this prudent lord who wished to avoid all slights, harm and danger in connexion with this matter, bore himself with great wisdom. . . . He also let the Poles know that he had no intention of obtaining their kingdom by begging or purchase, but that if he was legally, publicly and unanimously chosen, he would, without offence to His Majesty the Emperor, not disdain such an election. Thus he succeeded in remaining on good terms with both parties.’
As I wrote some time ago, Březan’s biography of Lord Peter of Rosenberg is somewhat disappointing. Though the thought should be rejected as frivolous, one cannot help imagining what a biography of Peter of Rosenberg from the pen of an impressionist historian might have been.
Though a man of such exceptional talent and ability such as Lord Peter, can never be considered as typical, yet he is a good example of the peculiar character which the exceptional surrounding of a great Bohemian nobleman of the sixteenth and early seventeenth century produced. These noblemen lived in vast castles, the centres of enormous estates, some of which were of the size of German duchies. They were equally removed from the influence of popular opinion and from that of the royal and imperial courts which afterwards turned great nobles into courtiers. There was every inducement to give way to originality and even eccentricity, and both are obvious in Lord Peter. He was devoted to alchemy and a great collector of paintings and sculpture. The library and archives of Třebon were to him of constant interest. The head of the only great Bohemian family that had always upheld the cause of Rome, he joined the community of the Bohemian Brethren.
