No Way Back 165on it, and it has been much discussed subsequently, in the end it
had as little influence on the outcome as the military campaigns of
the first two summers. The modest contribution from Silesia has been
noted, while although Moravia was eventually compelled into the field
by Thurn’s invasion its participation was half-hearted and not large
enough to make a significant difference. Politically, the lands of the
Bohemian crown did eventually join into a formal confederation, signed
on 31 July 1619, and although efforts to bring in Upper and Lower
Austria failed, treaties of association with these territories were signed
soon afterwards.^22 The lengthy constitution adopted by the confedera-
tion is of considerable interest from the standpoint of political theory, as
are the ideas of the principal authors which it contains, but analysis of
these is beyond the scope of the current book. The most significant ele-
ment in terms of practical consequences is the role which it allotted to
a future king, as discussed below. In other respects the confederation
was too late and too politically ineffective to make any real differ-
ence to the course of the revolt. The main contribution made by the
other Habsburg lands, including Hungary, was to deny their resources
to the Imperialist side, neither making available the limited military
forces which they controlled nor providing grants of taxation to shore
up the desperate Imperial finances and to fund recruiting against the
Bohemians.
A king for Bohemia
As long as Matthias lived the Bohemians could argue, at least to them-
selves, that Ferdinand was not yet really king of Bohemia, only king in
waiting, but when he died on 20 March 1619 this convenient dissimu-
lation was no longer tenable, and they had to chose between accepting
Ferdinand after all or finally refusing him.^23 The directors had made
their preparations long before, as in mid-November 1618 a group led
by Ruppa and Schlick privately contacted the Palatine representatives in
Prague and informed them that they had already drafted a document
stripping Ferdinand of the crown, although they did not intend to pub-
lish it before Matthias’s death, and they also broached the possibility
of offering the throne to their elector.^24 This was the start of the pro-
cess which led eventually to the formal deposition of Ferdinand from
the throne on 22 August 1619, and the election of Friedrich V of the
Palatinate in his place four days later.^25 That decision, and Friedrich’s
subsequent acceptance of the election, was the key turning point, the
step which meant that there was truly no way back. It was also the point
at which the revolt ceased to be an internal matter in the Habsburg lands