affairs of northern Europe, having frequent wars with Russia, Poland, and
Denmark, and the young king fell heir to these wars, all of which he
prosecuted with striking ability. But a conflict soon broke out that
threatened all Europe and brought Sweden into the field as the arbiter of
continental destinies. This was the famous "Thirty Years' War," the
greatest and most ferocious religious war known in history. Into it
Sweden was drawn and the hand of Gustavus was potent in saving the
Protestant cause from destruction. The final event in his career, in
which he fell covered with glory on the fatal field of Lutzen, is dealt
with in the German "Historical Tales." We shall here describe another
equally famous battle of the war, that of Leipsic.
It was in 1629, when Denmark was in peril from the great armies of
Ferdinand II. of Austria, and Sweden also was threatened, that Gustavus
consented to become the champion of the Protestants of northern Europe,
and in June, 1630, he landed in Pomerania at the head of eight thousand
men. Here six Scottish regiments joined him, under the Duke of Hamilton,
and he marched onward, taking towns and fortresses in rapid succession
and gaining large reinforcements from the German states.
Three great leaders headed the Austrian armies, the famous Wallenstein,
the able but ferocious Tilly, and the celebrated cavalry leader
Pappenheim. All these skilled soldiers Gustavus had to face alone, but he
did so with the support of the best-drilled army then in Europe, a body
of soldiery which his able hands had formed into an almost irresistible
engine of war.
What spurred Gustavus to the great battle to be described was the capture
by Tilly on May 20, 1631, of the city of Magdeburg, and the massacre of
its thirty thousand citizens, men, women, and children. From this scene
of frightful outrage and destruction Tilly failed to call off his men
until the city lay in ruins and its people in death. A tall, haggard,
grim warrior, hollow-cheeked, and wild-looking, with large bright eyes
under his shaggy brows, Tilly looked capable of the deeds of ferocity
with which the world credited him.
[Illustration: STATUE OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.]
While all Christendom shuddered with horror at the savage slaughter at
Magdeburg, the triumphant Tilly marched upon and captured the city of
Leipsic. Here he fixed his headquarters in the house of a grave-digger,
where he grew pale at seeing the death's-head and cross-bones with which
the owner had decorated his walls. These significant emblems may have had
something to do with the unusual mildness with which he treated the
citizens of that town.
The cause of Protestantism in Germany was now in serious jeopardy and
Gustavus felt that the time had come to strike a hard blow in its behalf.
The elector of Saxony, who had hitherto stood aloof, now came to his aid
with an army of eighteen thousand men, and it was resolved to attack
Tilly at once, before the reinforcements on the way to join him could
arrive. These statements are needful, to show the momentous import of the
great battle of September 7, 1631.
In the early morning of that day the two armies came face to face, Tilly
having taken a strong and advantageous position not far from Leipsic,
where he hoped to avoid a battle. But he was obliged, when the enemy
began to move upon him, to alter his plans and move towards the hills on
his left. At the foot of these his army was drawn up in a long line,
with the artillery on the heights beyond, where it would sweep the
extensive plain of Breitenfeld in his front. Over this plain the Swedes
and Saxons advanced in two columns, towards a small stream named the
Lober, which ran in Tilly's front.
To prevent this crossing Pappenheim had early moved at the head of two
thousand cuirassiers, a movement which Tilly reluctantly permitted,
though strictly ordering him not to fight. Disregarding this order
Pappenheim charged the vanguard of the Swedes, only to find that he had
met an impregnable line and to be driven back in disorder. To check
pursuit he set fire to a village at the crossing-point, but this had no
effect upon the movement of the advancing troops nor his own disorderly
retreat.
The army of Gustavus was organized for the coming battle in the following
manner. On the right the Swedes were drawn up in a double line; the
infantry being in the centre, divided into small battalions that could be
rapidly manoeuvred without breaking their order; the cavalry on the
wings, similarly drawn up in small squadrons, with bodies of musketeers
between; this being done to make a greater show of force and annoy the
enemy's horse. On the left, at a considerable distance, were the Saxons.
