Chapter IV: , VII (86)

"Frederick fled for his life through North Germany, till he
found a refuge at the Hague. The reign of the Bohemian
aristocracy was at an end. ... The chiefs perished on the
scaffold. Their lands were confiscated, and a new German and
Catholic nobility arose. ... The Royal Charter was declared to
have been forfeited by rebellion, and the Protestant churches
in the towns and on the royal estates had nothing to depend on
but the will of the conqueror. The ministers of one great body
--the Bohemian Brethren--were expelled at once. The Lutherans
were spared for a time."

_S. R. Gardiner,
The Thirty Years' War,
chapter 3, section 1._

ALSO IN:
_C. A. Peschek,
Reformation and Anti-Reformation in Bohemia,
volume 1, chapter 9._

See, also, BOHEMIA: A. D. 1621-1648;
and HUNGARY: A. D. 1606-1660.

GERMANY: A. D. 1621-1623.
The Thirty Years War:
The Elector Palatine placed under the ban.
Dissolution of the Evangelical Union.
Invasion and conquest of the Palatinate.
Transfer of the electoral dignity to the Duke of Bavaria.

"Ferdinand, though firm, patient, and resigned in adversity,
was stern, vengeful, and overbearing in prosperity. He was
urged by many motives of resentment, policy, and zeal to
complete the ruin of the elector Palatine, and he did not
possess sufficient magnanimity to resist the temptation.
Having squandered away the confiscated property among his
Jesuits and favourites, he had still many allies and adherents
whose fidelity he was desirous to reward; he was anxious to
recover Upper Austria, which he had mortgaged to the duke of
Bavaria, as a pledge for the expenses of the war; he wished to
regain possession of Lusatia; and he was bound in honour to
satisfy the elector of Saxony for his opportune assistance.
... These motives overbearing an considerations of justice and
prudence, Ferdinand published the ban of the empire [January
22, 1621], of his own authority, against the elector Palatine
and his adherents the prince of Anhalt, the count of
Hohenlohe, and the duke of Jaegendorf. The execution of this
informal sentence he intrusted to the archduke Albert, as
possessor of the circle of Burgundy, and to the duke of
Bavaria, commanding the former to occupy the Lower, and the
latter the Upper Palatinate. This vigorous act was instantly
followed by the most decisive effects; for the Protestants
were terrified by the prospect of sharing the fate of the
unfortunate elector. The members of the union now felt the
fatal consequences of their own indecision and want of
foresight. ... Threatened at once by Spinola [commanding the
Spanish auxiliaries from the Netherlands] and the duke of
Bavaria, and confounded by the growing power of the emperor,
they vied in abandoning a confederacy which exposed them to
his vengeance. On the 12th of April, 1621, they concluded at
Mentz a treaty of neutrality, by which they promised not to
interfere in the affairs of the Palatinate, agreed to disband
their troops within a month, and to enter into no new
confederacy to the disadvantage of the emperor. This
dishonourable treaty was followed by the dissolution of the
union, which, on its expiration, was not renewed. During these
events, Spinola, having completed the reduction of the Lower
Palatinate, was occupied in the siege of Frankendahl, which
was on the point of surrendering, and its capture must have
been followed by the submission of Heidelberg and Manheim. The
duke of Bavaria had been still more successful in the Upper
Palatinate, and had rapidly subjugated the whole province,
together with the district of Cham. The elector Palatine,
deserted by the Protestant union, and almost abandoned by his
relatives, the kings of England and Denmark, owed the first
revival of his hopes of restoration to Mansfeld, an
illegitimate adventurer, with no other resources than plunder
and devastation. Christian of Brunswick, administrator of
Halberstadt, distinguished indeed by illustrious birth, but
equally an adventurer, and equally destitute of territory or
resources, espoused his cause, as well from ties of affinity
[he was the cousin of Elizabeth, the electress Palatine, or
queen of Bohemia, as she preferred to be called] as from a
chivalrous attachment to his beautiful consort; and George
Frederic, margrave of Baden, even abdicated his dignity to
devote himself to his support."
{1470}
Mansfeld, who had held his ground in Bohemia for nearly a year
after the battle of the White Mountain, now became hard
pressed there by Tilly, and suddenly escaped by forced marches
(October, 1621,) into the Lower Palatinate. "Here he found a
more favourable field of action; for Spinola being recalled
with the greater part of the Spanish forces, had left the
remainder to Gonzales de Cordova, who, after reducing several
minor fortresses, was pressing the siege of Frankendahl. The
name of the brave adventurer drew to his standard multitudes
of the troops, who had been disbanded by the Protestant union,
and he was joined by a party of English, who had been sent for
the defence of the Palatinate. Finding himself at the head of
20,000 men, he cleared the country in his passage, relieved
Frankendahl, and provided for the safety of Heidelberg and
Manheim. Unable, however, to subsist in a district so recently
the seat of war, he turned into Alsace, where he increased his
forces; from thence he invaded the neighbouring bishoprics of
Spire and Strasburgh, levying heavy contributions, and giving
up the rich domains of those sees to the devastations of his
troops. Encouraged by this gleam of hope, the elector Palatine
quitted his asylum in Holland, passed in disguise through
Loraine and Alsace, joined Mansfeld, and gave his name and
countenance to this predatory army." Mansfeld, recrossing the
Rhine, effected a junction with the margrave of Baden; and
Christian of Brunswick, after pillaging the rich sees of Lower
Saxony, was on his way with a considerable force to unite with
both. "At the same time the duke of Wirtemberg, the landgrave
of Hesse, and other Protestant princes, began to arm, and
hopes were even entertained of the revival of the Protestant
union. Tilly, who had followed Mansfeld from Bohemia, had in
vain endeavoured to prevent his junction with the margrave of
Baden. Defeated at Mingelsheim by Mansfeld, on the 29th of
April, 1622, he had been reduced to the defensive, and in this
situation saw a powerful combination rising on every side
against the house of Austria. He waited therefore for an
opportunity of attacking those enemies singly, whom he could
not resist when united, and that opportunity was presented by
the separation of the margrave of Baden from Mansfeld, and his
attempt to penetrate into Bavaria. Tilly suddenly drew
together the Spanish troops, and with this accession of force
defeated, on the 6th of May, the margrave at Wimpfen, with the
loss of half his army, and took his whole train of artillery
and military chest. Leaving Mansfeld employed in the siege of
Ladenburgh, he next directed his attention to Christian of
Brunswick, routed him on the 20th of June, at Hoechst
[Höchst], as he was crossing the Main, pursued him till his
junction with Mansfeld, and drove their united forces beyond
the Rhine, again to seek a refuge and subsistence in Alsace.
These successes revived the cause of Ferdinand; the margrave
of Baden retired from the contest; the duke of Wirtemberg and
the other Protestant princes suspended their armaments; and
although Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick laid siege to
Saverne, and evinced a resolution to maintain the contest to
the last extremity, yet the elector Palatine again gave way to
that weakness which had already lost him a crown." He was
persuaded by his witless father-in-law, James I. of England,
to trust his cause to negotiations in which the latter was
being duped by the emperor. He consented, accordingly, "to
disavow his intrepid defenders, to dismiss them from his
service, to retire again into Holland, and wait the mercy of
the emperor. By this disavowal, Mansfeld and Christian were
left without a name to countenance their operations; and after
various negotiations, feigned or real, for entering into the
service of the emperor, Spain, or France, they accepted the
overtures of the Prince of Orange and forced their way through
the Spanish army which attempted to oppose their passage, to
join at Breda the troops of the United Provinces. The places
in Alsace and the bishopric of Spire which had been occupied
by the enemy were recovered by the archduke Leopold; and
Tilly, having completed the conquest of the Palatinate by the
capture of Heidelberg and Manheim, directed his attacks
against the forces which Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick
had again assembled. After a short continuance in Holland,
Mansfeld, in November, had led his predatory army into the
rich province of East Friesland, conquered the principal
fortresses, and extorted enormous contributions from the duke,
who was in alliance with Spain. On the other hand, Christian,
passing into Lower Saxony, persuaded the states of the circle
to collect an army of observation amounting to 12,000 men, and
intrust him with the command; and he soon increased this army
to almost double that number, by the usual incitements of
pillage and plunder. These levies attracting the attention of
the emperor, his threats, together with the advance of Tilly,
compelled the Saxon states to dismiss Christian and his army.
Thus left a second time without authority, he pushed towards
Westphalia, with the hope of joining Mansfeld and renewing
hostilities in the Palatinate; his design was however
anticipated by Tilly, who overtook him at Loen [or Stadtlohn],
in the district of Munster, and defeated him with the loss of
6,000 killed and 4,000 prisoners, in August, 1623. The
victorious general then turned towards East Friesland; but
Mansfeld, who had hitherto maintained himself in that country,
avoided an unequal contest by disbanding his troops, and
withdrawing into Holland, in January, 1624. ... Having
despoiled the elector Palatine of all his dominions, and
delivered himself from his enemies in Germany, Ferdinand had
proceeded to carry his plans into execution, by transferring
the electoral dignity to the duke of Bavaria, and dividing the
conquered territories among his adherents. ... He gained the
elector of Saxony, by promising him the revenues and perhaps
the cession of Lusatia; and the landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt,
by offering to favour his pretensions to the succession of
Marburgh, which he was contesting with the landgrave of Hesse
Cassel. ... Having thus gained those whose opposition was most
likely to frustrate his design, he paid little regard to the
feeble threats of James, and to the remonstrances of the king
of Denmark. ... He summoned, on the 25th of February, 1623, a
meeting of the electors and princes who were most devoted to
his cause at Ratisbon, and, in concurrence with the majority
of this irregular assembly, transferred the Palatine
electorate, with all its honours, privileges, and offices, to
Maximilian, duke of Bavaria.
{1471}
To keep up, however, the hopes of the elector Palatine and his
adherents, and not to drive his family and connections to
desperation, the whole extent of the plan was not developed;
the partition of his territories was deferred, the transfer of
the electorate was made only for the life of Maximilian, and
the rights of the sons and collateral heirs of the unfortunate
elector were expressly reserved."

