ning
possession of part of the town of Prague, but his army was defeated by
the troops which the Bohemian estates had hurriedly raised, and he was
obliged to leave Bohemia. Matthias considered his hereditary rights
menaced by the raid of Leopold and again occupied Bohemia. Mainly at his
instigation the estates now formally deposed Rudolph, who survived his
dethronement only a few months, and died on the 20th of January 1612.
Though Matthias had allied himself with the Bohemian Protestants during
his prolonged struggle against his brother, he now adopted that policy
favourable to the Church of Rome which is traditional of the Habsburg
dynasty. His relations with the Bohemian Protestants, therefore, soon
became strained. In 1615 Matthias convoked a general diet, i.e. one that
besides the Bohemian representatives included also the representatives
of the "lands of the Bohemian crown." At the meeting of this diet the
question of nationality, which through the constant religious
controversies had receded to the background, again became predominant.
Former enactments enforcing the use of the national language were
reaffirmed, and it was decreed that Bohemian should be the "authorized"
(i.e. official) language of the country.

As Matthias was childless, the question as to the succession to the
Bohemian throne again arose. The king wished to secure the succession to
his cousin Ferdinand, duke of Styria. Ferdinand was known as a fanatical
adherent of the Church of Rome and as a cruel persecutor of the
Protestants of Styria. None the less the state officials of Bohemia, by
not very scrupulous means, succeeded in persuading the estates to accept
Ferdinand as heir to the throne and to consent to his coronation, which
took place at Prague on the 17th of June 1617. No doubt through the
influence of Ferdinand, the policy of Matthias henceforth assumed a yet
more pronouncedly ultramontane character. The king's councillors, all
adherents of the Church of Rome, openly expressed their hope that the
Catholic Church would soon recover its ancient hold over Bohemia. On the
other hand the Bohemian Protestants, led by Count Thurn, one of the few
nobles who had refused to vote for the recognition of Ferdinand as heir
to the throne, did not wish to defer what they considered an inevitable
conflict. It appeared to them more advantageous to encounter the weak
Matthias than his younger and more fanatical successor. A comparatively
unimportant incide