saying "that it was intolerable that the Luebeckers should put up for
auction the three good old northern realms, just as if they were their
market wares."
In a short time the whole North was in flames. At first extraordinary
success crowned the attacks of the Hansa's fleet and armies, and by
Midsummer, 1534, almost the entire Danish kingdom was in the hands of
the Luebeckers. Then fortune somewhat turned, and Luebeck had to see an
army surround its very walls, much to the consternation of the inmates.
This danger was however happily averted, thanks to clever negotiations
and force of arms; but meanwhile things had grown yet more complicated
and intricate in the Scandinavian question. Party faction and religious
jealousies prevented corporate action. There was a moment when things
looked so black that even Wullenweber was daunted, and the confession
escaped him that "if he were not in the middle of all this muddle, he
should take good care to keep outside it."
In the midst of these difficulties dawned the year 1535, one of the most
fatal in the life of the German States; a year destined to unravel and
settle for ever the northern confusions.
Such a spectacle as the Baltic presented at this period it had not shown
for many a long day. In the Sound, in all the Danish seas, in all the
narrow waterways that separated the islands from one another, were seen
waving from the tall masts of the Hanseatic "peace ships," the flag of
the League, and in the harbours of Luebeck, Rostock, and Stralsund, more
ships were put upon a war footing. There was likewise seen the
white-and-black banner of the Prussian flotilla, sent to aid the
imprisoned Danish king, while the flags of Denmark and Sweden fluttered
from their respective vessels.
Nor was the spectacle on land less animated than that on the sea.
Troops, mercenaries of every land and language crowded the shore of the
mainland. It was evident that the encounter would be severe, the
resistance great. The first check came to the Hansa in the shape of the
capture of Max Meyer, owing to the false information given to him by the
Danish commandant of Scania. Christian III. was proclaimed king of
Denmark, and Gustavus Vasa lent the new king his most active aid. Things
did not look well for the League, but Wullenweber, though he grew
serious and thoughtful as he learnt the news, was not discouraged. He
continued to confide "in divine help."
A vast number of intrigues were now set on foot, whose purpose was to
alienate or conciliate, as the case might be, the various Catholic and
Protestant kings and princes; thus giving to the entire quarrel a party
character. Luebeck counted on the assistance of Henry of England, and
offered the king in return for substantial subsidies the entire kingdom
of Denmark as his booty.
Meanwhile Max Meyer was fretting at his enforced imprisonment and
absence from the scene of action. In March, by means of a subtle, but
not specially honest, subterfuge, he managed to escape from the castle
that held him, and thanks to his fertility of resource, and to his
popularity, he soon found himself surrounded by quite a little army, and
resolved to carry on the war in his own manner, and according to his own
ideas. It is said that he offered the throne of Denmark to Francis I. of
France, an offer which that monarch refused. Nor did he forget his old
friend, bluff King Hal of England, who, in his turn, seems not to have
forgotten him. Though Henry nominally rejected the proposals made to him
by Max Meyer, it is certain he continued to give him substantial and
moral support, so that, owing to English help, Max Meyer was able to
hold out in the seaboard castle of Vardberg, in which he had ensconced
himself, until his tragic end. The gateway over its lintel, bore, till
the time of its destruction, the arms of the Tudor, a delicate
compliment from Max Meyer to Henry, implying that the castle was in very
truth the king's.
The first great encounter of the armies took place by sea in the month
of June. In number and excellence of ships the Hansa had the advantage.
The Luebeckers were still the best shipbuilders of the northern world,
and many of the Danish and Swedish vessels sent against them were
nothing more than herring-boats and fishing smacks roughly put on a war
footing. If victory depended on strength and numbers alone, it seemed
assured to the Hansa. Unhappily, among the many secret methods employed
by the aristocratic party to break the power of the democratic faction,
there existed bribery and corruption of the ship captains. The usual
Hanseatic concord was absent.