_W. Coxe,
History of the House of Austria,
chapter 49 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN:
_A. Gindely,
History of the Thirty Years' War,
volume 1, chapter 7._

_F. Schiller,
History of the Thirty Years' War,
book 2._

_C. R. Markham,
The Fighting Veres;
part 2, chapter 3._

GERMANY: A. D. 1624-1626.
The Thirty Years War:
Alliance of England, Holland, and Denmark to support the
Protestant cause.
Creation of the imperial army of Wallenstein, and its first
campaigns.

"Had the Emperor been as wise as he was resolute, it is
probable that, victorious in every direction, he might have
been able to conclude a permanent peace with the Protestant
Party. But the bigotry which was a very part of his nature was
spurred on by his easy triumphs to refuse to sheathe the sword
until heresy had been rooted out from the land. In vain did
the Protestant princes, who had maintained a selfish and
foolish neutrality, remonstrate against the continuance of
hostilities after the avowed object for which those
hostilities were undertaken had been gained. In the opinion of
Ferdinand II. the real object still remained to be
accomplished. Under these critical circumstances the
emigrants, now grown numerous [see BOHEMIA: A. D. 1621-1648],
and the awakened Protestant princes, earnestly besought the
aid of a foreign power. It was their representations which at
length induced three nations of the reformed faith--England,
Holland, and Denmark--to ally themselves to assist their
oppressed brethren.

See, also, FRANCE: A. D. 1624-1626.

