Photograph by D. W. Iddings, Keystone View Co. 

 GENERAL VIEW OF PRAGUE FROM THE PETRIX HILL 



Austria has been effected. Continuous 

 wars with the Turks and a terrible plague 

 further weaken the Czechs. 



Ferdinand proves a scourge. Religious 

 persecution and then general oppression 

 of Bohemia follow. The freely chosen 

 king becomes tyrant and before long the 

 greatest enemy of Bohemia. Backed by 

 the rest of his dominion, by Rome and 

 Spain, he tramples over the privileges of 

 Bohemia ; depletes its man-power as well 

 as treasury ; by subterfuge or treachery 

 occupies Prague and other cities, and 

 follows with bloody reprisals and con- 

 fiscations, which lead to an era of ruth- 

 lessness and suffering such as the coun- 

 try has not experienced in its history. 

 The weakened state of the countrv allows 



of no effective protest, and of its former 

 allies or friends none are strong enough 

 to offer effective help. 



THE TYRANNY OF FERDINAND 



Yet even worse was to come from the 

 Habsburgs, the association with whom 

 for Bohemia was from the beginning of 

 the greatest misfortune. During the 

 reign of Ferdinand's immediate succes- 

 sors there is a breathing spell for the 

 Czechs; but in 1616 another Habsburg, 

 Ferdinand II, again under force of cir- 

 cumstances, is elected king of Bohemia, 

 only to prove its greatest tyrant. Within 

 two years the Bohemians are in open 

 revolt, and in another year the king is 

 deposed. 



I/O 



