Although the Battle of White Mountain had sealed the fate of Frederick’s Bohemian possessions, there still remained to him his German Counties: the Upper Palatinate, lying between Bohemia and Bavaria, and the Lower or Rhenish Palatinate, lying on the lower reaches of the Rhine.
After the fall of Prague, Mansfeldt had shifted his army from Pilsen to the temporary safety of the Upper Palatinate. However, after the reduction of Bohemia Tilly pursued him there. Mansfeldt treated with Tilly a while, beguiling the League general with the prospect that Mansfeldt would bring his entire army over to Tilly’s banner.
In the event, Mansfeldt gathered his army and fled west. Tilly took the Upper Palatinate without a shot fired.
As part of Ferdinand’s coordinated attack on Frederick and his domains, Ambrogio Spínola and 20,000 Spanish troops invaded the Lower Palatinate. Having first struck straight east, as if to join the attack on Bohemia, Spínola suddenly struck south into the Lower Palatinate.
The territory was ill-defended by the remnants of the Protestant Union’s armies and Frederick’s own forces. Spínola quickly took most of the land south of the Rhine.
The Lower Palatinate was not yet entirely lost. Three fortified cities, Mannheim, Frankenthal and Heidelberg, remained in the hands of forces loyal to Frederick.
Spínola, satisfied that the Lower Palatinate was well in hand turned over command to his second, Cordoba. He returned to the Spanish Netherlands to turn his talents against the Dutch.
Mansfeldt, having fled the Upper Palatinate, turned his face toward the Lower. In October, 1622, Mansfeldt’s troops arrived just in time to relieve Frankenthal from the besieging Spaniards. Tilly and the army of the Catholic League had pursued Mansfeldt after their conquest of the Upper Palatinate. However, they did not attack Mansfeldt: the Spanish were unwilling to coordinate an attack and Tilly feared to attack alone.
The Spanish passivity arose not from cowardice, but diplomacy. England and Spain were seeking to persuade Frederick to formally renounce the throne he had lost in return for whcih he would be allowed to retain his German lands. The Rhenish lands would be held under Spanish protectorate, thus gaining Spínola the advantage in the Dutch wars which had tempted him to intervene in the first instance.
Unfortunately, Frederick, landless outlaw though he was, would not accede to this plan. The war would go on.
Rather than regain his lands by peace, Frederick thought to win them by war. In 1621, he raised three separate armies to recover his domains. The first of these was Mansfeldt’s already-existing army. This force had been strengthened to 22,000 by extensive recruiting in the Alsace.
The second force was Georg of Baden-Durlach’s army of 11,000 men, raised in his territories.
The last of these was Christian of Brunswick’s army, marching from the north to Frederick’s relief. Christian had raised an army of 10,000 in Lower Saxony, near the Bishopric of Halberstadt, of which he was secular administrator. He had marched into the Westphalian bishoprics of Münster and Paderborn, of which Maximilian of Bavaria’s brother, Ferdinand, Elector of Cologne, was the bishop. There he spent the winter of 1621-22 extorting money from the citizenry and the Catholic churches.
It was planned that Mansfeldt would march north and Georg march south, and the two forces join in the Lower Palatinate. This, in fact, occurred, but after defeating the army of Cordoba, the two armies split and marched north separately to meet Christian of Brunswick.
Frederick᾿s allies were unable to operate in concert, and were defeated piecemeal.
In May, 1622, Georg of Baden-Durlach was defeated at Wimpfen by the joint armies of Spain and the Catholic League while trying to cross the river Neckar
In June, 1622, Christian of Brunswick was intercepted at Höchst while trying to cross the river Main and join Mansfeldt on the southern bank of that river. There he too was defeated by the army of Spain and the Catholic League.
Despite the check by Tilly’s forces, Christian was able to cross the river with most of his troops and all of the spoils of Westphalia. He and Mansfeldt joined and retired to the south. They resigned their commissions in Frederick’s forces in 1622.
Christian and Mansfeldt resolved to join the Dutch armies. Marching north, they broke through a Spanish blocking force at Fleurus, although it cost their army many men and Christian his arm. The joint force marched into the Netherlands and appeared just in time to raise the Spanish seige of Bergen-Op-Zoom. The grateful Dutch took the freebooters into their service.