England agreed to send subsidies, Holland to supply troops.
The command of the delivering army was confided to Christian
IV., King of Denmark (1625). He was to be supported in Germany
by the partisan Mansfeldt, by Prince Christian of Brunswick,
and by the Protestants of Lower Saxony, who had armed
themselves to resist the exactions of the Emperor. Ferdinand
II., after vainly endeavouring to ward off hostilities by
negotiations, despatched Tilly to the Weser to meet the enemy.
Tilly followed the course of that river as far as Minden,
causing to be occupied, as he marched, the places which
commanded its passage. Pursuing his course northwards, he
crossed the river at Neuburg (midway between Minden and
Bremen), and occupied the principality of Kalenberg. The King
of Denmark was near at hand, in the Duchy of Brunswick,
anxious, for the moment, to avoid a battle. Tilly, superior to
him in numbers, was as anxious to fight one. As though the
position of the King of Denmark were not already sufficiently
embarrassing, the Emperor proceeded at this period to make it
almost unendurable by launching upon him likewise an imperial
army. ... Up to the period of the complete overthrow and
expulsion from the Palatinate of Frederic V., ex-King of
Bohemia, Ferdinand had been indebted for all his successes to
Maximilian of Bavaria. It was Maximilian who, as head of the
Holy League, had reconquered Bohemia for the Emperor: it was
Maximilian's general, Tilly, who had driven the Protestant
armies from the Palatinate; and it was the same general who
was now opposing the Protestants of the north in the lands
watered by the Weser. Maximilian had been rewarded by the
cession to him of the Palatinate, but it was not advisable
that so near a neighbour of Austria should be made too strong.
It was this feeling, this jealousy of Maximilian, which now
prompted Ferdinand to raise, for the first time in this war,
an imperial army, and to send it to the north. This army was
raised by and at the expense of Albert Wenzel Eusebius of
Waldstein, known in history as Wallenstein. A Czech by
nationality, born in 1583 of noble parents, who belonged to
one of the most advanced sects of the reformers but who died
whilst their son was yet young, Wallenstein had, when yet a
child, been committed to the care of his uncle, Albert
Slavata, an adherent of the Jesuits, and by him educated at
Olmütz in the strictest Catholic faith." By marrying, first, a
rich widow, who soon died, and then an heiress, daughter of
Count Harrach, and by purchasing with the fortune thus
acquired many confiscated estates, he had become possessed of
enormous wealth. He had already won distinction as a soldier.
"For his faithful services, Ferdinand in 1623 nominated
Wallenstein to be Prince, a title changed, the year following,
into that of Duke of Friedland. At this time the yearly income
he derived from his various estates, all economically managed,
was calculated to be 30,000,000 florins--little short of
£2,500,000." Wallenstein now, in 1625, "divining his master's
wishes, and animated by the ambition born of natural ability,
offered to raise and maintain, at his own cost, an army of
50,000 men, and to lead it against the enemy. Ferdinand
eagerly accepted the offer. Named Generalissimo and Field
Marshal in July of the same year, Wallenstein marched at the
head of 30,000 men, a number which increased almost daily,
first to the Weser, thence, after noticing the positions of
Tilly and of King Christian, to the banks of the Elbe, where
he wintered. ... In the spring ... Mansfeldt, with the view to
prevent a junction between Tilly and Wallenstein, marched
against the latter, and, though his troops were fewer in
number, took up a position at Dessau in full view of the
imperial camp, and there intrenched himself. Here Wallenstein
attacked (25 April 1626) and completely defeated him. Not
discouraged by this overthrow, and still bearing in mind the
main object of the campaign, Mansfeldt fell back into
Brandenburg, recruited there his army, called to himself the
Duke of Saxe-Weimar and then suddenly dashed, by forced
marches, towards Silesia and Moravia, with the intention of
reaching Hungary, where Bethlen Gabor had promised to meet
him." Wallenstein followed and "pressed him so hard that,
though Mansfeldt did effect a junction with Bethlen Gabor, it
was with but the skeleton of his army. Despairing of success
against numbers vastly superior, Bethlen Gabor withdrew from
his new colleague, and Mansfeldt, reduced to despair,
disbanded his remaining soldiers, and sold his camp-equipage
to supply himself with the means of flight (September).

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1606-1660.

{1472}

He died soon after (30th November). ... Wallenstein then
retraced his steps to the north. Meanwhile Tilly, left to deal
with Christian IV., had followed that prince into Lower
Saxony, had caught, attacked, and completely defeated him at
Lutter (am Barenberge), the 27th July 1626. This victory gave
him complete possession of that disaffected province, and,
despite a vigorous attempt made by the Margrave George
Frederic of Baden to wrest it from him, he held it till the
return of Wallenstein from the pursuit of Mansfeldt. As two
stars of so great a magnitude could not shine in the same
hemisphere, it was then decided that Tilly should carry the
war into Holland, whilst to Wallenstein should be left the
honour of dealing with the King of Denmark and the Protestant
princes of the north."

_G. B. Malleson,
The Battle-fields of Germany,
chapter 1._

ALSO IN:
_W. Zimmermann,
Popular History of Germany,
book 5, chapter 2 (volume 4)._

GERMANY: A. D. 1627-1629.
The Thirty Years War:
Wallenstein's campaign against the Danes.
His power and his oppression in Germany.
The country devoured by his army.
Unsuccessful siege of Stralsund.
First succor from the king of Sweden.
The Peace of Lubeck.
The Edict of Restitution.

