A parallel may be found in our own Civil War, in which Lincoln truly claimed that he was fighting only to maintain the union, and yet it is certain that slavery furnished the underlying cause of the appeal to arms.
It has recently been shown that the emperor planned the attack on his Protestant subjects as far back, at least, as 1541.

All the negotiations subsequent to that time were a mere blind in disguise his preparations.

For he labored indefatigably to bring about a condition in which it would be safe for him to embark on the perilous enterprise.
Though he was a dull man he had the two qualities of caution and persistence that stood him in better stead than the more showy talents of other statesmen.

If, with his huge resources, he never did anything brilliant, still less did he ever take a gambler's chance of failing.
{127} The opportune moment came at last in the spring of 1546.

Two years before, he had beaten France with the help of the Protestants, and had imposed upon her as one condition of peace that she should make no allies within the Empire.