Out
of Ferdinand II.'s elevation grew a new union of the entire family of
Hapsburg. During the long ascendency of the Cardinal-Duke of Lerma in
the Spanish councils, _temp_. Philip III., the breach between the two
branches, which had been more apparent than real, and yet not
unimportant, was made complete by the minister's action, the policy he
pursued being such as was highly displeasing to the German Hapsburgs,
who had relapsed into bigotry. Philip III. set up pretensions to Hungary
and Bohemia, as grandson of Maximilian II. Ferdinand, who was not yet
either emperor or king, got rid of Philip's pretensions by promising to
resign to him the Austrian possessions in Swabia. This led to the fall
of Lerma, and to the reunion of the two branches of the Austrian house,
but for which it is probable Ferdinand II. might have been beaten in the
early days of the Thirty Years' War. It was to Spanish aid that
Ferdinand owed his early triumphs in that contest; and many years later,
in 1634, the great victory of Nordlingen was gained for the Imperialists
by the presence of ten thousand Spanish infantry in their army,--that
infantry which was still the first military body in Europe, not then
having met with the disaster of Rocroy, which, however, was near at
hand.
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