Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/73

 made no further objections. Even Budowec was silent, and Ruppa did not repeat his former assertion.

As to the Chancellor’s proofs of the hereditary rights of the Hapsburgs, their correctness is unassailable. It is a fact that the Bohemian Estates declared in 1526 that the Golden Bull, which established the hereditary right for the house of Luxemburg, should thenceforward be valid also for the house of Hapsburg. It is also a fact that Maximilian II. and Rudolph II. were not by the Estates of Bohemia elected, but simply “accepted” as Kings. The acknowledgment of hereditary right, which lay, according to the conception of the time, in the word “acceptance,” had been twice unhesitatingly given by the Bohemian Estates. It is, however, equally true that the year 1608 introduced a change. At that time Rudolph summoned the Estates to elect his brother as King, and they proceeded to the election. If the supporters of the Hapsburg dynasty would not acknowledge the validity of the action of 1608 as a precedent, because it was an innovation and not in harmony with the law as it had existed up to 1607, they were correct in their position as to the right of innovation.

In the meantime the Estates had assembled in the hall of the Diet. When, about nine o’clock in the morning, the Emperor sent a message to inform them that he was disposed to appear in their midst, the high officials went forth accordingly to meet and escort him into the hall. Matthias seated himself upon the throne, and on his right and left sat the two Archdukes, Maximilian and Ferdinand. The contents of the royal proposition were to the effect, that, on account of advancing age, he felt it necessary to determine the succession, and, as his brother on like grounds had renounced all claims to elevation, he