The
Protestants, foolishly allowing their Lutheran and Calvinistic
differences to disunite them, could not agree in their candidate.
Consequently Ferdinand was elected, and immediately crowned emperor, the
9th of September, 1619.
The Bohemians, however, remained firm in their resolve to repudiate him
utterly as their king. They summoned a diet of the States of Bohemia,
Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia to meet at Prague. Delegates also attended
the diet from Upper and Lower Austria, as also many nobles from distant
Hungary. The diet drew up a very formidable list of grievances, and
declared, in view of them, that Ferdinand had forfeited all right to the
crown of Bohemia, and that consequently it was their duty, in accordance
with the ancient usages, to proceed to the election of a sovereign. The
Catholics were now so entirely in the minority in Bohemia that the
Protestants held the undisputed control. They first chose the Elector of
Saxony. He, conscious that he could maintain his post only by a long and
uncertain war, declined the perilous dignity. They then with great
unanimity elected Frederic, the Elector of Palatine.
The Palatinate was a territory bordering on Bohemia, of over four
thousand square miles, and contained nearly seven hundred thousand
inhabitants.
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