212 The Origins of the Thirty Years War and the Revolt in Bohemia, 1618
into Bohemia, as combined operations at a distance were notoriously
difficult in an age of poor communications and intelligence, particularly
when the commanders were independent equals rather than one being
subordinate to the other. Nevertheless Maximilian’s personal interests
carried greater weight in the decision. His first objective was to occupy
territory which would either guarantee the payment of his expenses or
be a valuable acquisition for Bavaria in the event of default, and in this
context only Ferdinand’s own provinces could be regarded as fully reli-
able surety. Lands in the Palatinate would only become available if the
campaign were successful, and even then there were clear political risks
to the tenure of property seized from defeated enemies by the emperor.
Upper Austria was safe, it bordered on Bavaria, and it was a conveniently
sized entity, so that it was a logical starting point which neatly matched
Maximilian’s requirements.
Although Maximilian accompanied the campaign in person through-
out, he was himself no soldier, so that the actual military command
was in the hands of his lieutenant-general, Count Johann Tserclaes
Tilly, a minor nobleman from the Spanish Netherlands. A career sol-
dier, Tilly had been in Imperial service for many years in the wars in
Hungary before he was recruited by Maximilian in 1609, at the time of
the foundation of the Catholic League. He was a highly experienced
and successful officer, and despite being 60 years of age in 1620 he
would command the League army for a further twelve years before being
mortally wounded in action against Gustavus Adolphus. He was also
Maximilian’s type of man, a devout Jesuit-educated Catholic and an
abstemious and hard-working bachelor, more like a monk, some said,
than a soldier.
Once the treaty neutralising the Protestant Union army was signed,
Tilly wasted no time in getting his forces on the move. Some marched
all the way, while some were shipped part of the distance on the Danube,
but by mid-July the whole of the main army was in Schärding, a small
town on the River Inn, which at that point formed the border between
Bavaria and Upper Austria. His strength was already reduced by some
8000 men, however, as they had been despatched to the northernmost
part of Bavaria, near the Bohemian border some 35 miles south-west
of Pilsen, in order to protect Maximilian’s own territory from attack
by Mansfeld’s army, which was still holding the latter city.^23 Never-
theless the army at Schärding was large and well-equipped, complete
with artillery, and if the Upper Austrians had any doubts about its
intended employment Maximilian quickly removed them. Notifying
them of his appointment as an Imperial executor, he gave them five