104 The Origins of the Thirty Years War and the Revolt in Bohemia, 1618
considered in the normal way. After two days the Protestant nobil-
ity walked out, reassembling shortly afterwards in the small town
of Horn, where they formed the Horn alliance, while the Lower
Austrians followed their neighbours in setting about raising taxes and
troops.
Matthias’s initial response was bold. In mid-October he received the
oath of allegiance from the bishops and Catholic members of the
nobility in Lower Austria, together with the cities, while he too began
recruiting soldiers. He was also able to detach a second of the Sterbohol
confederates, Hungary, albeit by making religious and political conces-
sions, and he secured the oath of allegiance and was crowned king
in mid-November. Meanwhile the Protestant Austrian nobility stood
their ground, and eventually, in early January 1609, Matthias set a
fourteen-day deadline for them to make their submission. Behind this
confrontational stance, however, both sides were conscious of their
weakness and lack of wider support. The newly formed Protestant Union
in Germany offered their co-religionists sympathy but no practical help,
while Christian of Anhalt had pursued a number of imaginative schemes
involving such unlikely potential allies as Rudolf himself, but to no
avail. Meanwhile Khlesl’s efforts on behalf of Matthias had fared no
better. Rudolf was not inclined to lend any form of assistance to his
brother, Maximilian of Bavaria was not to be diverted from his efforts to
form the Catholic League in Germany, and even the Catholic prelates
in Austria were looking for a settlement rather than an escalation of the
dispute.
Hence the opposing parties found themselves obliged to accept when
the Moravians, led by the peacefully inclined Zierotin, offered to act
as mediators. A compromise was reached over the future filling of high
offices, while Matthias accepted the withdrawal of Rudolf’s restrictions
on Maximilian II’s religious concessions to the nobility. The ques-
tion of giving the same rights to the cities was fought to the last,
with Khlesl bitterly opposed, but Matthias’s secular advisers prevailed
and the Protestants secured much, although not all, of what they
sought. By this stage both sides recognised that they had achieved
as much as was obtainable without resort to arms, and an agree-
ment was finally concluded in March 1609. No-one was satisfied, with
Matthias, Khlesl and the Catholic party hoping for a later opportunity
to claw back what had been conceded, while the Protestant militants
regarded the settlement only as the basis for further demands in the
future.