Hi, I'm Benjamin Ashwell from the podcast Talking History, the Italian Unification, which I host with my brother.

Zach Twanley's When Diplomacy Fails is one of the shows that inspired me to begin podcasting, so I'm very excited to be introducing it.

When Diplomacy Fails is a rare gem of a show that combines a love of history, a huge breadth of topics,

and solid scholarly research. It's essential listening for anyone who wants to understand

European history, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. So, let's all sit back and enjoy

this long-awaited installment on the Thirty Years' War.

Who does not know that kings and rulers sprang from men who were ignorant of God,

who assumed, because of blind greed and intolerable presumption to make themselves master of other men,

their equals by means of pride, violence, bad faith, murder, and almost every other kind of crime?

Surely the devil drove them on. Pope Gregory the 7th.

"'Hest, for next to death, the seventh. God Outs It did not take long for to his all his allies had melted away, and the whole reason he had expected

success in the first place, i.e. because of his similar ties to the Netherlands, Denmark and

England, never materialized. When the year 1620 began, Frederick was by no means defeated.

He still held Bohemia and his Palatine lands remained safe, for now.

But Frederick must have been at least aware that while his allies remained unwilling or unable

to help him, Ferdinand's allies had mobilized and were marching from both Bavaria and Spain.

The Protestant Union, which Frederick was supposed to be the head of, renewed its defensive alliance with England's James I.

James I is quite an interesting character for the period.

Since his daughter Elizabeth was married to Frederick, and the marriage was both a happy and fruitful one,

James now had a son-in-law ruling the Palatine.

Brennan Purcell, in his book The Winter King,

outlines this campaign of pressure, which Freddy sought to mount against James.

...