Austria, though he did not immediately renounce his pretensions to the Bohemian throne. A large party, especially among the German Protestants of Bohemia, wished to choose as king, John George, Elector of Saxony; there were, therefore, no less than three candidates to the throne besides Ferdinand, who (in contradistinction to his rivals) founded his claim on his previous election and coronation during the reign of King Matthew.
Ferdinand's attitude from the first proves that he was thoroughly aware of the impossibility of gaining the Bohemian crown otherwise than by force of arms. He declared, indeed, that he would keep the promises he had made at his coronation, but he confirmed in their offices the councillors formerly appointed by Matthew, whom the Estates had driven from Prague after the occurrence of the Defenestration. He thus impliedly branded the "Directors" as usurpers. The continuation of the war was therefore inevitable. Hostilities were resumed in the spring (1619), as soon as the state of the weather permitted of it. Count Thurn, at the head of a Bohemian army, entered Moravia, where not only the Catholics, but also a considerable party among the Protestants, were opposed to the new Government at Prague. This party, headed by Žerotin, attributed the revolutionary movement in Bohemia to the personal ambition of its leaders, and not to their zeal for the Protestant creed. But on the whole public opinion in Moravia was not unfavourable to the provisional Government. Both at Jihlava, the frontier town, and at Znoymo, Thurn's troops were enthusiastically received, and the greater part of the nobility declared itself in his favour. The Estates of Moravia at their meetings at Brno in May 1619 decided that the country should, similarly to Bohemia, be governed provisionally by a body of thirty "Directors"; of these twelve were to be chosen by the nobles, twelve by the knights, and six by the representatives of the towns. The all-important question of the choice of a new sovereign was deferred to a "General Diet" of the lands of the Bohemian crown, which it was settled should shortly meet at Prague. The easy success of Thurn's expedition to Moravia induced the "Directors" at Prague to instruct him to advance into Austria. This is perhaps the one moment when a successful result of the Bohemian national movement was not impossible. The strong Romanist tendencies
