When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Matchlock is a historical fiction series set during the Thirty Years' War, beginning in 1622, when Matthew Lock lands in Europe to investigate the brutal murder of his parents. Order your copy of Matchlock and the Embassy by clicking here. In this episode, the Battle of White Mountain shatters Frederick's regime, but how did we get here? Let's roll back the clock a bit....Frederick’s prospects were fair so long as his allies came to aid him against the Emperor. Yet, once these allies refused to pick up the phones, once his new subjects refused to pony up what was needed for defence, and once the Emperor called in HIS favours with the Spanish and several other electors, it was only a matter of time before Frederick’s mistake was brought home to in full. It began with a Spanish invasion of the Palatinate, alongside a Bavarian invasion which followed. Frederick had probably never expected or imagined such an act – after all, Spain was not at war with him, and Maximilian of Bavaria was a distant cousin for crying