Indeed, herein is to be found in a great measure the explanation of the
ill success of the Hansa. When Juergen Wullenweber dreamed that he would
revive the days and glories of Waldemar Atterdag he forgot that the
burgomasters of those days when they set out for battle were followed by
an army consisting of the burghers themselves, that, for example, in the
struggle for Scania in 1368, no less than sixteen hundred citizens gave
up their lives to gain a victory for the League. With the increase of
wealth had grown up, as is usual, an increase of luxury and idleness.
Citizens of rich Hanseatic towns contented themselves with keeping watch
in turns at the city gates, with defending their own city walls, with
interfering in street brawls and keeping order in the town. But when it
came to active fighting, to going abroad to battle, they preferred to
hire the mercenaries with which Germany was overrun, thanks to the
disturbed state of the land arising out of the continual wars of
Charles V. Hence arose the class known as _Landsknechte_; hence it came
about that in those days German often fought against German, and that
all true patriotic sentiments were extinguished. The rich Queen of the
Hansa, Luebeck, had of course met with no difficulty in finding numbers
willing to serve under her flag and to accept her pay, but these men, as
is but too natural, did not fight with that enthusiasm and ardour which
men display when the cause is their own. Juergen Wullenweber was of the
old Hanseatic type, but the mould that had formed him was broken. His
contemporaries were not up to the level of his noble and patriotic
ambition. Had he been ably seconded the whole history of Northern
Germany might have been transformed.
As we have said, the fleets met in hostile encounter in the month of
June. After some heavy fighting the heavens themselves interposed in the
strife. A great storm arose, driving the vessels of the foes asunder.
Two days later the decisive combat was fought on land. The place of
encounter was Assens, on the island of Fuenen, a spot where human
sacrifices used to be offered to the great Norse god Odin. This battle
of Assens ended in the complete discomfiture of the burgher army, and
there followed immediately afterwards another meeting by sea, when the
Hansa had to suffer the shame of seeing some of its vessels flee before
the enemy, while others capitulated in cowardly fashion.
The consequences of these battles made themselves felt instantly. What
Wullenweber had said the previous year when he was yet the victor was
now realized, "that it was easier to conquer Denmark than to keep it."
For not only Fuenen, but Zealand and Scania fell off from the
burgomaster's party after the defeat at Assens, and did homage to
Christian III. as their king and ruler. Only Copenhagen, Malmoe, and a
few small towns refused this allegiance, and still offered an armed
resistance. But it was not to be of long duration.
Meanwhile the close of Wullenweber's proud career approached. It is
characteristic of the whole course of German history, that the fall of
Wullenweber, and the ultimate fall of the Hansa, were due not so much to
external as to internal enemies. Petty jealousies, "particularism," to
use their own phrase, that is to say, practising a church-steeple policy
rather than a wide and liberal one, has ever been a danger to Germany.
It defeated the efforts of Wullenweber, as it did those of the patriots
of 1848, and of many more before and since.
In July the Hanseatic Diet was called together to consider the state of
the League's affairs; and on this occasion a number of the cities, and
chief among them the inland ones, found a much desired occasion to vent
the wrath and envy which they had long nourished against Luebeck and its
democratic dictator. A number of attacks, some of them of the most
despicably petty character, were made against Wullenweber. The Luebeckers
were told that they had permitted "irregular disorders," and that it was
they who disturbed the general concord of the common Hansa. Most bitter
of all were the charges launched by Cologne, the town that had long
been jealous of the power of her northern sister. Forgetful of the
whole course of Hanseatic history, she ventured to say that it would
seem strange to the emperor and other princely potentates, that a town
like Luebeck should meddle with such great matters as the deposition and
installation of kings.
To this taunt Luebeck replied with dignity, pointing out that she had no
wish either to change the faith of the kings or to murder them (as
Cologne had previously suggested), but that according to treaty she had
the right to act as she had done, and that she had acted, not for the
sake of exhibiting her own power, but because of the natural, intimate,
and needful relationship that existed between Denmark and the Baltic
towns. Since olden days no king might be elected in Denmark without the
knowledge of Luebeck, and on this they had ever acted.
