1. That since their sins had brought God's judgments upon the whole
Protestant Church, they should command public prayers to be made to
Almighty God for the diverting the calamities that attended them.
2. That a treaty of peace might be set on foot, in order to come to a
right understanding with the Catholic princes.
3. That a time for such a treaty being obtained, they should appoint
an assembly of delegates to meet preparatory to the treaty.
4. That all their complaints should be humbly represented to his
Imperial Majesty and the Catholic Electors, in order to a peaceable
accommodation.
5. That they claim the protection of the emperor, according to the
laws of the empire, and the present emperor's solemn oath and promise.
6. That they would appoint deputies who should meet at certain
times to consult of their common interest, and who should be always
empowered to conclude of what should be thought needful for their
safety.
7. That they will raise a competent force to maintain and defend their
liberties, rights, and religion.
8. That it is agreeable to the Constitution of the empire, concluded
in the Diet at Augsburg, to do so.
9. That the arming for their necessary defence shall by no means
hinder their obedience to his Imperial Majesty, but that they will
still continue their loyalty to him.
10. They agree to proportion their forces, which in all amounted to
70,000 men.
The emperor, exceedingly startled at the Conclusions, issued out a
severe proclamation or ban against them, which imported much the
same thing as a declaration of war, and commanded Tilly to begin,
and immediately to fall on the Duke of Saxony with all the fury
imaginable, as I have already observed.
Here began the flame to break out; for upon the emperor's ban, the
Protestants send away to the King of Sweden for succour.
His Swedish Majesty had already conquered Mecklenburg, and part of
Pomerania, and was advancing with his victorious troops, increased
by the addition of some regiments raised in those parts, in order to
carry on the war against the emperor, having designed to follow up
the Oder into Silesia, and so to push the war home to the emperor's
hereditary countries of Austria and Bohemia, when the first messengers
came to him in this case; but this changed his measures, and brought
him to the frontiers of Brandenburg resolved to answer the desires
of the Protestants. But here the Duke of Brandenburg began to halt,
making some difficulties and demanding terms, which drove the king to
use some extremities with him, and stopped the Swedes for a while,
who had otherwise been on the banks of the Elbe as soon as Tilly,
the Imperial general, had entered Saxony, which if they had done, the
miserable destruction of Magdeburg had been prevented, as I observed
before. The king had been invited into the union, and when he first
came back from the banks of the Oder he had accepted it, and was
preparing to back it with all his power.
The Duke of Saxony had already a good army which he had with infinite
diligence recruited, and mustered them under the cannon of Leipsic.
The King of Sweden having, by his ambassador at Leipsic, entered into
the union of the Protestants, was advancing victoriously to their aid,
just as Count Tilly had entered the Duke of Saxony's dominions. The
fame of the Swedish conquests, and of the hero who commanded them,
shook my resolution of travelling into Turkey, being resolved to see
the conjunction of the Protestant armies, and before the fire was
broke out too far to take the advantage of seeing both sides.
While I remained at Vienna, uncertain which way I should proceed, I
remember I observed they talked of the King of Sweden as a prince of
no consideration, one that they might let go on and tire himself in
Mecklenburg and thereabout, till they could find leisure to deal with
him, and then might be crushed as they pleased; but 'tis never safe
to despise an enemy, so this was not an enemy to be despised, as they
afterwards found.
As to the Conclusions of Leipsic, indeed, at first they gave the
Imperial court some uneasiness, but when they found the Imperial
armies, began to fright the members out of the union, and that the
several branches had no considerable forces on foot, it was the
general discourse at Vienna, that the union at Leipsic only gave
the emperor an opportunity to crush absolutely the Dukes of Saxony,
Brandenburg, and the Landgrave of Hesse, and they looked upon it as a
thing certain.
I never saw any real concern in their faces at Vienna till news came
to court that the King of Sweden had entered into the union; but as
this made them very uneasy, they began to move the powerfulest methods
possible to divert this storm; and upon this news Tilly was hastened
to fall into Saxony before this union could proceed to a conjunction
of forces. This was certainly a very good resolution, and no measure
could have been more exactly concerted, had not the diligence of the
Saxons prevented it.
The gathering of this storm, which from a cloud began to spread over
the empire, and from the little duchy of Mecklenburg began to threaten
all Germany, absolutely determined me, as I noted before, as to
travelling, and laying aside the thoughts of Hungary, I resolved, if
possible, to see the King of Sweden's army.
