come of such a Lord as their enterprises might expect countenance and assistance from And indeed they did so succesfully aduaunce their affaires that in the yeare 1617. they procured that Archduke Ferdinand of whose courses all Christendome haue taken notice that hee was no sooner entred the gouernment of the Countrey then he persecuted those of the Religion in such a manner as at last without making of any difference between the condition of person person he chased them quite away and in the pursuite of his inhumanenes hee caused the bodyes of the Dead to bee digged out of their Graues and exercised such Cruelties vpon them as might haue tonuerted a very barbours education to a gentlenes of Nature by beholding or but by hearing onely of the hatefulnes of the Persecuttan This Archduke Ferdinand was called to Prague adopted by the Emperour Mathias for his Sonne and afterwards by greatnes of threatnings and by promises and presents bestowed vpon some disloyall and treacherous members and by their Conspiracies with the enemies of the Religion of the Gospell he was receiued declared and Crowned for the King of Bohemia to succeed but not Elected For they would by no meanes giue eare to the mouing of an Election during the whole time of the giuing of voyces Now touching the other thinges of passage in this admission Coronation it shal be spoken of in the second Article This shall suffice to conclude with for the first point that he was not chosen King of Bohemia according to the accustomed order nor the vertue of the ancient obseruation of the Priuiledges Statutes of the Country For the second reason that is to say how the admission and Coronation came to passe there hath somewhat already beene spoken and in what fashion of cariage the disloyall members were brauely imployed to reach the end of their pernicious designes To which this that followes likewise offers it selfe At the very time of the conuocation of the Assembly of the States of the Countrey the States were by letters Patents forbidden to treate there of any other thing then the point touching a Successour to the Crowne which is a crime not onely contrary to the auncient obseruation but opposed also the decree made in a generall Assembly of the Countrey Anno 1610 where it is expresly deliuered that in all the Assemblies of the States it shall bee free and lawfull for them immediately after the deliberation of the proposition made on the part of the King to set before them the Articles of the publicke griefes which then ought to be taken into mature aduice and to be ordered and applyed remedy vnto before the rising of the Assembly This was the reason that many of the States made difficulty to appeare in an Assembly so exorbitant And those which were there gaue their testimonies by their voyces against such proceeding as a thing infringing the franchises and priuiledges of the Kingdome adding that the Prouinces incorporate were not called thither with these notwithstanding it was concluded in the holding of the last Assembly of the States as pretending to haue right in the giuing of their voyces for the Election of a King hauing first resolued and accorded with the Prouinces These States I say were threatned aswell by the vnfaithfull members as by others and in such a maner as it was professed that if any man would vndertake to carry his suffrage another way hee had neede be furnished with two heads and must looke to be dealt withall as strangely as some others had been not many yeares agoe And seeing it was impossible to countermine their practises and to withstand the whole faction of the Romanist who had fished vp and down to call in such as had little or nothing to loose in the Countrey that those of the Religion were ouerborne by the plurality of voices It must thē come to this necessitie that whether they would or not they were to giue way to the acceptation and Coronation Which neuerthelesse was not yeelded vnto without cōditions For the Archduke Ferdinand gaue the States his Reuersall Letters among the Articles whereof these are some that follow 1. That he thanked the States and would he carefull to acknowledge them with gratiousuesse and Royall beneuolence in such a measure as they should receiue all contentment from his Maiesty 2. That during the life of the Emperour Mathias hee would not inuest himselfe in the Gouernment of the Kingdome nor would hee put himselfe vpon it without the knowledge and consent aswell of his Maiesty and the principall Officers and Presidents of the Countrey as of the Councellours of Estate and of his Maiesties Finances and of the chiefe Lords of the Countrey of two persons of the commonalty of euery Circuit of sixe of the Towne of Prague and of other Townes deputed in the Assembly of the States of the Land 3. That if during the life of the Emperour hee shall vndertake to enter the Gouernment in that case the Estates shall no way bee held or bound to render him any obedience or duty of Fidelity Now in what fashion K. Ferdinand hath made good his Oath and obserued his Reuersall Letters it is notorious to the whole world and shall briefly be showne in the third Article following 3. Concerning then the third and last reason