Diet of Regensburg (1623)

The meeting was not technically an imperial diet in the full sense, but a convention of princes or Deputationstag – a looser constitutional format giving the emperor greater leeway to make decisions without being bound by formal procedures.

It looked as though the Catholic forces had won the war, and the emperor wished to finalise Frederick's deprivation as an elector with the agreement of the leading princes.

[5] The emperor rejected calls for amnesty and asked the participants to respond in writing to the proposals he had placed before them, with the question of funding the Hungarian frontier to be held over for a future diet.

The Catholics advised that Frederick be stripped of the electoral dignity but should be received back into favour if he made a formal submission and declaration of obedience, with a future assembly to settle the issue of his territory and other titles.

The emperor accepted that clemency would be extended to Frederick if he submitted without delay and made a declaration of obedience, but insisted that he had permanently forfeited any personal right to take part in imperial elections, and that questions of succession to his lands would be a matter for a future assembly.

Since Frederick of the Palatinate's children and heirs by Elizabeth Stuart were grandchildren of James I of England, the electoral transfer was expected to lead to greater English involvement in the Thirty Years' War.