King Ferdinand assembled the Estates at Prague (July 1546), and obtained their consent to a general armament of the country should it be attacked by the Turks or other foreign enemies. Soon afterwards, the army of Ferdinand marched into Saxony to attack the Elector. When they reached the Saxon frontier Ferdinand's Bohemian troops refused to cross it, grounding their refusal on the decision of the Diet. In the following year (1547) hostilities recommenced in Germany between the Protestant princes and the Emperor Charles V, with whom Duke Maurice of Saxony had entered into an alliance against the head of his house. Not discouraged by the experiences of the previous year, Ferdinand again called on the Estates of Bohemia to aid him. By an order issued at Prague (January 12, 1547), he summoned them to join him with their forces the following month. Only a few Romanists and old-utraquists assembled there. The majority of the people thought the moment favourable for forcing Ferdinand to recede from the more authoritative attitude he had lately assumed, both as regards temporal and ecclesiastical affairs. The citizens of Prague took the lead in this movement, and were soon joined by many nobles and knights. They demanded that a Diet should be summoned, and the Estates met at Prague on March 18, without waiting for the king's assent. They here formulated their demands in fifty-seven "articles." These articles, among other matters, re-established the elective character of the Bohemian crown, proclaimed liberty for all religious beliefs in Bohemia, and in various points curtailed the rights of the sovereign.
A committee, consisting of four members of each of the three Estates, was elected. No direct attack on the king was, however, attempted. It seems, indeed, rather to have been the intention of the Estates to reduce the power of the king to what it had been at the beginning of his reign. It is noticeable that of the eight members of the new committee chosen from the nobles and knights, four were members of the Unity of the Bohemian Brethren.
The Elector of Saxony, who greatly overrated the chance of receiving aid from the Bohemians, entered into negotiations with the Estates. The latter now decided to equip an armed force, the command of which they gave to Kaspar Pflug of Rahstein; his instructions were to proceed to the Saxon frontier and there to await further orders. The
