GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY.—CONCLUDED.
Gustavus seemed to have had all Catholic Europe to fight. While on the
Rhine he wrote home: "We have unexpectedly fallen into collision with
the arms of the Spaniards," who were in the pay of Maximilian of Bavaria
and not that of Spain. He wonders if he shall be obliged to declare war
against Spain. He fervently hoped not, as he has just heard that
Richelieu is sending a large force of soldiers to help Austria, but he
urges them at home to look to the sea coast, particularly Gottenburg. At
the Council of State held at Menz, December 31st, 1631, the king had
said: "The king of Denmark has publicly spoken of the Spanish designs,
and that Farensbach had come to Dunkirk and offered, if he could get
ships, to take Gottenburg." The Swedish cabinet sent a military force
for the protection of that city.
With all these forces of Rome assailing them one would think the hearts
of Protestants would beat as the heart of one man, but selfish interests
still divided them. The Elector of Saxony could not endure taking his
orders from a Swedish king as the September treaty forced him to do. He
could only be true to the faith when his particular State was in danger
of being ravaged, and he now began again to work for a reconciliation
with Ferdinand.
The German States of the second and third rank fully acknowledged
Gustavus as their deliverer. They assisted with both men and money to
the full measure of their ability, and after the death of the king of
Sweden they did not desert the cause. The Electors of Saxony and
Brandenburg, the two chief States, had been forced into the war and did
only such service as Gustavus, and danger to their own possessions,
obliged them to perform.
As one considers that last winter, a survey reveals how very much had
been accomplished. Bernard of Weimar, Christian, Palgrave of
Birkenfield, and the Rhinegrave, Otto Lewis, kept the States of the
Rhine. Horn carried victorious arms from Franconia to the Neckar. Tott
completed the conquest of Mecklenburg, Baner was master at
Magdeburg—what was left of it. Yet with all this to encourage Gustavus
the real sorrow of the invasion was yet before them.
Of all the curious pages of history the relations between Gustavus and
Wallenstein is one of the most curious. It would seem that very soon
after the Emperor had sent Wallenstein home, or retired him, Gustavus
had been in correspondence with Wallenstein, hoping to obtain his
services in the Protestant army. Oxenstiern claimed that the king had
written Wallenstein from Stralsund as early as October 30th, 1630. It is
quite possible that the king hoped that the great general's anger at the
Emperor could be used for the Protestants' benefit.
In February, 1631, Tilly wrote the Emperor that he felt sure that
Wallenstein had been tampered with by the kings of England and Sweden,
that these kings had tried to have Wallenstein take up arms against the
Emperor in Bohemia. "But," said Tilly, "he thanks their majesties for
the great honor they have done him, and when he sees the armies of
England in the Palatinate he will not lose the opportunity."
Count Thurn, the leader of the Protestant party in Bohemia, seems to
have been the friend of both Gustavus and Wallenstein, and acted as the
go-between. In June, 1631, just after the fall of Magdeburg, when
Gustavus was surrounded with great difficulties, Wallenstein made this
demand as necessary to secure his services. Gustavus must victoriously
complete a trip to the sea coast, ally himself with Saxony (which he did
September 1st, 1631), attack Tilly (which he did at Breitenfield), then
send twelve thousand men under Count Thurn, and with this nucleus
Wallenstein was to raise an army of fifty thousand men. To these terms
Gustavus agreed, and promised to make Wallenstein Viceroy of Bohemia.
At the same time Wallenstein was in secret correspondence with the
Emperor of Austria. Never was there a creature of more duplicity than
Wallenstein. He met Gustavus soon after the battle of Breitenfield,
offered what seemed genuine congratulations, told Gustavus the Emperor
thought of reinstating him, possibly to impress the king with the
importance of closing negotiations with him. He said, "You will soon
chase the Emperor out of his empire."
Gustavus seems to have had in mind that Wallenstein (both he and the
Emperor were from Bohemia), would clear Bohemia of Imperialists, while
John George of Saxony would clear Silesia, and that after Gustavus
himself should master western Germany, they would all meet with their
triumphant armies before the walls of Vienna.
It was a beautiful dream, but its fulfillment rested on a man false to
every tie which binds man to God or to his fellow-man. But as Gustavus
made his successful trip through western Germany he began to fear more
and more that such an alliance would not be pleasing to God.