It was the defeat of Pappenheim which obliged Tilly to abandon his first
strong position and draw up his army under the western heights, where it
formed a single extended line, long enough to outflank the Swedish army;
the infantry in large battalions, the cavalry in equally large and
unwieldy squadrons; the artillery, as stated, on the slopes above. The
position was one for defence rather than attack, for Tilly's army could
not advance far without being exposed to the fire of its own artillery.
Each army numbered about thirty-five thousand men.
These forces were small in view of the momentous nature of the struggle
before them and the fact that two great generals, both hitherto
invincible, were now to be matched in a contest on which the fate of the
whole war largely depended and to which the two parties battling for the
mastery looked forward with fear and trembling. But of the two, while
Gustavus was cool and collected, Tilly seemed to have lost his usual
intrepidity. He was anxious to avoid battle, and had formed no regular
plan to fight the enemy when forced into it by Pappenheim's impetuous
charge. "Doubts which he had never before felt struggled in his bosom;
gloomy forebodings clouded his ever-open brow; the shade of Magdeburg
seemed to hover over him."
The lines being ready for action, King Gustavus rode to the centre of his
front, reined in his horse, took off his hat, and with the sword in his
right hand lowered to the ground, offered in a loud voice the following
prayer:
"Almighty God, Thou who holdest victory and defeat in the hollow of Thine
hand, turn Thine eye unto us Thy servants, who have come from our
distant homes to fight for freedom and truth and for Thy gospel. Give us
victory for the honor of Thy holy name. Amen!"
Then, raising his sword and waving it over his head, he commanded:
"Forward in the name of the Lord!"
"God with us!" was the battle-cry as the Swedes, inspired by his words,
prepared for the fatal fray.
The battle, which had lulled after the defeat of Pappenheim, was now
resumed with the thunder of the cannon, which continued for two hours,
the west wind meanwhile blowing clouds of smoke and dust from ploughed
and parched fields into the faces of the Swedes. To avoid this they were
wheeled to face northwards, the movement being executed so rapidly and
skilfully that the enemy had no time to prevent it.
The cannonading ending, Tilly left the shelter of the heights and
advanced upon the Swedes. But so hot was their fire that he filed off
towards the right and fell impetuously upon the Saxons, whose ranks
quickly broke and fled before the fierce charge. Of the whole force of
the elector only a few regiments held their ground, but these did so in a
noble manner that saved the honor of Saxony. So confident now was Tilly
of victory that he sent off messengers in all haste to Munich and Vienna
with word that the day was his.
He was too hasty. The unbroken army of Sweden, the most thoroughly
drilled body of soldiers then in Europe, was still to be dealt with.
Pappenheim, who commanded the imperial left, charged with his whole
force of cavalry upon the Swedish right, but it stood against him firm as
a rock. Here the king commanded in person, and repulsed seven successive
charges of the impetuous Pappenheim, driving him at last from the field
with broken and decimated ranks.
In the meantime Tilly, having routed the small remnant of the Saxons,
turned upon the left wing of the Swedes with the prestige of victory to
animate his troops. This wing Gustavus, on seeing the repulse of his
allies, had reinforced with three regiments, covering the flank left
exposed by the flight of the Saxons.
Gustav Horn commanded here, and met the attack with a spirited
resistance, materially aided by the musketeers who were interspersed
among the squadrons of horse. While the contest went on and the vigor of
the attack was showing signs of weakening, King Gustavus, having put
Pappenheim to rout, wheeled to the left and by a sharp attack captured
the heights on which the enemy's artillery was planted. A short struggle
gave him possession of the guns and soon Tilly's army was being rent with
the fire of its own cannon.
This flank attack by artillery, coming in aid of the furious onset of the
Swedes, quickly threw the imperial ranks into confusion. Hitherto deemed
invincible, Tilly's whole army broke into wild disorder, a quick retreat
being its only hope. The only portion of it yet standing firm was a
battalion of four veteran regiments, which had never yet fled the field
and were determined never to do so.
Closing their ranks, they forced their way by a fierce charge through the
opposing army and gained a small thicket, where they held their own
against the Swedes until night, when only six hundred of them remained.
With the retreat of this brave remnant the battle was at an end, the
remainder of Tilly's army being then in full flight, actively pursued by
the Swedish cavalry, which kept close upon their tracks until the
darkness of night spread over the field.
