126 The Origins of the Thirty Years War and the Revolt in Bohemia, 1618
apparent under Matthias. The nomination of a militant protagonist of
counter-Reformation as his successor did not seem likely to be readily
accepted.
Strictly speaking, the succession initially concerned only the
Habsburg family territories, but it carried with it the expectation that
the nominee would in due course also be the Habsburg candidate for
the Imperial crown. At a time when Matthias and Khlesl were seeking
to reduce tension in the Empire, and working to establish what the lat-
ter called aKompositionor understanding with the Protestant princes,
confirmation of Ferdinand as the Habsburg successor and prospective
emperor was likely to be unhelpful, to say the very least. The Spanish too
were uncomfortable, as trouble in the Empire or the Austrian Habsburg
lands would be extremely unwelcome as their truce in the Netherlands
approached its end, when they were hoping to concentrate all available
resources on the renewed war with the Dutch. Khlesl therefore sought
to delay action on the succession as long as possible, arguing that it
should be addressed only after hisKompositionhad been achieved in
the Empire, while Matthias was by no means anxious to confront his
own mortality by establishing a successor before it became absolutely
necessary.
Meanwhile Ferdinand found an ally in Archduke Maximilian of Tyrol,
the elder of Matthias’s two remaining brothers, and an increasingly per-
sonal animosity developed between these two on the one side and Khlesl
on the other.^21 Khlesl’s influence on Matthias meant that he held the
stronger political position, enhanced by his appointment as a cardinal
in 1616, so with action on the succession blocked for the time being
they concentrated on clearing other potential obstacles. For Ferdinand
to be endorsed other possible contenders would have to waive their
claims, including Maximilian himself and his brother Albrecht in the
Netherlands. That did not prove unduly difficult, although both limited
their waivers to the Hungarian and Bohemian crowns, reserving their
positions on Austria, but Philip III of Spain presented a more formidable
problem.
The Habsburg family was of course not limited to the Austrian branch,
and after Matthias’s election as emperor Philip had been quick to lay
claim to the succession to the family territories. His argument was that
he was a grandson, indeed the only surviving grandson, of Emperor
Maximilian II, which was true enough although his descent was in
the female line, his mother being Maximilian’s eldest child, Rudolf’s
and Matthias’s older sister, whereas Ferdinand was only Maximilian’s
nephew. How serious Philip was in his candidacy is an open question,