Louis was the unfortunate monarch who perished in the debacle at the battle of Mohács in Hungary, when the Turks swept in like a tidal wave and submerged the unhappy country for generations. So fearful an impression did this disaster make upon the minds of the Hungarians that even to this day, when a man loses house or land or parents or children, it is a saying, “More was lost on Mohács field.” On the death of Louis the same strenuous competition for the vacant throne was aroused as before his father’s accession, and this time the Archduke Ferdinand, brother of the reigning Emperor, Charles of Austria, was chosen. Ferdinand became also King of Hungary and Archduke of Austria, thus uniting in the person of a common ruler three kingdoms inhabited by different nationalities. This settled the matter as to the succession for a while, for the throne passed from Ferdinand’s son to his grandson Rudolph. Rudolph was eventually deposed in favour of his brother Matthias. During all this time the ceaseless warfare between the Roman dominion and the Reformed doctrines went on, and the rival parties were ever striving to gain power and to swing the balance over to their side. The country was restless, families were divided against themselves, and no one felt safe. It was during the reign of Matthias that the curious incident about throwing the councillors out of the window of the council-chamber took place, a scene unequalled in any other assembly in any age. The soreness between Protestants and Catholics had reached a head in regard to the succession to the throne, for King Matthias was another of the many childless monarchs. The Catholic councillors had therefore arranged that he should be succeeded by Archduke Ferdinand of Styria, a determined persecutor of the Protestants. The Protestants took immediate action in protesting, but were checkmated by a royal message prohibiting the meeting of their “Estates” or council. Their leader was Count Thurn, who had been Burgrave of the Karlstyn, but had been superseded by a Catholic called Martinic. The Estates usually met in the Hradcany Palace at Prague, but when they issued a manifesto attacking the royal councillors they were forbidden to meet there any more. Accordingly they met elsewhere secretly. Count Lutzow, in his charming little book _The Story of Prague_, thus describes what followed: