which were everywhere circulated threatened the most arbitrary measures against the Protestants. "The letter of majesty," in the language of the Catholics, was now no longer valid, it having been extorted from King Rudolph." Many vague hints of future executions, confiscations, and persecutions, were dropped by the malicious, and, augmenting in number, and assuming a more definite form as they passed from place to place, they excited increasing terror and dismay in the minds of all.

At length, an alleged infraction of the provisions of the letter of majesty gave a pretext for open hostilities. The Protestants claimed the privileges of that letter for all their brethren in Bohemia, while the Catholics would have restricted them altogether to the Protestant states. Under the provisions of the letter, the Protestants residing within the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Prague built a church in the small town of Clostergrab, while those in the territory of the Abbot of Braunau also erected one in the latter place. Unwilling to tolerate their existence, the archbishop and abbot procured an imperial decree, by virtue of which the church in Clostergrab was razed to the ground, and that at Braunau was closed. As several of the inhabitants of Braunau rose in opposi

COUNT THURN.

tion to this arbitrary act, they were thrown into prison. An Italian nobleman, Count Matthias of Thurn, who had long resided in Bohemia, took up the office of Champion of the Evangelists, and summoned the Protestant states to meet in Prague. Several petitions were forwarded to the Emperor, beseeching him to remove the causes of complaint, and to command the liberation of the imprisoned citizens of Braunau.

The imperial reply was harshly worded. It characterized the resistance of the

people of Braunau and Clostergrab as a revolt; condemned the states for having occupied themselves with the affairs of the citizens, and for holding illegal meetings, and seeking by the false reports they made of the danger to which the letter of majesty was exposed, to alienate from the Emperor the love and fidelity of his subjects; and ended with a threat that the matter should be investigated, and each should be treated according to his merits. This reply gave cause to anticipate the worst results, and so excited did the minds of the Protestants become, that, when it was reported that the document had not issued from Vienna, but had been prepared in Prague itself, they vented their

indignation upon those who were named as its authors. The two Catholic privy counsellors, Martinitz and Slavata, were said to have superintended it, and they, with one of their sycophants, Fabricius, were precipitated by the enraged deputies of the states, headed by Count Thurn, from the window of the council hall of the castle of Prague. Though the depth of their fall was more than fifty-six feet, they escaped with life, because they happened to fall upon an immense pile of paper shavings and soft materials, and were afterwards fortunate enough to escape the bullets that were fired at them as they were led away. The Bohemians attempted to justify themselves; but prudently made preparations for self-defence. The castle was garrisoned with their own troops; all persons in office took the oath of fidelity to the states, the Jesuits were expelled the country, and a council of thirty noblemen was established for the government of the land. The leader and director in all these measures was Count Thurn, whose whole soul was devoted to the cause.

Ferdinand levied soldiers in every quarter, and manifested a determination to suffer no interruption in his career from the indecision of the Emperor. The Bohemians took possession of every city in their country save Budweis and Pilsen, the latter of which was soon captured for them by Count Ernest of Mansfeld. This famous general was one of the most remarkable heroes of a heroic age, who, without territory or people, by the mere celebrity of his name, gathered together an army of brave soldiers, and led them for hire or for booty whithersoever his prowess was needful. He had been raising troops for the Duke of Savoy against the Spaniards, but the duke requiring them no longer, gave him permission to serve in the cause of the Evangelical Union. That body despatched him with 3000 men to Bohemia, where he appeared unexpectedly and wrested from the imperialists the important city of Pilsen.

Meanwhile, Matthias died, and was succeeded by Ferdinand. (1619.) The Bohemians, however, refused to acknowledge the new Emperor, whose hostile intentions were but too unequivocally expressed. They formally deposed him, and chose Frederic V., elector-palatine, for their king. This prince, by allowing himself to accept this dignity, assumed a position which would have ranked him among the great, noble, and enterprising of the earth, had he possessed the strength of mind necessary for a successful prosecution of the work. But in the hour of trial he failed. The energy and presence of mind which he must have who would wear a hazardous crown, were never characteristics of the unfortunate Frederic. By a skilful policy Ferdinand gained over to his cause all the wavering, and Frederic found himself left with scarcely any auxiliary but the Evangelical Union.

All Germany now resounded with the noise and bustle of warlike preparation. The members of the Union were not more active than those of the League, and the whole country resembled a grand recruiting depot. At length, on the 3d of July, 1620, the two armies met at Ulm, where, to the surprise of the people, they entered into a compact, in which the forces of the Union engaged to lay down their arms, and both parties pledged themselves to preserve peace and tranquillity. This defection of the Unionists from his cause,

DEFEAT OF THE PROTESTANTS.

89

though it preserved them from destruction at the hands of their more powerful enemy, laid the young king Frederic open to the attacks of the combined forces of the League and the Emperor. He could only rely in this emergency upon the small resources of his own house, and the troops of Bohemia. This courageous and faithful people had, two hundred years before, defended their country against all Germany combined, and they might have acquitted themselves equally well at this time, had not Frederic failed to gain their confidence. His life was careless and his time wasted in extraneous matters, and his mind without that inward dignity of self-possession and calm reflection so necessary at a moment so portentous. His father-in-law, James I. of England, more occupied with scholastic disputes than measures of policy, neglected to accord him support; Holland and Venice, Denmark and Sweden, acknowledged him king, but afforded him no assistance, and he himself neglected preparations for defence until the Elector of Saxony occupied Lusatia.

