This is the real reason why the authority and prestige of the Ministers became so inordinately high under my forbears, to the detriment of the Princely authority, and why, so long as this central Constitution was in force, it seemed inadvisable to impair or diminish it.
These Ministers also utilized the preferential influence which they had acquired over the Prince to secure such favors for the Province which was governed by them, and in which their own estates lay, that the other Provinces were treated unfairly and regarded, so to speak, as though they were foreign lands and not subjects of the same lord.
This was the sole reason why, as soon as my eyes were opened, I gradually took my steps to make a complete change in the form of government.
The perpetual and unintermittent envy, ill-feeling, and calumnies among the Ministers led to the most injurious animosities and consequently gave rise to incurable prejudices whereby the most salutary measures were thwarted, or when advice was given, it was usually colored by innumerable arbitrary prejudices, so that the Prince was often placed in a situation of extreme embarrassment.
And while many of my forbears have been accused of dilatoriness and indecision in the governance of their Provinces and State, the sole true reason for this was the constant disharmony between the Ministers and the obstinate insistence of each on his own opinion, which naturally could not fail to make the Monarch the more undecided, because he might suppose his own opinion to be mistaken.
This constant disunity of the Ministries, in every reign, has often plunged the whole system into extreme danger of collapse, from which only Divine Providence has extricated and saved our House.
After Ferdinand had crushed the Bohemian rebellion and lavished gifts and benefits on the Ministers who had remained true to him, and on others, the beneficiaries used their prestige in the new Constitution imposed on Bohemia more for the advantage of the Province than in the interest of the Monarch, although the country had been conquered by force of arms.
The office of Supreme Chancellor brought with it, in respect of the Bohemian Lands, the greatest embarrassments and the most detrimental effects for the Crown service, for the sovereign found himself hardly able to effect or enforce any measure in those Lands which seemed good to him or was advised by his other Ministers, unless the Supreme Chancellor was agreed. The natural consequence of this abuse was that the whole Chancellery showed itself readier to obey the orders of the Supreme Chancellor of the day than those of the Monarch, so that the power of the Bohemian Supreme Chancellor gradually became quite illimitable – and it was very obvious how incompatible this was with the authority and the service of the Crown.
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