The Bohemian Context 75the Hussites throughout the period of the revolt.^8 No less relevant than
European influences, however, was the ethnic basis of the revolt, pit-
ting native Bohemians and Czech speakers against an outside prince of
German extraction.
Habsburg Bohemia
After four hundred years of the Pˇremyslids and a century and a quarter
of the Luxembourgers up to the death of Sigismund in 1437 there were
several changes of dynasty in Bohemia over the next ninety years. This
included a first period of Habsburg rule (apart from a brief interregnum
in 1307), although most of this was a long minority, and another period
in which the crown of the Bohemian lands was first contested and then
divided between the king of Hungary and the son of the king of Poland.
Eventually the survivor gained both Hungary and the Bohemian lands,
leaving these to his ten-year-old son in 1516. Ten years later this young
king was killed fleeing after the battle of Mohács, where he had tried in
vain to defend Hungary from the invading Turkish sultan Suleyman the
Magnificent. As he had neither children nor brothers the next in line
was his elder and only sister, wife of the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand
of Austria. Thus Ferdinand, brother of Emperor Charles V, became king,
although his accession by no means followed automatically from this
relationship, and he had to submit himself as a candidate in an elec-
tion by the Estates.^9 In the preceding negotiations Ferdinand had both
to confirm the rights and privileges of the Estates and to guarantee
that the administration of the kingdom would remain in the hands of
native Bohemians before he could secure the necessary support at an
assembly in December 1526. At the same time he also became king of
Hungary, although in a disputed election, and he was able to establish
Habsburg control only in part of the north and west of the territory (see
Chapter 1).
The procedure for establishing a king of Bohemia, like that for electing
the emperor, had developed over the centuries, but whereas the Golden
Bull of 1356 had codified the latter, in Bohemia it remained impre-
cise and open to different interpretations based on often conflicting
precedents. As with the original Frankish kingdom there was a general
presumption of hereditary succession from father to son, but the posi-
tion was less clear when this did not apply and other relatives became
candidates. Only when there was no available successor from the ruling
dynasty was an election definitely required. Nevertheless all prospective
new kings, including sons and relatives of the predecessor, had to be