502 CAPTURE OF HEIDELBERG. [Book IV. Electorate, and the office of Erztruchsess, or Imperial head-waiter, March 6th 1623. The Count Palatine, Wolfgang of Neuburg, though a Catholic, also loudly expressed his discontent at this transaction, which deprived him of his claims to the Electorate as next of blood; but he was appeased, after the German fashion, with words. Meanwhile Tilly completed the conquest of the Lower Palatinate. Heidelberg surrendered September 15th 1622, and the Castle on the 19th; on the following day, Tilly laid siege to Mannheim, which place, though bravely defended by Sir Horace Vere, was compelled to capitulate, November 1st. Frankenthal held out till the following spring. By the instructions of his master Maximilian, Tilly acted with the greatest harshness towards the Protestants of the Palatinate; they were deprived of their churches, and all ecclesiastical property was restored to the Roman Catholics. Tilly also seized the library at Heidelberg, famed among the learned throughout Europe for its collection of manuscripts. Many cart-loads of these were despatched to Munich; and Maximilian afterwards sent the greater portion of them to Rome, as a present to the Pope. Thus the unhappy Palatine was irretrievably ruined, chiefly through the selfish anxiety of his father-in-law, James I., to effect a match between his son and the Infanta; a union highly unpopular among the English people, who, on the other hand, were anxious to venture their blood and treasure in support of Frederick and the Protestant cause. In 1621 James had indeed addressed a long Latin letter to Bethlem Gabor (Oct. 19th), beseeching him, if possible, to reduce Hungary, and proceed next year into Bohemia; and promising, with the full consent of his parliament, a subsidy of 80,0001.22 That fickle-minded leader, however, who had gained some successes and suffered some reverses in Hungary, concluded a peace with the Emperor at Nikolsburg, January 7th 1622; by which he renounced Hungary and the title of king, in consideration of receiving in that country seven Gespannschaften, or counties, and the town of Kaschau, together with the principalities of Oppeln and Ratibor in Silesia, and a yearly pension of 50,000 florins.23 In 1623, however, Bethlem Gabor resumed the war against the Emperor, relying on the assistance of the German Protestants, as well as of the Turks: the history of which last people begins about this period to be again so much mixed up with that of Europe as to demand a brief retrospect of their affairs. 22 Letter from the Hamilton MSS. in Hormayr's Archiv. ap. Menzel, B. iii. 23 The treaty of Nikolsburg is in Ka tona, t. xxx. p. 709 sqq., and in Dumont, t. v. pt. ii. p. 407. CHAP. IV.] RETROSPECT OF TURKISH HISTORY. 503 The unimportant reign of Sultan Achmet I., with whom Austria had concluded the peace of Sitvatorok, was closed by his death, November 22nd 1617. Nothing can more strongly testify the sunken state of the Turkish power, than that it was possible to raise from a dungeon to the throne Achmet's imbecile brother, Mustapha I. It was one of the pastimes of this prince to throw gold to the fishes of the Bosphorus; but the Kislar-aga persuaded the Divan that the precious metal would be better employed in furnishing the conatives customary on a new reign. After three months' enjoyment of the sceptre, Mustapha was led back to his prison, and, on the 26th of February 1618, Osman II., a boy of fourteen, the eldest of seven sons of Achmet, was saluted Padishah by the venal troops. Osman, however, displayed a spirit and ambition beyond his years.24 Strong and active of body, and inured to all soldier-like exercises, Osman was a bold rider and an unfailing marksman with the bow; but with all his energy, he lacked the perseverance without which nothing great can be accomplished, while his meanness alienated from him the hearts of the rapacious janissaries. Osman longed to flesh his maiden arms in a war with Poland, between which country and the Porte bickerings had for several years prevailed; and he esteemed its conquest so easy, that he divided the spoil beforehand. Desolating incursions had been made by the Tartars into Poland, by the Cossacks into the Turkish dominions, which in 1620 ended in open war. Poland was then ruled by the Swedish prince Sigismund III., of whom we shall have to speak further on. Caspar Gratiani, Voyvode of Moldavia, had courted the favour of Sigismund by sending to him the intercepted letters addressed by Bethlem Gabor