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.