ABSTRACT
On March 6, 1645 the imperial troops suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of the Swedish army at the Battle of Jankov in Bohemia. 1 This prolonged and painful skirmish was without doubt one of the most significant events of the war, laying bare the Emperor’s weaknesses in military matters. To make matters worse, five months later the Bavarian army (Ferdinand III’s most important ally) suffered an equally devastating defeat to the French at the Battle of Allerheim on August 3. 2 as Geoffrey Parker has aptly put it, “After Jankov and Allerheim, there was no longer any Catholic field army able to withstand the Swedes and their allies; and everyone knew it.” 3 For Ferdinand III and his allies, the war was essentially over; the question was no longer whether it could be won, just whether the Emperor could extricate himself from it without losing too much. Indeed, before the end of the year Count Maximilian von Trautmannsdorf, Ferdinand’s most trusted political advisor and chief negotiator, arrived at the Westphalian peace talks with instructions to make whatever concessions necessary to achieve peace.
