ing
himself to assume the guardianship of the young prince.

This judicious advice was accepted, and the Bohemian nobles chose the
infant Ladislaus their king. They, however, appointed two regents
instead of one. The regents quarreled and headed two hostile parties.
Anarchy and civil war desolated the kingdom, with fluctuations of
success and discomfiture attending the movements of either party. Thus
several years of violence and blood passed on. One of the regents,
George Podiebrad, drove his opponent from the realm and assumed regal
authority. To legitimate its usurped power he summoned a diet at
Pilgram, in 1447, and submitted the following question:

"Is it advantageous to the kingdom that Ladislaus should retain the
crown, or would it not be more beneficial to choose a monarch acquainted
with our language and customs, and inspired with love of our country?"

Warm opposition to this measure arose, and the nobles voted themselves
loyal to Ladislaus. While these events were passing in Bohemia, scenes
of similar violence were transpiring in Hungary. After a long series of
convulsions, and Uladislaus, the Polish king, who had attained the crown
of Hungary, having been slain in a battle with the Turks, a diet of
Hungarian nobles was assembled and they also declared the young
Ladislaus to be their king. They consequently wrote to the Emperor
Frederic, Duke of Styria, who had assumed the guardianship of the
prince, requesting that he might be sent to Hungary. Ladislaus
Posthumous, so-called in consequence of his birth after the death of his
father, was then but six years of age.

The Austrian States were also in a condition of similar confusion, rival
aspirants grasping at power, feuds agitating every province, and all
moderate men anxious for that repose which could only be found by
uniting in the claims of Ladislaus for the crown. Thus Austria, Bohemia
and Hungary, so singularly and harmoniously united under Albert V., so
suddenly dissevered and scattered by the death of Albert, were now,
after years of turmoil, all reuniting under the child Ladislaus.

Frederic, however, the faithful guardian of the young prince, was
devoting the utmost care to his education, and refused to accede to the
urgent and reiterated requests to send the young monarch to his realms.
When Ladislaus was about ten years of age the Emperor Frederic visited
the pope at Rome, and took Ladislaus in his glittering suite. The
precocious child here