On first joining his army, Frederick, perhaps in consequence of his ignorance of military matters, seems to have taken a not unfavourable view of the situation. In a letter to Doge Priuli, he informed him that he hoped soon to expel and totally defeat the invading army.[1]
Events unfortunately were not in accordance with the king's previsions. When the enemy's troops approached Plzeň, an emissary sent by Mansfeld appeared and demanded an armistice. Mansfeld had long been at discord with the other Bohemian generals, and his troops, who had received no pay for a year, were mutinous. It is, however, probable that a promise of a large sum of money was made to Mansfeld, and that this was the principal cause of this act of treachery, which destroyed the last hopes of the Bohemians. The army of the king had in the meantime arrived at Rokycan, near Plzeň, and a joint attack on the Imperial forces would not have been without some chance of success. Treachery was indeed prevalent in the Bohemian camp, as Frederick particularly noticed in a letter to Queen Elizabeth written about this time.[2] The army at Plzeň now no longer menacing their flanks, it was natural that Bouquoi and the Duke of Bavaria—or rather Tilly, to whom he delegated the actual management of the campaign—should have decided to march on Prague. In their opinion, which the events justified, the surrender of the capital would end the Protestant movement in Bohemia as well as in the other lands of the Bohemian crown. Well informed as they were concerning all that occurred in the Bohemian camp, they
- ↑ "Nos potenli Dei brachio confisi et nequidquam copiam exercitus hostilis metuentes in persona copiis nostris militaribus adesse voluimus hostem subinde insequentes ut si qua praeliandi occasio (quam praeterlabi et neglegi serio cavebimus) offeratur, caput capiti objiciamus et Deo conatibus nostris propitio finibus regni nostri arcere et peritus fundere valeamus" (Letter dated, "In Castris ad Lnarz," October 7, 1620, in the State Archives at Venice).
- ↑ "Depuis nous avons été avertis que le Duc de Bavière et le Comte de Bouquoi ont été en bataille toute la nuit pour nous attendre; de là on peut juger qu nous n'avons faute de traitres." This letter, dated "Rochesance (Rokycan) Le 12/22 Octobre 1620," is printed in Sir George Bromley's Royal Letters; a book quaintly described by Carlyle as "one of the most curious books on the Thirty Years' War, 'edited' with a composed stupidity and cheerful infinitude of ignorance which still farther distinguishes it." The book is, however, not without value for students of Bohemian history.
