Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/184

 conveying to him the crown. Dohna was therefore informed that the election could not be delayed in order to receive James’ concurrence.

These statements make it clear that those who were then at the head of Bohemian affairs had their minds firmly fixed upon the Elector of the Palatinate, and had let the Duke of Savoy drop as a candidate just as soon as Frederic gave the first sign of readiness to identify himself with their cause; and yet, for all this, he would never perhaps have obtained the crown of the country, if another candidate—to whom, not indeed the leaders of opinion, but at least the majority of the people, looked with earnest desire—that is, the Elector of Saxony, would have consented to connect himself with the cause of the Bohemian insurgents.

John George was the nephew of that Maurice of Saxony who, by his alliance with Charles V., brought about the defeat of the league of Smalcald, and received Electoral Saxony as his reward, the owner having been cared for and indemnified with Weimar. John George was not indeed in good repute; he was everywhere spoken of for his drunkenness, for the coarse manner in which, like an Oriental despot, he maltreated those around him, and hid from sight many a clever trait of his character, especially his faultless order in household and state. The Bohemians had a sharp eye for the skilfulness of the Saxon administration, perhaps because they hoped that by the Elector’s careful use of his well-ordered financial resources they would be able most easily to effect the overthrow of the Hapsburg rule. This conviction arose also from the confidential communication which Thurn, Andrew Schlick, and Wenceslas Kinský, as early as the year 1614, sent by a Saxon agent to the Elector, directly inviting him to a