Bohemia, thus brought in subjection to a single mind, and shackled in
its spirit of free enterprise, began rapidly to exhibit symptoms of
decline and decay. It was a great revolution, accomplished by cunning
and energy, and maintained by the terrors of confiscation, exile and
death.
The Emperor Charles V., it will be remembered, had attempted in vain to
obtain the reversion of the imperial crown for his son Philip at his own
death. The crown of Spain was his hereditary possession, and that he
could transmit to his son. But the crown of the empire was elective.
Charles V. was so anxious to secure the imperial dignity for his son,
that he retained the crown of the empire for some months after
abdicating that of Spain, still hoping to influence the electors in
their choice. But there were so many obstacles in the way of the
recognition of the young Philip as emperor, that Charles, anxious to
retain the dignity in the family, reluctantly yielded to the intrigues
of his brother Ferdinand, who had now become so powerful that he could
perhaps triumph over any little irregularity in the succession and
silence murmurs.
Consequently, Charles, nine months after the abdication of the thrones
of the Low Countries and of Spain, tried the experiment of abdicating
the _elective_ crown of the empire in favor of Ferdinand.
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