So far as affairs of state were concerned, the volatile youth either
totally neglected them or treated them with a ridicule that was worse
than neglect. Drunk two-thirds of his time, he now dismissed the most
serious matters with a rude jest, now met his councillors with brutal
fits of rage. The Germans deemed him a fool, and were not far amiss in
their opinion; but as he did not meddle with them, except in holding an
occasional useless diet at Nuremberg, they did not meddle with him. The
Bohemians, among whom he lived, his residence being at Prague, found his
rule much more of a burden. They were exposed to his savage caprices,
and regarded him as a brutal and senseless tyrant.
That there was method in his madness the following anecdote will
sufficiently show. Former kings had invested the Bohemian nobles with
possessions which he, moved by cupidity, determined to have back. This
is the method he took to obtain them. All the nobles of the land were
invited to meet him at Willamow, where he received them in a black tent,
which opened on one side into a white, and on the other into a red one.
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