a son-in-law of the English
King, James I.

Frederick accepted, went to Bohemia in state, and tried to draw the
other Protestant princes to his help. But he was a Calvinist, so the
Lutherans refused to join him. His new subjects were mainly Lutherans
also, and his impolitic effort to enforce his religious views upon
Prague soon roused the citizens to a state of revolt against him.

The Catholic princes of the empire had long been united in a "League,"
with Bavaria at its head. Bavaria was, next to Austria, the most
powerful state of the empire, and it had become the stronghold of the
Roman faith in Germany. Now, the army of this League, under its chief,
Maximilian of Bavaria, offered its services to the Emperor against the
disunited and wavering Bohemians. A portion of the Bohemian army was
defeated at the battle of White Mountain, just outside of Prague.
Frederick, the newly elected Bohemian King, saw his troops come fleeing
back to the town, and their panic seems to have seized him also.
Abandoning the strong walled city, he swept such of his possessions
together as he could and fled in haste from Bohemia. "The Winter King"
his enemies called him in derision, because his kingship had lasted but
one short winter.

The citizens, disheartened by his flight, terrified by the overwhelming
forces arrayed against them, surrendered to Ferdinand. Executions,
proscriptions, banishments, followed without number. Every person of the
land was compelled to accept Catholicism. Many burned their homes with
their own hands, and fled to other countries. Seldom has liberty been so
utterly trampled under foot; seldom has a land been so completely
subjugated. The Bohemians, who had been one of the most intellectual,
energetic peoples of Europe, here practically disappear from history as
a separate nation.

We turn now to the second period of this deplorable war. Its scene
shifts to the domain of the unhappy Frederick upon the Rhine. He himself
fled to Holland, but his land was considered as forfeited, and was
deliberately desolated by Spanish troops in the service of the Emperor.
The Bohemians had employed a well-known leader of mercenary troops,
Count Mansfeld. When their cause was lost, Mansfeld, with most of his
army, amused the Catholic forces by negotiations, till he saw his
opportunity, when he slipped away from them, and led his army to the
Rhine. There he continued the war in Frederick's name, though really for
his own sake.