9 The Search for Allies
Bohemian disappointments
With Europe supposedly poised for war in 1618, the striking thing is
not how quickly allies rallied to the Bohemians and the emperor respec-
tively, but how anxious the majority proved to be to keep out of the
conflict. As the advantage swung back and forth between the two evenly
matched sides during 1618 and 1619 it became increasingly obvious that
neither was likely to triumph alone, but that victory would probably go
to the first to succeed in bringing powerful allies into the field. In the
event it took a full two years, involving long-drawn-out diplomacy and
eventually outright bribery, before Emperor Ferdinand II was able to
secure the outside support which was ultimately decisive, while the
Bohemians, despite equal efforts, never found more substantial exter-
nal allies than Bethlen Gabor of Transylvania, Mansfeld’s hired army,
and the limited resources of the Palatinate which came with Friedrich’s
election as their king.
Initially the Imperial side found assistance even harder to come by.
Spain did provide some money and a few experienced officers, but
the contribution was limited, even though Archduke Albrecht of the
Netherlands pressed for more Spanish help against the Bohemians from
an early stage. Philip III and his government in Madrid were reluctant
to become directly involved, or to commit further resources to what
they saw as a diversion from their first priority, the expected resump-
tion of their war with the Dutch when the twelve-year truce expired.
Nor could the pope, the notably anti-Habsburg Paul V, be persuaded to
make more than token financial contributions, while the defunct condi-
tion of the Catholic League precluded any help from that direction. The
attitude of Maximilian of Bavaria, the leading secular Catholic prince in
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