About the same time the valiant and politic head of the Catholic League, Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, appeared before the gates of Prague with an army of 50,000 men. As the imperialists advanced, the Bohemians took up a position in the Weissenberg, (White Mountain,) near the city. But the Austrian and Bavarian troops advanced to give battle before their entrenchments were completed. Thus deprived of protection against the superior forces of the enemy, the Bohemians were routed in the short space of one hour. His army beaten and dispersed, and his artillery taken, all Frederic's hope vanished; he fled with the principal Bohemian lords, and the capital and the kingdom submitted to the victors. The defeated king first sought refuge in Silesia, then in Holland. Unable to defend himself, he was stripped even of his hereditary dominions, the palatinate on the Rhine being conquered by the Spaniards under Spinola, and the upper palatinate by Maximilian of Bavaria.

For three months after the victory Ferdinand took no steps in relation to Bohemia. At the end of that time, when many of the fugitives had returned, forty-eight leaders of the Protestant party were suddenly taken prisoners, and on the same day, and in the same hour, twenty-seven of them were condemned to death and executed. The property of the remainder, with that of the absentees, was confiscated; the Protestant clergymen were gradually all banished the kingdom, and finally it was declared that no subject would be tolerated in Bohemia who did not adhere to the Catholic faith. It is calculated* that the number of families who at this time were forced to leave Bohemia, amounted to thirty thousand; to whom for the most part Saxony and Brandenburg afforded a refuge. Thus were the hopes of the Catholics realized; the election of Ferdinand to the empire annihilated the letter of majesty.

Though given up as hopeless by the elector himself, the cause of Frederie arose anew by the strong arm and the invincible boldness of Ernest of Mansfeld. After having left Pilsen, this chief planted his standard in the Upper Palatinate, and succeeded in gathering around it twenty thousand valiant sol

diers. With these he dared to contend against a power which made Europe

ERNEST OF MANSFELD.

tremble, the combined forces of Austria, Spain, and the League. He appeared suddenly in the Lower Palatinate, to the terror of the Spaniards; and in Alsace, by the plundering of which he satisfied his rapacious followers. The famous Bavarian general, John Tserklas Tilly, was forced to take the field against him, but by rapid and well-planned marches, Mansfeld deluded his antagonist, and everywhere spread desolation among the Catholic bishoprics. His proud example was followed by others. George Frederic, Margrave of Baden Durlach, collected a strong army, and took the field in favour of the palatine house. He would not fight as a prince of the German empire, lest his land should be made

to suffer for it, but as a knight and champion in that which to him appeared most just; accordingly, before he entered into action, he transferred into his son's hands the government of his country. When united with Mansfeld, Tilly was no match for him, but when they separated, the Bavarian general defeated him on the field of Wimpfen, on the 8th of May, 1622.

His ill-success, however, did not deter others from following his example. Duke Christian of Brunswick came forward to support the cause of Frederic, and, after a variety of adventures, joined himself with Mansfeld. United, they entered Alsace, extended their march to the provinces of Lorraine, and made Paris itself tremble as they threatened to march thither to the aid of the Huguenots. After devastating all the neighbouring provinces, they marched into Holland, and joined the Netherlanders in their struggle against the Spanish power. The war might now have been terminated had the Catholic party acted with moderation; but Ferdinand caused the territories and title of the elector palatine to be conferred upon Maximilian of Bavaria, and intimated his intention. of persevering in the course he had entered upon. He recognised in the success that had attended his measures, an intimation from God that he ought to persevere, and the defeat by Tilly of Christian of Brunswick, who had recommenced operations, added another to the causes of his self-gratulation, and seemed a pledge that his confidence would be crowned with continued success. The terrified Protestants felt bound to exercise all the energy which they possessed, rather than wait in inaction for the infliction of any punishment to which they might be subjected. Lower Saxony, especially, perceived the danger, took up arms, and chose for the conductor of the war Christian IV. of Denmark,

a young and energetic prince. He promised them considerable aid; England resolved to espouse their cause vigorously, and France assumed an attitude

FERDINAND II.

hostile to Austria. The war in Germany, on the Catholic side, had been carried on almost entirely by the League; but as the preparations of the Protestants became now more extensive, the League demanded. supplies of troops from the Emperor. Ferdinand himself wished to furnish an army, in order that the house of Bavaria should not take all the credit of the operations to itself; but he needed the necessary means to effect this object, and was at a loss how to raise and equip the number of men required. Under these difficulties an individual presented himself, who proposed to carry on the war by his own resources, and single-handed.

Albert of Wallenstein, or more properly Waldstein, was descended of a noble Bohemian family. He was born in 1583, of Lutheran parents, but they dying when he was very young, he was sent by his maternal uncle to a Jesuit college at Olmütz, and was there educated in the Catholic faith. He attached himself to the Archduke Ferdinand, and set out, in 1617, at the head of 200 cavalry, raised at his own expense, to aid him in an expedition against Venice. Ferdinand, by way of remuneration, gave him the rank of commander of the militia in Moravia. During the early troubles of Bohemia, he fought in the cause of Ferdinand, afterwards took arms against Bethlen Gabor of Transylvania, who had raised pretensions to the crown of Hungary, and filled the station of quartermaster-general in the imperial forces under Boucquoi, when, with Maximilian of Bavaria, he gained the battle of Weissenberg. After this he made another campaign against Bethlen Gabor, who had defeated the imperial generals Dampierre and Boucquoi, made him retreat, and obliged him to accede to terms of peace and to relinquish his claims to the Hungarian crown. During the war he had furnished and supported several regiments at his own cost, and as an indemnity for these expenses, and for the devastation which his estates had suffered, he received, in 1622, the territory of Friedland in Bohemia, with the title of duke. Besides this, he purchased for a large sum of money the confiscated estates of about sixty Bohemian noblemen, and thus became possessed of immense wealth. While Tilly was in command at