"Wallenstein opened the campaign of 1627 at the head of a
refreshed and well-equipped army of 40,000 men. His first
effort was directed against Silesia; and the Danish troops,
few in number, and ill commanded, gave way at his approach. To
prevent the fugitives from infringing on the neutrality of
Brandenburg, he occupied the whole electorate. Mecklenburg and
Pomerania soon shared the same fate. Remonstrances and
assurances of perfect neutrality were treated with absolute
scorn; and Wallenstein declared, in his usual haughty style,
that 'the time had arrived for dispensing altogether with
electors; and that Germany ought to be governed like France
and Spain, by a single and absolute sovereign.' In his rapid
march towards the frontiers of Holstein, he acted fully up to
the principle he had laid down, and naturally exercised
despotic power, as the representative of the absolute monarch
of whom he spoke. ... He ... followed up the Danes, defeated
their armies in a series of actions near Heiligenhausen,
overran the whole peninsula of Jutland before the end of the
campaign, and forced the unhappy king to seek shelter, with
the wrecks of his army, in the islands beyond the Belt. ...
Brilliant as the campaign of 1627 proved in its general
result, few very striking feats of arms were performed during
its progress. ... Now it was that the princes and states of
Lower Germany began to feel the consequences of their
pusillanimous conduct; and the very provinces which had just
before refused to raise troops for their own protection, were
obliged to submit, without a murmur, to every species of
insult and exaction. Wallenstein's army, augmented to 100,000
men, occupied the whole country; and the lordly leader
following, on a far greater scale, the principle on which
Mansfeld had acted, made the war maintain the war, and
trampled alike on the rights of sovereigns and of subjects.
And terrible was the penalty now paid for the short-sighted
policy which avarice and cowardice had suggested, and which
cunning had vainly tried to disguise beneath affected
philanthropy, and a generous love of peace. Provided with
imperial authority, and at the head of a force that could no
longer be resisted, Wallenstein made the empire serve as a
vast storehouse, and wealthy treasury for the benefit of the
imperial army. He forbade even sovereigns and electors to
raise supplies in their own countries, and was justly termed
'the princes' scourge, and soldiers' idol.' The system of
living by contributions had completely demoralised the troops.
Honour and discipline were entirely gone; and it was only
beneath the eye of the stern and unrelenting commander, that
anything like order continued to be observed. Dissipation and
profligacy reigned in all ranks: bands of dissolute persons
accompanied every regiment, and helped to extinguish the last
sparks of morality in the breast of the soldier. The generals
levied arbitrary taxes; the inferior officers followed the
example of their superiors; and the privates, soon ceasing to
obey those whom they ceased to respect, plundered in every
direction; while blows, insults, or death awaited all who
dared to resist. ... The sums extorted, in this manner, prove
that Germany must have been a wealthy country in the 17th
century; for the money pressed out of some districts, by the
imperial troops, far exceeds anything which the same quarters
could now be made to furnish. Complaints against the author of
such evils were, of course, not wanting; but the man
complained of had rendered the Emperor all-powerful in
Germany: from the Adriatic to the Baltic, Ferdinand reigned
absolute, as no monarch had reigned since the days of the
Othos. This supremacy was due to Wallenstein alone; and what
could the voice of the humble and oppressed effect against
such an offender? Or when did the voice of suffering nations,
arrest the progress of power and ambition? During the winter
that followed on the campaign of 1627, Wallenstein repaired to
Prague, to claim [and to receive] from the Emperor, who was
residing in the Bohemian capital, additional rewards for the
important services so lately rendered. The boon solicited was
nothing less than the Duchy of Mecklenburg, which was to be
taken from its legitimate princes, on the ground of their
having joined the King of Denmark, and bestowed on the
successful general. ... Hitherto the ocean had alone arrested
the progress of Wallenstein: a fleet was now to be formed,
which should enable him to give laws beyond the Belts, and
perhaps beyond the Baltic also. Every seaport in Mecklenburg
and Pomerania is ordered to be taken possession of and
fortified. ... The siege of Stralsund, which was resolved upon
early in 1628, constitutes one of the most memorable
operations of the war. Not merely because it furnishes an
additional proof of what may be effected by skill, courage and
resolution, against vastly superior forces, but because its
result influenced, in an eminent degree, some of the most
important events that followed. When Wallenstein ordered the
seaports along the coast of Pomerania to be occupied,
Stralsund, claiming its privilege as an imperial and Hanseatic
free town, refused to admit his troops. ... After a good deal
of negotiation, which only cost the people of Stralsund some
large sums of money, paid away in presents to the imperial
officers, Arnheim invested the place on the 7th of May with
8,000 men. ...
{1473}
The town ... , unable to obtain assistance from the Duke of
Pomerania, the lord superior of the province, who, however
willing, had no means of furnishing relief, placed itself
under the protection of Sweden; and Gustavus Adolphus, fully
sensible of the importance of the place, immediately
dispatched the celebrated David Leslie, at the head of 600
men, to aid in its defence. Count Brahe, with 1,000 more, soon
followed; so that when Wallenstein reached the army on the
27th of June, he found himself opposed by a garrison of
experienced soldiers, who had already retaken all the outworks
which Arnheim had captured in the first instance. ... Rain
began to fall in such torrents that the trenches were entirely
filled, and the flat moor ground, on which the army was encamped,
became completely inundated and untenable. The proud spirit of
Friedland, unused to yield, still persevered; but sickness
attacked the troops, and the Danes having landed at Jasmund,
he was obliged to march against them with the best part of his
forces; and in fact to raise the siege. ... The Danes having
effected their object, in causing the siege of Stralsund to be
raised, withdrew their troops from Jasmund, and landed them
again at Wolgast. Here, however, Wallenstein surprised, and
defeated them with great loss. ... There being on all sides a
willingness to bring the war to an end, peace was ...
concluded at Lubeck in January 1629. By this treaty the Danes
recovered, without reserve or indemnity, all their former
possessions; only pledging themselves not again to interfere
in the affairs of the Empire. ... The peace of Lubeck left
Wallenstein absolute master in Germany, and without an equal
in greatness: his spirit seemed to hover like a storm-charged
cloud over the land, crushing to the earth every hope of
liberty and successful resistance. Mansfeld and Christian of
Brunswick had disappeared from the scene; Frederick V. had
retired into obscurity. Tilly and Pappenheim, his former
rivals, now condescended to receive favours, and to solicit
pensions and rewards through the medium of his intercession.
Even Maximilian of Bavaria was second in greatness to the
all-dreaded Duke of Friedland: Europe held no uncrowned head
that was his equal in fame, and no crowned head that surpassed
him in power. ... Ferdinand, elated with success, had
neglected the opportunity, again afforded him by the peace of
Lubeck, for restoring tranquillity to the empire. ... Instead
of a general peace, Ferdinand signed the fatal Edict of
Restitution, by which the Protestants were called upon to
restore all the Catholic Church property they had sequestrated
since the religious pacification of 1555: such sequestration
being, according to the Emperor's interpretation, contrary to
the spirit of the treaty of Passau. The right of
long-established possession was here entirely overlooked; and
Ferdinand forgot, in his zeal for the church, that he was
actually setting himself up as a judge, in a case in which he
was a party also. It was farther added, that, according to the
same treaty, freedom of departure from Catholic countries, was
the only privilege which Protestants had a right to claim from
Catholic princes. This decree came like a thunder-burst over
Protestant Germany. Two archbishopricks, 12 bishopricks, and a
countless number of convents and clerical domains, which the
Protestants had confiscated, and applied to their own
purposes, were now to be surrendered. Imperial commissioners
were appointed to carry the mandate into effect, and, to
secure immediate obedience, troops were placed at the disposal
of the new officials. Wherever these functionaries appeared,
the Protestant service was instantly suspended; the churches
deprived of their bells; altars and pulpits pulled down; all
Protestant books, bibles and catechisms were seized; and
gibbets were erected to terrify those who might be disposed to
resist. All Protestants who refused to change their religion
were expelled from Augsburg: summary proceedings of the same
kind were resorted to in other places. Armed with absolute
power, the commissioners soon proceeded from reclaiming the
property of the church to seize that of individuals. The
estates of all persons who had served under Mansfeld, Baden,
Christian of Brunswick; of all who had aided Frederick V., or
rendered themselves obnoxious to the Emperor, were seized and
confiscated. ... The Duke of Friedland, who now ruled with
dictatorial sway over Germany, had been ordered to carry the
Edict of Restitution into effect, in all the countries
occupied by his troops. The task, if we believe historians,
was executed with unbending rigour."

