CHAP. V.] CHRISTIAN IV. INTERFERES. 547 hastened towards the north, compelled the Saxons to dismiss Christian, overtook that Prince as he was retreating into East Friesland to rejoin Count Mansfeld, and entirely defeated him near Stadtlohn in Westphalia (August 9th 1623). The Dutch now advised Mansfeld to dismiss his army, and the Imperialists and Spaniards established themselves on the Weser. Duke Christian, after his defeat, had given the King of Denmark a still further interest in the German question by transferring to that monarch his bishopric of Osnaburg; besides which, Christian IV. had procured another see in Mecklenburg for his younger son. The menacing position taken up by the Imperialists in Westphalia, rendered some decisive step necessary. Christian IV. who had assembled an army, was elected chief of the Circle of Lower Saxony in May 1625; and on the 18th of that month he addressed a letter to Ferdinand II., which may be regarded as a declaration of war. He announced to the Emperor his election as head of the Lower Saxon Circle; declared his determination to put an end to the quartering of troops and other burthens with which some of the States belonging to that Circle were oppressed, contrary to the Peace of Religion and the laws of the empire; and he reminded Ferdinand that he had neglected to fulfil his promises to himself and his ally, the King of England, with regard to the Elector Palatine. Ferdinand answered politely, postponing the consideration of the questions urged, though he went on increasing his forces; whilst Tilly, in the Emperor's name, summoned the King of Denmark to lay down the government of the Circle, on the ground that it could not be intrusted to a foreign sovereign. Meanwhile, Christian IV. marched his army from the Elbe to the Weser. He had communicated to Gustavus Adolphus the steps which he intended to take, and intimated that his assistance would not be unwelcome; but the Swedish king, at that time intent on an expedition into Livonia, though he received Christian's message in a friendly spirit, was not then in a position to afford him any succour. Gustavus's campaign in Poland, was, however, indirectly beneficial, by preventing the Poles from fulfilling their promise to the Emperor of supporting him by an irruption into Brandenburg. Hostilities were commenced by Duke Christian of Brunswick and Count Mansfeld; who having reassembled an army of some 12,000 or 15,000 men, entered the Duchy of Clèves, encamped in the neighbourhood of Wesel, and thence proceeded into the territory of Cologne. Tilly despatched against them the Count of Anhalt, and having been himself reinforced with some Spaniards, 548 CHARACTER OF WALLENSTEIN. [Book IV. laid siege to Hörter. Christian IV. having received some subsidies from Charles I., now King of England, had also begun his march. James I. had repented of neglecting his son-in-law, the Elector Palatine, and on his death-bed had exhorted Charles to use every endeavour to reinstate his sister and her children in their dominions.4 49 But Charles, who deemed it better to seek the Palatinate in Spain, fitted out an expedition against that country, the ill-success of which has been already related; so that he could afford but little aid to his brother-in-law. In July, Christian IV. had marched to Hameln, where his career was arrested by an unfortunate accident. In riding round the ramparts, he was precipitated into a vault twenty feet deep, that had been negligently covered; his horse was killed on the spot, he himself lay three days insensible, and it was several weeks before he entirely recovered. The campaign went in favour of Tilly, who took Hameln and Minden, and defeated a large body of the Danes near Hanover. He had appealed to the Emperor for assistance against the King of Denmark; and this was the occasion of bringing the renowned Wallenstein into the field. Wallenstein, for the loyalty and valour he had displayed in defending the Bohemian provinces during the revolt of Bethlem Gabor in 1621 against the Hungarians, and the forces of the Margrave John George of Brandenburg, had been rewarded by Ferdinand II. with the lordship of Friedland and other confiscated domains of the insurgent Protestant nobles, and had been raised successively to the dignities of a Count Palatine, a Prince of the Empire, and Duke of Friedland. The appearance and habits of this celebrated leader were calculated to render still more remarkable his military talents and his enormous power. In person he was tall and lank; the oval of his face was strongly delineated by his black hair, brushed up from his forehead and hanging down on each side in curly locks, and by his black beard and moustache; his complexion was sallow, his nose short, but hawked, his forehead high and commanding. His eyes were small and black, but penetrating and full of fire, and the awe they inspired was enhanced by dark eyebrows, on which hung a frown of threatening severity. The whole expression of his countenance was cold and repulsive; his demeanour haughty but dignified. With these traits his habits corresponded. Of few words and still fewer smiles, indefatigably employed in a retreat whose tranquillity was secured by sentinels planted to enjoin silence on all who approached 49 Mém. de l'Electrice Palatine Louise Juliane, p. 279. CHAP. V.] HE RAISES AN ARMY. 549 for even the clink of spurs was offensive to him-Wallenstein's whole appearance was calculated to throw around him a mysterious interest, increased by his known addiction to astrology. At the time of Tilly's application for aid, Wallenstein, who had always been a warm supporter of the Emperor and of despotism, was a member of the Imperial Council of War; and he offered to raise at his own expense an army of 50,000 men for the Emperor, assigning the apparently paradoxical reason, that he could maintain an army of that force but not one of 20,000 men 50; meaning, of course, as he avowed, to support them by plunder. His offer having been accepted, a hundred patents of colonelcies were sold by Wallenstein to the greater nobles, on condition of their providing officers and men. These colonels in turn sold patents to their captains, the captains to their subalterns, without any reference to the Imperial Government; and thus was created an army, which, like those of the Italian condottieri, looked up to Wallenstein as their lord and proprietor. The troops were directed to be cantoned in Franconia and Suabia, in order that they might live at