the battle of the Bila Hora is to a great extent due to the incapacity and cowardice of King Frederick. The negotiations into which the Imperial generals had—as mentioned in the last chapter—entered with Mansfeld soon failed after the battle of the White Mountain, as the victors were no longer prepared to pay the price he demanded for his treachery. Mansfeld, who still held the important town of Plzeň, therefore determined to return to the allegiance of King Frederick, and renewed hostilities against the Imperialists in Bohemia. The campaign was, however, of short duration. Frederick, always an unwilling soldier, refused to join his forces in Bohemia, though he forwarded a large sum of money to Mansfeld. The latter proceeded on a short visit to Heilbronn, where he helped to obtain aid from the German Protestants who were then assembled there. During his absence from Bohemia a mutiny broke out among his troops. On the condition of receiving a large sum of money, and being allowed freely to leave Bohemia, they surrendered the city of Plzeň to the Imperialists. In November 1621 Tabor, and in March 1622 Třeboň,[1] the last towns still held for King Frederick, also capitulated to the Austrians.
As already mentioned, the other lands of the Bohemian crown also offered but slight resistance to the Imperialists. Lusatia had even before the battle of the White Mountain been subdued by the Elector of Saxony. The Lutheran Elector immediately guaranteed to his co-religionists the free exercise of their religion. In the course of the Thirty Years' War Lusatia was ceded to Saxony, and its connection with Bohemia, always a slight one, henceforth ceases entirely. Moravia for a moment appeared inclined to offer some resistance to the Austrians. Count Thurn, after the departure of King Frederick from Bohemia, proceeded to Moravia and endeavoured to induce the Estates to continue their resistance. He met with no success. Charles of Žerotin,[2] the most eminent statesman of Moravia, had remained faithful to the house of Habsburg, even at a moment when the national cause appeared successful. He had done
- ↑ In German, Wittingau.
- ↑ For a sketch of the interesting career of Charles of Žerotin see my History of Bohemian Literature (2d ed. pp. 321–325), and particularly my introduction to my translation of Comenius's Labyrinth of the World.
