Treaty of Munich (1619)

The Munich Treaty of October 8, 1619 was an important agreement at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War , essentially between Emperor Ferdinand II and the Bavarian Duke Maximilian I. Among other things, it ensured that the Catholic estates would intervene on the emperor's side in the fight against rebellious Bohemia to. In addition to various compensations, the transfer of the Palatinate electoral dignity to Bavaria was verbally agreed.

prehistory

This was preceded in 1619 by the election of Elector Friedrich V of the Palatinate as King of Bohemia and of Ferdinand II as Emperor. Thereupon negotiations between the emperor, the spiritual electors and the Spanish ambassador Íñigo Vélez de Guevara, Conde de Oñate had come. The deliberations were about bringing about military measures against Bohemia and the Protestant Union . In order to win the Bavarian Duke Maximilian I over to the intention, the Kaiser had personally offered him the leadership of the board of directors of the renewing Catholic League .

content

On October 8, 1619, a contract was essentially concluded between the emperor and Maximilian. In it Maximilian was granted unrestricted supreme power over the Catholic League against the background of the impending war. In this office, even the Emperor Maximilian could no longer give any instructions.

The Duke was only obliged to actually provide active support after paying the funds necessary to raise an army of 18,000 men on foot and 2,600 on horseback. However, this was not necessary if the troops were to be used to defend the territories of the territories belonging to the League.

The league's freedom of action was somewhat limited, as contracts with the Union had to be approved by the Kaiser and Maximilian.

The Kaiser undertook to reimburse all costs of the war that Bavaria had to pay in addition to the contribution to the league. In the event of a defeat, even Bavarian territorial losses should be compensated for by Austrian territories.

Were not set down in writing in this context

1. that Maximilian was allowed to keep the territories conquered in the course of the war and to incorporate them into his duchy (the written fixation took place in May 1620)
2. that after Friedrich V was ostracized, the electoral dignity should fall from the Palatinate line of the Wittelsbach family to the Bavarian line.

The Munich Treaty became the starting point for the revival of the League and the intervention of the Catholic imperial estates on the emperor's side against rebellious Bohemia.

The further consequence was that as a result of the defeat of Elector Friedrich V at the Battle of the White Mountain, the Upper Palatinate and the Electoral Palatinate including the electoral dignity were transferred to Maximilian.

literature

• Gerhard Taddey : Munich Treaty. In the S. (Ed.): Lexicon of German history . People, events, institutions. From the turn of the times to the end of the 2nd World War. 2nd, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-520-80002-0 , pp. 852f.

1. ↑ Herfried Münkler : The Thirty Years War . Rowohlt Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-499-63090-3 , pp. 140 .