to the Porte, complaining of the incursions of the Polish Cossacks and freebooters. Gratiani was deposed on the discovery of his proceedings; but he would not yield without a struggle: he called upon the Poles for assistance, who sent him an army of 50,000 men. Against these, posted in a fortified camp near Jassy in Moldavia, Iskander Pasha, governor of Silistria, led a force of double their number, composed of Osmanlis and Tartars; and, on the 20th of September 1620, a grand battle was fought, in which 10,000 Poles were slain. The remainder, after a useless attempt to defend their entrenched camp, retreated towards the Niester; in the passage of which river most of them perished. Gratiani himself had fallen in the retreat. It was this success that incited Csman to attempt the conquest 24 See his character in Sir Thomas Roe's Negociations, p. 43. 504 OSMAN II. DEPOSED. [BOOK IV. of Poland, against the advice of his ministers, and even the wishes of his army; and in the spring of 1621, clothed in a suit of mail which had belonged to Soliman the Magnificent, he placed himself at the head of 100,000 men. But the march proved difficult and destructive; the mercenary troops were alienated by Osman's reluctance to pay the customary gratuity; and it was the end of August before the Turks arrived on the Niester. Here Sigismund had encamped 40,000 Poles and Cossacks, and 8000 Germans sent to him by the Emperor; while another army of reserve of 60,000 men, under the Crown-Prince, lay at Kaminieck. A first assault on the Polish camp was attended with some success: but the following ones were repulsed, although in the sixth and last the Sultan in person led one of the storming columns. A Polish winter set in early; men and horses perished by thousands; a mutiny broke out, and Osman, after opening negociations for a peace, began his retreat. On the 28th of December 1621 he entered Constantinople in triumph; for, though he had lost 80,000 men, he pretended to claim a victory. But his ill-success, his unpopularity with the army, the dearness of provisions, and the strictness of his police, which he superintended in person, by visiting the wine-houses and other places of resort, soon produced symptoms of revolt among the Janissaries. As these degenerate troops 25 were averse to the warlike schemes meditated by Osman, he resolved to destroy them. The scheme he formed was bold and well designed, and, if successful, might have revived the sinking fortunes of the Turkish empire. Under pretence of a pilgrimage to Mecca, Osman was to raise a large army at Damascus, march with it to Constantinople, and annihilate the refractory Janissaries; but his preparations, and some incautious words, prematurely betrayed his intentions. On the 18th of May 1622, on the report that the Sultan's tent was about to be transported to Scutari, the Janissaries, associating themselves to the Spahis, rose in rebellion, repulsed with insults their Aga and other officers, who had been sent to hear their complaints; and demanded from the Mufti a categorical answer to the inquiry, "Whether it was permitted to put to death those who misled the Padishah, and devoured the substance of the Moslems?" The Mufti having answered in the affirmative, the mutineers hastened to the palaces of the Grand-Vizier and of the Chodsha, 25 who now, contrary to their institution, being married and fathers of a family, entered into trades, receiving nothing in war more than in peace, præter pericula et labores, are not easily drawn from their own chimneys."-Roe's Negociations, p. 48. Sir Thomas Roe was English ambassador at the Porte, 1621-1628. CHAP. IV.] ACCESSION OF AMURATH IV. 505 who were thought to be the authors of the plan for their destruction; these ministers saved themselves by flight, but their palaces were plundered and destroyed. On the following day the insurrection assumed a still more formidable aspect. The Sultan having refused to give up the six authors of his pilgrimage, though he consented to renounce the pilgrimage itself, an attack was made on the Seraglio; and in the midst of the confusion, a cry of Mustapha Khan for sultan, echoed by thousands of voices, became the watchword of the revolution. The unhappy Mustapha, wasted to a shadow by want of air and food, and expecting death rather than a crown, was dragged from his obscure dungeon, carried to the throne room, and saluted Padishah. Osman, contemplating flight when it was too late, abandoned his Grand-Vizier and Kislar-aga to the fury of