Chapter 14

RHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIAS. From 1609 to 1612.

Difficulties as to the Succession.--Hostility of Henry IV. to the House of Austria.--Assassination of Henry IV.--Similarity in Sully's and Napoleon's Plans.--Exultation of the Catholics.--The Brother's Compact.--How Rhodolph kept it.--Seizure of Prague.--Rhodolph a Prisoner.--The King's Abdication.--Conditions Attached to the Crown.--Rage of Rhodolph.--Matthias Elected King.--The Emperor's Residence.--Rejoicings of The Protestants.--Reply of the Ambassadors.-- The Nuremberg Diet.--The Unkindest cut of all.--Rhodolph's Humiliation and Death. Page 213