23 May 1611 Matthias of Habsburg crowned King of Bohemia

King Matthias of Habsburg moved the seat back to Vienna, During his reign, problems continued to grow and the political and religious situation worsened.

After Rudolf II abdicated the throne following the defeat of the Passau family in 1611, his brother Matthias was elected King of Bohemia, who also became Roman Emperor after Rudolf's death a year later. Zdeněk Vojtěch Popel of Lobkowitz remained the highest chancellor in his service, as did other officials - although, according to the later testimony of William Slavata, all but Adam the Younger of Wallenstein kept their oath of allegiance to Rudolf II.

"And this until the day of Matthias' coronation as King of Bohemia, which took place in a modest spirit on Whit Monday, 23 May 1611. The Spanish envoy Zúňiga again interceded on behalf of the Supreme Chancellor," writes Marie Ryant in her book Polyxena of Lobkowitz: The Admired and Hated First Lady of the Kingdom.

During Matthias' reign, however, problems continued to grow. Although the seat was moved back to Vienna after Rudolf's death in 1612, the Kingdom of Bohemia remained a focal point of tension. On the one hand, an anti-Habsburg coalition of Western European states was emerging, which was expected tothe evangelical Estates in the Habsburg monarchy, while on the other side the Habsburg Catholic camp was consolidating.

However, on the threshold of the first pan-European conflict, the Thirty Years' War, the ruling circles of Western Europeanpowers of the Netherlands, England and France were preoccupied with solving internal political problems and were not interested in intervening directly in Bohemia. The brunt of the rivalry fell mainly on the Estates opposition in the Czech, Austrian and Hungarian lands and on the Electorate of the Palatinatewhose rulers of the Calvinist line of the Wittelsbach family were the most consistent opponents of the Habsburgs in the Roman-German Empire.

"By contrast, the Habsburg camp was much more cohesive. In addition to the Austrian and Spanish branches of the Habsburgs, it leaned on the papal curia and the Catholic League of German princes led by Duke Maximilian in the Bavarian branch of the Wittelsbach dynasty. Despite financial difficulties and political and military defeats in the preceding period, the Habsburgs remained a leading European dynasty that "Jaroslav Pánek and Oldřich Tůma write in their book History of the Czech Lands.

Matthias' reign was also marked by new battles with the Turks from 1613 onwards, but these eventually had to be halted two years later by an unfavourable truce. Matthias' reign did not provoke satisfaction not only among the Protestant opposition, but also among members of the Catholic camp.

"The dynastic crisis continued to deepen, the result of which was to upset the original stratification of forces between the monarchical power and the estates' opposition and the positions of the estates' non-Catholic majority in Bohemia," Ryantová writes.

The question of whether the Habsburgs would succeed in maintaining the Bohemian throne after the death of the childless Matthias was of key importance. The latter foresaw the coming collision in Bohemia but no longer had the power to influence it.
He died in March 1619.


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