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 that two copies should be drawn up; but this was never done. King Ferdinand embraced this opportunity to establish his hereditary power in Bohemia. He asked the States to place in the new records, not that he had been elected their king, as was really the case, but that he had been accepted; and, having already felt his strong arm, they had not the courage to disobey him.

Besides the destruction of the Small Side, another grievous misfortune fell upon the country. The silvermines of Kuttenberg became filled with water. The king, not willing to invest money for their repair, they remained in ruins, and thus this city, once the second in the kingdom and the source of great wealth to the nation, now became neglected, and never again regained its glory.

Religious dissensions continually increased in Germany until it was evident that nothing but the sword could settle the difficulty. The Emperor Charles V was the deadly enemy of all religious progress, and sought in all possible ways to place obstacles in its path. The Protestant princes, in order to be better able to defend their faith, formed a union called the Smalkald League, at the head of which were Hans Frederick, the Elector of Saxony, and Philip, the Landgrave of Hesse. The war that followed was the beginning of a long series of troubles, arising between Ferdinand and his Bohemian subjects. Desiring to aid his brother, the king asked the Diet to vote a subsidy to raise troops, saying that he wished to have an armed force ready in case the country should be invaded by the Elector.

The Diet complied with his request; but when the