openly expressed their hope that the Catholic Church would soon recover its ancient hold over Bohemia. On the other hand the Bohemian Protestants, led by Count Thurn, one of the few nobles who had refused to vote for the recognition of Ferdinand as heir to the throne, did not wish to defer what they considered an inevitable conflict. It appeared to them more advantageous to encounter the weak Matthias than his younger and more fanatical successor. A comparatively unimportant incident precipitated matters. In December 1617, the archbishop of Prague and the abbot of Břevnov (Braunau) ordered the suppression of the Protestant religious services in churches that had been built on their domains. This was a direct infringement of the agreement concluded by the Romanist and Utraquist estates on the day on which King Rudolph had signed the Letter of Majesty. The defenders took immediate action, by inviting all Protestant members of the diet to meet at Prague. They assembled there on 21st of May 1618, and decided to proceed in full armour to the Hradčany palace to bring their complaints to the knowledge of the councillors of Matthias. On the following day, Thurn, Wenceslas of Ruppa, Ulrich of Kinsky, and other members of the more advanced party held a secret meeting, at which it was decided to put to death the most influential of Matthias’s councillors. On the 23rd the representatives of the Protestants of Bohemia proceeded to the Hradčany. Violent accusations were brought forward, particularly against Martinic and Slavata, the king’s most trusted councillors, who were accused of having advised him to oppose the wishes of the Bohemians. Finally these two councillors, together with Fabricius, secretary of the royal council, were thrown from the windows of the Hradčany into the moat below—an event known in history as the Defenestration of Prague. Both Martinic and Slavata were but little injured, and succeeded in escaping from Prague. The Bohemians immediately established a provisional government consisting of thirty “directors,” ten of whom were chosen by each of the estates. They also proceeded to raise an armed force, the command of which was given to Count Thurn. Hostilities with Austria began in July, when an imperial force entered Bohemia. The troops of Matthias were, however, soon repulsed by the Bohemians, and in November Thurn’s army entered Austria, but was soon obliged to retire to Bohemia because of the lateness of the season.
In the following March the Bohemian crown became vacant by the death of Matthias. On the 31st of July the Bohemian estates pronounced the formal deposition of Ferdinand, and on the 26th of August they elected as their king Frederick, elector palatine. The new king and his War with the emperor Ferdinand.queen, Elizabeth of England, arrived in Bohemia in October, and were crowned somewhat later at St Vitus’s cathedral in Prague. Warfare with Austria continued during this year—1619. Thurn occupied Moravia, which now threw in its lot with Bohemia, and he even advanced on Vienna, but was soon obliged to retreat. In the following year events took a fatal turn for Bohemia. The powerful duke Maximilian of Bavaria joined his forces to those of Ferdinand, who had become Matthias’s successor as emperor, and who was determined to reconquer Bohemia. Ferdinand also received aid from Spain, Poland and several Italian states. Even the Lutheran elector of Saxony espoused his cause. A large imperialist army, under the command of the duke of Bavaria, Tilly and Bouquoi, entered Bohemia in September 1620. After several skirmishes, in all of which the Bohemians were defeated, the imperial forces arrived at the outskirts of Prague on the evening of the 7th of November. On the following morning they attacked the Bohemian army, which occupied a slightly fortified position on the plateau known as the “Bila Hora” (White Hill). The Bohemians were defeated after a struggle of only a few hours, and on the evening of battle the imperialists already occupied the port of Prague, situated on the left bank of the Vltava (Moldau). King Frederick, who had lost all courage, hurriedly left Prague on the following morning.
Bohemia itself, as well as the lands of the Bohemian crown, now submitted to Ferdinand almost without resistance. The battle of the White Hill marks an epoch in the history of Bohemia. The execution of the principal leaders of the national movement (June 21, 1621) was followed by a systemSubmission of Bohemia. of wholesale confiscation of the lands of all who had in any way participated in the national movement. Almost the entire ancient nobility of Bohemia was driven into exile, and adventurers from all countries, mostly men who had served in the imperial army, shared the spoils. Gradually all those who refused to recognize the creed of the Roman church were expelled from Bohemia, and by the use of terrible cruelty Catholicism was entirely re-established in the country. In 1627 Ferdinand published a decree, which formally suppressed the ancient free constitution of Bohemia, though a semblance of representative government was left to the country. The new constitution proclaimed the heredity of the Bohemian crown in the house of Habsburg. It added a new “estate,” that of the clergy, to the three already existing. This estate, which was to take precedence of all the others, consisted of the Roman archbishop of Prague and of all the ecclesiastics who were endowed with landed estates. The diet was deprived of all legislative power, which was exclusively vested in the sovereign. At its meetings the diet was to discuss such matters only as were laid before it by the representatives of the king. The estates continued to have the right of voting taxes, but they were specially forbidden to attach any conditions to the grants of money which they made to their sovereign. It was finally decreed that the German language should have equal right with the Bohemian one in all the government offices and law-courts of the kingdom. This had indeed become a necessity, since, in consequence of the vast confiscations, the greatest part of the land was in the hands of foreigners to whom the national language was unknown. Though these enactments still left some autonomy to Bohemia, the country gradually lost all individuality. Its history from this moment to the beginning of the 19th century is but a part of the history of Austria (q.v.).
Bohemia was the theatre of hostilities during a large part of the Thirty Years’ War, which had begun in its capital. In 1631 the Saxons for a time occupied a large part of Bohemia, and even attempted to re-establish Protestantism, During the later period of the Thirty Years’ War Bohemia under Austrian domination.Bohemia was frequently pillaged by Swedish troops, and the taking of part of Prague by the Swedish general Königsmark in 1648 was the last event of the great war. The attempts of the Swedish envoys to obtain a certain amount of toleration for the Bohemian Protestants proved fruitless, as the imperial representatives were inflexible on this point. At the beginning of the 18th century the possibility of the extinction of the male line of the house of Habsburg arose. The estates of Bohemia, at a meeting that took place at Prague on the 16th of October 1720, sanctioned the female succession to the Bohemian throne and recognized the so-called Pragmatic Sanction which proclaimed the indivisibility of the Habsburg realm. The archduchess Maria Theresa, in whose favour these enactments were made, none the less met with great opposition on the death of her father the emperor Charles VI. Charles, elector of Bavaria, raised claims to the Bohemian throne and invaded the country with a large army of Bavarian, French and Saxon troops. He occupied Prague, and a large part of the nobles and knights of Bohemia took the oath of allegiance to him (December 19, 1741). The fortune of war, however, changed shortly afterwards. Maria Theresa recovered Bohemia and the other lands that had been under the rule of the house of Habsburg. During the reign of Maria Theresa, and to a greater extent during that of her son Joseph II., many changes in the internal administration of the Habsburg realm took place which all tended to limit yet further the autonomy of Bohemia. A decree of 1749 abolished the separate law-courts that still existed in Bohemia, and a few years later an Austro-Bohemian chancellor was appointed who was to have the control of the administration of Bohemia, as well as of the German domains of the house of Habsburg. The power of the royal officials who constituted the executive government of