On all sides the bells of the villages pealed out the tidings of the
victory, and the people poured forth in pursuit of the fleeing foe,
giving short shrift to the unhappy fugitives who fell into their hands.
Eleven thousand of Tilly's men had fallen and more than five thousand,
including the wounded, were held as prisoners. On the other side the
Saxons had lost about two thousand, but of the Swedes only about seven
hundred had fallen. The camp and artillery of the enemy had fallen into
the hands of Gustavus, and more than a hundred standards had been taken.
The rout was so complete that Tilly had left with him only about six
hundred men and Pappenheim less than fifteen hundred. Thus was destroyed
that formidable army which had long been the terror of Germany.
As for Tilly himself, chance alone left him his life. Exhausted by his
wounds and summoned to surrender by a Swedish captain of horse, he
refused. In an instant more he would have been cut down, when a pistol
shot laid low the Swede. But though saved in body, he was lost in spirit,
utterly depressed and shaken by the defeat which had wiped out, as he
thought, the memory of all his past exploits.
Though he recovered from his wounds, he never regained his former
cheerfulness and good fortune seemed to desert him, and in a second
battle with Gustavus on the Lech he was mortally wounded, dying a few
days later.
As for Gustavus, he had won imperishable renown as a military leader. All
Germany seemed to lie open before him and it appeared as if nothing could
prevent a triumphant march upon Vienna. He had proved himself the ablest
captain and tactician of the age, his device of small, rapidly moving
brigades and flexible squadrons being the death-blow of the solid and
unwieldy columns of previous wars. And his victory formed an epoch in
history as saving the cause of Protestantism in Germany.
The emperor, in despair, called again into his service the disgraced and
disgruntled Wallenstein, granting him extraordinary powers. But this
great captain also was beaten by Gustavus on the field of Lutzen, where
the career of the Swedish hero came to an untimely end. His renown as a
great soldier will live long in history.
_CHARLES X. AND THE INVASION OF DENMARK._
When Charles X., nephew of Gustavus Adolphus, succeeded Christina, the
daughter of Gustavus, on the throne, the "Thirty Years' War" was at an
end, but new wars awaited the new king. Sweden had won large possessions
on the southern shores of the Baltic and had become one of the leading
powers of Europe. But Charles found these southern provinces hard to
hold, having to battle for them with Russia and Poland.
A worthy successor of his great uncle, Charles showed his warlike ability
by a rapid march into Poland and the overthrow of its army by a three
days' battle at Warsaw. But his progress was checked by a new and dark
cloud which appeared upon the sky. Suddenly and unexpectedly, on the 2d
of May, 1657, Denmark declared war against Sweden, and at the same time
an Austrian army invaded Poland with the purpose of aiding that kingdom
and destroying the Swedish army.
This double attack left Charles in a quandary. An able and experienced
soldier, who had learned the trade of war in Germany during Queen
Christina's reign, he was well fitted to deal with one foe, but could not
readily cope with two widely separated ones. He therefore determined to
abandon Poland, though leaving garrisons in its more important cities,
and devote his attention to Denmark. This Danish war had much in it of
interest, and showed that the new Swedish king had been taught in the
best school of the military art.
Frederick III. of Denmark had declared war without making preparations
for it, fancying that Charles would be forced to remain with his army in
Poland and that he would have abundant time to act. He quickly learned
his mistake. With an army of eight thousand well-trained veterans Charles
marched at all speed from Poland, and a few months after war was declared
stood with his compact little army on Denmark's shores.
Taken by surprise, the Danish general, Bilbe, retreated hastily northward
and the whole peninsula of Jutland was quickly overrun by the Swedes.
Bilbe had much the larger army, but they were mainly raw recruits, and he
dared not face the veterans of the Thirty Years' War. The Danes had
projected an invasion of Sweden, for which they had been deliberately
preparing, and were overwhelmed to find their army in retreat and a force
of six thousand men closely besieged in the Fredericia fortress. A night
attack by General Vrangel won this stronghold for the Swedes, with its
garrison and a large amount of arms and provisions.
