Page:Guide to the Bohemian section and to the Kingdom of Bohemia - 1906.djvu/9

7 crown again became vacant, for it was only after the year 1620. that the Bohemian crown became hereditary. The Estates of Bohemia—this was the name given to the Nobles and knights and to the representatives of the Bohemian towns, who jointly elected the king—chose as their ruler the archduke Ferdinand of Austria. The year 1526 marks the beginnings of the rule of the house of Austria over Bohemia but that event was by no means considered as denoting a change in the constitution of the country.

The most important year for Bohemia during Ferdinand’s reign is the year 1547. In the previous year hostilities have broken out in Germany between the emperor Charles V and the German protestants. Ferdinand of Bohemia called on his subjects to raise a force in aid of his brother. The Bohemian Estates, among whom the members of the so-called „Unity of the Bohemian Brethren“ were then very powerful, were unwilling to do this. In 1547. the attitude of the Bohemians became more decidedly opposed to Ferdinand and they raised a force, which was, though not openly, favourable to the cause of the German protestants. The defeat of the protestants at Mühlberg (April 14th 1547) put the Bohemians in a very difficult position and they submitted unconditionally to the king, whom they had offended. Ferdinand pardoned the nobles and knights, but he largely curtailed the formerly very extensive autonomy of the Bohemian cities. This largely contributed to the downfall of Bohemia, particularly as the formerly free peasantry of Bohemia—from whose ranks sprang most of the heroes of Hussite wars—had previously, in 1487, already become subject to bondage.

I do not attempt to sketch here the fascinating and touching history of Bohemia. I have already attempted to do so elsewhere. I wish howerer briefly to refer to the events of 1618. to 1620., which entirely changed the status