the levies from Silesia and Lusatia, both which countries now recognized the new Government at Prague.
Bouquoi, the leader of the Imperial troops, did not consider his army sufficiendy strong to resist the now more numerous forces of Thurn. He therefore retreated southward. His retiring forces were defeated by the Bohemians at Pelhřimov and more decisively at Lomnice, three (German) miles from Budějovice. Bouquoi was obliged to seek a refuge within that, then fortified, city. Leaving only a small force to oppose Bouquoi, the Bohemians crossed the Austrian frontier (November 25, 1618), hoping to find allies among the Protestant nobles, then in a large majority in the land. The lateness of the season and the state of the roads rendered this expedition a failure, and the Bohemians took up their winter quarters in their own country. Before the then customary temporary cessation of hostilities Mansfeld had succeeded in obtaining possession of the town of Plzeň on November 21, after a siege of two months.
The Bohemians had, on the whole, been successful during the campaign of the year 1618, but that success was not in the end advantageous to their cause. Thinking that victory had already been secured, many soldiers returned to their homes. This was to a large extent the result of the faulty military organization. The soldiers received their pay and their rations from the towns and nobles who had enrolled them. These, therefore, from motives of economy sanctioned the return of their soldiers as soon as immediate danger appeared no longer to threaten the land. "From the beginning of the war financial difficulties arose which constantly increased, and caused almost more harm to the (Bohemian) movement than did the enemy."[1]
Before hostilities recommenced, the political situation changed completely through the death of the Emperor Matthew (March 20, 1619). The necessary consequence was the choice of a new Emperor, and the fate of Bohemia largely depended on the result of that election.
The Bohemian throne also became practically vacant; for though Ferdinand's right to succeed his cousin had been recognized, yet his openly avowed hostility to Protestantism could hardly fail to alienate the Bohemian people, in spite of the validity of his claim to the throne. Matthew's death was not unexpected, and negotiations as to the succession
- ↑ Gindely.
