232 The Origins of the Thirty Years War and the Revolt in Bohemia, 1618
of the rebels was still in an influential position, as he was in posses-
sion of not only Lusatia as a pledge for his costs, but also of the larger
and much more valuable province of Silesia.^3 Hence negotiations began
in January 1621, with Saxon mediation, but although Elector Johann
Georg, as well as the kings of England and Denmark, advised Friedrich
to make peace, and he agreed in principle to withdraw from Bohemia
and to accept Ferdinand as its king, his conditions were so extreme that
there was no realistic chance of a settlement. The Letter of Majesty was
to be confirmed and all the original complaints of the Bohemian Estates
were to be remedied, the Palatinate was to be evacuated and restored to
Friedrich, Ferdinand was to pay off the Bohemian troops and to assume
all Friedrich’s Bohemian debts, as well as refunding the latter’s other
expenses, prisoners of war, including Anhalt’s son, were to be released,
and all who had served Friedrich as king of Bohemia, in whatever capac-
ity, were to be freed from any penalties.^4 This uncompromising stance
solved the problem for Ferdinand, encouraging him to override the con-
tinuing opposition of the elector of Saxony, and even of his own privy
councillors, who advised that a ban should be deferred at least until the
complicated and controversial question of the transfer of the electoral
title had been resolved.^5 On 22 January he duly applied the Imperial ban
to Friedrich, following this up a few days later with an official mandate
authorising Maximilian to enforce it in the Palatinate.^6
Those with armies already in the Palatinate were not anxious to renew
the conflict. Spinola was uncomfortably aware that the truce between
Spain and the Dutch was due to expire in April, and he was looking to
transfer a large number of his troops back to the Netherlands as soon as
possible, while many of the Union members were ready ‘to be rid once
and for all of this pernicious Union’.^7 The three-year extension of the
alliance had been agreed only with difficulty in 1617, and experience
since then had reinforced the concerns of the cities and added to the
number of doubters among the princes, so that the few who remained
belligerently inclined found little support at a poorly attended confer-
ence which began in February in Heilbronn. The Palatinate’s neighbours
were similarly concerned to avoid further hostilities in their vicinity,
so that with the mediation of Catholic Mainz and Lutheran Hessen-
Darmstadt an agreement to disengage was reached in April, leaving
only the Palatinate’s own small forces and the mainly English garrison
at Frankenthal in the field against the Spanish.^8 In addition to a truce
the Union members had also to agree to withdraw all their troops from
Palatine territory, to give Friedrich no further support or assistance, and
neither to extend the life of the alliance nor to form a new one.^9 Thus