No Way Back 161interfere in the government of Bohemia during Matthias’s lifetime, and
it is also argued that he stood by his own confirmation of the Let-
ter of Majesty, in line with theological advice that such commitments
were still binding even when made to ‘heretics’.^16 Nevertheless he and
his uncle, long-standing enemies of Khlesl, became increasingly frus-
trated with what they regarded as the cardinal’s weak handling of the
rebellion, and they decided to take drastic action. Ferdinand first wrote
friendly letters to Khlesl, then he and Maximilian paid him a courtesy
visit. On 20 July 1618 Khlesl returned the visit, but in an anteroom
in the Vienna Hofburg palace he was confronted by three senior mili-
tary officers, told that he was under arrest, and forced to exchange his
purple cardinal’s robes for an ordinary priest’s cassock. Protest was use-
less, he was told, as the officers were acting on royal orders, and he
was quickly bundled into a waiting coach, in which he was driven day
and night to Maximilian’s Castle Ambras in distant Tyrol.^17 The Spanish
ambassador Oñate was party to this plot, although officially denying all
knowledge, but it was a risky venture. Matthias, failing though he was,
was still emperor, and he summoned the two archdukes to account for
themselves in an uncomfortable interview. Ironically, however, without
Khlesl to advise and support him Matthias lacked the energy and res-
olution to enforce his authority and rescue Khlesl. The emperor lived
another eight months, Maximilian less than four, but from this point
on Ferdinand increasingly controlled the government.
It was a critical event for the Bohemians, and indeed for European his-
tory. Compromise was not completely out of the question for Ferdinand,
as he had shown in negotiating the terms of his coronation in Prague
a year earlier, but for him it was a last resort, involving wrestling with
his religious conscience, whereas for the worldly-wise cardinal it was
merely a regrettable fact of political life. Even if the point of no return
for the revolt had not yet been reached it was much closer than it had
been. Military preparations were promptly speeded up, and with the aid
of Spanish money and generals, Counts Bucquoy and Dampierre, a first
Imperialist army entered Bohemia during August and a second one set
out from Vienna before the end of the month.
The military history of the following two years need only be
recounted briefly, as it was not this which determined the eventual fate
of the revolt, although it imposed great suffering on the unfortunate
people of Bohemia who were caught up in it. By the autumn of 1618
both sides had recruited significant although not vast forces, report-
edly around 15,000 strong, which were fairly evenly matched both in
numbers and resources, or perhaps more accurately lack of resources,