No Way Back 163join the revolt Thurn finally resolved the issue by invading Moravia with
a substantial army in April 1619. He met with no resistance, and indeed
the Protestant nobility were more than ready to join the Bohemians.
Most of the Catholics, led by Liechtenstein and Dietrichstein, were also
acquiescent, motivated partly by anxiety to save their property and
partly by defeatism arising from the poor Imperialist military showing
in the autumn.
The only other practical military help for the Bohemians came from
Bethlen Gabor, since 1613 the Calvinist prince of Transylvania, then
an independent principality although nevertheless a tributary of the
Ottoman Empire. Bethlen had his own ambitions and reasons for
becoming involved, and to the extent that his interests coincided with
theirs he provided valuable assistance to the Protestant side in the early
part of the Thirty Years War, but he proved to be an unreliable ally,
prone to concluding truces with the Habsburgs whenever he faced pres-
sures elsewhere or when his own objectives had been achieved for the
time being.
In the spring of 1619 Ferdinand was almost equally isolated militarily,
while the forces he had put into the field with Spanish assistance the
previous autumn had fared badly. Thurn, following on from his blood-
less triumph in Moravia, took advantage of the situation to march into
Austria, and by May he had the capital itself under siege. In early June
there was a change of fortune. Some 7000 Spanish troops were making
their way from Flanders to join the Imperialists in Bohemia, but when
Mansfeld tried to intercept them he was himself caught by Bucquoy,
who defeated him heavily near the town of Záblatí.^20 This was the first
significant Imperialist victory and one which immediately caused the
Bohemian directorate to recall Thurn, so that the siege of Vienna was
lifted.
The respite was short-lived, as in August Bethlen launched his attack
through Habsburg Hungary towards Pressburg, which he captured in
October to bring him within striking distance of Vienna. Bucquoy was
called back to the defence, and hotly pursued by Thurn he made a
hazardous withdrawal over the Danube at Ulrichskirchen, not far from
Vienna, but was unable to prevent Thurn and Bethlen joining forces to
besiege the city for a second time. Again the siege was abandoned, as
towards the end of November Bethlen heard of a diversionary Polish
foray into Transylvania, and this and the approach of winter were suffi-
cient to send him home. Thurn, short of money and artillery, his troops
ill paid, ill disciplined, and ill from various pestilences, had little choice
but to follow suit, bringing 1619 to an end for military purposes.