_J. Mitchell,
Life of Wallenstein,
chapters 2-3._

ALSO IN:
_L. Häusser,
The Period of the Reformation,
1517 to 1648, chapter 33._

GERMANY: A. D. 1627-1631.
War of the Emperor and Spain with France, over the succession
to the duchy of Mantua.

See ITALY: A. D. 1627-1631.

GERMANY: A. D. 1630.
The Thirty Years War:
Universal hostility to Wallenstein.
His dismissal by the Emperor.
The rising of a new champion of Protestantism in Sweden.

"Wallenstein had ever shown great toleration in his own
domains; but it is not to be denied that ... he aided to carry
out the edict [of Restitution] in the most barbarous and
relentless manner. It would be as tedious as painful to dwell
upon all the cruelties which were committed, and the
oppression that was exercised, by the imperial commissioners;
but a spirit of resistance was aroused in the hearts of the
German people, which only waited for opportunity to display
itself. Nor was it alone against the emperor that wrath and
indignation was excited. Wallenstein drew down upon his head
even more dangerous enmity than that which sprung up against
Ferdinand. He ruled in Germany with almost despotic sway; for
the emperor himself seemed at this time little more than a
tool in his hands. His manners were unpopular, stern,
reserved, and gloomy. . . . Princes were kept waiting in his
ante-chamber; and all petitions and remonstrances against his
stern decrees were treated with the mortifying scorn which
adds insult to injury. The magnificence of his train, the
splendor of his household, the luxury and profusion that
spread every where around him, afforded continual sources of
envy and jealous hate to the ancient nobility of the empire.
The Protestants throughout the land were his avowed and
implacable enemies; and the Roman Catholic princes viewed him
with fear and suspicion. Maximilian of Bavaria, whose star had
waned under the growing luster of Wallenstein's renown, who
had lost that authority in the empire which he knew to be due
to his services and his genius, solely by the rise and
influence of Wallenstein, and whose ambitious designs of
ruling Germany through an emperor dependent upon him for
power, had been frustrated entirely by the genius which placed
the imperial throne upon a firm and independent basis, took no
pains to conceal his hostility to the Duke of Friedland. ...
{1474}
Though the soldiery still generally loved him, their officers
hated the hand that put a limit to the oppression by which
they throve, and would fain have resisted its power. ... While
these feelings were gathering strength in Germany; while
Wallenstein, with no friends, though many supporters, saw
himself an object of jealousy or hatred to the leaders of
every party throughout the empire; and while the suppressed
but cherished indignation of all Protestant Germany was
preparing for the emperor a dreadful day of reckoning, events
were taking place in other countries which hurried on rapidly
the dangers that Wallenstein had foreseen. In France, a weak
king, and a powerful, politic, and relentless minister,
appeared in undissembled hostility to the house of Austria;
and the famous Cardinal de Richelieu busied himself,
successfully, to raise up enemies to the German branch of that
family. ... In Poland, Sigismund, after vainly contending with
Gustavus Adolphus, and receiving an inefficient aid from
Germany, was anxious to conclude the disastrous war with
Sweden. Richelieu interfered; Oxenstiern negotiated on the
part of Gustavus; and a truce of six years was concluded in
August, 1629, by which the veteran and victorious Swedish
troops were set free to act in any other direction. A great
part of Livonia was virtually ceded to Gustavus, together with
the towns and territories of Memel, Braunsberg and Elbingen,
and the strong fortress of Pillau. At the same time, Richelieu
impressed upon the mind of Gustavus the honor, the advantage,
and the necessity of reducing the immense power of the
emperor, and delivering the Protestant states of Germany from
the oppression under which they groaned. ... Confident in his
own powers of mind and warlike skill, supported by the love
and admiration of his people, relying on the valor and
discipline of' his troops, and foreseeing all the mighty
combinations which were certain to take place in his favor,
Gustavus hesitated but little. He consulted with his
ministers, indeed heard and answered every objection that
could be raised; and then applied to the Senate at Stockholm
to insure that his plans were approved, and that his efforts
would be seconded by his people. His enterprise met with the
most enthusiastic approbation; and then succeeded all the
bustle of active preparation. ... While this storm was
gathering in the North, while the towns of Sweden were
bristling with arms, and her ports filled with ships,
Ferdinand was driven or persuaded to an act the most fatal to
himself, and the most favorable to the King of Sweden. A Diet
was summoned to meet at Ratisbon early in the year 1630; and
the chief object of the emperor in taking a step so dangerous
to the power he had really acquired, and to the projects so
boldly put forth in his name, seems to have been to cause his
son to be elected King of the Romans. ... The name of the
archduke, King of Hungary, is proposed to the Diet for
election as King of the Romans, and a scene of indescribable
confusion and murmuring takes place: A voice demands that,
before any such election is considered, the complaints of the
people of Germany against the imperial armies shall be heard;
and then a perfect storm of accusations pours down. Every sort
of tyranny and oppression, every sort of cruelty and exaction,
every sort of licentiousness and vice is attributed to the
emperor's troops; but the hatred and the charges all
concentrate themselves upon the head of the great commander of
the imperial forces; and there is a shout for his instant
dismissal. ... Ferdinand hesitated, and affected much surprise
at the charges brought against his general and his armies. He
yielded in the end, however; and it is said, upon very good
authority, that his ruinous decision was brought about by the
arts of the same skillful politician who had conjured up the
storm which now menaced the empire from the north. Richelieu
had sent an embassador to Ratisbon. ... In the train of the
embassador came the well-known intriguing friar, Father
Joseph, the most unscrupulous and cunning of the cardinal's
emissaries; and he, we are assured, found means to persuade
the emperor that, by yielding to the demand of the electors
and removing Wallenstein for a time, he might obtain the
election of the King of Hungary, and then reinstate the Duke
of Friedland in his command as soon as popular anger had
subsided. However that might be, Ferdinand, as I have said,
yielded, openly expressing his regret at the step he was about
to take, and the apprehensions which he entertained for the
consequences. Count Questenberg and another nobleman, who had
been long on intimate terms with Wallenstein, were sent to the
camp to notify to him his removal from command, and to soften
the disgrace by assuring him of the emperor's gratitude and
affection."

