30 Years War: #10 - "Thick as Thieves"

If you thought Ferdinand had a tough time of it, you should see how Matthew Lock struggled in 1622! Matchlock is a historical fiction series set during the Thirty Years' War, beginning in 1622, when Matthew Lock lands in Europe to investigate the brutal murder of his parents.

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It's time to meet Ferdinand of Styria and the rest of his lovely Habsburg family! Taken together, these were the kind of people who would fight doggedly for their rights and their faith. They also seemed to have a real hard time leaving Prague alone (foreshadowing!)

The counterpoint to Frederick V, Ferdinand of Styria was the heir designate to the Imperial throne, but he brought to the table a legacy which many would have found unsettling. A history of oppression and repression in his native Styria, in Inner Austria, had not merely forced many Protestants there to convert or flee, it had also demonstrated Ferdinand’s single-minded pursuit of a goal, regardless of the consequences.

And these consequences were indeed dire. A rising in Prague in 1611 provided a grave example of what could happen when the Emperor did not listen to the fears and concerns of his subjects, but was Ferdinand paying attention to this display? It seemed that, unfortunately, he was, but to the wrong parts of the story. Within a few years, the citizens of Prague would launch another uprising, and this time they would play for keeps, formally deposing their new Bohemian King Ferdinand, and pushing the Empire over the chasm into the volcano of war. The preceding years were a chance for Ferdinand to learn from the mistakes of his predecessors, but these lessons were not learned, and because of this, Europe could not be spared what happened next...

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