t resistance. Ferdinand treated the
nobles and knights with great forbearance, and contented himself with
the confiscation of the estates of some of those who had been most
compromised. On the other hand he dealt very severely with the
towns--Prague in particular. He declared that their ancient privileges
should be revised--a measure that practically signified a broad
confiscation of lands that belonged to the municipalities. Ferdinand
also forced the townsmen to accept the control of state officials who
were to be called town-judges and in Prague town-captains. These royal
representatives were given almost unlimited control over municipal
affairs. The Bohemian Brethren were also severely persecuted, and their
bishop Augusta was imprisoned for many years.

Ferdinand's policy here was as able as it always was. The peasantry had
ceased to be dangerous since the establishment of serfdom; the power of
the cities was now thoroughly undermined. Ferdinand had only to deal
with the nobles and knights, and he hoped that the influence of his
court, and yet more that of the Jesuits, whom he established in Bohemia
about this time, would gradually render them amenable to the royal will.
If we consider the customs of his time Ferdinand cannot be considered as
having acted with cruelty in the moment of his success. Only four of the
principal leaders of the revolt--two knights, and two citizens of
Prague--were sentenced to death. They were decapitated on the square
outside the Hradcany palace where the estates met on that day (August
22). This diet therefore became known as the "Krvavy'sneem" (bloody
diet). In one of the last years of his life (1562) Ferdinand succeeded
in obtaining the coronation of his eldest son Maximilian as king of
Bohemia, thus ensuring to him the succession to the Bohemian throne. As
Ferdinand I. acceded to the Hungarian throne at the same time as to
that of Bohemia, and as he also became king of the Romans and after the
death of Charles V. emperor, many events of his life do not belong to
the history of Bohemia. He died in 1564.

Maximilian.

Abolition of the "Compacts."

Maximilian succeeded his father as king of Bohemia without any
opposition. Circumstances were greatly in his favour; he had in his
youth mainly been educated by Protestant tutors, and for a time openly
avowed strong sympathy for the party of church reform. This fact, which
became known in Bohemia, secured for him the support of the B