188 The Origins of the Thirty Years War and the Revolt in Bohemia, 1618
long-standing rivalry between the Bavarian dukes and their Habsburg
neighbours. In this case the Bavarian had won, but he blamed the
archduke for the considerably increased cost.
When the archduke died in November 1618 Ferdinand saw the oppor-
tunity, and he commissioned his brother Leopold to visit Maximilian in
Munich to argue for a renewal of the League. At around the same time
both Philip III of Spain and the pope wrote to Maximilian in similar
vein, while he himself suggested to his brother, the archbishop-elector
of Cologne, that the latter might take the lead in re-constituting the
former Rhine division of the League. Nevertheless he made no direct
move himself, instead drawing attention to the past problems, particu-
larly over the non-payment of contributions, which would have to be
overcome first.^15
Thus it was the elector of Mainz who, after considerable hesitation,
took the initiative, calling a meeting of the three ecclesiastical elec-
tors and the bishops of important neighbouring territories around the
Rhine in January 1619, with the intention of renewing the Catholic
League. Still Maximilian remained aloof, although clearly disconcerted
that matters were proceeding without him, but nevertheless the elec-
tors pressed on, quickly agreeing a new association on the original
model, that is divided into two directorates rather than the later three.
As before the Rhine region was to be under Mainz leadership, and it
was hoped that Maximilian would again become head of the coun-
terpart for southern Germany, but even so the agreement pointedly
provided that the two directorates would have independent military
commands, with Maximilian only taking overall control in the event
of joint operations.^16
Maximilian still had reservations, and among various points first
requiring resolution the most critical for him was to establish firmly
that there was no question of a third directorate under Habsburg leader-
ship. To the consternation of the other participants Archduke Leopold,
who had become older but no wiser since his part in the Passau army
march on Prague in 1611, responded sharply that on the contrary his
family were indeed looking for such a directorate, and that he was him-
self to head it. The resulting impasse was only resolved at the end of
April, when Ferdinand intervened personally shortly after the death
of Emperor Matthias, writing to confirm the final withdrawal of the
Habsburg claim.^17
Even then matters proceeded slowly while the constitution was
redrafted and the relationship between the two directorates was debated.
Nor did all the former members hasten to rejoin, so that active