namely why King Ferdinand is rejected and how hee hath depriued himselfe and made himselfe vncapable of the Acceptation and Coronation and in summe of all else depending thereon which he might pretend vnto It is a thing most noted and manifest that the vnfaithfull members together with the pernicious sect of the Iesuites after the Coronation became so insolent that they did instantly set a foote diuers persecutions not onely as principally in the Kingdome of Bohemia bus also in the principalities of the vpper and lower Silesia and in many places against the States of the Religion of the Gospell and the free exercise thereof and expresly against the prohibition contained in the Edict of pacification besides this the Churches of the Religion some they caused to bee blocked vp and some they pull'd downe to the very ground the persons they cast into Prison and ther held them long And at last cut off all accesse and audience betweene his Majesty the Emperour and the States of Bohemia as also between him and the defendants ordained by the consent of his Majesty forbad their Assemblies directly against the meaning of the Law and condemned them without either accusatiō or hearing The Iesuites with much passion of joy writ to Archduke Leopold the aduertisement of this Coronation and put it in Print confessing reporting that the Archduke Ferdinand aswell before as at his entrance to the Gouernment of his hereditary Countries was bound by Oath to affect rather the loosing of blood and life then to agree in the least measure that could be about matter of Religion in fauour of the Heretickes meaning the true belieuing Christians as it may particularly
first of that Family then Emperour of the Romanes did confirme and ratifie the Priuiledges of the Kingdome of Bohemia to the said K. George as doth amply appeare by the saide confirmation Dated 1459. Thence it may easily bee seene that the foresaide clause and condition inserted in the Confirmation of Charles the Fourth was vtterly abolished and by that meanes the Kingdome of Bohemia is declared Free and not tyed to any particular race or Family And that Bohemia hath a Freedome of Election and is in not kinde a Kingdome hereditary the following example will justifie for although King George left Sonnes behinde him yet there was not one of them that euer came either to gouerne or to bee Elected there But after the Fathers departure the Bohemians Elected and Crowned Vladislaus of the Family of the Princes of Lituania Sonne to Casimir King of Polonia Anno 1471. On whome the Emperor Frederick conferred the Tenures and confirmed them vnto him as it is to bee seene at large in the Act for that purpose 1480. Now where it will be objected that this K. Vladislaus by his Letters patentes in the fauour of his Daughter Anne first acknowledging that the States of Bohemia meerly of their owne free will had Crowned and receiued his sonne Lewijs for their King did then ordaine that his Sonne Lewijs comming to dye without Issue the inheritance of the Kingdome should remaine with his Daughter Anne to that objection this Answere Since as hath already beene said the clause of restraint inserted by Charles is wholy annihilated and that the States haue had their Election free as by examples there hath sufficient testimony been giuen that is to say That the house of Austria inherited not the succession of the Kingdome after the Election of K. George nor euen the Sonnes of the same George preferred against the choise of Vladislaus King of Polonia by the same authority of reason therefore it was much lesse in the power prerogatiue of Vladislaus to ordaine his Daughter heyre to the Kingdom against the priuiledges of the Country without both the conuocation the consent of the States so as indeed she could not inherite the Kingdome after her Father but after her Brother and was Queene then but as being the Wife of another elected King That there was no conuocation of the States it is an vnquestionable truth and it followes necessarily they gaue not their consent neither did they euer permither in any thing effectually to enioy the Gouernment But after King Lewijs was fallen in battaile and that the heroyick Prince Ferdinand Archduke of Austria had married the Lady Anne that sister of King Lewijs the States of Bohem then of their owne Free will and by vertue of their Priuildges Elected Archduke Ferdinand for their King 1526. Indeed the King according to custome being once crowned as Soueraigne the Lady Anne afterwardes was Crowned as his companion and no otherwise And if euen at that time the Freedome of the States Election will yet be quarelled withall let King Ferdinands Reuersall letters bee enquired of they will satisfie for it They were giuen at Vienna the Thirteenth of December 1526. And for their better strength the oath hee gaue the States will declare it selfe But there hath very lately beene discouered a strange fact-committed vpon those Reuersall Letters of Ferdinand the Emperour done without the knowledge much lesse the consent of the body of the States The said Letters hauing beene copyed in Parchment out of the originall and inserted to the other Priuiledges of the Countrey in a booke