The Wheel Is Come Full Circle 125had any express centralising intentions he showed strong absolutist
tendencies which if left unchecked could have led in much the same
direction. The Catholic electors welcomed the Edict of Restitution, and
Ferdinand’s confiscation of Frederick’s Palatinate and electoral title ben-
efited Maximilian, but they were nevertheless dangerous precedents,
while the expropriation of Mecklenburg and involvement in the Dutch
and Italian wars were much less acceptable to them. But whoever was
the real threat, Ferdinand’s increased power rested on Wallenstein, so as
far as the electors were concerned he had to go.
Despite the eleven years of crisis and war since his election as emperor,
Ferdinand had never felt it necessary to convene an Imperial Diet or to
attend a meeting of the electors, in itself a significant indication of his
attitude. There was, though, one matter which he could not resolve on
his own. In 1630 he was 52 and not in the best of health, so he wanted
to secure the succession for his son rather than leave the risk that an
alternative candidate might come forward were he to die unexpectedly.
Other names had been canvassed in 1619, and there were rumours that
Maximilian of Bavaria might be interested, which would present a sig-
nificant threat given that not only Maximilian but also his brother, the
archbishop of Cologne, were themselves electors. Election to the honor-
ary position of King of the Romans had long been regarded as designa-
tion as the emperor’s successor, and it was this which Ferdinand sought
for his son, Archduke Ferdinand. The electors saw this as an opportunity
to extract concessions from him, and more than two years earlier the
elector of Mainz, in his capacity as Imperial chancellor, had pointedly
informed Ferdinand that he could not guarantee his son’s elevation
while Wallenstein remained in command of the army.^4 In 1628 the
emperor could afford to wait and to ignore the complaints about his
general which came from an assembly of the Catholic electors; in 1629
he still felt able to disregard renewed protests from two meetings of the
Catholic League; by 1630 his personal and political needs had become
more pressing, and he had to meet and listen to the electors.
In March 1630 the elector of Mainz summoned his colleagues to
attend an electoral meeting at Regensburg that summer, but by the time
they arrived it seemed that everybody who was anybody in the Empire,
as well as a large number of nobodies, were converging on the little city.
Ambassadors and envoys also came from outside, prominent among
them those from the pope, from Spain and from France, including
Richelieu’s own confessor and éminence grise, the Capuchin Father Joseph.
Many of this multitude came to present petitions and com plaints, while
others, particularly the more elevated, came principally to attend what