5 The Habsburg Brothers’ Feud
By mid-1605 the Habsburg territories were in turmoil. Hungary was in
the hands of Bocskay and his rebels, and they were invading Moravia,
Bohemia was still simmering over the anti-Protestant Vladislav edict,
and a confrontation was looming in Upper and Lower Austria between
the Protestant nobility and the Catholic administration of Khlesl and
Archduke Matthias. Moreover the Turks were launching a new offensive
in the south.
Meanwhile Rudolf, ‘a remarkable, but also a remarkably unsuccessful
ruler’, had become a virtual recluse in his Prague castle, and he had long
since ceased to appear in person at Estates meetings.^1 He had always kept
personal contact with his ministers to a minimum, receiving reports
mainly in writing, but as the years went by he transacted business in
an increasingly desultory and sporadic manner. His mental state was
deteriorating, and he had frequent bouts of depression. Ministers came
and went, with offices passing into the hands of second-rate men and
outright opportunists, while access to the emperor and even securing his
signature on important state documents depended largely on the minor
officials of his household catching him at favourable moments.^2 Never-
theless Rudolf would not allow any form of delegation or encroachment
on his authority, jealously guarding his prerogative and insisting on
taking all important decisions himself.
The Spanish line apart, the principal members of the Habsburg fam-
ily at that time were Rudolf’s three surviving brothers and four cousins,
all archdukes. Matthias, as the eldest, was the heir presumptive, a fact
which of itself was enough to turn the suspicious emperor against him
even had there not been a previous history of dissension. Albrecht was
fully occupied with the war in the Netherlands, while the other brother
Maximilian was inclined to stay on the sidelines, as did his namesake
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