74 Wallenstein
the Imperialist side were fortunate to gain a respite due to the divisions
among their opponents.
The attempts of Frederick and his sympathisers to create a functional
military alliance from the loose congruence of interests of the vari-
ous parties achieved nothing of consequence during that year. James
I did reach an agreement with France to make a joint attack on the
forces occupying the Palatinate, in which the ubiquitous Mansfeld
was to be employed, and the general duly started recruiting English
troops, financed with English money. The Dutch and the English,
along with Brandenburg, also proposed to support Frederick’s cause
with an army which was to advance on the Palatinate through north
Germany, and they invited Gustavus II Adolphus, king of Sweden, not
only to participate but also to lead this campaign. From the Habsburg
viewpoint these developments looked very threatening, but differences
soon emerged. The Protestant Gustavus would not cooperate with
Catholic France, and he made his involvement conditional on his allies
providing 40,000 men, of whom he was to have sole command. The
new French chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu, then withdrew from the
planned French-English joint attack, so that the sole outcome was a
small English army under Mansfeld, and even that did not enter service
until January 1625.
Perversely it was the hostility between two of the prospective allies
which eventually led to action. There was a long history of bitter rivalry
and actual war between Denmark and Sweden, so that the Anglo-Dutch
invitation to Gustavus Adolphus to lead a joint force had caused great
alarm to King Christian IV of Denmark. This was based partly on the
fear that a large army under Swedish control and with Dutch naval sup-
port would seriously upset the balance of power in the Baltic and might
constitute an actual threat to Denmark, but personal prestige also played
a major part. Christian was in the unusual position for a monarch of
the time of being wealthy enough to act substantially independently
of his Estates, and he was not only king of Denmark but also duke of
Holstein, in which capacity he was a prince of the Empire and a member
of the Empire’s Lower Saxon Circle. As plans for the coalition of 1624
faltered Christian proposed to intervene militarily himself, subject to
England sending 7000 troops to Denmark and despatching Mansfeld
to Holland. Mansfeld was duly sent but James I persisted in trying
to involve Sweden, up to the time of his death in early 1625. He was
unsuccessful and eventually Christian acted alone, despite the opposi-
tion of his own council. In April 1625 he secured election to the vacant
post of military commander of the Lower Saxon Circle, and in June he