Matthias’s Reign, Ferdinand’s Succession 129candidate was Ferdinand, who was now put forward for acceptance.
Declarations from Maximilian and Albrecht confirming their waivers
were also read out, and the proceedings were then adjourned until the
following day, 6 June.
When they resumed the next stage was to ask the Bohemian royal
officers, in order of seniority, to give their opinions. This went pre-
dictably smoothly until it came to Thurn, who was one of the few
remaining Protestants to hold an official post. Carefully avoiding attack-
ing Ferdinand personally, Thurn nevertheless asserted the right of the
Estates to elect, not merely to accept a future king, adding that the pro-
cedure should also be deferred until representatives of the other lands
of the Bohemian crown could be present and take part. Again this had
been expected, and this time a second senior official, Sternberg, reit-
erated Lobkowitz’s legal assessment, reinforcing its message for those
who had already heard it and setting it out in full to the lower-ranking
members who had not been present on the previous day. Thurn’s lame
effort to delay matters by reference to the other Bohemian lands was
easily dismissed. The Bohemians, said Sternberg, had never consulted
the other lands over the choice of their king, which everyone knew
was true, and in any case he was not king in those lands, but duke or
margrave respectively. As no-one was ready or able to refute Sternberg’s
arguments the opponents desperately needed to reappraise their tac-
tics, but again the officials were too quick for them, moving straight
on to a vote. Each member present, in order of rank, was required to
give his vote individually and openly, and once the top few, Count
Schlick prominent among them, had accepted Ferdinand the matter
was effectively decided, as with each succeeding acquiescent response
it became less likely that those further down the hierarchical line would
dare to break ranks. Thurn did vote against, but he was supported
only by his usual ally Fels, while even the most militant members of
the Bohemian Brethren such as Budowetz and Wenzel Ruppa tamely
capitulated.^25
Estates meetings were traditionally leisurely affairs, with sessions
interspersed with long recesses, often of several days, so that it was usu-
ally a matter of weeks before deliberations actually proceeded to any
form of decision. In this case the speed with which the business was
driven through deprived the opposition of the opportunity to organise
themselves and to work on their less politically inclined co-religionists.
They also had a bare month’s notice of the meeting and its intended
purpose, a short time in an age of slow travel and no other means of
communication, so that practical planning and canvassing would have