The Search for Allies 195a peace agreement Habsburg Hungary should be ceded to him for life,
to reinforce which he persuaded the Hungarian Estates to elect him as
their prince on 8 January 1620. In the end he had to settle for smaller
concessions from Ferdinand, although these were still humiliating for
the latter, but in return he then offered not a peace but a nine-month
truce, concluded on 16 January.^29
Within days Bethlen nevertheless made an alliance with Friedrich
and the Bohemians, and in the following months their representatives
developed a plan for a further joint attack on Vienna in the autumn,
which would have been essentially a repeat of the 1619 campaign but
in greater strength. His justification for this duplicity was that a con-
dition of his truce with the emperor had been that the Bohemians
could also accede to it, but by early 1620 Ferdinand was intent on
crushing the revolt with the assistance of the League, rather than com-
ing to terms, and as no truce was forthcoming Bethlen claimed to be
free of his own obligations. By April he was again providing troops to
assist the Bohemians, although a few thousand rather than an army,
and while events overtook the planned further attack on Vienna a
reported 5000 of Bethlen’s light cavalry did fight at the Bohemians’ last
stand at the White Mountain in November 1620. Meanwhile, strength-
ened by Ferdinand’s concessions, Bethlen convened a further Hungarian
Estates meeting at Neusohl in August, where he was elected as king.
Unlike Friedrich, however, he prudently refrained from having himself
crowned, instead adopting the title of king-elect of Hungary, and thus
keeping his options open for whatever the future might bring.^30
The machinations with Bethlen also prompted the Bohemians to
go one step further in the search for allies, and in April 1620 they
sent an embassy to the Ottoman Porte. Such dealing with the per-
ceived arch-enemy of Christendom was controversial at the time, both
internally and more widely, as well as attracting great attention from
the Habsburg investigators at the subsequent trials of the Bohemian
directors, but although promises were plentiful it produced nothing of
practical assistance to the revolt.
Saxony
As well as requiring support by means of an attack on the Palatinate
from the Spanish Netherlands, Maximilian was anxious to ensure at
least the neutrality of Saxony before starting out on campaign. For
Ferdinand there were also important political considerations, as if he
could secure backing from some of the more conservative elements