voted to support their
sovereign, to assert the imperial dignity, and to reduce the
rebellious princes to obedience. The Burgrave of Nuremberg and the
Bishop of Basel were despatched to Ottocar in the name of the diet, to
demand his instant acknowledgment of Rudolph as king of the Romans,
and the restitution of Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola.

They accordingly repaired to Prague, and delivered their message.
"Tell Rudolph," replied the spirited monarch, "that he may rule over
the territories of the empire, but I will not tamely yield those
possessions which, I have acquired at the expense of so much blood and
treasure; they are mine by marriage, by purchase, or by conquest." He
then broke out into bitter invectives against Rudolph, and after
tauntingly expressing his surprise that a petty count of Hapsburg
should have been preferred to so many powerful candidates, dismissed
the ambassadors with contempt. In the heat of his resentment he even
violated the laws of nations, and put to death the heralds who
announced to him the resolutions of the diet and delivered the ban of
the empire.

During this whole transaction Rudolph acted with becoming prudence and
extreme circumspection. He had endeavored by the mildest methods to
bring Ottocar to terms of conciliation; and when all his overtures
were received with insult and contempt, and hostilities became
inevitable, he did not seek a distant war till he had obtained the
full confirmation of the Pope and had reestablished the peace of those
parts of the empire which bordered on his own dominions. He first
attacked the petty adherents of Ottocar, the Margrave of Baden, and
the counts of Freiburg, Montfort, and Neuburg, and, having compelled
them to do homage and to restore the fiefs which they had appropriated
during the preceding troubles, he prepared to turn his whole force
against the King of Bohemia, with a solicitude which the power and
talents of his formidable rival naturally inspired.

The contest in which Rudolph was about to engage was of a nature to
call forth all his resources and talents. Ottocar was a prince of high
spirit, great abilities, and distinguished military skill, which had
been exercised in constant warfare from his early youth. By hereditary
right he succeeded to Bohemia and Moravia, and to these territories he
had made continual additions by his crusades against the Prussians,
his contests with the kings of Hungary, and still more by his