The Habsburg Brothers’ Feud 113country which could feed his men, and which was also closer to the
Bohemian border in case of an attack from Lower Austria. In Bohemia
there were demands for renewed recruitment, but these were fobbed
off by Rudolf and his officials, leading many to believe that he was
deliberately seeking to keep them defenceless against his Passau army.
Rudolf was finally persuaded to summon the Estates, which met on 28
January 1611. Prague was full of rumours that Leopold was urging the
emperor to arrest the leaders of the Estates, and that an attempt was to
be made to seize their military commanders, Thurn, Fels and Wilhelm
Lobkowitz. On the other side there were reports of threats to the less
militant members of the Estates that they risked being thrown out of
the window, a recurrent theme in times of stress in Bohemia.^32 At the
Estates meeting Rudolf continued to delay action. Leopold’s troops pre-
sented no threat, he said, as they were only being retained until Matthias
confirmed that he had no hostile intentions, and until there was money
available to pay them off. Further recruitment would only add unnec-
essary expense. He was still giving assurances when information arrived
that Ramé had actually crossed into Bohemia.
Ramé swiftly took Budweis (Ceské Budˇ ̆ejovice), writing from there
on 31 January to assure the Bohemians that he had only moved into
the territory because of his men’s need, because the passes into the
Tyrol were defended against him, and because he had received infor-
mation that the Estates were secretly recruiting with intentions against
the emperor and his own force.^33 Rudolf in turn sent a message to the
Estates that Ramé had moved into Bohemia against his orders, and he
asked for help to provide the money to pay off the troops. Instead the
Estates resolved to recruit two regiments, one of infantry and one of
cavalry, thereby doubling their forces to 6000 men, and they voted a
tax to pay for this. Belatedly they secured Rudolf’s agreement to these
measures, to the release of weapons from the arsenal, and to calling
up the militia, every tenth man from the countryside and every eighth
from the cities, all of whom were to make for Prague as fast as they
could. Appeals for help were also sent to the other Bohemian lands and
to Saxony, while Rudolf continued to make contradictory statements
about wanting to pay off the Passau troops and to keep them for his
own protection.
On 13 February the Passau army reached the outskirts of Prague, and
on the 15th Ramé made a surprise attack and occupied the Malá Strana,
the confusingly named Lesser Town, which stands below the castle on
the left bank of the river, opposite the Old Town across the Charles
Bridge. Thurn, who was wounded in the fighting, and many of the