ubles of the time were largely caused by the newly arrived House
of Habsburg, and the state of the Empire at that period reflects German
mentality. The seven German Electors had been careful to go outside
their own charmed circle for a King, and one who would carry out their
wishes. They therefore picked out what we may call a second-class
magnate as likely to be amenable. They met with disappointment. Rudolph
was out for himself. His victory over P[vr]emysl Ottokar II was welcomed
by the Germans, who could never see a neighbour, especially a Slav,
growing in importance, without showing signs of consuming jealousy. To
break down the power of Ottokar the Bohemian was a meritorious act. To
acquire for private and family use some of that King's finest
possessions, Upper and Lower Austria, was not appreciated by the
Electors. Therefore when Rudolph died the Electors turned down his son
Albrecht, who put up for the imperial crown, and elected Adolph of
Nassau instead. Adolph also tried to make something out of the post of
Emperor, so the Electors threw him over, and he was shortly afterwards
killed in battle. Albrecht of Habsburg then came to the throne, and
taking up the family policy of profitable matrimonial alliances, married
his son Rudolph to the widow of the P[vr]emysl Wenceslaus II, Elizabeth,
whom we have already met. I am rather sorry for this Elizabeth. Whether
she liked her second husband or not, it must have been uncomfortable to
find him becoming more and more unpopular among the people, who in any
case had not expressed undue enthusiasm over his accession to their
throne. He was chiefly unpopular on account of his meanness; the
Bohemians, though thrifty almost to the verge of parsimony among
themselves, do not like that trait in a foreigner, especially one who
comes to cut some sort of figure as King or what-not amongst them.
However, Rudolph died before a year of sovereignty was out, leaving that
poor lady Elizabeth a widow for the second time, and under even more
trying conditions. Despite all Habsburg precautions towards settling the
crown of Bohemia on their own house, the nobles of the country proceeded
to assemble a Diet at Prague in order to elect a new King. Elizabeth had
to attend that function, and must have had a lurid time of it; the
nobles raised no end of a storm, according to the Bohemian historian
Palacky. There was one Tobias of Bechyn leading the case for the
introduction of another foreigner a