Wallenstein asked for the twelve thousand troops. Gustavus asked delay,
saying he was not in a position to spare that number of men. That
Wallenstein was a traitor to his Emperor who had really made him all
that he was, was a fact well known to the king of Sweden and made him
hesitate to employ Wallenstein. A traitor to one is not likely to be
true to another.
When Gustavus was at Nuremberg he again opened correspondence with this
Bohemian general, but Wallenstein by that time had come to the
conclusion that Gustavus was so far from his base of supplies, was so
poorly sustained by Saxony and Brandenburg, that with an army of fifty
thousand he could drive Gustavus home, and possibly he had the dream (as
he is charged with) that he could make himself Emperor, so that while
Gustavus was at Nuremberg the correspondence closed finally, and it
began to be whispered that Wallenstein would soon be again at the head
of the Imperial army.
General Tilly died of his wounds April 30th, 1632. Gustavus had barely
escaped death on the day that Tilly was wounded. His horse was shot
under him, and his friend, the Margrave of Baden, had his head carried
away by a cannon ball almost at the same moment. As Gustavus sprang from
the wounded horse his followers screamed, for they thought him killed,
but, while covered with blood and dust, he arose from the mêlée, saying,
"The apple is not yet ripe." After his return to camp, his officers
attempted to offer congratulations. He replied: "The Margrave's death
and the ball which came so close to me, recall to my mind my mortality.
Man, thou must die, that is the old law from which neither my high
descent, not my royal crown, nor my arms, nor my numerous victories can
save me. I submit to God's will and guidance. If He removes me from this
world, He will not forsake the holy cause which I now defend."
From this time on he talked to his officers of what should be done in
case of his death. He was not entranced with the glories of earth; he
cared nothing for fame, but he cared very much that he should accomplish
the great work he believed himself called upon to perform. He expected
soon to be called home to God; therefore, he was careful to show mercy
wherever it was possible.
Gustavus now had an army of about one hundred thousand men, this he
expected to greatly enlarge during the coming year. He had eighteen
thousand in his own command. Horn had twenty thousand on the Main;
William of Hesse had eight thousand kept in his own country; Baner, at
Magdeburg, had thirteen thousand. Tott, who had been called from
Mecklenburg to Lower Saxony, had thirteen thousand, and the Dukes of
Mecklenburg had been ordered to send four thousand more. The Saxons in
Bohemia had twenty thousand, besides the twelve thousand engaged in
garrison duty. The army had many languages, the soldiers were not
homogeneous, and were, therefore, hard to manage.
Wherever there was an attack, Gustavus, no difference how much needed
where he happened to be, seems to have dropped everything and rushed to
the weak point. He was the needed man everywhere, and with that small
royal army he seems to have really been blown from one point of attack
to another. In each place, in the midst of victory, he had to turn away
to help, once Nuremberg, then General Horn, then Saxony. All this shows
that, although he had now a large army, he did not regard any part of it
strong enough to sustain itself against the Imperial army without his
presence. It shows how small a foundation he had for his hopes of
delivering Germany, which was so unready, so divided into selfish
factions, that unless God's hand had been as markedly with him as it was
with Moses, Germany would have been forced back into the mental and
spiritual darkness of the age preceding the Reformation.
The occupation of Ratisbon by the Bavarians caused Gustavus Adolphus to
decide that he would attack Ingolstadt, and penetrate into the center of
Bavaria. He hoped to draw the Elector Maximilian from the Danube and
strip it of its protectors. As he was planning for this, France again
sent a diplomat to negotiate a peace for Bavaria. To all the talk now
concerning Maximilian's neutrality, the king only laughed. He knew that
Maximilian was all that was left of the Catholic League, and he replied:
"I clearly see that you have only come to impose upon me. I cannot
believe that the Duke of Bavaria seriously intends to come to a
settlement of our differences. I know him and his priesthood too well.
He wears a double cassock, and according to circumstances he turns it,
to-day the red, to-morrow the blue. This time I shall not be deceived."
The Ambassador ceased to cajole and began to threaten, saying that
France was quite able to throw forty thousand troops into Bavaria for
the help of the Elector.
