of Habsburg;[1] since these lands, situated nearer to the Palatinate than Bohemia, would be even more valuable to the Elector. The duke, however, still received Anhalt's proposals coldly. He made his support of the German Protestants conditional on the approval of the Elector's father-in-law, King James of England. That sovereign had little real sympathy with the Protestant cause. The English ambassadors on the Continent, however, appear to have been carried away by their own Protestant zeal, and to have adopted an attitude more favourable to the Protestants of Germany than their instructions warranted.[2] It is certain that Anhalt succeeded in persuading the Duke of Savoy, at least for a time, that King James approved of the ambitious plans of his son-in-law. Hopes were also entertained that the Republic of Venice, which had recently been at war with the Archduke Ferdinand of Styria, and which was on terms of friendship with the Elector Palatine,[3] would join the enemies of the house of Habsburg.
Anhalt at last succeeded in bringing the Duke of Savoy to his views, and a treaty of alliance was signed at Rivoli (May 1619). "The Duke of Savoy pledged himself to prevent the passage of Spanish troops through his territory on their way to Germany and Bohemia, and promised a monthly subsidy of 10,000 ducats to the confederacy of the Protestant German princes, known as the "Union," of which Frederick was leader. The Elector Palatine, on the other hand, promised to send an army of 10,000 men to the aid of the Bohemian Protestants, and to use all his influence in favour of the election of the Duke of Savoy to the Bohemian throne. Anhalt left Italy immediately after the signature of this treaty; but both parties seem almost from the first to have regretted it, and it remained entirely inoperative. The Elector Palatine deplored the sacrifice of his hopes on the Bohemian crown, and continued secretly to intrigue in favour of his own candidature. The Duke of Savoy, when he saw that England would not join the alliance against the house of Habsburg, began to fear the enmity of
- ↑ This referred to the Breisgau and some adjoining districts—now forming parts of Baden and Würtemburg.
- ↑ See Gindely, Geschichte des Dreissigjährigen Krieges.
- ↑ The Venetian archives contain numerous letters addressed by Frederick of the Palatinate to the Doges Antonio Priuli and Francesco Contarini (1618–1624), requesting financial aid.
