168 The Origins of the Thirty Years War and the Revolt in Bohemia, 1618
none of the three remaining possible candidates declared themselves
openly, or even unambiguously in private to their supporters among
the Bohemians, so that caucuses had to press the claims of their pre-
ferred choices without any confirmation as to whether the individual
concerned would actually accept if elected.
The most evident contender was Duke Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy,
whose territories, mostly in modern north-west Italy, stretched from the
Mediterranean to the Swiss border, with his capital at Turin. In his late
fifties and already a ruling duke for approaching forty years, Charles
Emmanuel had long been pursuing any opportunity which might bring
him the title of king, in order, as he put it, to ‘lift Ourselves out of the
crowd of the other Italian princes’. His largest ambition, however, was
to contest the Imperial election when Matthias died, and to this end
Mansfeld was sent first not to Prague but to the Palatinate to offer his
troops, half of whom Savoy would continue to pay if the elector would
pay the other half, for service in Bohemia. This move was designed to
win Protestant favour, and Mansfeld was accordingly instructed to draw
attention in Heidelberg to the duke’s merits as a prospective emperor,
but Savoy’s military involvement was to be kept secret to avoid pre-
maturely disturbing the more peaceful relationship recently established
with the Habsburgs. Thus the Bohemians themselves did not know
who was paying half of Mansfeld’s men until April of the following
year, allowing the Palatinate to take all the credit and to employ this
in support of their elector’s own prospective interest in the Bohemian
crown.^29
It was not until January 1619 that Charles Emmanuel told the Palatine
representatives that he wanted the Bohemian throne for himself, not
instead of but in addition to the Imperial one, as ‘without something
stable in the Empire it seemed to him he could not uphold the great-
ness, dignity and power proper to such a position, since his states are
as far from Germany as they are’. He backed this claim with a stick
and a carrot, ceasing his payments to Mansfeld in March but holding
out the prospect of much larger subsidies in the future, as well as of
alternative great opportunities for Friedrich, the Palatine elector, after
he himself became emperor. With Mansfeld and the Bohemians desper-
ate for money and the matter made much more urgent by the death
of Matthias he was in a strong negotiating position, so that Friedrich
instructed his representative in Prague to inform his supporters that
he was not a candidate, while a group around Ruppa agreed to vote
for Charles Emmanuel, subject to him fulfilling his promises of sup-
port and providing guarantees of religious tolerance in accordance with