The men of Cologne were not abashed by this reference to history. They
replied that it might be so, and that the Luebeckers had the right they
would not deny; but they repeated, it made a strange impression upon
kings and princes that the men of Luebeck should make and unmake kings.
Alas! how were the mighty fallen! What a degradation of sentiment in the
Hansa when the cause of one was no longer the cause of all!
Some days later, in reply to a similar attack, the Luebeckers replied, in
the old bold spirit that characterized the Hansa in its best times, "In
one thing they had made a mistake, and that was when they helped two
such worthless men as the kings of Denmark and Sweden to power, and had
further made them great, in return for which they were now ill repaid."
Cologne then tried to shift its recriminations on to the religious
ground. Glancing at the excesses committed in Muenster by the
Anabaptists, she ventured to question the benefits that had accrued to
Luebeck and other Hanse cities from the Reformation, concluding with the
shameless words, "In our city we hang, behead, or drown all heretics,
and find ourselves very comfortable in consequence."
To most of these attacks Wullenweber as representative of Luebeck had to
reply in person. He knew too well that many of them were aimed directly
at himself. He strove hard to keep his hot temper in check and to reply
with moderation and dignity.
The attitude of these Diet meetings, however, was but to prove the
prologue to the intrigues which were to eject Wullenweber and his party
from power, and to break not only the hegemony of Luebeck, but that of
the whole Hansa--a consummation the opponents certainly did not intend.
"Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first strike with blindness,"
says the Latin proverb, and its truth was once more made manifest by the
attitude of the Hanseatic towns among themselves. They who had ever been
so strong and so united, now no longer held together in brotherly
concord, and weakness and disruption were the result.
The instrument that was to spring the chief mine on Wullenweber and his
party was found in the person of Nicholas Broemse. This man was one of
the leading personages of the Municipal Council of Luebeck in the early
days of the sixteenth century, and was burgomaster of the town in the
days when Gustavus Vasa arrived there as a fugitive. Indeed, he is said
to have been one of the most zealous friends and protectors of the young
Vasa. When the Reformation dissensions began to stir in the city, Broemse
was among the most pronounced opponents of the purer creed, and
repeatedly, by his personal interference, retarded its introduction.
Indeed once, after it was officially introduced, he succeeded, in virtue
of his personal influence with Charles V., in getting the Lutheran creed
forbidden in the town. In so doing, however, he somewhat exceeded his
limits; his action aroused suspicion in the council and hatred among the
citizens; and finally, in 1532, he had to resign his post and fly
secretly from Luebeck to escape the wrath of his enemies. He made his way
to the imperial Court, at that time located in Brussels, and there he
gained the ear and favour of Charles. Thence he watched with anxious
curiosity the course which events were taking in his native town. He was
biding his time to revenge himself upon the city that had ejected him,
and upon the burgomaster who had supplanted him in popular favour.
When Nicholas Broemse learnt how the Hanseatic Diet had censured the
action of Juergen Wullenweber, he thought that the time for which he had
long waited had come. He employed all his personal influence with the
emperor to induce him to take a decisive step against the city of
Luebeck, and with good result. For there issued from the imperial council
chamber, June 7, 1535, a decree, stating that unless within six weeks
and three days from the receipt of this document the town of Luebeck had
abolished all democratic innovations and reinstated in the government
Nicholas Broemse and other councillors banished together with him, the
town would be declared under the imperial ban.
With Jesuitical astuteness not a word was breathed regarding Church
reforms, but it was fully understood that a blow was aimed at the
Lutheran creed quite as much as at Juergen Wullenweber and the democratic
party.
A Hanseatic Diet was sitting at Luebeck when this decree arrived. A
committee was at once chosen to discuss the acceptance of the imperial
mandate. It decided that obedience must be tendered to the dictates of
the imperial council. In consequence the democratic party resigned
power, and Wullenweber, who understood well that the whole was chiefly
aimed at him, saw that there remained nothing for him to do but follow
his party.
After delivering before the Diet a speech of great dignity marked by
unusual moderation, in which he said if it were the will of God and were
adjudged for the common weal that he should retire, he should certainly
not refuse, he laid down in August, 1535, the office he had filled with
such zeal and patriotic ambition.