expresly appointed for that purpose and that the originall it selfe was placed there with other priuiledges and that the said Reuersall Letters themselues as it is said were annexed to the Statutes and Ordinances of the Country for the space of Nineteene yeares together remaine yet to be seene It is now found out that after the expiration of those nineteene yeares that is to say in the yeare 1545. some person not yet come into publicke knowledge in the Register of the Countries customes vppon the margine of those Reuersall Letters writt these wordes following The Letters were rendred his Maiesty by the States of Bohemia in the generall Assembly of the States of the Country at the Castle of Prague on Monday after the Ascention of the most blessed Virgin Mary in the yeare 1545. and in place of those were other Letters giuen to the said States of the Kingdome in the Bohemian tongue which were likewise inserted into this booke in the leafe c. Done at the Castle of Prague the Wednesday after St. Aegidius day 1545. Now that this point was in this manner euer effected or that the States in their full Assemblie did euer render those Reuersall Letters to the King and receiued other Patentes in their place it can no way bee found For in the generall Assembly held the same yeare at the Castle of Prague which at this day remaines quoted in the Register of the Countrey there is not any mention made thereof no not so much as in the proposition itselfe then opened on the part of the King Neither were the Letters Patents supposed to bee giuen instead of the first assurances according to that forme addition written in the saide booke but afterwards included in another It may thence bee easily iudged that the writer of those added words whosoeur he was did it out of a priuate authority to please some other persons Thence likewise it may very easily bee perceiued to what ayme the corruption was directed namely by this meanes to frustrate and depriue the States for the time to come to the Freedome of their Election As indeed those Patents doe nothing agree with the first Assurances saue onely in this That the States ought to looke to themselues that the said election of King Ferdinand may not derogate nor bee preiuidiciall to their Priuiledges But the saide Reuersals haue in them another sence directly contrary to all the Priuiledges and Freedomes of the Countrey both olde and new and particularly in this that there are againe alledged the insertions both of Charles the 4. th in his confirmation and of Vladislaus for the aduancement of his disposition towards his Daughter which as hath beene said is long agoe made voyde and was obserued onely in one case alone the States notwithstanding hauing alwayes retayned the free Election Now that this was not done to violate the Priuiledges rather then to confirme them wee referre to the iudgement of the whole world The reason why the States haue not receiued perfect knowledge of all these indirect passages vntill now is that from time to time they haue been concealed by the principall Officers of the land who were Romane Catholiques For the States in the diuers pursuites of their cause aswell to the generall Assemblies of the Countrey as otherwaies could neuer get so much as a hearing of the Priuiledges read much lesse a possession of the writings or copyes of them
Howsoeuer it is euident that the Emperour Ferdinand himselfe did very well iudge and consider that this Kingdome and the Prouinces incorporate were not Hereditary and that those Letters Patents could take no place nor bee of force with Posteritie against the ancient Priuiledges and Statutes It is euident in this that the same Emperour called a generall Assembly of the Countrey in the yeare 1549. where hee desired of the States of Bohemia that Archduke Maximilian his eldest Sonne might after his death bee receiued for their King Which the States accorded vnto to the end that in the life time of his Maiesty his Sonne might carry the name of King vpon condition neuerthelesse that hee should not be invested in the gouernment during the time of his Father According to which Condition and likewise by vertue of certaine interchanged Articles the Coronation of King Maximilian and his wife Queene Mary succeeded not vntill the yeare 1562. In like manner Maximilian comming to be Emperour presented his eldest Son Rodolph and desired he might be accepted of and Crowned King of Bohemia for the future which the States consented vnto accepted of him and declared him then vpon certaine present conditions and afterwards drew from him his Letters of Assurance Furthermore were the Kingdome and the Prouinces incorporate Hereditary to the House of Austria it is to be belieued that it had beene altogether vnnecessary to seeke to the States by request for the Succession since vpon the termes of Inheritance euery eldest Sonne comming to furuiue the Father there must haue discended a right vnto his owne person for his title to the Crowne without any intercession as the Archdukes of Austria themselues doe exemplifie by their owne claimes to their Countryes of inheritance It may hereunto bee added that from the Acceptation and declaration of those two