So far the movement of Charles had been brilliantly successful, but his
position was very dangerous. Enemies were advancing on him from various
sides, a Polish army having invaded Pomerania, an Austrian army having
advanced into Prussia, while the elector of Brandenburg had joined his
enemies. His ally, England, had promised to aid him with a fleet, but it
failed to appear, and the situation was growing daily more critical. From
his awkward position he was rescued by a combination of daring and the
favoring influences of nature.
The winter of 1658 proved extraordinarily cold. Never within the memory
of man had such bitter weather been known. The sea that flowed between
the Danish islands was tightly frozen, a natural bridge of ice connecting
them with one another and the mainland. With bold resolution King Charles
determined to cross to the island of Fyen.
The enterprise was full of risk. The ice swayed perilously beneath the
marching hosts. At places it broke. But the island shore was safely
reached, the troops guarding it were beaten, and soon the whole island
was in Charles's possession.
But a more daring and perilous enterprise confronted the king. There was
a broader arm of the sea to cross, the Great Belt, about twelve miles
wide. The ice was examined and tested by the quartermaster-general, who
said that he would answer with his life for its being strong enough to
bear the army.
King Charles heard this tidings with delight, clapping his hands
energetically and exclaiming:
"Now, Brother Frederick, we will converse with each other in good
Swedish."
Dahlberg, the quartermaster-general, testified to his confidence by
riding at the head of the column over the wide field of ice, the army
following in safety to the coast of Zealand. Meeting with no opposition,
Charles and his army were soon near Copenhagen, whose fortifications were
in bad condition, and the danger of losing his capital was so imminent
that Frederick was glad to accept the severe terms of peace which Charles
offered him. These included the surrender of half a dozen Danish
provinces to Sweden and the independence of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp
from Danish control. Denmark had paid sorely for making a declaration of
war with no preparation to carry it out.
But Charles X. was so eager for war that in the end he lost most of what
he had gained. He was full of schemes of conquest in Germany, but feared
that Denmark might take advantage of his absence with his army to take
revenge for her losses. The fleets of Holland were threatening the coasts
of the Baltic Sea, and Charles sought to make a treaty with Denmark which
would close this sea to foreign ships. Denmark refused to enter such an
alliance and Charles thereupon determined to make a complete conquest of
that kingdom.
Breaking without warning the treaty of peace he had recently made, he
suddenly landed with an army on the coast of Zealand. By this unwarranted
and stealthy assault he filled the souls of the Danes with the courage of
despair, changed Holland from a secret to an open enemy, and lost the
most of his former gains.
The Danish people, threatened with the loss of their independence, flew
to arms, determined to defend their country to the last extremity.
Charles, his army being small, delayed his attack upon Copenhagen, which
might easily have been taken by an immediate assault. When he appeared
before it he found all its people converted into armed soldiers, while
King Frederick declared that he was ready to die in his capital like a
bird in its nest. Every soul in the city burned with patriotism, and
nobles, burghers, and laborers alike manned the walls, while even women
could be seen wielding spade and axe in the repair of the neglected
defences. When the siege began the citizens made several successful
sallies against their foes and hope arose in their breasts.
But their position soon grew critical, the Swedes seizing the castle of
Cronberg and other points commanding the Sound and pushing forward their
lines until they had possession of the outer works of the city. The great
weakness of the citizens lay in the absence of provisions, which grew so
scarce that they would have had to surrender from sheer stress of hunger
but for the activity of their allies.
The Dutch had enlisted in their cause, and a fleet sent from Holland
under Admirals Opdam and DeWitte passed Cronberg and other fortifications
held by the Swedes, met the Swedish fleet under Admiral Vrangel in the
Sound and fought a bloody battle for the mastery. For six hours the
thunder of cannon echoed from the neighboring shores, then the Swedes
were put to flight and a favoring wind bore the Dutch ships triumphantly
to the beleagured city, bringing food and help to the half-starved
defenders.
