prince would not accept, this was little more than a formality. The principal accusations against Ferdinand which were brought forward as justifying his deposition were, that he had obtained the crown through fraud on the part of King Matthew, and that he had ill-treated the Protestants in Styria. It was also said that, should he be accepted as king, Bohemia would herself become responsible for the enormous debts which had been incurred in raising the military forces to subdue the country.[1] On August 13, the nobles, knights, and town representatives of Bohemia declared themselves for the deposition of Ferdinand, and the deputies of Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia on the following day concurred in that decision.
The next step was the election of a new king. The "Directors" wished to carry it out as soon as possible, as it was known that the election of a new Emperor was shortly to take place at Frankfurt. It was almost certain that there the choice would fall on Ferdinand; and the "Directors" feared that the result of the election at Frankfurt would raise the hopes of the Catholics, and intimidate those who were ready to support the candidate whom the "Directors" favoured. That that candidate would be the Elector Palatine was by this time almost certain. The Duke of Savoy had abandoned his intention of interfering in the affairs of Bohemia and Germany. It was now evident to him that King James of England did not intend to aid the Bohemian Protestants; and France, the powerful neighbour of Savoy, contrary to her traditions, was for the moment on terms of friendship with the house of Habsburg. The candidature of the Elector of Saxony would have found many supporters had that prince desired to obtain the Bohemian throne. As far back as the year 1614 several disaffected Bohemian nobles had offered the crown of their country to the Elector; after the defeat at Zablati they applied to him for aid, again proposing to elect him as king. But the Elector entirely discouraged their advances, and refused to abet the
- ↑ The Estates afterwards published their reasons for dethroning Ferdinand in a thick volume (consisting of 394 pages, and an Appendix of 226 pages containing documentary evidence). In this book—entitled Deductio deren Ursachen warum … Kaiser Ferdinand des Regiments in Böhmen … verlustigt—the question is treated with appalling thoroughness. Procopius's history, De Bello Gothico, is made to bear witness against Ferdinand, and we begin the history of Bohemia with Krokus and Libussa!
