Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/168

 mian army, that victory would doubtless have declared for him; but a sudden occurrence prevented this, and made it impossible for him longer to remain upon the Bohemian war theatre. Bethlen Gabor, Prince of Transylvania, had appeared as an ally of Bohemia in the war, and was marching against Presburg and Vienna. The latter city Buquoi could not abandon to capture, and so must withdraw and relinquish the advantages which he had thus far gained.

While these things were taking place, two events had prepared the way of an influence destined to be more controlling of destiny in the future than even the alliance of Bethlen, to which events we must call attention before proceeding to any further account of the war: these were the election of an Emperor at Frankfort, and that of a King by the insurgents at Prague.

King Ferdinand had set out, on the 11th of July, 1619, for Frankfort, and on his way thither had reached Salzburg, where he fell in with Lord Doncaster, the English ambassador, whom James had sent to the Continent as mediator in the Bohemian quarrel. How thoroughly the English sovereign was disposed to protect the interests of the Hapsburgs against all harm appears in this, that he instructed his ambassador to see to it that Ferdinand should be elected Emperor, and that the Bohemian dispute should, however, be adjusted on the basis of Ferdinand’s recognition as King, and in his obligating himself, in return, to carry out the promises which he had made on the occasion of his acceptance as King. The Protestants should accordingly be subjected to no abridgment