Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/68

 action, and casting to the winds the well-meant warnings of timid friends.

Ferdinand, combination as he was about half and half of monk and prince, was, as to person, of middle stature, compact form, with hair inclining to red, and blue eyes. His clothing and the cut of his hair suggested the Spaniard; his kind and courtly demeanor toward all who had intercourse with him showed that his inner nature was rather German than Spanish. At the period of our introducing him in action he was already a widower. His first marriage was with his cousin, a sister of Maximilian of Bavaria, who was about four years older than himself, bore him several children, and died prematurely from weaknesses which existed even before her marriage. He married, in the year 1622, the Princess Eleanor of Mantua, to which second marriage we shall have occasion to refer more particularly hereafter. His most prominent confidential counsellor was Baron von Eggenberg, originally a Protestant, who afterwards became a Catholic, and whom he adorned, after the suppression of the Bohemian insurrection, with princely honors and dignities and endowed with immense wealth. Also Baron Harrach, whom he afterwards made a count, exercised a pre-eminent influence over him; as did also, in the affairs of Bohemia, his Chancellor, Zdenek von Lobkowitz.

In view of these traits of the claimant of the throne, we can conceive the delight with which the Catholics looked to the future, as also the restless discontent of the Protestants. Not without distrust could they contemplate a change of administration. It was therefore nat-