48 The Origins of the Thirty Years War and the Revolt in Bohemia, 1618
territories of the Empire. Religiously and politically militant, confronta-
tional and with a European outlook, it stood in sharp contrast to the
moderate, conformist and inward-looking Lutheran principalities typi-
fied by Saxony. Hence while it was often anathema to most of the latter,
the Palatinate was highly attractive to many like-minded co-religionists,
so that it received a significant inflow of able and well-educated men,
some of them refugees from intolerance elsewhere, some of them keen
to be at the forefront of Calvinist progress, and others simply ambitious.
Many were successful in gaining posts as clerics, academics, lawyers or
administrators, and in time some even graduated to the elector’s coun-
cil. This led to the strange situation that a significant proportion of the
opinion-formers and influence-wielders were outsiders from other parts
of Germany or beyond, with no personal commitment to the Palatinate,
which was more a vehicle for pursuing their religious and political objec-
tives and antagonisms than their homeland.^41 Policy formation also
became circular, in that the newcomers naturally supported the contin-
uation of the religious and political stance which had attracted them
to the Palatinate in the first place, and even tended towards greater
extremism rather than moderation.
This situation was further exacerbated by the fact that the brief reign
of Friedrich III’s son Ludwig VI was followed from 1583 by two minori-
ties and the subsequent accessions of two weak electors, Friedrich IV
and Friedrich V, both of whom relied heavily on their advisors, and
indeed were inclined to leave much of the direction of policy to them.
These advisers, however, had experienced a short sharp shock under
Ludwig VI, a Lutheran who had not followed his father in adopting
the Reformed religion, and who had promptly sent the Calvinists pack-
ing. Their hold on effective power was only saved by his death after
seven years, during which many of the officials had found employment
in the minor principality of Friedrich III’s second son Johann Casimir, a
Calvinist who became regent of the Palatinate on his brother’s death and
brought them all back again. Even then they were not out of the wood,
as two external Lutheran princes were nominated as co-regents, and
Johann Casimir had to manoeuvre carefully before he could establish
effective control.
Friedrich IV reached majority in 1592, but he was a heavy drinker,
and ill health threatened an early death and another regency, possibly
by a Lutheran. Efforts were made to avert this, and to ensure continu-
ing Calvinist control of policy the electoral council was reconstructed
around 1604 in order to remove dissenting voices. The Palatinate
thus went into the critical years before the Thirty Years War with