The Reformation has transformed the Holy Roman Empire into a patchwork of Catholic and Protestant states.

Emperor Matthias, without heirs, seek to assure an orderly transition during his lifetime by having his dynastic heir (the fiercely Catholic Ferdinand of Habsburg, Archduke of Styria) elected to the separate royal thrones of Bohemia and Hungary.

Some of the Protestant leaders of Bohemia fear they will be losing the religious rights granted to them by Emperor Rudolf II in his letter of majesty.

They prefer the Protestant Frederick V, elector of the Palatinate (successor of Frederick IV, the creator of the League of Evangelical Union).

However, other Protestants support the stance taken by the Catholics, and in 1617, Ferdinand is duly elected by the Bohemian estates to become the Crown Prince, and automatically upon the death of Matthias, the next King of Bohemia.

As Ferdinand II, the Jesuit-educated ruler continues the absolutist and devoutly Catholic policies he had pursued while archduke (having, for, example, banished the Protestant leaders of the Styrian estates.