and free cities of Germany that the state of his health prevented his continuing his journey. Largely in consequence of the absence of Sigismund the results of the diet at Nürnberg were very slight. The ecclesiastical princes were naturally present at the diet in great numbers. We read that among those present were the Archbishops of Maintz and Trier, numerous bishops, Duke Frederick of Saxony, the Margrave of Meissen, and representatives of many free imperial cities. All present seem to have used the absence of King Sigismund as a pretext for limiting their armaments against the Hussites. The imperial cities declared that the forces they were asked to supply were proportionately greater than those which the other states had promised to provide. This caused much controversy and long discussions.[1] The German dukes and princes, occupied with intestine feuds, also mostly proved very unwilling to take part in a new invasion of Bohemia. War had broken out between the Duke of Holstein and the King of Denmark. That sovereign, therefore, refused to take part in the expedition, though the German princes appealed to him for aid. Almost at the same time a feud had begun between Duke Bernhard I of Brunswick and the Archbishop of Bremen. In Bavaria civil war had broken out between the princes of the house of Wittelsbach. The feeling in Germany, except in such lands as Saxony and Austria, which bordered on Bohemia, was, therefore, strongly in favour of non-intervention. Somewhat later, however, the news of the great victory which the Bohemians obtained at Ústi on June 16, 1426, somewhat impressed the Germans. Now believing their country to be really menaced, they in the following year attempted a new crusade.
It has already been mentioned that after their victorious campaign in Moravia and Austria the Bohemians returned to
- ↑ Dr. Juritsch calls them “höchst unerquickliche und langweilige Verhandlungen mit den Städteboten von Köln, Mainz, Strassburg, Constanz, Ulm und Nürnberg” (Der dritte Kreuzzug, p. 5).
