Peace Is Proposed by the Archduke Mathias
Botchkai, of whom we have had a great deal to say, vexed and distressed the Austrians to the very utmost; which at last had the effect of inducing the Archduke Mathias, who was at that time in Vienna, when he perceived the danger which threatened to subvert from him the whole of his dominions, to send an embassy to the Moslem commander-in-chief. He clearly saw that his troops were not able to resist the superior force of the Ottomans, or withstand the powerful and vigorous hostility of Botchkai. His only army in Transylvania also was on the very point of being surrounded. When made aware of all these alarming circumstances, he sent the embassy alluded to, and, at the same time, informed the emperor his brother, who was at Prague, the capital of Bohemia, of what he had done. He stated in his communications to the emperor, that if a treaty of peace was not agreed upon he should by degrees be stripped of all his dominions in Hungary. “Part of them would fall,” he said, “under the Turks, and the rest would be trampled under the feet of Transylvanian cavalry.” The emperor, well aware that peace was every way desirable, expressed his approbation of the steps Mathias had taken to bring about so very requisite an object.
The emperor, however, in conformity to the principles of his vain religion, applied to the ungracious Pope of Rome for his advice, who expressed himself altogether hostile to the measure proposed. This audacious pope17 had the hardihood and wickedness to write back to the emperor, desiring him to get his brother to withdraw the proposals he had made, or if he refused to do so, to kill him. Such was the advice of the pope.
The emperor informed his brother of the sentiments which his holiness had expressed, and urged him in the strongest manner to pay implicit regard to them: assured him, moreover, that it was of much more consequence to him to have the prince of religion on his side, than any relative, however near to him; and therefore conjured him to continue the war. Mathias replied, that it was of the utmost moment to him to have peace on any terms; that preliminaries had been entered into, and that he was determined not to recede.
In the meantime Mathias collected what Hungarian and Transylvanian forces he was able, who, when united with the troops he had sent to protect his Transylvanian dominions, formed a very considerable army. With this army he purposed advancing upon Prague, but the death of the emperor,18 which happened at this time, put a stop to this warlike attempt.
The death of the emperor changed the aspect of affairs in relation to Mathias altogether, and bound him, in consequence of the law of succession, to respect the unworthy injunctions of the pope. This pope, to reproach and mortify Mathias for having offered conditions of peace to the Turks, raised Maximilian, a younger brother, an infidel, to the imperial dignity, to the exclusion of the lawful heir. It was that very same Maximilian, who, with his 70,000 infidels, was defeated before Agria by the heroic Sultán Ahmed Khán; that same Maximilian who hardly escaped from the scene of action with his life; who, unable to mount his horse or gird on his sword, fled away on foot; who, preferring a monastic life, ran off to the pope and entered into a monastery; it was that very same Maximilian whom the pope, in the plentitude of his power, and in the bitterness of his wrath, nominated to fill the throne of the Roman emperors, and whom he sent into Hungary. Mathias, however, prepared to dispute his pretensions, and with the army he had led, or had intended to lead against his deceased brother, he stood ready to meet this Maximilian. But Maximilian’s courage failed him, and Mathias, without striking a blow, ascended the throne of the Cæsars. Maximilian being now unable to promote the pope’s purposes, was appointed to the government of Vienna, and Mathias repaired to Prague, the imperial city, and commenced the exercise of his imperial prerogatives.
After Maximilian had gone to Vienna, he, in conformity to an agreement between him and Mathias, who was bent on promoting a treaty of peace, sent, the year peace was concluded, two hundred thousand dollars towards fulfilling the stipulations of that treaty, but he was exempted for the space of twenty years from any farther demands of this kind; though during each of the three years in which the negociations were carried on, he sent presents to the commander-in-chief, accompanied by letters humbly imploring a speedy termination of all hostilities.