Rhodolph, while hating Matthias, and watching for an
opportunity to crush him, promised to regard him hereafter as a brother
and a friend.
And now Rhodolph developed unexpected energy, mingled with treachery and
disgraceful duplicity. He secretly and treacherously invited the
Archduke Leopold, who was also Bishop of Passau and Strasbourg, and one
of the most bigoted of the warrior ecclesiastics of the papal church, to
invade, with an army of sixteen thousand men, Rhodolph's own kingdom of
Bohemia, under the plea that the wages of the soldiers had not been
paid. It was his object, by thus introducing an army of Roman Catholics
into his kingdom, and betraying into their hands several strong
fortresses, then to place himself at their head, rally the Catholics of
Bohemia around him, annul all the edicts of toleration, crush the
Protestants, and then to march to the punishment of Matthias.
The troops, in accordance with their treacherous plan, burst into Upper
Austria, where the emperor had provided that there should be no force to
oppose them. They spread themselves over the country, robbing the
Protestants and destroying their property with the most wanton cruelty.
Crossing the Danube they continued their march and entered Bohemia.
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