the Eastern Church.

The League was to hold its first council at Bale, and subsequent ones in
different countries. Its statutes are worth noting; they are drawn up
on much the same lines as those of the present-day League of Nations.

When the plans of the League were sufficiently advanced to be put into
effect it was found that the forces against it were too powerful. Rome
would have none of it, and France, though friendly to the scheme,
chiefly out of antagonism to Rome, held back in the end, leaving the
King of Bohemia with none but his neighbour, Poland, to support him.
That the League should have failed of its purpose is regrettable. It was
a genial idea. That it originated in Central Europe and that it gained
the adherence of nations farther removed from Western influence is of
lasting importance, for it seems to have given a definite direction to a
group of Central and Eastern European Powers. Perhaps this direction was
subconscious in King George's mind; he may have been actuated only by
his desire for peaceful reconstruction behind a united front towards an
eastern enemy. However this may be, the idea did not die with George
Podiebrad, but has had two revivals, of which I hope to tell you
something in time.

George Podiebrad died in 1471, after having ensured the succession to
the throne of Bohemia of Vladislav, son of Casimir, King of Poland. King
George's reason for going outside his country for a successor instead of
finding one among his own sons was his concern for the safety of
Bohemia, which, he seems to have considered, would have been endangered
by a scion of his own family or nation under the conditions under which
he was to leave his country. He was moved towards Poland by reason of
the great plan he had formed far in advance of his age, namely, that of
the League of Peace.

[Illustration: THE POWDER TOWER.]

George Podiebrad, according to Luetzow, has always remained, next to
Charles IV, the sovereign whose memory the Bohemians treasure most.
Bohemia's great historian, Palacky, gives to this King a place of honour
among the rulers of his country which is only equalled by that assigned
to the great Luxemburger. His last years were clouded by the
increasing distressful state of Europe, by a painful illness, and by the
faithlessness of his one-time friend and ally, Matthias of Hungary. This
latter had broken with King George, and had carried war into the lands
of the Bohemian Crown, and though def