Their coming saved Copenhagen. Charles, baffled in his efforts, drew
back, and threw up works of defence ten miles from the city. Suddenly the
tide of fortune had turned and began to run strongly against him. Into
Holstein pressed an invading army of Austrians, Poles, and
Brandenburgers. The Swedes were forced to evacuate Jutland. The newly won
provinces were ready to revolt. Part of those held in Norway were taken
by the Danes, and the Swedish garrison in the island of Bornholm was
annihilated by a sudden revolt of the inhabitants.
When winter came and the waters were closed by ice against invading
fleets, the Swedish king determined to make a vigorous effort to take the
city by assault. The attack was made on the night of February 10, 1659,
Generals Stenbock and Spane leading a storming party against the
fortifications. Fortunately for the people, they had information of the
coming assault and were fully prepared for defence, and a desperate
struggle took place at the walls and in the frozen ditches. The fire of a
multitude of cannon served to light up the scene, and the attacking
Swedes found themselves met with the frantic courage of men and women
fighting for their homes. A shower of bullets and stones burst upon them,
many women taking part, throwing burning brands, and pouring boiling tar
upon their heads. In the end the Swedes were forced to draw back, leaving
two thousand dead and wounded in the hands of their foes.
Relinquishing his attack upon the city, Charles now turned furiously upon
the small islands of Laaland, Falster, Moen, and Langeland, which had
offended him by supplying provisions for the city, and subjected them to
all the horrors of invasion by troops to whom every excess of outrage was
allowed. Yet new misfortunes gathered round him, the peninsula of Fyen
being taken by the allies of Denmark, while the Swedish troops near
Nyberg were attacked and taken prisoners, their commander alone escaping
in a small boat.
The intervention offered by the neighboring powers was refused by the
proud Swedish king, who, surrounded by dangers on all sides, now issued a
call for a meeting of the estates of the realm at Gothenburg, while at
the same time preparing to invade Norway as a part of the Danish
dominions. At this interval he was suddenly taken sick and died soon
after reaching Gothenburg. A treaty followed with the widowed queen,
regent of Sweden, and Frederick preserved his realm, though not without
loss of territory.
_CHARLES XII. THE FIREBRAND OF SWEDEN._
On the 27th of June, 1682, was born one of the most extraordinary of men,
the Alexander of modern times, one of those meteors of conquest which
have appeared at rare intervals in the history of the world. Grandson
alike of Charles X. of Sweden and Frederick III. of Denmark, Charles XII.
of Sweden united in himself all the soldierly qualities of his ancestors,
his chief fault being that he possessed them in too intense a degree,
being possessed by a sort of military madness, an overweaning passion for
great exploits and wide-spread conquests. In his career Sweden reached
its greatest height of power, and with his death it fell back into its
original peninsular status.
His daring activity began almost with his birth. At seven years of age he
could manage a horse, and the violent exercises in which he delighted to
indulge gave him the vigorous constitution necessary for the great
fatigues of his later life, while he developed an obstinacy which made
him a terror to his advisers in later years.
Charles was extraordinary in the fact that he performed the most
remarkable of his exploits before he reached the age of manhood, and in a
just sense may be given the name of the boy conqueror. His mother died
when he was eleven years of age and his father when he was fifteen, his
grandmother being appointed regent of the kingdom, with a council of five
nobles for her advisers.
Sweden, when he came to the throne, had risen to a high rank among the
powers of Europe. In addition to its original dominion, it possessed the
whole of Finland, the finest part of Pomerania, on the southern shores of
the Baltic, and also Livonia, Carelia, Ingria, Wismar, Viborg, the
Duchies of Bremen and Verden, and other realms, all of long possession
and secured by conquest and treaty. But it had dangerous enemies with
whom to deal, especially Peter the Great of Russia, then bent on bringing
his barbarian dominions into line with the great powers of the continent.
Such was the inheritance of the fifteen-year-old king, who quickly showed
the material of which he was composed. One day in the first year of his
reign, after reviewing a number of regiments, he was seen by his special
favorite, Charles Piper, in a spell of abstraction.
"May I ask your Majesty," said Piper, "of what you are thinking so
deeply?"
"I am thinking," replied the boy monarch, "that I am capable of
commanding those brave fellows; and I don't choose that either they or I
shall receive orders from a woman."
He referred in this irreverent and boastful speech to his grandmother,
the regent.