But Matthias, the victim of disappointment and grief, was now rapidly approaching his end.  The palace at Vienna was shrouded in gloom, and no smiles were seen there, and no sounds of joy were heard in those regal saloons.  The wife of Matthias, whom he tenderly loved, oppressed by the humiliation and anguish which she saw her husband enduring, died of a broken heart.  Matthias was inconsolable under this irretrievable loss.  Lying upon his bed tortured with the pain of the gout, sinking under incurable disease, with no pleasant memories of the past to cheer him, with disgrace and disaster accumulating, and with no bright hopes beyond the grave, he loathed life and dreaded death.  The emperor in his palace was perhaps the most pitiable object which could be found in all his realms.  He tossed upon his pillow, the victim of remorse and despair, now condemning himself for his cruel treatment of his brother Rhodolph, now inveighing bitterly against the inhumanity and arrogance of Ferdinand and Maximilian.  On the 20th of March, 1619, the despairing spirit of the emperor passed away to the tribunal of the “King of kings and the Lord of lords.”

CHAPTER XVI.

FERDINAND II.

From 1619 to 1621.

Possessions of the Emperor.—­Power of the Protestants of Bohemia.—­General Spirit of Insurrection.—­Anxiety of Ferdinand.—­ Insurrection led by Count Thurn.—­Unpopularity of the Emperor.—­ Affecting Declaration of the Emperor.—­Insurrection in Vienna.—­The Arrival of Succor.—­Ferdinand seeks the imperial Throne.—­Repudiated by Bohemia.—­The Palatinate.—­Frederic offered the Crown of Bohemia.—­ Frederic crowned.—­Revolt in Hungary.—­Desperate Condition of the Emperor.—­Catholic League.—­The Calvinists and the Puritans.—­Duplicity of the Emperor.—­Foreign Combinations.—­Truce between the Catholics and the Protestants.—­The Attack upon Bohemia.—­Battle of the White Mountain.

Ferdinand, who now ascended the throne by right of the coronation he had already received, was in the prime of life, being but forty-one years of age, and was in possession of a rare accumulation of dignities.  He was Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary and of Bohemia, Duke of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, and held joint possession, with his two brothers, of the spacious territory of the Tyrol.  Thus all these wide-spread and powerful territories, with different languages, different laws, and diverse manners and customs, were united under the Austrian monarchy, which was now undeniably one of the leading powers of Europe.  In addition to all these titles and possessions, he was a prominent candidate for the imperial crown of Germany.  To secure this additional dignity he could rely upon his own family influence, which was very powerful, and also upon the aid of the Spanish monarchy.  When we contemplate his accession in this light, he appears as one of the most powerful monarchs who ever ascended a throne.