_G. P. R. James,
Dark Scenes of History: Wallenstein,
chapters 3-4._

ALSO IN:
_S. R. Gardiner,
The Thirty Years' War,
chapter 7, section 3._

_A. Gindely,
History of the Thirty Years' War,
volume 2, chapter 1._

GERMANY: A. D. 1630-1631.
The Thirty Years War:
The Coming of Gustavus Adolphus.
His occupation of Pomerania and Brandenburg.
The horrible fate of Magdeburg at the hands of Tilly's
ruffians.

"On June 24, 1630, one hundred years, to a day, after the
Augsburg Confession was promulgated, Gustavus Adolphus landed
on the coast of Pomerania, near the mouth of the river Peene,
with 13,000 men, veteran troops, whose rigid discipline was
sustained by their piety, and who were simple-minded, noble,
and glowing with the spirit of the battle. He had reasons
enough for declaring war against Ferdinand, even if 10,000 of
Wallenstein's troops had not been sent to aid Sigismund
against him. But the controlling motive, in his own mind, was
to succor the imperiled cause of religious freedom in Germany.
Coming as the protector of the evangelic Church, he expected
to be joined by the Protestant princes. But he was
disappointed. Only the trampled and tortured people of North
Germany, who in their despair were ready for revolts and
conspiracies of their own, welcomed him as their deliverer
from the bandits of Wallenstein and the League. Gustavus
Adolphus appeared before Stettin, and by threats compelled the
old duke, Bogislaw XIV., to open to him his capital city, He
then took measures to secure possession of Pomerania. His army
grew rapidly, while that of the emperor was widely dispersed,
so that he now advanced into Brandenburg. George William, the
elector, was a weak prince, though a Protestant, and a brother
of the Queen of Sweden; he was guided by his Catholic
chancellor, Schwarzenberg, and had painfully striven to keep
neutral throughout the war, neither side, however, respecting
his neutrality.
{1475}
In dread of the plans of Gustavus Adolphus concerning
Pomerania and Prussia, he held aloof from him. Meanwhile
Tilly, general-in-chief of the troops of the emperor and the
League, drew near, but suddenly turned aside to New
Brandenburg, in the Mecklenburg territory, now occupied by the
Swedes, captured it after three assaults, and put the garrison
to the sword (1631). He then laid siege to Magdeburg. Gustavus
Adolphus took Frankfort-on-the-Oder, where there was an
imperial garrison, and treated it, in retaliation, with the
same severity. Thence, in the spring of 1631, he set out for
Berlin. ... In Potsdam he heard of the fall of Magdeburg. He
then marched with flying banners into Berlin, and compelled
the elector to become his ally. Magdeburg was the strong
refuge of Protestantism, and the most important trading centre
in North Germany. It had resisted the Augsburg Interim of
1548, and now resisted the Edict of Restitution, rejected the
newly appointed prince bishop, Leopold William, son of the
emperor himself, and refused to receive the emperor's
garrison. The city was therefore banned by the emperor, and
was besieged for many weeks by Pappenheim, a general of the
League, who was then reinforced by Tilly himself with his
army. Gustavus Adolphus was unable to make an advance, in view
of the equivocal attitude of the two great Protestant electors,
without exposing his rear to garrisoned fortresses. From
Brandenburg as well as Saxony he asked in vain for help to
save the Protestant city. Thus Magdeburg fell, May 10, 1631.
The citizens were deceived by a pretended withdrawal of the
enemy. But suddenly, at early dawn, the badly guarded
fortifications were stormed."

