as far as it was in their power, according to the laws of our Lord Jesus Christ, the dear holy apostles, the dear holy fathers, and the other saints.[1]
These negotiations were certainly a strange prelude to the new crusade. The Elector of Brandenburg had for some time been on very bad terms with King Sigismund, and for reasons with which I have not to deal here, war between the two princes for a time appeared to be imminent. The elector, therefore, may not have considered so great a victory for the house of Luxemburg-Habsburg as the submission of Bohemia would have been favourable to his own far-reaching plans, and it is at least not impossible that the first Hohenzollern who became prominent in history may already have coveted the Bohemian crown.
By the end of June the main army of the crusaders had assembled at Nürnberg, though many cities had not yet sent their contingents, who started on their march slowly and reluctantly. There was no enthusiasm, and never perhaps has the term “crusade” been so grossly misused. On July 9,
- ↑ Dr. Juritsch, in his endeavour to prove the Hussite sympathies of the Elector Frederick, here quotes the well-known ballad of Lawrence of Březova on the battle of Domážlice, to which I shall again refer later. In this ballad Frederick is made to say:
“Queratur certum medium
Per prudentum concilium
Quo queat ille populus [the Bohemian people]
Vobis reddi benevolus
Mihi videtur optimum
Tanto morbo remedium
Instemus omnes seduli
Ut ipsorum articuli [the articles of Prague]
Quos et scripturis comprobant
Pro quibus semper litigant
Serventur in ecclesia
Tota certe Katholica
Prout servarunt pariter
Primi fideles fortiter.”Březova’s ballad can certainly claim little historical value, but it undoubtedly tends to prove that popular opinion at the time believed Margrave Frederick to be more favourable to the Hussite views than the other German princes.
