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Assassination of Henry IV. Similarity in Sully's and Napoleon's Plans. Exultation of the Catholics. The Brothers' Compact. How Rhodolph Kept It. Seizure of Prague. Rhodolph a Prisoner. The King's Abdication. Conditions Attached to the Crown. Rage of Rhodolph. Matthias Elected King. The Emperor's Residence. Rejoicings of the Protestants. Reply of the Ambassadors. The Nuremburg Diet.
Regarding Rhodolph almost with contempt, he had by no means made the arrangements which his peril demanded, and was in consternation when he heard that Rhodolph, in alliance with Henry of Bavaria, had already entered Austria, taken possession of several fortresses, and, at the head of a force of a thousand horsemen, was carrying all before him, and was triumphantly marching upon Vienna.
The Jesuits found Rhodolph a docile pupil; and never on earth have there been found a set of men who, more thoroughly than the Jesuits, have understood the art of educating the mind to subjection. Rhodolph was instructed in all the petty arts of intrigue and dissimulation, and was brought into entire subserviency to the Spanish court. Thus educated, Rhodolph received the crown.
Into this war the excommunicated Rhodolph plunged with all the impetuosity of his nature; he resolved to work out absolution, by converting, with all the potency of fire and sword, the barbarians to the Church. His penitence and zeal seem to have been accepted, for we soon find him on good terms again with the pope. He now sought to have a hand in every quarrel, far and near.
The annual tribute, however, was no longer to be paid, and thus Christendom was released from the degradation of vassalage to the Turk. Rhodolph, who had long looked with a suspicious eye upon Matthias, watching him very narrowly, began now to see indications of the plot.
But storms of war incessantly howled around his domains until he died, a crippled paralytic, on the 16th of August, 1358. From 1339 to 1437. Rhodolph II. Marriage of John to Margaret. Intriguing for the Tyrol. Death of Rhodolph. Accession of Power to Austria. Dividing the Empire. Delight of the Emperor Charles. Leopold. His Ambition and Successes. Hedwige, Queen of Poland.
This unexpected interposition reanimated the hopes of Rhodolph, and he instantly found such renovation of youth and strength as to feel quite able to bear the burden of the crown a little longer; and consequently, notwithstanding his abdication, through his friends, all the most accomplished mechanism of diplomacy, with its menaces, its bribes, and its artifice were employed to thwart the movements of Matthias and his friends.
With his bride he received as her dowry the castle of Oeltingen, and very considerable territorial possessions. Thus in five years Rhodolph, by that species of robbery which was then called heroic adventure, and by a fortunate marriage, had more than doubled his hereditary inheritance.
As he crossed the Alps to attend the nuptials, he was seized with an inflammatory fever, and died the 27th of July, 1365, but twenty-six years of age, and leaving no issue. His brother Albert, a young man but seventeen years of age, succeeded Rhodolph.
At the same time Rhodolph silenced three of the most eloquent and influential of the Protestant ministers, under the plea that they assailed the Catholic church with too much virulence; and he also forbade any one thenceforward to officiate as a Protestant clergyman without a license from him.
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