Page:Lectures on The Historians of Bohemia by Count Lutzow (1905).djvu/79

 As I have already mentioned, since this was written the last two parts of the Rosenberg chronicle the lives of William and of Peter of Rosenberg have been published, the former in 1847 by the society of the Bohemian museum under the auspices of Palacký himself, the latter in 1880 by Mr. Mareš, now archivist at Wittingau. Of the two biographies that of William of Rosenberg, the less interesting of the two brothers, is the more valuable.

William of Rosenberg held high office in the service of the empire, and Březan’s biography has great historical value. Particularly interesting is Březan’s account of the negotiations in connexion with the candidature of William for the Polish throne. It is a proof of the strength and power of the great Bohemian nobles of this time that William did not fear to appear as rival even of the Emperor Maximilian, who himself coveted the Polish throne. Březan writes under the year 1574: ‘After the flight of Henry of Valois the Poles sought a new king; some inclined to the House of Austria, others desired Lord William of Rosenberg, particularly as he was a descendant of the ancient family of the Orsinis, and as by his ancestors several centuries back he was a Bohemian, thus belonging to a cognate country, and because he was a sensible, learned, temperate, Catholic nobleman.’

This candidature evidently caused some displeasure at the court of Vienna. Under 1576 Březan writes: ‘Our sovereign Lord (that is William of Rosenberg) incurred greatly the suspicion of His Majesty (the Emperor) because he was favoured by the Polish lords, and it was suggested that he had acted rather in his own interest than in that of the House of Austria. But