Kings Maximilian and Rodolphe there can no prejudice fall vpon the Freedome of Election since both of them being the eldest Sonnes of Kinges of Bohemia their successe in all reason might happen to bee the more easie and yet it was not done without both seeking and obtaining the willing consent of the States Thence therefore there can no argument be drawne that the States by that Act haue quitt the right of their free Election If yet there will bee something inferred thence to the contrary the proceeding of Rodolphe himselfe will confesse that inference an errour For being vnmarryed and without Children it was the designe of the Archduke Mathias as the eldest Brother to his Imperiall Majesty to procure himselfe first nominated King of Bohemia the Emperour yet liuing and by the intercession of his Majesty that afterwards hee might bee Elected and Crowned according to custome And in this case where lineall heyres haue fayled it neuer sufficed the conferring of the succession vpon another to haue these wordes vsed onely Acceptation Declaration and Coronation but there was alwayes regard had aswell of the one part as the other to the sauing of the Free Election which the States haue by vertue of their ancient Priuiledges from Fredericke the Emperour and others As indeede the Emperour Rodolphe himselfe also did anew in all indifferent vnderstandings very authentically confirme and ratifie the same Priuiledges to the States in this point that his Majesty sought and interceded to them for his Brother the Archduke Mathias that by vertue of their Priuiledges and freedomes and of their owne bounty and free will they would first designe his Brother for King of Bohemia and afterwards Elect him Accordingly the Archduke Mathias obserued the same sence and desired hee might bee Elected after the ordinary custome It followes that his Majesty the Emperour interceding and the Archduke being so Elected they haue both of them very manifestly acknowledged and confirmed that in such a case howsoeuer if not otherwise where the right line is extinguished the States haue a free Election Which besides the authority it receiues from Priuiledges and Customes of auncient vse it hath more then sufficiently beene ratified likewise not onely by a contract passed before Prague in the yeare 1608. between his Imperiall Majesty the Archduke and the Prouinces but also by the proposition made on the parte of the same Emperour in the generall Assembly of the States and by the Letters of Assurance from both their Majesties Imperiall and Royall Moreouer the States of the Reformed Church of the Crowne of Bohemia after the persecutions they had susteyned were competently prouided for by his Majesty the Emperour Rodolphe their King with an Edict of Pacification vpon the cause of Religion and the free exercise thereof according to the agreement with the generall Assembly of the States in the yeare 1608. and as it hath since beene confirmed in 1610. at the request of the Electors of the Empire sollicited by the States And their said Majesties confirmed certain accords passed between those of the Religion of the Gospell and the Romane Catholiques as also betweene those of the Religion of the Gospell themseues And all this for the conserâ—â—tion and aduancement of mutuall Amitie and agreement in such a manner that in whome soeuer the least opposition or contradiction that can bee imagined should be found to bee intended against that Edict of Pacification or the other accords hee should be proceeded against as a disturber of the publicke quiet From these proceedings our people generally did promise themselues that thence forth they should liue in a peaceable condition together both vnder his Majesty and the succeeding Kings of Bohemia and that euery man might serue God safely and obey the Magistrates But incontinently vpon it and sine likewise these promises met with persons of turbulent and wicked dispositions who by the suggestion of an euill spirit haue laboured to make the world vnderstand that nothing could be more contrary to their mindes then the free election of a King and the free exercise of Religion And out of that maleuolent nature refused to signe the Edict of pacification and the agreements passed with the matter depending on them which his Imperiall Majesty and other peaceable Romane Catholike Estates had by example inuited them vnto but bent themselues with all their might partly by their secret Conspiracies and Fraudulent practices and partly by abusing their offices and by their impudent malice to ouerthrow the whole worke of Peace and to dispose euen his Majesty himselfe to the consent of this ruyne not withstanding that presently vpon it in a publicke Assembly of the States they were protested against that in case the States of the Religion of the Gospell should come to bee yet further molested the offence should be imputed to them alone and they should bee proceeded against as troublers and infringers of the publick â—â—…iet This caution wrought no regard in them but on the contrary they were so farre from it as euen in the life time of the Emperour Mathias it was the principall point of their study to prouide themselues for the time to