I parted from Vienna the middle of May, and took post for Great Glogau
in Silesia, as if I had purposed to pass into Poland, but designing
indeed to go down the Oder to Custrim in the marquisate of
Brandenburg, and so to Berlin. But when I came to the frontiers of
Silesia, though I had passes, I could go no farther, the guards on
all the frontiers were so strict, so I was obliged to come back into
Bohemia, and went to Prague. From hence I found I could easily pass
through the Imperial provinces to the lower Saxony, and accordingly
took passes for Hamburg, designing, however, to use them no farther
than I found occasion.
By virtue of these passes I got into the Imperial army, under Count
Tilly, then at the siege of Magdeburg, May the 2nd.
I confess I did not foresee the fate of this city, neither, I believe,
did Count Tilly himself expect to glut his fury with so entire a
desolation, much less did the people expect it. I did believe they
must capitulate, and I perceived by discourse in the army that Tilly
would give them but very indifferent conditions; but it fell out
otherwise. The treaty of surrender was, as it were, begun, nay, some
say concluded, when some of the out-guards of the Imperialists finding
the citizens had abandoned the guards of the works, and looked to
themselves with less diligence than usual, they broke in, carried an
half-moon, sword in hand, with little resistance; and though it was
a surprise on both sides, the citizens neither fearing, nor the army
expecting the occasion, the garrison, with as much resolution as could
be expected under such a fright, flew to the walls, twice beat the
Imperialists off, but fresh men coming up, and the administrator of
Magdeburg himself being wounded and taken, the enemy broke in, took
the city by storm, and entered with such terrible fury, that,
without respect to age or condition, they put all the garrison and
inhabitants, man, woman, and child, to the sword, plundered the city,
and when they had done this set it on fire.
This calamity sure was the dreadfulest sight that ever I saw; the
rage of the Imperial soldiers was most intolerable, and not to be
expressed. Of 25,000, some said 30,000 people, there was not a soul to
be seen alive, till the flames drove those that were hid in vaults and
secret places to seek death in the streets rather than perish in the
fire. Of these miserable creatures some were killed too by the furious
soldiers, but at last they saved the lives of such as came out of
their cellars and holes, and so about two thousand poor desperate
creatures were left. The exact number of those that perished in
this city could never be known, because those the soldiers had first
butchered the flames afterwards devoured.
I was on the outer side of the Elbe when this dreadful piece of
butchery was done. The city of Magdeburg had a sconce or fort over
against it called the toll-house, which joined to the city by a very
fine bridge of boats. This fort was taken by the Imperialists a few
days before, and having a mind to see it, and the rather because from
thence I could have a very good view of the city, I was going over
Tilley's bridge of boats to view this fort. About ten o'clock in the
morning I perceived they were storming by the firing, and immediately
all ran to the works; I little thought of the taking the city, but
imagined it might be some outwork attacked, for we all expected
the city would surrender that day, or next, and they might have
capitulated upon very good terms.
Being upon the works of the fort, on a sudden I heard the dreadfulest
cry raised in the city that can be imagined; 'tis not possible to
express the manner of it, and I could see the women and children
running about the streets in a most lamentable condition.
The city wall did not run along the side where the river was with
so great a height, but we could plainly see the market-place and the
several streets which run down to the river. In about an hour's time
after this first cry all was in confusion; there was little shooting,
the execution was all cutting of throats and mere house murders. The
resolute garrison, with the brave Baron Falkenberg, fought it out
to the last, and were cut in pieces, and by this time the Imperial
soldiers having broke open the gates and entered on all sides, the
slaughter was very dreadful. We could see the poor people in crowds
driven down the streets, flying from the fury of the soldiers, who
followed butchering them as fast as they could, and refused mercy to
anybody, till driving them to the river's edge, the desperate wretches
would throw themselves into the river, where thousands of them
perished, especially women and children. Several men that could swim
got over to our side, where the soldiers not heated with fight gave
them quarter, and took them up, and I cannot but do this justice to
the German officers in the fort: they had five small flat boats, and
they gave leave to the soldiers to go off in them, and get what booty
they could, but charged them not to kill anybody, but take them all
prisoners.
Nor was their humanity ill rewarded, for the soldiers, wisely avoiding
those places where their fellows were employed in butchering the
miserable people, rowed to other places, where crowds of people stood
crying out for help, and expecting to be every minute either drowned
or murdered; of these at sundry times they fetched over near six
hundred, but took care to take in none but such as offered them good
pay.
