to anticipate his enemies. On August 26, 1756, the Prussian army entered Saxony, where it met with no resistance, as the Saxon army retired to a strongly fortified position between Pirna and Königstein. They here awaited the arrival of their Austrian allies; but Frederick, entering Bohemia, defeated the Austrians at Lovosic, and then, returning to Saxony, forced the Saxon army to capitulate. In the following spring he again attacked Bohemia, and, marching on its capital, won the famed "Battle of Prague," which was really fought at the village of Stěrbohol, five miles from the city. The Austrians hastily retired to Prague. Frederick besieged and bombarded the town, but the Austrian victory at Kolin obliged him to raise the siege. Frederick then marched westward to encounter the French armies, and the Austrians availed themselves of his absence to invade Silesia. Aided by the Roman Catholic part of the population they obtained possession of a considerable part of the country, including Breslau. Frederick's brilliant victory at Leuthen, on December 5, 1575, obliged the Austrians again to evacuate Silesia. During the later period of the Seven Years' War only outlying districts of Bohemia were on rare occasions the scene of a war that was mostly waged in Germany. The peace of Hubertsburg, which in 1763 ended the war, confirmed the Prussian conquest of Silesia and the county of Glatz.
The return of peace enabled the Empress Maria Theresa to carry out the plans she had previously formed of reorganizing the vast Habsburg dominions. Even during the reign of Charles VI, the Empress's father, these various racially and historically distinct countries were, to a great extent, governed according to their ancient laws and traditions. Beside the high officials of Prague, no longer indeed elected by the Estates, but appointed by the Austrian Government, Bohemia was administered by the "Bohemian secret court chancellery" (Böheimische Geheime Hof Kanzlei). The financial affairs of the lands of the Bohemian crown were under the direction of a council (Haupt Commission derer drey Böheimischen Landen in cameralisticis). A supreme law-court (Obriste Justiz Stelle in Böhemicis) was the highest tribunal for Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia.[1] Though these three ministries, as we may call
- ↑ After the signature of the Treaty of Berlin in 1742 the term "Silesia" of course only refers to those parts of the country—the
