This report was not unfounded. The great state of excitement at Prague, where the streets were crowded by the noisy retinue of the numerous nobles and knights, had not escaped the king's notice, even in his seclusion on the summit of the Hradčany; he had in consequence fallen into a state of complete nervous prostration. Hannewald, one of the few among his councillors whom the king trusted, advised him—contrary to the wishes of the papal nuncio and of the Spanish ambassador—to come to terms with the Protestants. The Spanish ambassador, Zuňiga, had just returned to Prague from Gratz, where he had visited the Archduke Ferdinand, who governed Styria. On his return, Zuňiga had immediately laid before Rudolph his—or perhaps the archduke's—views, namely, that only a resolute attitude would intimidate the Protestants. The ambassador had been confirmed in this opinion by the panic which he believed his entry into Prague at the head of a body-guard of fifty men had caused. Zuňiga therefore attempted to strike terror in the hearts of the Bohemians. While waiting for an audience in the antechambers of the royal castle, he, in the presence of numerous Protestants, addressed Count Sultz, one of the courtiers, in very strong words, begging him to advise the king to resist the demands of the Protestants, and promising him the full support of Spain. This foolish bravado had a contrary effect to the one desired. Rudolph requested the ambassador to appear no longer in the antechambers of the castle, and was more than ever inclined to rely on Hannewald's advice. He therefore now decided that the Estates should, with his sanction, reassemble on the Hradčany on May 25, and that the religious question should be the first subject for debate.
This decision, of which Budova and his colleagues were informed, was considered as satisfactory by the Estates, and the agitation among the people of Prague for the time subsided. The Estates again met in the royal castle on the Hradčany on May 25.[1] Rudolph having addressed no message to the Diet, the Estates again drew up a memorandum formulating their demands. The most important of them
- ↑ It is worthy of notice, as a proof of the decline of Romanism in Bohemia at this period, that of the nobles, knights, and town representatives present, only one-tenth belonged to that Church (Gindely).
well as the seat of the supreme courts of justice and the meeting-place of the Diets.
