Hence also rapine, murder, conflagrations, and a thousand evils which arise from divided authority." Upon the death of Ladislaus there was a great rush and grasping for the vacant thrones of Bohemia and Hungary, and for possession of the rich dukedoms of Austria.

After a long conflict the Austrian estates were divided into three portions.

Frederic, the emperor, took Upper Austria; his brother Albert, who had succeeded to the Swiss estates, took Lower Austria; Sigismond, Albert's nephew, a man of great energy of character, took Carinthia.

The three occupied the palace in Vienna in joint residence.
The energetic regent, George Podiebrad, by adroit diplomacy succeeded, after an arduous contest, in obtaining the election by the Bohemian nobles to the throne of Bohemia.

The very day he was chosen he was inaugurated at Prague, and though rival candidates united with the pope to depose him, he maintained his position against them all.
Frederic, the emperor, had been quite sanguine in the hopes of obtaining the crown of Bohemia.