Page:The Peace League of George Poděbrad, King of Bohemia.pdf/13

 to the Venetians and empowered Marini to continue the negotiations with Venetia. Poland and Hungary in his name.

In the meantime, George negotiated with the duke of Brandebourgh and with Matthias of Hungary, very cautiously on the whole, for the former was an adherent of the Pope and the latter received from the Pope a yearly allowance for the conduct of the Turkish wars.

It greatly added to king George’s political importance that he succededsucceeded [sic] in settling a number of riots, quarrels and wars in the German empire, which were settled by the so—called Treaty, or Agreement of Prague, 1463. On the other hand, his simultaneous device to reform the organisation of the German empire, which aimed at the creation of a well established organ in whose hands would centre the highest power of the empire met with no success at all.

The year 1464 finally brought the decision in the matter of king George’s whole project. In the first place, Marini went to Matthias of Hungary, and although the Pope’s party got the upperhand there, in the meantime Matthias, notwithstanding this, and evidently because he considered himself greatly honoured by treating with the French king, consented to send an embassy to France in his name. And the king of Poland pronounced himself in the same way, a little later.

And so it came about that in May of that year a great Czech embassy, comprising forty horses, went to France. It was conducted by Albrecht Kostka of Postupice who, at the same time, represented the Czech king withfwith [sic] plenipotentiary powers; Marini on the other hand, was invested with full powers for Poland and Hungary. From the detailed diary kept of this important mission it may be seen that in the meantime the Pope’s party at the French Court won the majority, and although it was not powerful enough to prevent Louis from receiving the heretics at all, it still succeeded in making impossible the final conclusion of a universal peace league.

The Czech ambassador formulated the request of his king as follows: «the Czech king requests and entreats the French king as the Most Christian King and one who loves the universal true christian creed, that His Majesty deign to convoke an assembly of kings and christian princes in order that they or their councillors, with full powers might meet at a stated time and place, when and where it would please the French king: and that the Czech king requests this for the praise of the Lord and the Glory of the Christian creed, the Holy Roman Church and the Holy Christian Empire».