Gustavus replied: "If France withdraws her alliance, I shall secure that
of the Turks, who are no worse allies than the papists, with their
idolatry. At all events I know that I can rely on the help of Almighty
God, who has sent me into Germany." The plan was to keep him inactive
till Maximilian had brought together his army.
When Tilly died, the Emperor, Ferdinand II., was at his wits' end, and
had appealed to the disgraced Wallenstein to save him. Wallenstein made
the most severe demands, to which the Emperor was obliged to agree.
Immediately Wallenstein stamped his foot, and the robber bands of all
Europe appeared again from Italy, from England and Scotland and from
Poland. From every German State men flocked to the banner of the arch
robber of the middle ages.
The articles of Znaim, in which Wallenstein agrees to take command, are
unique on the page of history. They were completed in April, 1632. In
this writing the Emperor agreed that no army, except that under
Wallenstein, could be introduced into Germany. He alone possessed the
power of confiscation and pardon. He could create a new class of princes
to rule over States, princes who received and held power only under him.
His power was purely military, but by these papers the Emperor
practically put the power out of his own hands.
Wallenstein immediately drove the Saxons from Bohemia, offered to revoke
the Edict of Restitution for John George of Saxony, that weak prince who
was now wavering between his sworn allegiance to Gustavus and
Wallenstein. At his side now appeared an army of sixty thousand skilled
troops, the mercenaries who were promised large pay and all the loot
they could gather.
Wallenstein offered John George of Saxony such terms of peace that
Gustavus feared his adherence to the Protestant cause. Gustavus knew
that, had Tilly offered the same to the Elector of Saxony, the latter
would never have united his fortunes to those of the Protestant States.
Such an alliance was a heart-breaking care to the king of Sweden.
In spite of Richelieu's messenger, the king pressed on into Bavaria, a
country so hostilely Catholic that to kill a Protestant was considered
by the Bavarians to be doing God a service. Gustavus had, up to this
time, been welcomed even in the most Catholic State, because he treated
the citizens better by far than their own army had done, but in Bavaria
he met a different spirit. The priests had stirred them to great
bitterness. He was called by them the Antichrist, and in their public
prayers they asked God to deliver them from "the Swedish devil." If a
Swedish soldier fell into the hands of the peasants he was tortured and
mutilated, which greatly exasperated the army and made it difficult for
the king to keep his men from retaliating in kind, and, indeed, to keep
them from laying waste the entire country.
The king, by his kindness to the towns and to the prisoners of war,
showed that his Christianity was superior to theirs. He never kept
better discipline in his own army than at this trying time, and he never
failed to repay their bitterest hate by added kindness. At Landshut the
angry passions were assuaged by the uniform kindness of the king,
leading citizens came from their hiding places, and, throwing themselves
at the king's feet, they begged for their own lives and for the
protection of their towns. Gustavus answered: "When I think of the
cruelties which you have practiced on my soldiers, I ask myself the
question whether you are men or ferocious animals, and I know not how I
can have compassion on you."
He made no promises. Profound silence fell on the town as Gustavus and
his staff rode out. He was soon overtaken by a great storm of thunder,
lightning and rain. He took that as a personal message from God that he
was not to be harsh in his dealings toward this conquered town, so he
only assessed them to pay one hundred thousand dollars war expenses,
which they considered a complete reprieve, as they had expected the
burning of the town.
From Landshut Gustavus went to Munich. The capital city was greatly
excited, yet knowing his kindness to other places, they hoped for
clemency. Great fear prevailed, but they hoped by an unconditional
surrender to disarm vengeance. For that reason they sent messengers to
meet him at Freysingen, and placed the keys of the city at his feet.
The king replied to the deputation: "You have done well. With justice I
might have avenged Magdeburg on your city. But be not afraid about your
property, your families and your religion. Go in peace."
His army had suffered so much they really desired revenge and plunder in
this Catholic city, but Gustavus kept the strictest discipline. He
conducted the king of Bohemia, the Palatine Frederick, with great pomp
and ceremony, into the very palace of the prince who had driven him out.
At the same time he showed such forbearance toward the citizens that
they paid him marked respect. Even the Jesuits, who had done so much
against him, wrote to Rome praising his magnanimity.