His forces lost, Frederick disbanded his armies and awaited such victories as could be gained through the wiles of the diplomats of his father-in-law, James I of England.
While his opponent made war at the peace table, Tilly devoted himself to war, and the taking those fortified positions retained by Frederick. In the fall of 1622, Heidelberg was taken and Mannheim surrendered shortly thereafter. Only Frankenthal remained, but that strong place was destined to fall not to Tilly’s arms, but to James’s diplomacy.
Throughout the ordeal of the Lower Palatinate, Protestant and anti-Habsburg powers had been unable to unite to provide succor to Frederick’s remaining forces. The Protestant Dutch, riven by internal dissension and facing a renewed assault after the expiration of their 12-year truce with the Spanish could not commit forces to the Empire. Likewise, the Christian IV, Lutheran King of Denmark was similarly unwilling to attack on his own.
Both powers looked to James I of England to unite the Protestant powers against the House of Austria. However, James pursued the mirage of a diplomatic solution, deluded by his dreams of a marriage alliance between his Prince Charles and the Infanta of Spain.
James did manage to arrange a fragile truce between the Spanish and Frederick’s forces, but it lasted only from April through July of 1621. He also importuned the Spanish into a grand peace conference at Brussels, intended to settle all of the affairs of Germany (and gain for his son Charles his Spanish bride).
The Spanish had taken all of the Lower Palatinate which they actually required. During the peace conference, the only combatant was Tilly, who was attempting to secure the remainder for his master, Maximilian. Although James protested vigorously against Tilly’s attacks (particularly against Heidelberg, which was garrisoned by English volunteers), the Spanish would (and could) do nothing.
By the end of the negotiations, the only place still held by Frederick was Frankenthal. As this was also garrisoned by Englishmen, James required it be given over to Isabella, Archduchess of the Spanish Netherlands. If Frederick were able to make his peace with the Emperor within eighteen months, it would be his again.
However, the Emperor himself had plans that would make peace with Frederick impossible.
Maximillian convened a meeting of the Imperial princes (Deputationstag) in Regensberg. He proposed to dispose of the lands and titles of the outlaw Frederick to Maximillian of Bavaria.
Save for Frederick’s brother, the Elector of Cologne, the proposal was opposed by all assembled. Not only the Protestant, but also the Catholic princes, were frightened by the expansion of Imperial power this portended. Not only Frederick himself, but also his entire line would be deprived of their dignities forever.
In the event, the Emperor and the Bavarians merely got an agreement to bestow Frederick’s title on Maximillian personally, with the possibility of reversion to Frederick’s heirs after Maximilian’s death.
Outraged by the Emperor’s elevation of Maximillian to the Elector’s rank, and concerned, at long last, by the implications of Spanish and Imperial control of the lower Rhineland, the anti-Habsburg powers began once more to support the efforts of the feckless Frederick to regain Bohemia.
A two-pronged attack was planned. Mansfeldt, who had been biding his time in the service of the United Provinces, was to be seconded once again to Frederick’s employ and retrace his steps westward toward Bohemia.
Christian of Brunswick, who had returned to the Lower Saxon Circle (Kreise) to recruit another army, was to march his armies eastward and join Mansfeldt. The combined armies were then to march southward against Bohemia. Meanwhile, Bethlen Gabor and the exiled Count Thurn were to attack Bohemia from the south.
Tilly, of course, had other ideas. He marched his forces from the Lower Palatinate northwest to the Lower Saxon Circle. There his veteran forces were an insuperable barrier between Brunswick and Bohemia. Checked, Brunswick led his army toward the Dutch and safety. Not content to passively protect Bohemia, Tilly pursued. At Stadlohn Tilly’s veteran forces crushed Brunswick’s recruits.
Stadlohn was the end of the combined operation, Brunswick had lost two thirds of his forces. Mansfeldt, low on cash, disbanded his forces and Bethlen Gabor, unprepared to confront the Imperial might unaided, sued once more for peace.
{Home}