_C. T. Lewis,
History of Germany,
chapter 18, sections 3-4._

Two gates of the city having been opened by the storming
party, "Tilly marched in with part of his infantry.
Immediately occupying the principal streets, he drove the
citizens with pointed cannon into their dwellings, there to
await their destiny. They were not long held in suspense; a
word from Tilly decided the fate of Magdeburg. Even a more
humane general would in vain have recommended mercy to such
soldiers; but Tilly never made the attempt. Left by their
general's silence masters of the lives of all the citizens,
the soldiery broke into the houses to satiate their most
brutal appetites. The prayers of innocence excited some
compassion in the hearts of the Germans, but none in the rude
breasts of Pappenheim's Walloons. Scarcely had the savage
cruelty commenced, when the other gates were thrown open, and
the cavalry, with the fearful hordes of the Croats, poured in
upon the devoted inhabitants. Here commenced a scene of
horrors for which history has no language--poetry no pencil.
Neither innocent childhood, nor helpless old age; neither
youth, sex, rank, nor beauty, could disarm the fury of the
conquerors. Wives were abused in the arms of their husbands,
daughters at the feet of their parents; and the defenceless
sex exposed to the double sacrifice of virtue and life. No
situation, however obscure, or however sacred, escaped the
rapacity of the enemy. In a single church fifty-three women
were found beheaded. The Croats amused themselves with
throwing children into the flames; Pappenheim's Walloons with
stabbing infants at the mother's breast. Some officers of the
League, horror-struck at this dreadful scene, ventured to
remind Tilly that he had it in his power to stop the carnage.
'Return in an hour,' was his answer; 'I will see what I can
do; the soldier must have some reward for his danger and
toils.' These horrors lasted with unabated fury, till at last
the smoke and flames proved a check to the plunderers. To
augment the confusion and to divert the resistance of the
inhabitants, the Imperialists had, in the commencement of the
assault, fired the town in several places. The wind rising
rapidly, spread the flames, till the blaze became universal.
Fearful, indeed, was the tumult amid clouds of smoke, heaps of
dead bodies, the clash of swords, the crash of falling ruins,
and streams of blood. The atmosphere glowed; and the
intolerable heat forced at last even the murderers to take
refuge in their camp. In less than twelve hours, this strong,
populous, and flourishing city, one of the finest in Germany,
was reduced to ashes, with the exception of two churches and a
few houses. ... The avarice of the officers had saved 400 of
the richest citizens, in the hope of extorting from them an
exorbitant ransom. But this humanity was confined to the
officers of the League, whom the ruthless barbarity of the
Imperialists caused to be regarded as guardian angels.
Scarcely had the fury of the flames abated, when the
Imperialists returned to renew the pillage amid the ruins and
ashes of the town. Many were suffocated by the smoke; many
found rich booty in the cellars, where the citizens had
concealed their more valuable effects. On the 13th of May,
Tilly himself appeared in the town, after the streets had been
cleared of ashes and dead bodies. Horrible and revolting to
humanity was the scene that presented itself. The living
crawling from under the dead, children wandering about with
heart-rending cries, calling for their parents; and infants
still sucking the breasts of their lifeless mothers. More than
6,000 bodies were thrown into the Elbe to clear the streets; a
much greater number had been consumed by the flames. The whole
number of the slain was reckoned at not less than 30,000. The
entrance of the general, which took place on the 14th, put a
stop to the plunder, and saved the few who had hitherto
contrived to escape. About a thousand people were taken out of
the cathedral, where they had remained three days and two
nights, without food, and in momentary fear of death."

_F. Schiller,
History of the Thirty Years' War,
book 2._

ALSO IN:
_Sir E. Cust,
Lives of the Warriors of the
Thirty Years' War, part 1._

GERMANY: A. D. 1631 (January).
The Thirty Years War:
The Treaty of Bärwalde between Gustavus Adolphus and the king
of France.

"On the 13th of January, 1631, the Treaty of Barwalde was
concluded between France and Sweden. Hard cash had been the
principal subject of the negotiation, and Louis XIII. had
agreed to pay Gustavus a lump sum of $120,000 in consideration
of his recent expenditure,--a further sum of $400,000 a year
for six years to come. Until that time, or until a general
peace, if such should supervene earlier, Sweden was to keep in
the field an army of 30,000 foot and 6, 000 horse. The object
of the alliance was declared to be 'the protection of their
common friends, the security of the Baltic, the freedom of
commerce, the restitution of the oppressed members of the
Empire, the destruction of the newly erected fortresses in the
Baltic, the North Sea, and in the Grisons territory, so that
all should be left in the state in which it was before the
German war had begun.'
{1476}
Sweden was not to 'violate the Imperial constitution' where
she conquered; she was to leave the Catholic religion
undisturbed in all districts where she found it existing. She
was to observe towards Bavaria and the League--the spoilt
darlings of Richelieu's anti-Austrian policy--friendship or
neutrality, so far as they would observe it towards her. If,
at the end of six years, the objects were not accomplished,
the treaty was to be renewed."

_C. R. L. Fletcher,
Gustavus Adolphus and the Struggle
of Protestantism for Existence,
chapter 9._

GERMANY: A. D. 1631.
The Thirty Years War:
The elector of Brandenburg brought to terms by the king of
Sweden.
The elector of Saxony frightened into line.
Defeat of Tilly at Leipsig (Breitenfeld).
Effects of the great victory.