Gustavus at Munich visited the Jesuit college. There the Superior
addressed him in Latin, praising his eminent qualities. The king replied
in the same language, and began an argument concerning the Lord's
Supper. He stated clearly the evangelical position, and showed how fully
he understood the position of Rome. His staff officers felt annoyed, and
told him that he would serve his cause better by driving out the Jesuits
than by holding learned arguments with them. Gustavus replied "Do you
not see they injure the cause they defend, and how useful they are to
that which they oppose?"
The king found the palace at Munich had been robbed of its chief
treasures. It was a very handsome building. As he was being escorted
through it, the king inquired, "Who was the architect of this building?"
The guide replied, "No other than the Elector himself." "I wish," said
the king, "I had this architect to send to Sweden." "That," said the
guide, "the architect will take care to prevent."
When the arsenal was examined they found the gun-carriages with no
cannon in sight. Gustavus was like Cromwell, a shrewd detective himself,
and he had the cellars and adjoining ground examined. He found the
cannon concealed under the floor. The floor was partly raised up, and
the king said: "Rise up from the dead and come to judgment." One hundred
and forty pieces obeyed the summons.
In one of the cannon was found thirty thousand gold ducats, which was a
great help in paying off his soldiers.
Gustavus greatly admired the magnificent city, which he called "a gold
saddle on a bad horse," but felt that he must now push on, for he feared
Wallenstein would throw a large part of his army between himself and his
base of supplies.
As soon as Wallenstein comprehended that, Bavaria being conquered,
Gustavus would march to Vienna, he stirred himself. Gustavus learned
that Wallenstein proposed to attack Nuremberg, which had shown the
Swedish king such great favor and kindness.
Maximilian entreated Wallenstein to come to his help, and signed papers
of allegiance to this upstart general and would-be emperor. Concerning
this Wallenstein said: "At last I forced my mortal enemy to implore my
pardon and support. I am avenged of all the evil he has done me."
Wallenstein now had sixty thousand troops with which to attack
Nuremberg, while Gustavus had about twenty thousand with which to oppose
him. Gustavus could easily have avoided an engagement and left Nuremberg
to the fate of Magdeburg. He preferred to perish with the city rather
than expose this Protestant stronghold to the severities of the Imperial
army. He threw up entrenchments outside the wall, and placed his
soldiers outside the city, so as not to inconvenience the inhabitants.
The citizens came out with shovels and picks and assisted the soldiers,
the women came with good food, so that in two weeks they had an
entrenchment which would protect almost as well as a wall. In the
meantime the authorities were out buying all the provisions possible to
put the city in condition to stand a siege. Then the king had his
officers organize and train the militia as to best methods of
maintaining order, and fitting them to assist in protecting the city.
Gustavus said: "Nuremberg is the apple of my eye, and I shall defend it
to the best of my ability." The soldiers and citizens were in perfect
harmony, and together made preparations to receive the rapidly
approaching enemy.
Wallenstein's army did not at once attack the city, but went into an
almost impregnable camp on a hill three miles away. Wallenstein said:
"Hitherto enough battles have been fought, I shall try another method."
He fully expected famine and pestilence to do his work for him in that
crowded, besieged city. He did not understand that they were in a degree
prepared for siege. On his approach the country people had sold all farm
animals to the city, or had used them to transport themselves and
families far away.
Gustavus sent out for provisions for his army as long as provender for
man or beast could be had; when these supplies could no longer be
obtained, the city opened its magazines to the king, while Wallenstein's
troops had to travel long distances to obtain subsistence.
Once a long train of wagons was bringing supplies for Wallenstein from
Bavaria, and the king, learning of its approach, sent a regiment of
cavalry and intercepted the entire cavalcade. The escort was destroyed,
twelve thousand cattle and a thousand wagon-loads of bread were brought
to camp, and what could not be brought in was destroyed by fire.
Wallenstein began to declare that a battle would have cost him less.
The entrenchments of the Swedes now made an attack almost impossible,
but the crowded city caused diseases common to the army, the inactivity
of soldiers and men began to play havoc with army discipline.
