30 The Origins of the Thirty Years War and the Revolt in Bohemia, 1618
In an aside to this wrangle there was a resumption of activity in the
religiously divided city of Aachen, where Catholic control had been
reimposed by military force in 1598. Thereafter matters in the city grad-
ually reverted to a confessional compromise, leading ten years later to a
renewed dispute with the Jülich authorities. In 1608 the latter attempted
a blockade of the city, while the Protestant citizens in turn exploited
the subsequent Cleves-Jülich inheritance conflict to circumvent the
religious restrictions which had been imposed on them, flocking out
to attend services in areas newly under the control of the Protestant
claimant princes. In July 1611 five citizens who had been particularly
ostentatious in their defiance were expelled from the city, leading to riot-
ing in which the Jesuit college and the city hall were attacked, following
which a Protestant body was set up in opposition to the Catholic coun-
cil. The resulting Imperial order demanding restitution was overtaken
by the death of Emperor Rudolf II, and Protestant worship was again
authorised in the subsequent inter-regnum under the far from impartial
control of the Palatinate, when a new Calvinist-dominated council was
also elected. This lasted only until the accession of Emperor Matthias,
who duly issued an order to restore the situation imposed in 1598, com-
pliance with which was ensured by the appearance of a Spanish army
from the Netherlands outside the city in 1614.^30
The Reichstag meeting in Regensburg in 1613, five years after the pre-
vious one had been dissolved in deadlock, was Emperor Matthias’s first,
and his principal adviser Cardinal Khlesl, although formerly a protago-
nist of counter-Reformation, had recognised that seeking to re-establish
a degree of stability was not only essential for the Empire but also in the
interests of the Habsburgs in their own lands. Despite his conciliatory
efforts, however, after the reading of the emperor’s agenda the Protestant
block, led by the Palatinate, presented a list of issues which they said
should be resolved first, including the restitution of Donauwörth. Pro-
longed negotiations followed but these eventually broke down without
achieving an agreement. Thus at the end of the session the required for-
mal closing resolution, including taxation for defence against the Turks,
was passed by a majority vote in which Saxony and other conservative
Lutherans joined with the Catholics. The meeting was then adjourned
until May 1614, but that meeting never took place. In fact the Reichstag
did not meet again until 1640, not least because the Thirty Years War
intervened.