ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the structure of the Empire, despite the diversity of its constituent parts and the tensions between them, was not inviting an inevitable catastrophe to begin in 1618. In 1618 Elector Palatine Frederick V was twenty-two years old, a vigorous young prince who had been in full control of his principality since he had reached his majority four years before. The Imperial ban was the one of the most powerful weapons that the highest jurisdiction of the Empire had at its disposal, and it figures prominently in the story of Frederick V. In 1618 the Palatinate was a prosperous estate of the Holy Roman Empire. England was the other major foreign ally of the Palatinate by virtue of a marriage alliance between Frederick V and Elizabeth, not to mention the commonality of Protestant confession. The threat of confessional violence in the Empire had inspired the formation of Protestant and Catholic defensive alliances.
