The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland, 1610-12 | Page 5

of Styrian Ferdinand, pupil
of the Jesuits, and passionate admirer of Philip II., stood ever in the
background, casting a prophetic shadow over the throne and over
Germany.
The brothers were endeavouring to persuade Rudolph that he would

find more comfort in Innsbruck than in Prague; that he required repose
after the strenuous labours of government. They told him, too, that it
would be wise to confer the royal crown of Bohemia upon Matthias,
lest, being elective and also an electorate, the crown and vote of that
country might pass out of the family, and so both Bohemia and the
Empire be lost to the Habsburgs. The kingdom being thus secured to
Matthias and his heirs, the next step, of course, was to proclaim him
King of the Romans. Otherwise there would be great danger and
detriment to Hungary, and other hereditary states of that conglomerate
and anonymous monarchy which owned the sway of the great
Habsburg family.
The unhappy emperor was much piqued. He had been deprived by his
brother of Hungary, Moravia, and Austria, while Matthias was now at
Prague with an army, ostensibly to obtain ratification of the peace with
Turkey, but in reality to force the solemn transfer of those realms and
extort the promise of Bohemia. Could there be a better illustration of
the absurdities of such a system of Imperialism?
And now poor Rudolph was to be turned out of the Hradschin, and sent
packing with or without his collections to the Tyrol.
The bellicose bishop of Strassburg and Passau, brother of Ferdinand,
had little difficulty in persuading the downtrodden man to rise to
vengeance. It had been secretly agreed between the two that Leopold, at
the head of a considerable army of mercenaries which he had contrived
to levy, should dart into Julich as the Emperor's representative, seize
the debateable duchies, and hold them in sequestration until the
Emperor should decide to whom they belonged, and, then, rushing back
to Bohemia, should annihilate Matthias, seize Prague, and deliver
Rudolph from bondage. It was further agreed that Leopold, in requital
of these services, should receive the crown of Bohemia, be elected
King of the Romans, and declared heir to the Emperor, so far as
Rudolph could make him his heir.
The first point in the program he had only in part accomplished. He had
taken Julich, proclaimed the intentions of the Emperor, and then been
driven out of his strong position by the wise policy of the States under
the guidance of Barneveld and by the consummate strategy of Maurice.
It will be seen therefore that the Republic was playing a world's game
at this moment, and doing it with skill and courage. On the issue of the

conflict which had been begun and was to be long protracted in the
duchies, and to spread over nearly all Christendom besides, would
depend the existence of the United Netherlands and the fate of
Protestantism.
The discomfited Leopold swept back at the head of his mercenaries,
9000 foot and 3000 horse, through Alsace and along the Danube to
Linz and so to Prague, marauding, harrying, and black-mailing the
country as he went. He entered the city on the 15th of February 1611,
fighting his way through crowds of exasperated burghers. Sitting in full
harness on horseback in the great square before the cathedral, the
warlike bishop compelled the population to make oath to him as the
Emperor's commissary. The street fighting went on however day by
day, poor Rudolph meantime cowering in the Hradschin. On the third
day, Leopold, driven out of the town, took up a position on the heights,
from which he commanded it with his artillery. Then came a feeble
voice from the Hradschin, telling all men that these Passau marauders
and their episcopal chief were there by the Emperor's orders. The triune
city--the old, the new, and the Jew-- was bidden to send deputies to the
palace and accept the Imperial decrees. No deputies came at the
bidding. The Bohemians, especially the Praguers, being in great
majority Protestants knew very well that Leopold was fighting the
cause of the Papacy and Spain in Bohemia as well as in the duchies.
And now Matthias appeared upon the scene. The Estates had already
been in communication with him, better hopes, for the time at least,
being entertained from him than from the flaccid Rudolph. Moreover a
kind of compromise had been made in the autumn between Matthias
and the Emperor after the defeat of Leopold in the duchies. The real
king had fallen at the feet of the nominal one by proxy of his brother
Maximilian. Seven thousand men of the army of Matthias now came
before Prague under command of Colonitz. The Passauers, receiving
three months pay from the Emperor, marched quietly off. Leopold
disappeared