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Rh Austro-German provinces, and Hungary, united in 1526 under the sceptre of the Habsburgs, were essentially distinct and independent states. The person of the monarch was the only tie between these states, as each was absolutely independent of the other. It was therefore purely a personal union. The most important of these states was Bohemia, not only as regards the extent of her territory, but also on account of the part she played in the history of Europe, and by her feudal Constitution, which gave both her nobility and her cities important privileges tending to curtail the royal power. The hereditary Austrian lands have for a long time been in the hands of the Habsburgs, who exercised absolute power over them. This power, in fact, was almost unlimited by any rights or privileges of the Estates; the governmental functions were exclusively reserved to the sovereign, whose will was law. It was through these hereditary lands alone that Austria formed a part of the German Empire.

In Hungary the situation under the first of the Habsburgs was very different. On one side this country was harassed by war with the Turks, who occupied the greater part of the land; on the other side was Transylvania with her hereditary sovereign, who was the declared opponent of Ferdinand I. The power of the latter monarch, however, was very much limited by the old