No Way Back 169the Letter of Majesty.^30 Christian of Anhalt, on behalf of the Palatinate,
accordingly made an agreement with the duke on 28 May 1619 in Rivoli,
which committed the latter to finance a larger force under Mansfeld
in Bohemia. The duke not only promised to provide 100,000 ducats a
month himself, to be paid quarterly for up to three years, but to secure a
similar sum from Venice for the support of the revolt, provided that he
was not himself attacked by Spain. He was also to pay substantial sums
of money to the Palatinate and its fellow Calvinist territory of Ansbach,
which were to raise an army to assist the Bohemians, while in return the
elector of the Palatinate would direct support in the Bohemian election
towards Savoy.^31
Both sides were playing fast and loose. The sums of money promised
by Charles Emmanuel were vastly in excess of the resources of his duchy,
as well as conditional upon him actually being elected, and in the event
he did not pay. The Palatine lobby were probably confident that he
would not be elected anyway, even if they voted for him, but by the
middle of July Anhalt had stopped even pretending to support him
and was openly working for the election of Friedrich. Mansfeld and the
Savoy agent in Prague were actively canvassing too, however, and to
counter their efforts the Palatine party concentrated on the duke’s prin-
cipal weakness in Bohemia, the fact that he was a Catholic and had not
in the past been noted for his religious tolerance. Not surprisingly, given
the background to the revolt, this ultimately proved fatal for his chances
of election.^32
A more realistic candidate – apart from his own unwillingness – was
Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony. Unlike distant Savoy, Saxony bordered
directly on to northern Bohemia and Lusatia, and it was not only one
of the larger and more powerful territories of the Empire, but also its
leading Lutheran principality. This made the elector a natural choice for
Schlick and a group of like-minded Bohemian Lutherans, but not for
the members of the Brethren. Both Saxony and Johann Georg himself
were strongly antipathetic towards Calvinists, and moreover the elector
was no more inclined than the Habsburgs towards the political rights
and freedoms of the Estates. More significant still was Johann Georg’s
constitutionalist outlook and support for the concepts and institutions
of the Empire, which had kept him and his predecessors at odds with the
Palatine-led Protestant opposition during the preceding decades. He saw
himself as duty bound to the emperor, and he had no time for rebels.
Nevertheless he seems to have been as attracted as others by the idea
of a crown and the title of king, and in particular to have felt that if
he himself did not have them no-one else should either, which may