Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/120

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84
THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR

ample of the other provinces and preserve a more or less friendly neutrality, if it did not even take the Emperor’s side. That the course of the Silesians was not in accordance with this supposition, but especially friendly to Bohemia, was brought about entirely by Margrave John George, of Jägerndorf. His enmity to the Hapsburgs began with a process which they had instituted against him for the possession of Jägerndorf. King Lewis, of Bohemia, had formerly granted to Margrave George, of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and his heirs this principality in fee. George’s line became extinct already with his son, and the Elector of Brandenburg, Joachim Frederic Jägerndorf, took possession of it and left it to his younger son, John George. But the Hapsburgs would not consent to this occupation, since Lewis’ enfieffment included only the issue of the Margrave George. Thus John George, being without an indisputable title to this domain, stood in fear that he might sooner or later be dispossessed, and therefore attached himself to the insurgents.

When, on the 3d of July, the Diet met at Breslau, it was decided, as a result of Jägerndorf’s earnest endeavors, that a force of 6,000 men be enlisted, which, for the present, however, should be retained in the land. Furthermore, the Diet resolved to send embassies to Vienna and Prague. The Duke of Brieg, who was sent to Vienna, was to censure the Emperor for driving the Bohemians to insurrection by the policy which he had pursued. The envoys sent to Bohemia were to exhort, indeed, to peace, but to advise the acceptance of this only on suitable conditions. Under these circumstances it was plain that the destination of the 6,000 men to be enlisted would not remain long in doubt, and would be in the interests of the Bohemians.