The German troops robbed their countrymen, and Swedish soldiers soon
followed their example. Gustavus remonstrated again and again with the
German officers; at last, on June 29th, he gave them a berating which
they never forgot. He brought them together and said: "Complaint reaches
me on all sides about the conduct of our troops in regard to our allies.
People complain that the Swedes wage war like the Croats. These
reproaches break my heart, especially since I know they are too true. I
am innocent of all these disorders; I have always forbidden and punished
them severely. It is you yourselves, Germans, who lay waste your native
country, ransack your fellow-citizens and drive your co-religionists,
whom you have sworn to protect, to despair. As God is my judge, I abhor
you; my heart sinks within me, even when I look upon you. You break my
orders, you are the cause that the world curses me, that the tears of
poverty follow me, that complaints ring in my ears. They say, 'The king,
our friend, does us more harm than even Wallenstein, our worst enemy.'
If you were true Christians, you would fulfill your duties to your
country, to your brethren, and you would remember what I have done for
you. It is for you that I have ventured my life and sacrificed my peace.
It is for you I have depopulated Sweden, stripped my kingdom of its
treasures, and spent upon you four million dollars in gold, while from
your German empire I have not received the least aid, not even so much
as would buy a miserable doublet. I ask nothing of you, and would prefer
to return home poor and naked rather than to clothe and enrich myself at
your expense. I gave you a share of all that God had given me, and had
you regarded my orders I would gladly have shared with you all my future
acquisitions.
"Your want of discipline convinces me of your evil intentions, whatever
cause I might otherwise have to applaud your bravery. If you murmur, if
you forget God and honor so that you forsake me, I shall surround myself
with my Swedes and Finns; we shall defend ourselves to the last man, and
the whole world shall see that being a Christian king, I have preferred
to give up my life rather than to defile by a crime the holy work which
God has entrusted to me.
"I request you, for God's sake, to commune with yourselves, and ask your
consciences. Remember, you must give an account to God of your conduct,
and that you will appear before the judgment seat of the all-seeing
heavenly Judge."
Many were moved to tears, and promised to heed his words. Afterward, as
the king passed through camp, he saw a cow before one of the tents. He
took the young corporal before the court, saying: "Son, it is better I
should punish you for this than that God should punish me and my army
and all of us together." He punished several officers for stealing, so
that while the Nurembergers paid the severe price of war, yet the king
did his best for their protection.
But hunger continually pinched in the city and the camp. The one hundred
and thirty-eight bakeries in the city could not supply the demand. Men
fought for the bread as it came from the ovens. The horses died and
infected the air, pestilence in the form of dysentery attacked both city
and camp, so that twenty-nine thousand died, and graves could scarcely
be found for them.
By August 12th Oxenstiern, Baner and Duke Bernard, also William of
Weimar, brought in enough men to give the king an army of seventy
thousand men, with an addition of sixty cannon, and four thousand wagons
of supplies, clothing and ammunition, but not much food.
Wallenstein also received reinforcements. The lack of food for both
camps was fast rendering the men unfit for service, so that the king now
determined to attack Wallenstein in his stronghold. On August 21st,
1632, Gustavus thought he saw signs of Wallenstein's retiring, and on
the 22d he attacked Wallenstein in his trenches. For twelve long hours
the Swedish army stormed that hill with unbroken courage, but with
dreadful losses. Bernard on the right held his ground. Gustavus
commanded the left, and at his direction the cannon were dragged from
place to place, the king pointing many of them with his own hands. In
the morning of August 23d rain began to fall. The Swedes had lost four
thousand men. Torstenston was prisoner, Baner wounded, the king had the
sole of his boot shot away. They had fought all day and all night with
insufficient food, and the Swedes were forced to retreat.
Nuremberg had lost over ten thousand inhabitants, and Gustavus, during
the siege and battle, had lost twenty thousand of his faithful soldiers.
The air was putrid from the decaying flesh of men and animals dead under
an August sun.
On September 8th the king withdrew from Nuremberg, leaving a sufficient
garrison under Oxenstiern, and four days after Wallenstein broke camp
and left a trail of burning towns which for years marked the line of his
retreat. He had lost fifty thousand men, and now moved northward to prey
upon Saxony. Gustavus still had the desire to finish his work in
Bavaria, but when he heard that Protestant Saxony was again under the
enemy's heel, he prepared at once to move northward.