Hence also rapine, murder,
conflagrations, and a thousand evils which arise from divided
authority."
Upon the death of Ladislaus there was a great rush and grasping for the
vacant thrones of Bohemia and Hungary, and for possession of the rich
dukedoms of Austria. After a long conflict the Austrian estates were
divided into three portions. Frederic, the emperor, took Upper Austria;
his brother Albert, who had succeeded to the Swiss estates, took Lower
Austria; Sigismond, Albert's nephew, a man of great energy of character,
took Carinthia. The three occupied the palace in Vienna in joint
residence.
The energetic regent, George Podiebrad, by adroit diplomacy succeeded,
after an arduous contest, in obtaining the election by the Bohemian
nobles to the throne of Bohemia. The very day he was chosen he was
inaugurated at Prague, and though rival candidates united with the pope
to depose him, he maintained his position against them all.
Frederic, the emperor, had been quite sanguine in the hopes of obtaining
the crown of Bohemia. Bitterly disappointed there, he at first made a
show of hostile resistance; but thinking better of the matter, he
concluded to acquiesce in the elevation of Podiebrad, to secure amicable
relations with him, and to seek his aid in promotion of his efforts to
obtain the crown of Hungary.
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