No Way Back 167had been under discussion for a long time beforehand, during which
the search for a suitable candidate was proceeding in parallel. There was,
however, a logical difficulty. On the one hand the Bohemian estates
wanted a king who would be little more than a cipher internally, but
on the other hand they needed him to be of sufficient personal stand-
ing to impress the world externally. Moreover he should already be in
possession of a substantial territory, with the resources to support his
new kingdom against its enemies. Few such people, it might be thought,
would be ready to accept the Bohemian tone on the terms offered, but
the rank and title of king were considerable attractions to the status-
conscious dukes and electors of the day. The closest parallel was the
elective monarchy in Poland, weak although not as powerless as pro-
posed for Bohemia, which had experienced little difficulty in the past in
attracting a choice of high-ranking candidates.
In this case there were other problems too. Whoever was elected
would find himself immediately caught up in a war against the emperor,
admittedly not the most powerful prince in Europe at the time, given
the range of problems facing him in his own territories, but nevertheless
too formidably well connected in the Empire and beyond to be taken
lightly. Matthias’s death added another complication, in that although
Ferdinand was only a candidate for the succession rather than already
emperor, the whole question of the forthcoming Imperial election con-
fused the jockeying for position around the two crowns. Nor could the
religious issue be underestimated. Apart from the few real zealots most
European princes were anxious to limit religious dissension in their
own realms, so that becoming involved in the hottest dispute of the
time, that in Bohemia, posed a considerable risk at home. Those with
strong religious convictions, whether Catholic or Protestant, also had to
consider how acceptable they would be to, and how they would deal
with, the other party in Bohemia, not to mention the divide between
the Lutherans and the Brethren. Not least was the problem of legiti-
macy in accepting a crown offered by rebels, a much greater issue for
seventeenth-century princes than for their successors in subsequent eras
more inclined toRealpolitik.
Various names were canvassed as the debate proceeded, whether in
aristocratic coteries in Prague or in the ante-rooms of princely courts
across Europe, but few seemed to be credible possibilities. Christian
IV of Denmark, Bethlen Gabor, and even Maximilian of Bavaria were
approached, but these contacts progressed no further, while the king of
Poland instructed his son to decline a Bohemian invitation to become
acontender.^28 One of the oddest features of the election was that