Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/123

 patient for the moment when she could embrace her new daughter. At this loving reception the bystanders were moved to tears.

After the marriage, which was celebrated with great splendor, King John went with an army to Bohemia to win the crown that had been offered him; for, however weak and dissipated King Henry was, it was not expected that he would lay down his honors without a struggle, which supposition proved to be well founded. Calling to his assistance Frederick, the Margrave of Meissen, King Henry prepared for a stout defense of his rights. For some time John did not dare approach Prague, but captured some cities in the southern part of Bohemia; but finally he turned his march to the capital, the gates of which were opened to him through the treachery of some lords. King Henry, seeing that all was lost, left the country.

After the departure of King Henry from Prague, a Diet was immediately called, in which the lords took the oath of allegiance to their new king; and John, as a ruler of a new dynasty, gave a written agreement promising to preserve the liberties of the country. As this was the first document of the kind ever given by a King of Bohemia, some of the provisions deserve special notice: The king promised to call no foreigners into the land to be his officers and counselors; he was forbidden either to give away or sell any of the crown estates to foreigners; in case of the death of some of his subjects, the king was to lay no claim to their inheritance, but all such inheritance was to fall to the relatives of the deceased, and only in default of