Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/182

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144
THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR

should on any ground occur that he should attain to the imperial and not to the Bohemian throne, should still pay the 100,000 ducats monthly, provided that the Bohemians should effect an election to their throne which should subserve the common interest. These two treaties, made at Rivoli, were to be ratified within two months. These transactions over, the Prince of Anhalt set out for Heilbronn, where, in the beginning of June (1619), a Diet of the Union assembled, before which he laid the result of his mission. Here appeared also Here appeared also envoys from Bohemia to solicit money and troops. Their request was granted to this extent, that the Union should stand security for them for a loan of 200,000 florins, which was afterwards effected in Nuremberg. The Union would do nothing towards raising auxiliary troops, but resolved to enlist from 13,000 to 15,000 men to prevent the passage to Bohemia of the force to be enlisted in Flanders or on the Rhine, in aid of Ferdinand, and we have already seen how they executed this resolution at Roden. From the Diet of the Union, Anhalt went to Amberg, where he usually resided, having been invested by the Palsgrave with the Regency of the Upper Palatinate, and held an interview with de Bausse, the agent of Savoy, and Count Mansfeld, giving them instructions as to the manner in which they should advocate the claims of the Duke of Savoy to the throne of Bohemia.

Scarcely, however, had de Bausse and Mansfeld departed, when both Anhalt and the Palsgrave regretted the giving of such instructions. They could not forgive themselves that they had renounced the crown of Bohemia in favor of the Italian prince, and hastened to retrieve their error by sending Ahaz von Dohna again to Prague to work against the Savoyan candidate. Dohna hastened