It is characteristic of popular gratitude that when he returned from the
guildhall, after completing the deed of renunciation, he was followed by
a crowd that hissed and hooted him. This people of shopkeepers turned
upon the man who was their true friend because the wars had
impoverished them, had slackened their trade, and had brought distress
within their walls. They did not recognize, or they forgot, that they
themselves had encouraged the outbreak of these hostilities, and had
applauded and sustained the man who proposed them; and that had he been
better supported, his plans would have resulted in their pecuniary
benefit.
It is evident that his fellow-rulers among the Luebeck Council knew that
Wullenweber had been wronged, since they offered to bestow on him for
six years the governorship of a neighbouring dependency. This he
refused, but before he finally quitted office he took good care that the
welfare and existence of the new creed should not be endangered by the
return of the zealous Papist, Broemse, and also that an amnesty should be
accorded to all political offenders.
Shortly afterwards Broemse entered the city in stately procession,
preceded by a hundred and fifty horsemen. He proceeded at once to St.
Mary's Church and took possession of the burgomaster's chair, whence he
listened to the minutes decided upon by the Hanseatic Diet. The decree
by no means pleased his Catholic soul that whatever else was reinstated,
the new religion should be left intact; but he held his peace and
trusted to time, as he had already done, with good result, while he
waited at the Court of the Emperor Charles. In this one respect,
however, he was to be disappointed. Luebeck never again changed its
creed, or bowed its head to the Papal party.
But where now was the man to find peace who but recently had held as
ruler both sides of the Sound, who had dared to fling the gauntlet to
two monarchs, and who had been dictator throughout all Scandinavia?
Notwithstanding many negotiations, peace had not yet been concluded
between Luebeck and Denmark. Copenhagen was still held by the Hansa's
allies. It is easy to understand that the temptation presented itself to
Wullenweber to make common cause with them, and to try in yet another
form to gain success for the League. But whether this was really his
plan or not we have now no means of deciding. The latter years of
Wullenweber's life are wrapped in much mystery, owing to intentional
falsification of facts on the part of his enemies. Thus much is certain,
that in the autumn of 1535 he set forth on a journey northwards, making
for the province of Halland on the Cattegat, where lay the castle held
by Max Meyer. Probably he wished to confer with his trusty colleague.
His friends tried to dissuade him from his intention, reminding him that
his road led him through the territory of the Archbishop of Bremen, one
of his most violent opponents. It was impossible, however, to control or
guide this headstrong and fearless man. Ambition and self-confidence
made him fall into the trap which his enemies had laid for him.
Nicholas Broemse and his followers, hearing of this journey, at once sent
messengers to the ecclesiastical prince, and by heavy bribes bought him
over to their side. In consequence, scarcely had Wullenweber touched the
archbishop's domains than he was seized and imprisoned, regardless of
the letter of safe conduct he bore about him. He was carried off to
Rothenburg, one of the archbishop's castles, and for some weeks the
world knew nothing of his whereabouts, until his foes had matured their
plans against him.
Wullenweber's brother, Joachim, at that time one of the Council of
Hamburg, was the first to be uneasy regarding Juergen's fate, and he
succeeded in ascertaining the fact of his imprisonment and the
perpetrator of the deed. He addressed a letter to the archbishop,
demanding an explanation of this breach of faith. The audacious prelate
replied, that "Since it was notorious how designedly and presumptuously
Juergen had acted against the will of God, of the emperor, and of the
spiritual rulers of Luebeck, and how he had spent a night in his, the
archbishop's domains without his permission, his will or a safe conduct,
he, as the emperor's relative and as prince of the empire, had held
himself in duty bound towards his Church to take the man prisoner.
Further reasons for this step would be made known in course of time."
Armed with this insolent reply Joachim Wullenweber turned to King Henry
VIII. of England in his sore strait, and implored him to befriend the
man who had ever befriended him. To this request Henry lent a ready ear
and he pleaded, but in vain, for his "faithful and honoured friend,"
with the Council of Hamburg and Bremen, and at last with the archbishop
himself.
