Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/181

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THE IMPERIAL ELECTION
143

and Hohenloe, after Dohna’s report, seemed to have agreed that, in the coming election of a King, they must look to Savoy.

In order to bring the business to a conclusion, and obtain from Savoy increased aid, the Prince of Anhalt set out (last of April, 1619) for Turin, announced the favorable reception which Dohna’s report had found in Prague, and attempted to bring the Duke to the definite terms of a treaty. He did not, however, find him so favorably disposed as previous intelligence had led him to expect. Charles Emanuel had learned from his diplomatic agents that the hopes which he had upon the accession of Venice and France to the alliance were without foundation, and indeed that France would rather oppose than favor his plans. Still further, from James of England, whose support the Palsgrave deemed so certain, no encouraging assurances had arrived, and the special condition, therefore, under which the Duke was ready to support Bohemia was not fulfilled. But as the Prince of Anhalt reinstilled into him the spirit which had been checked, persistently urging the conclusion of an alliance, he finally yielded to the pressure; but one can scarcely avoid the suspicion, in view of his later bearing, that he did this only to be rid of his annoyer. In the treaty he bound himself to the further support of 4,600 men to prevent, in the service of Bohemia, the passage of Spanish troops from Italy to Germany, to send 6,000 men to Alsace, and, finally, to the monthly payment of 100,000 ducats to the Union. In return, the Palsgrave was bound to fit out an army of 10,000 men in aid of the Bohemians, and to use with them his influence for the Duke’s election to the crown. In a second draft of a treaty, made on the same day, it was provided that the Duke of Savoy, in case it