A uuitfil army of Bohemians and Silesians stood before the walls of Vienna; in the city itself Ferdinand was beset by the urgent demands of the Lower-Austrian estates, while the Bohemian estates chose as king in his place the head of the Prot- estant Union in Germany (the Palatine Frederick \'), who could also count on the support of his father-in- law, James I of England. When the .Austrian estates entered into an alliance with the Bohemians, and Bethlen Gabor, Prince of Transylvania, marched triumphantly through Hungary with the assistance of the Hungarian evangelical party, and was crowned king of that country, the end of the Hapsburg dy- nasty seemed at hand. Not- withstanding tliese troubles in his hereditary states, Ferdinand was chosen Ger- man Emperor by the votes of all the electors except Bohemia and the Palatinate. Spaniards from the Neth- erlands occupied the Pala- tinate, and the Catholic League (Bund der katho- lischen Fursten Deutsch- lands) headed by Maximilian of Bavaria declared in his favour, although to procure this support Ferdinand was obliged to mortgage Austria to Maximilian. On 22 June, 1619, the Imperial General Buquoy repulsed from Vi- enna the besieging Gen- eral Thurn; Mansfeld was crushed at Budweis, and on 8 November, 1620, the fate of Bohemia and of Frederick V was decided by the Battle of the White Mountain, near Prague.

The firm re-establishment of the Hapsburg dynasty was the signal for the in- troduction of the Counter- Reformation (q. V.) into Bohemia. Ferdinand an- nulled the privileges of the estates, declared void the concessions granted to tln' Bohemian Protestants by the Majestatsbrief of Ru- dolf II, and punished the heads of the insurrection with death and confiscation of goods. Protestantism was exterminated in Bohemia, Moravia, and Lower Austria; in Silesia alone, on the intercession of the Lu- theran Elector of Saxony, the Reformers were treated with less severity.

The establishment of a general peace might perhaps now have been possible, if the emperor had been pre- pared to return his possessions to the outlawed and banished Palatine Elector Frederick. .\t first, Ferdi- nand seemed inclined to adopt this policy out of con- sideration for the Spanish, who did not wish to give mortal offence to James I, the father-in-law of the elector. However, the irritating conduct of Fred- erick and the Protestant L^nion, and the wish to re- cover Austria by indemnifying Maximilian in another way led Ferdinand to continue the war. Entrusted with the execution of the ban against the Elector Pala- tine, Maximilian assisted by the Spaniards took pos- session of the electoral lands, and in 1632 was himself raised to the electoral dignitv

Emperor F Frans Pourbus the Younger,

peror, the estates of the Lower Saxon circle (Kreis) had meanwhile formed a confederation, and resolved under the leadership of their head. King Christian IV of Denmark, to oppose the emperor (1625). In face of this combination, the Catholic L'nion or League under Count Tilly proved too weak to hold in check both its internal and external enemies; thus the re- cruiting of an independent imperial army was indis- pensable, though the Austrian exchequer was unable to meet the charge. However, Albrecht von Wald- stein (usually known as Wallenstein), a Bohemian nobleman whom Ferdinand had a short time pre- viously raised to the dignity of prince, offered to raise an army of 40,000 men at his own expense. His offer was accepted, and soon Wallen- stein and Tilly repeatedly vanquished the Danes, Ernst von Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick, the leaders of the Protestant forces. On the defeat of Christian at Lutteram Bar- enberge (27 .\ugust, 1626), the Danish Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein fell into the hands of the vic- torious Tilly, Christian was compelled to make the equitable peace of Lubeck on 12 May, 1629, and Wal- lenstein was invested with the lands of the Dukes of Mecklenburg, allies of Chris- tian.

Contemporaneously, an insurrection broke out among the Austrian peas- ants for the recovery of their ecclesiastical rights abro- gated by the emperor. This rising was soon quelled, but, as Wallenstein did not con- ceal his intention to estab- lish the emperor's rule in ( lermany on a more absolute basis, the princes of the empire were unceasing in their complaints, and de- manded Wallenstein's dis- missal. The excitement of the princes, especially those of the Protestant faith, ran still higher when Ferdinand published, in 1629, the "Edict of Restitution", which directed Protestants to restore all ecclesiastical property taken from the Cat holies since the Convention of Passau, in 1.5.52 (2 archbishoprics, 12 bishoprics and many monastic seigniories, especially in North Ger- many). At the meeting of the princes in Ratisbon (1630), when Ferdinand wished to procure the election of his son as King of Rome, the princes headed by Max- imilian succeeded in prevailing on the emperor to re- move Wallenstein. The command of the now reduced imperial troops was entrusted to Tilly, who with these forces and those of the League marched against Mag- deburg; this city, formerly the see of an archbishop, energetically opposed the execution of the Edict of Restitution. Even before Wallenstein's dismissal on 4 July, 1630, Gustavus Adolphus, Kingof Sweden, had landed at the mouth of the Oder, but, as the Protes- tant estates (notably Brandenburg and Saxony) hesi- tated to enter into an alliance with him, he was unable at first to accomplish anyl hing decisive. When, how-

Museo del Prado. Madrid

Uneasy at the rapidly increasing power of the em- ever, in May, 1631, Tilly stormed and reduced to ashes