The Revolt Defeated 213days to withdraw from the confederation with Bohemia and to take an
oath of loyalty to Ferdinand.
With no more than 3000 soldiers and a farmer militia, the Upper
Austrians had no prospect of effective resistance, despite which they
attempted to avoid the inevitable by playing for time and seeking nego-
tiations, and even after Tilly invaded in force on 25 July and quickly
occupied the province they were still trying to make conditions about
a surrender. Maximilian ignored them, taking over the royal castle in
Linz but refusing to discuss terms, which he said were a matter for the
emperor. Although Ferdinand wanted him to take strong action to sup-
press the Protestant religion and punish the ringleaders of the revolt
he advised restraint, both to avert further resistance which might delay
his advance into Bohemia and to avoid antagonising the Protestants
in Germany, particularly the elector of Saxony.^24 Hence Maximilian
stayed only long enough to arrange and conduct a homage ceremony
on 25 August, in which he acted as Ferdinand’s representative, although
many of the estates, including Tschernembl, preferred flight to submis-
sion. By then the army was on the move again, having first compulsorily
recruited the Upper Austrians’ troops to replace a similar number of
League men left behind to garrison the province.^25
Maximilian did not feel it necessary to give similar attention to
Lower Austria, possibly because of the belated submission of many of
its nobility to Ferdinand, but probably also because it did not have the
same personal interest for him. Instead he first marched north to the
Bohemian border, but was then obliged to delay and to move further
east into Lower Austria in order to join up with Bucquoy, a meeting
which did not take place until 8 September. Three months had passed
since the newly recruited League army had advanced on Ulm in June,
and time was starting to run out. November was traditionally the last
month of the campaigning season, but even that was problematic and
weather dependent. Autumn rains quickly made poor roads worse, slow-
ing down troop movements and increasing supply problems, while in
hilly country such as Bohemia many routes became virtually impass-
able for the heavy guns. With little shelter for the soldiers and their
families, and little in the fields for the horses to eat, disease, desertions
and deaths soon took a toll on an army’s strength, while the advantage
tended to shift to defending forces which were better provided for.
Against this background differences over strategy immediately arose.^26
Bucquoy was an officer trained in the Spanish tradition of attritional
warfare, which contended that an open-field battle always involved a
risk of disaster. A prudent commander should therefore stand and fight