1  Chytraus,  Saxonia,  lib.  viii.,  p.  207.  Carmen  prolixius,  in  Leibnitz,  Scrip-
tores  Rer.  Brunsv.  iii.  257.
2  Stumphart,  Chronica  gwaltiger  Verjagung  Herzog  Ulrichs  (Chronicle  of  the
forcible  Expulsion  of  Duke  Ulrich)  :  Sattler,  Herzoge,  ii.,  Appendices,  p.  43.
3  Gwalt  K,  Karis  V.  auf  seine  Commissarien,  ibid.,  p.  79.
192  BEGINNING  OF  THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT     [Book  II.
This  first  act  of  Charles's  government  wore  a  very  arbitrary  aspect.
|  For  it  was  utterly  unheard  of  that,  as  the  Swiss  expressed  it,  "a  prince
j  of  the  Holy  Empire  should  be  driven  from  his  illustrious  house,  contrary
;  to  all  law,  and  forcibly  despoiled  of  the  principality  which  was  his  by
i  paternal  inheritance  and  right."  But  the  commissioners  regarded  the
election  as  a  triumph  of  the  Austrian  party,  and  were  only  anxious  to
turn  it  to  their  own  advantage.
This  had  not  been  the  intention  of  the  electors, — least  of  all  that  of
Frederick  of  Saxony ;  on  the  contrary,  they  had  immediately  considered
how  to  introduce  a  uniform  representative  government,  to  convoke  an
imperial  diet,  and  to  appoint  a  Council  of  Regency.  The  court  of  Spain
appeared  to  approve  cordially  of  these  measures  ;  a  proclamation  arrived,
in  which  Elector  Frederick  was  nominated  lieu  tenant  (Statthalter)  of  the
Regency,  and  was  also  intreated  to  give  his  good  counsel  in  public  affairs.
But  the  commissioners  did  not  think  fit  to  convoke  a  diet,  still  less  to
nominate  a  Council  of  Regency.  They  carefully  avoided  consulting  the
elector,  and  kept  the  diploma  of  his  nomination  to  themselves.  They
were  as  fully  determined  now,  as  under  Maximilian,  to  resist  all  inter-
ference on  the  part  of  the  States  ;  they  chose  to  retain  the  whole  of  the
public  business  in  their  own  hands.