the soldiers, by whom they were horribly murdered; the Janissaries, who would listen to no terms, though large offers were made, occupied the Seraglio, and directed all the actions of the Sultana Valide, the mother of the idiot Mustapha; and Constantinople was abandoned to plunder and devastation. Osman, who had fled to the palace of the Aga of the Janissaries, was dragged from his hiding-place, and conducted with abuse and derision first to the barracks of the mutineers, and then to the Seven Towers. On the way, his faithful adherent, Hussein Pasha, was murdered at his feet; and he himself was soon after put to death by order of the Valide and her vizier, Daud Pasha.26 During the second sultanship of the crazy Mustapha I., which lasted considerably more than a year, a peace with Poland was the only event of importance, effected chiefly through the efforts of Sir Thomas Roe. On the 30th of August 1623, a counter-revolution took place at Constantinople. Mustapha was deposed with the consent of the Janissaries, who even renounced on this occasion the accustomed donative, and the eldest surviving son of Achmet I., now fourteen years of age, ascended the throne with the title of Amurath IV. The unhappy Mustapha survived his deposition sixteen years. James I. during these events, the Spanish match being still in hand, had instructed Sir Thomas Roe to maintain peace between the Porte, the Emperor, and the King of Poland; although, as we have seen, the British monarch had secretly afforded some trifling aid to his son-in-law the Palatine, both by sending him a few troops, and by endeavouring underhand to excite Bethlem Gabor to action. This prince, whom Sir Isaac Wake, the English 26 For this revolution see Antoine Galland, La Mort du Sultan Osman; and the Despatches of Sir Thomas Roe. 506 RETROSPECT OF SCANDINAVIAN HISTORY. [BOOK IV. minister at Venice, characterised as a Janus with one face towards Christendom and another towards Turkey, had in 1623 renewed the war against Ferdinand; and, though he could then count but little on the assistance of the Turks, he entered Hungary, took several places, and even threatened Pressburg, Raab, and Comorn. On the approach of winter, however, he was compelled to dismiss his army; when the Tartars, of which it was partly composed, carried off 20,000 Hungarians into slavery. In May 1624 Gabor again concluded a peace with the Emperor, which did not differ much from that of Nikolsburg. As the Spanish match had now gone off, we find secretary Calvert instructing Roe, May 28th 1624, to do all in his power to keep well with the Transylvanian prince.27 While Sigismund III. of Poland was attacked in the south by Osman and the Turks, he had to defend himself in the north from his relative, the renowned Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden: and as this last country, as well as Denmark, by the part which they took in the Thirty Years' War, were now about to become of great importance in the European system, it will here be proper to take a brief review of their history. We need not carry our retrospect beyond the Union of Calmar in 1397; by which Norway, Sweden, and Denmark were united together under the Danish queen Margaret.28 The most noteworthy articles of the deed of union were: that the right of electing a sovereign should be exercised in common by the three kingdoms; that a son of the reigning king, if there were any, should be preferred; that each kingdom should be governed by its own laws; and that all should combine for the common defence. But this confederacy, which seemed calculated to promote the power and tranquillity of Scandinavia, proved the source of much discontent and jealousy and of several bloody wars. Margaret was succeeded on her death in 1412 by Eric of Pomerania, the son of her niece. Eric, who was at that time in his thirtieth year, had married in 1406 Philippa, daughter of Henry IV. of England, a princess distinguished for her understanding, goodness, and courage. In 1428 Philippa defended Copenhagen against the combined fleet of Holstein and the Hanse towns, whilst Eric had hid himself in a convent at Sord.29 Eric's reign was turbulent. 27 Roe's Negociations, p. 244. 28 For these countries may be consulted, Mallet, Hist. de Dannemarc; Allen, Haandbog i Fædrelandets Historie (übersetzt von Falck); Vertot, Révol, de Suède; Geijer, Gesch. Schwedens (translated from 29 Philippa herself died in the convent of Wadstena, in 1430,. without issue. Geijer, Gesch. Schwedens, B. i. S. 197. |