to restrict his rights as to the appointments to the great State and court offices. They therefore demanded a promise from the king that he would in future govern according to the advice of State officials, whom he was to choose among the higher nobility: on his refusal they attacked him in his castle of Beraun, and conducted him to Prague as a prisoner. The lords of the league then declared Jodocus of Moravia "starosta" (dictator).[1]
Venceslas contrived to communicate secretly with his brother John, Duke of Görlitz (in Lusatia), and succeeded in obtaining aid from him. The people of Bohemia, who had no cause to complain of Venceslas, even took up arms in his favour, so that when Duke John arrived at Prague he was amicably received by the citizens. Further help arrived from Margrave Prokop, who had long been at enmity with his brother Jodocus, and Venceslas was also supported by several of the German princes, who were indignant at the imprisonment of the King of the Germans. The lords of the league were, at the time, unable to oppose such numerous adversaries, and though they at first obliged Venceslas to follow them as a prisoner, they soon saw the necessity of conditionally restoring him to freedom. The only condition demanded appears to have been a complete amnesty for the lords of the league, which was guaranteed by Duke John in the name of his brother, who refused to enter into any negotiations till he had recovered his liberty. Almost immediately after his liberation Venceslas endeavoured to make preparations for renewed warfare against the league of the lords, but his efforts to form a party were entirely unsuccessful. After the death of Duke John (1396) the king was obliged to ask his brother Sigismund, King of Hungary, and even Margrave Jodocus, to mediate between him and the nobles of Bohemia.
The agreement which, through the mediation of King Sigismund, was now obtained, corresponded entirely to the wishes of the league. Venceslas undertook to appoint members of that league to all the important State offices. The head of the league, Henry, Lord of Rosenberg, became burgrave, and Margrave Jodocus remained at Prague practically usurping the regal powers. Irritated by the
- ↑ This title, derived from the earliest times of Bohemian history, ensured to its bearer almost unlimited power, so that the authority of Venceslas became purely nominal.
D 2