Never was money or jewels of greater service than now, for those that
had anything of that sort to offer were soonest helped.
There was a burgher of the town who, seeing a boat coming near him,
but out of his call, by the help of a speaking trumpet, told the
soldiers in it he would give them 20,000 dollars to fetch him off.
They rowed close to the shore, and got him with his wife and six
children into the boat, but such throngs of people got about the boat
that had like to have sunk her, so that the soldiers were fain to
drive a great many out again by main force, and while they were doing
this some of the enemies coming down the street desperately drove them
all into the water.
The boat, however, brought the burgher and his wife and children safe,
and though they had not all that wealth about them, yet in jewels and
money he gave them so much as made all the fellows very rich.
I cannot pretend to describe the cruelty of this day: the town by
five in the afternoon was all in a flame; the wealth consumed was
inestimable, and a loss to the very conqueror. I think there was
little or nothing left but the great church and about a hundred
houses.
This was a sad welcome into the army for me, and gave me a horror and
aversion to the emperor's people, as well as to his cause. I quitted
the camp the third day after this execution, while the fire was hardly
out in the city; and from thence getting safe-conduct to pass into the
Palatinate, I turned out of the road at a small village on the Elbe,
called Emerfield, and by ways and towns I can give but small account
of, having a boor for our guide, whom we could hardly understand, I
arrived at Leipsic on the 17th of May.
We found the elector intense upon the strengthening of his army, but
the people in the greatest terror imaginable, every day expecting
Tilly with the German army, who by his cruelty at Magdeburg was become
so dreadful to the Protestants that they expected no mercy wherever he
came.
The emperor's power was made so formidable to all the Protestants,
particularly since the Diet at Ratisbon left them in a worse case
than it found them, that they had not only formed the Conclusions of
Leipsic, which all men looked on as the effect of desperation rather
than any probable means of their deliverance, but had privately
implored the protection and assistance of foreign powers, and
particularly the King of Sweden, from whom they had promises of a
speedy and powerful assistance. And truly if the Swede had not with
a very strong hand rescued them, all their Conclusions at Leipsic had
served but to hasten their ruin. I remember very well when I was in
the Imperial army they discoursed with such contempt of the forces
of the Protestant, that not only the Imperialists but the Protestants
themselves gave them up as lost. The emperor had not less than 200,000
men in several armies on foot, who most of them were on the back of
the Protestants in every corner. If Tilly did but write a threatening
letter to any city or prince of the union, they presently submitted,
renounced the Conclusions of Leipsic, and received Imperial garrisons,
as the cities of Ulm and Memmingen, the duchy of Wirtemberg, and
several others, and almost all Suaben.
Only the Duke of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse upheld the drooping
courage of the Protestants, and refused all terms of peace, slighted
all the threatenings of the Imperial generals, and the Duke of
Brandenburg was brought in afterward almost by force.
The Duke of Saxony mustered his forces under the walls of Leipsic,
and I having returned to Leipsic, two days before, saw them pass the
review. The duke, gallantly mounted, rode through the ranks, attended
by his field-marshal Arnheim, and seemed mighty well pleased with
them, and indeed the troops made a very fine appearance; but I that
had seen Tilly's army and his old weather-beaten soldiers, whose
discipline and exercises were so exact, and their courage so often
tried, could not look on the Saxon army without some concern for them
when I considered who they had to deal with. Tilly's men were rugged
surly fellows, their faces had an air of hardy courage, mangled with
wounds and scars, their armour showed the bruises of musket bullets,
and the rust of the winter storms. I observed of them their clothes
were always dirty, but their arms were clean and bright; they were
used to camp in the open fields, and sleep in the frosts and rain;
their horses were strong and hardy like themselves, and well taught
their exercises; the soldiers knew their business so exactly that
general orders were enough; every private man was fit to command, and
their wheelings, marchings, counter-marchings and exercise were done
with such order and readiness, that the distinct words of command
were hardly of any use among them; they were flushed with victory, and
hardly knew what it was to fly.
There had passed some messages between Tilly and the duke, and he gave
always such ambiguous answers as he thought might serve to gain time;
but Tilly was not to be put off with words, and drawing his army
towards Saxony, sends four propositions to him to sign, and demands an
immediate reply. The propositions were positive.
1. To cause his troops to enter into the emperor's service, and to
march in person with them against the King of Sweden.
2. To give the Imperial army quarters in his country, and supply them
with necessary provisions.