The French Connection
The aim of Charles I’s foreign policy was to restore his nephew’s lands in the Rhineland. France, he thought, was the key to success.
The foreign policy pursued by Charles I in the 1630s had one objective in mind: the recovery of the Rhineland Palatinate for his nephew, the Prince Elector, Charles I Louis. In 1620 the Prince Elector’s father, Frederick V, had lost his German territory and the Electoral title – with its role in electing the Holy Roman Emperor – to his dynastic rival, Maximilian I, the Wittelsbach Duke of Bavaria.