"Loud were the cries against Gustavus for not having relieved
Magdeburg. To answer them he felt himself bound to publish a
careful apology. In this document he declared, among other
things, that if he could have obtained from the Elector of
Brandenburg the passage of Küstrin he might not only have
raised the siege of Magdeburg but have destroyed the whole of
the Imperial army. The passage, however, had been denied him;
and though the preservation of Magdeburg so much concerned the
Elector of Saxony, he could obtain from him a passage toward
it neither by Wittemberg, nor the Bridge of Dessau, nor such
assistance in provision and shipping as was necessary for the
success of the enterprise. ... Something more than mere
persuasion had induced the Elector of Brandenburg, after the
capture of Francfort, to grant Gustavus possession of Spandau
for a month. The month expired on the 8th of June; and the
elector demanded back his stronghold. The king, fettered by
his promise, surrendered it; but the next day, having marched
to Berlin and pointed his guns against the palace, the ladies
came forth as mediators, and the elector consented both to
surrender Spandau again and to pay, for the maintenance of the
Swedish troops, a monthly subsidy of 30,000 rix-dollars. At
the end of May Tilly removed from Magdeburg and the Elbe to
Ascherleben. This enabled the king to take Werben, on the
confluence of the Elbe and Havel, where, after the reduction
of Tangermünde and Havelberg, he established his celebrated
camp." In the latter part of July, Tilly made two attacks on
the king's camp at Werben, and was repulsed on both occasions
with heavy loss. "In the middle of August, Gustavus broke up
his camp. His force at that time, according to the
muster-rolls, amounted to 13,000 foot, and 8,850 cavalry. He
drew towards Leipsig, then threatened by Tilly, who, having
been joined at Eisleben by 15,000 men under Fürstenburg, now
possessed an army 40,000 strong to enforce the emperor's ban
against the Leipsig decrees [or resolutions of a congress of
Protestant princes which had assembled at Leipsig in February,
1631, moved to some organized common action by the Edict of
Restitution] within the limits of the electorate. The Elector
of Saxony was almost frightened out of his wits by the
impending danger. ... His grief and rage at the fall of
Magdeburg had been so great that, for two days after receiving
the news, he would admit no one into his presence. But that
dire event only added to his perplexity; he could resolve
neither upon submission, nor upon vengeance. In May, indeed,
terrified by the threats of Ferdinand, he discontinued his
levies, and disbanded a part of his troops already enlisted:
but in June he sent Arnim to Gustavus with such overtures that
the king drank his health, and seemed to have grown sanguine
in the hope of his alliance. In July, his courage still
rising, he permitted Gustavus to recruit in his dominions. In
August, his courage falling again at the approach of
Fürstenburg, he gave him and his troops a free passage through
Thuringia." But now, later in the same month, he sent word to
Gustavus Adolphus "that not only Wittemberg but the whole
electorate was open to him; that not only his son, but
himself, would serve under the king; that he would advance one
month's payment for the Swedish troops immediately, and give
security for two monthly payments more. ... Gustavus rejoiced
to find the Duke of Saxony in this temper, and, in pursuance
of a league now entered into with him, and the Elector of
Brandenburg, crossed the Elbe at Wittemberg on the 4th of
September. The Saxons, from 16,000 to 20,000 strong, moving
simultaneously from Torgau, the confederated armies met at
Düben on the Mulda, three leagues from Leipsig. At a
conference held there, it was debated whether it would be
better to protract the war or to hazard a battle. The king
took the former side, but yielded to the strong
representations of the Duke of Saxony. ... On the 6th of
September the allies came within six or eight miles of the
enemy, where they halted for the night. ... Breitenfeld, the
place at which Tilly, urged by the importunity of Pappenheim,
had chosen to offer battle, was an extensive plain, in part
recently ploughed, about a mile from Leipsig and near the
cemetery of that city. Leipsig had surrendered to Tilly two
days before. The Imperial army, estimated at 44,000 men,
occupied a rising ground on the plain. ... The army was drawn
up in one line of great depth, having the infantry in the
centre, the cavalry on the wings, according to the Spanish
order of battle, The king subdivided his army, about 20,000
strong, into centre and wings, each of which consisted of two
lines and a reserve. ... To this disposition is attributed, in
a great degree, the success of the day. ... The files being so
comparatively shallow, artillery made less havoc among them.
Then, again, the division of the army into small maniples,
with considerable intervals between each, gave space for
evolutions, and the power of throwing the troops with rapidity
wherever their services or support might be found requisite.
... The battle began at 12 o'clock." It only ended with the
setting of the sun; but long before that time the great army
of Tilly was substantially destroyed. It had scattered the
Saxons easily enough, and sent them flying, with their
worthless elector; but Gustavus and his disciplined, brave,
powerfully handled Swedes had broken and ruined the stout but
clumsy imperial lines. "It is scarcely possible to exaggerate
the importance of this success. On the event of that day, as
Gustavus himself said, the whole (Protestant) cause, 'summa
rei,' depended. The success was great in itself. The numbers
engaged on either side had been nearly equal. Not so their
loss. The Imperial loss in killed and wounded, according to
Swedish computation, was from 8,000 to 10,000; according to
the enemy's own account, between 6,000 and 7,000; while all
seem to agree that the loss on the side of the allies was only
2,700, of which 2,000 were Saxon, 700 Swedes. Besides,
Gustavus won the whole of the enemy's artillery, and more than
100 standards. Then the army of Tilly being annihilated left
him free to choose his next point of attack, almost his next
victory."

_B. Chapman,
History of Gustavus Adolphus,
chapter 8._

{1477}

"The battle of Breitenfeld was an epoch in war, and it was an
epoch in history. It was an epoch in war, because first in it
was displayed on a great scale the superiority of mobility
over weight. It was an epoch in history, because it broke the
force upon which the revived Catholicism had relied for the
extension of its empire over Europe. ... 'Germany might tear
herself and be torn to pieces for yet another half-generation,
but the actual result of the Thirty-Years' War was as good as
achieved.'"

_C. R. L. Fletcher,
Gustavus Adolphus and the Struggle
of Protestantism for Existence,
chapter 11._

ALSO IN:
_G. B. Malleson,
The Battle-fields of Germany,
chapter 1._

GERMANY: A. D. 1631-1632.
The Thirty Years War:
Movements and plans of the Swedish king in southern Germany.
Temporary recovery of the Palatinate.
Occupation of Bavaria.
The Saxons in Bohemia.
Battle of the Lech.
Death of Tilly.
Wallenstein's recall.
Siege and relief of Nuremberg.
Battle of Lützen, and death of Gustavus Adolphus.