Now, as I
am about to die, my last act must be consistent with my former actions.
At this moment my only anxiety arises from a desire to prevent
dissension and bloodshed after my decease. It is praiseworthy in a
prince to govern well; but it is not less praiseworthy to provide a
successor who shall govern better than himself. This fame I now seek,
not from ambition, but from love to my subjects. You all know Albert,
Duke of Austria, to whom in preference to all other princes I gave my
daughter in marriage, and whom I adopted as my son. You know that he
possesses experience and every virtue becoming a prince. He found
Austria in a state of disorder, and he has restored it to tranquillity.
He is now of an age in which judgment and experience attain their
perfection, and he is sovereign of Austria, which, lying between Hungary
and Bohemia, forms a connecting link between the two kingdoms.
"I recommend him to you as my successor. I leave you a king, pious,
honorable, wise and brave. I give him my kingdom, or rather I give him
to my kingdoms, to whom I can give or wish nothing better. Truly you
belong to him in consideration of his wife, the hereditary princess of
Hungary and Bohemia.
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