The Habsburg Brothers’ Feud 111Rudolf initially appointed Leopold to take possession of the Cleves-
Jülich duchies on his behalf pending a formal adjudication between the
claimants, but although the commandant of the Jülich citadel accepted
Imperial jurisdiction the other parties did not, so that in mid-1609
Leopold found himself impotently penned in with the garrison while
events developed outside without him. Eventually he slipped away, but
he was eager to try again, and in January 1610 Rudolf issued him with a
patent to recruit troops in order to enforce his authority in Jülich. This
Leopold quickly did, raising forces in both his bishoprics, although only
those from Strasbourg actually became involved in the conflict, skir-
mishing briefly and ineffectively on the sidelines in Alsace. The small
army which was mustered in Passau by April, two regiments of infantry
and two of cavalry, an official complement of around 8000 men, did
nothing at all.^27 Some indeed have suspected that this latter force was
never intended for deployment in Cleves-Jülich, which lies at almost
the furthest point in Germany from Passau. Prague, on the other hand,
is little over a hundred miles away, while Matthias’s Austrian provinces
were just across the border.^28
News of Leopold’s recruiting in Passau reached the Austrians in March
1610, and Matthias reacted swiftly to the potential threat, summon-
ing representatives from the Estates of Hungary, Moravia and Austria
to make preparations to defend the gains they had made two years
previously. Even before that these territories had started to mobilise
their militias and to recruit professional soldiers, their differences with
Matthias taking second place to this new danger from Rudolf and
Leopold, and by the late summer they were well prepared to defend
Austria. In Bohemia too the Protestants were alarmed, and although
they did not respond as quickly they too eventually started recruiting.
Rudolf also hoped to obtain support from a conference of Catholic
and moderate Lutheran princes which he called in Prague in May
1610, and there are reports that he took this opportunity to lobby the
Catholic and Saxon electors on behalf of Leopold as a candidate in a
future election of a king of the Romans, that is as his own prospective
successor as emperor.^29 Of more immediate importance was the situation
in Cleves-Jülich, which was then at a critical stage, so that while Rudolf
met with some sympathy from the Catholics for his complaint that his
lands had been taken forcibly from him, none were prepared to contem-
plate military action to recover them. Instead they advised negotiation,
and as Matthias expressed himself willing Rudolf had little choice but to
concur. The resulting mediation led to an agreement, concluded in late
September, under which both sides were to withdraw their troops from