Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
OnGeorge'sdeath,theBohemianEstateshandedthecrownovertothe
PolishJagiellonian
dynasty
, who ruled
in absentia
, effectively relinquishing the reins of power to the Czech no-
bility.In1526,thelastoftheJagiellonians, KingLouis,wasdecisivelydefeatedbytheTurks
at the Battle of Mohács, and died fleeing the battlefield, leaving no heir to the throne.
Enter the Habsburgs
The Roman Catholic Habsburg, Ferdinand I (1526-64), was elected king of Bohemia - and
what was left of Hungary - in order to fill the power vacuum, marking the
beginning of
Habsburg rule
over what is now the Czech Republic. Ferdinand adroitly secured automatic
hereditary succession over the Bohemian throne for his dynasty, in return for which he ac-
cepted the agreement laid down at the Council of Basel back in 1433. With the Turks at the
gatesofVienna,hehadlittlechoicebuttocompromise,butin1545theinternationalsituation
eased with the establishment of an armistice with the Turks.
The following year, the Utraquist Bohemian nobility provocatively joined the powerful
Protestant Schmalkaldic League in their (ultimately successful) war against the Holy Roman
Emperor, Charles V. After a brief armed skirmish in Prague, however, victory initially fell
to Ferdinand, who took the opportunity to extend the influence of Catholicism in the Czech
Lands, executing several leading Protestant nobles, persecuting the reformist Unity of Czech
Brethren, who had figured prominently in the rebellion, and inviting Jesuit missionaries to
establish churches and seminaries in the Czech Lands.
Rudolfine Prague
Like Václav IV,
Emperor Rudolf II
(1576-1611), Ferdinand's eventual successor, was
moodyandwayward,andbytheendofhisreignBohemia wasagainrushingheadlongintoa
major international confrontation. But Rudolf also shared characteristics with Václav's fath-
er, Charles, in his genuine love of the arts, and in his passion for Prague, which he re-estab-
lished as the royal seat of power, in preference to Vienna, which was once more under threat
from the Turks. He endowed Prague's galleries with the best Mannerist art in Europe, and
invitedtherespectedastronomtsTychoBraheandJohannesKeplerandtheinfamous
English
alchemists
John Dee and Edward Kelley, to Prague.
Czechs tend to regard Rudolfine Prague as a second golden age, but as far as the Catholic
Church was concerned, Rudolf's religious tolerance and indecision were a disaster. In the
early 1600s, Rudolf's melancholy began to veer dangerously close to insanity, a condition
he had inherited from his Spanish grandmother, Joanna the Mad. And in 1611, the heirless
Rudolf was forced by his brother
Matthias
to abdicate, to save the Habsburg house from
ruin. Ardently Catholic, but equally heirless, Matthias proposed his cousin
Ferdinand II
as
his successor in 1617. This was the last straw for Bohemia's mostly Protestant nobility, and
the following year conflict erupted again.