But Broemse and his party were not the men to release their prey when
once it had fallen into their hands. They were determined to have their
revenge. They hated Wullenweber; Broemse, in particular, hated him so
much that it was possible for a contemporary chronicler to declare that
he even tore Wullenweber's flesh off his bones with his own teeth. This
no doubt is a baseless charge. Nicholas Broemse, the patrician, with the
delicate coquettish features of a woman, with the lily white hands that
were noted among his contemporaries, is not likely to have done such a
thing. He might be false and cruel, but he could not have been actively
bestial and ferocious.
What is certain is that Wullenweber's enemies were determined to destroy
him. So great and powerful a man could not be simply put aside; he had
to be sacrificed. A truly fiendish scheme of incrimination was opened
against him; so painful and unfair that it awoke pity even in the
breasts of his contemporaries. Among them, Maria, at that time regent of
the Netherlands, was so deeply moved by the burgomaster's fate, that she
felt herself called upon to demand that the prisoner should at least be
brought before an imperial governor, in order that his case might have a
more impartial consideration. But Wullenweber's foes would not listen to
any mild or merciful counsels. Their chief endeavour was to spread
abroad a belief that the dictator had acted in concert and sympathy with
the Anabaptists, at that moment the bogey with which to scare both
Catholics and Protestants.
[Illustration: SCENE BEFORE A JUDGE.]
The exact means employed to break Wullenweber's strong spirit during the
first months of his imprisonment are not known. There is no doubt,
however, that he was subjected to torture, and that upon the rack he was
made to acquiesce in statements, many of them quite false, and others
distorted to serve the purpose of his tormentors. Among the so-called
confessions were said to be an admission of his Anabaptist leanings, an
intimation that he had proposed to murder and kill as many nobles as
possible, that he had abstracted for his own private ends public and
church property, and other statements, so manifestly out of keeping with
his previously known character and general bearing, that it is amazing
to think how his contemporaries, even those most opposed to him, could
for a moment have given them credit.
Hero though Wullenweber was in the moral sense he was no hero at bearing
physical pain, and, indeed, the two qualities by no means go together,
nor does nervous shrinking from pain necessarily imply moral weakness.
The contrary is often the case. The man of finely strung nerves, to whom
bodily pain is on this account less supportable than to his more
coarse-grained brother, is, for that very reason, capable of a
refinement of sentiment and action equally unknown to the other. The
beef-built man is apt to be beef-witted.
It is quite certain that all the admissions undoubtedly made by
Wullenweber were wrung from him under excruciating tortures. Indeed, in
the hour of his death, and in two letters to his brother Joachim, he
affirmed that "the jailer of Bremen, together with his mortal enemies,
had forced him into the admission of political and moral sins." He says
he was racked again and again, and on one occasion had to swear that he
would not answer in any other sense than that demanded of him. If he
failed in obedience to this command he should be torn to little pieces
on the wheel, but, so God help him, he knew nothing whatever of
Anabaptists or these other charges. He implores his brother to make
known all this to his friends at Luebeck, and to beg that some honourable
men would search his account books, and see whether it be true that he
had abstracted State moneys. The brother himself might come and hang him
higher than any thief yet hung, if he could prove that he, Juergen, had
stolen anything from the Luebeckers. Finally, he warns the zealous
Lutherans that the purpose of all that he had to suffer, all that was
now being done, was to restore the old state of things, and that he
feared that his foes would effect this in Luebeck of all other places.
Meantime, King Henry of England repeatedly demanded of the Archbishop of
Bremen that his "beloved and trusty servant, Juergen Wullenweber," should
be treated with more clemency. Receiving no reply from the archbishop,
the king turned to the city of Hamburg for aid to release the imprisoned
burgomaster. He said he had need of his "innocent servant" for most
important purposes, and pointed out that it was for the weal, not only
of his own kingdom, but also, and even more, for that of the German
nation, that Juergen should be freed. Baffled on all sides, the king
demanded at last, that at least the reasons for this confinement should
be made publicly known.