free quarters upon the inhabitants; and on marching through Nuremberg, Wallenstein compelled that town to contribute 100,000 gulden, although it had done nothing whatever to incur the displeasure of the Emperor. Wallenstein, with an army that went on daily increasing, marched through Hesse, Hanover, and Brunswick into the dioceses of Halberstadt and Magdeburg; while Tilly, as already related, was taking place after place in Westphalia and Lower Saxony. It was fortunate for the Protestant cause that a mutual jealousy subsisted between Tilly and Wallenstein; hence, as neither would recognise the other as his superior, both armies acted without any concerted plan. At the instance of the Protestants, a congress was held at Brunswick in the winter; but though Maximilian of Bavaria and his general were not indisposed to an accommodation, Wallenstein, who had formed the project of obtaining a principality for himself, rejected it with brutality. When the campaign opened in the spring of 1626, Wallenstein, instead of joining Tilly, marched to the eastward. The Protestants, however, committed errors on their side. Count Mansfeld, instead of forming a junction with Christian IV., who had now again taken the field, and thus opposing their united forces to Tilly, resolved to march into Bohemia, excite the inhabitants to rise, and call Bethlem Gabor again into the field; but after two abortive attempts on the bridge of Dessau, Mans 50 Khevenhiller, t. x. p. 803. 550 CAMPAIGN OF 1626. [Book IV. feld was forced to retreat on the approach of Wallenstein with all his force (April), and his army was dispersed with the exception of about five thousand men, with whom he entered the March of Brandenburg. By the aid of French subsidies, however, with which he levied men in Mecklenburg, and being joined by 1000 Scots, 2000 Danes, and 5000 men under John Ernest of Saxe-Weimar, he increased his army to about 20,000 men, with whom he marched through Frankfort on the Oder, Crossen, Glogau, Breslau, Oppeln, Ratibor, to Jablunka, where Bethlem Gabor had promised to meet him. But the fickle Transylvanian prince again proved faithless, and made his peace with the Emperor; Mansfeld, on the approach of Wallenstein, who had followed him through Lusatia into Silesia, was compelled to disband his army; part of his troops he assigned to John Ernest of Saxe-Weimar, and he himself proceeded into Dalmatia, intending by a secure though circuitous way to reach again the scene of action; but he fell sick and died in that country at the age of forty-five. Mansfeld's movement had, however, diverted Wallenstein and his troops from taking any part against Christian IV., when the Danish monarch was on the point of fighting a decisive action with Tilly. Early in 1626, Christian had fixed his head-quarters at Wolfenbüttel, whence his forces were extended on one side into Brandenburg, while another portion was posted in the dioceses of Osnaburg and Münster. He had unfortunately lost the services of Prince Christian of Brunswick who died in May, just at the moment when his reckless valour might have been useful. Among the Danish army, however, appeared Duke Bernhard of SaxeWeimar, who was afterwards to play so distinguished a part in the Thirty Years' War. Tilly was detained some months in besieging Münden (in Hanover), which he at last took after a murderous assault, and the loss of many men (June 9th), when the greater part of the garrison were massacred. Tilly next laid siege to Göttingen, which also detained him till the 11th of August. He was soon after driven from that place as well as from Nordheim; but by forming a junction with the troops left by Wallenstein on the Elbe, he prevented the King of Denmark from penetrating into Thuringia, and joining the Saxon Dukes and the Landgrave Maurice of Hesse. Tilly had compelled Maurice, according to a decree of the Imperial Chamber, to cede the whole district of Marburg to Hesse Darmstadt; to renounce all alliances with the Emperor's enemies; and to permit on all occasions the passage of the Imperial troops through his dominions. Christian IV. had penetrated to the Eichsfeld, whence he now CHAP. V.] CHRISTIAN IV. DEFEATED. 551 found himself compelled to retreat towards Wolfenbüttel, but on the march he fell in with Tilly and his army, and an action ensued near the little town of Lutter, August 27th 1626. After a bloody battle, in which Christian, by Tilly's own account, displayed great activity and valour, the general of the league achieved a decisive victory. The Danish King nevertheless, though he had lost several thousand men, succeeded in holding Wolfenbüttel and Nordheim till the following spring, when the operations of Wallenstein gave a new turn to affairs. That commander, after the retreat of Mansfeld, had maintained and increased his army in Silesia at the expense of the unfortunate inhabitants. He himself spent the winter at Vienna; but in the spring of 1627 he returned into Silesia, and marched with his army towards the Baltic. Directing his Colonel Arnim to occupy all Mecklenburg, and to summon the towns of Rostock and Wismar to admit Imperial garrisons, he himself entered Dömitz with another division of his forces. The approach of his army was announced by strange harbingers, that showed its irregular and lawless composition. Bands of gipsies of from ten to fifteen men, each provided with two long muskets, and bringing with them women on horseback with pistols at their saddle-bows, appeared simultaneously in many places; they boasted that they were in Wallenstein's pay, marched by byeways and tracks, concealed themselves in the bushes and underwood, and plundered wherever they found an opportunity.51 It appears from Wallenstein's letters at this period, that he had formed the design of seizing Mecklenburg for himself; and the Emperor, regarding the Duke of Mecklenburg as a rebellious vassal, abandoned his territories to that commander. Christian IV., threatened on one side by Wallenstein, on the other by Tilly, found himself compelled to retreat into his own dominions, whither he was pursued by the united forces of the Imperialists. Tilly, after some successes in Holstein, proceeded to the Lower Weser, as it was reported that the Dutch were about to send a fleet into that river; while Wallenstein penetrated through Schleswic into Jutland, and compelled the King of Denmark and his army to retire into the islands. During the winter of 16271628, Tilly maintained his troops at the expense of Bremen, Brunswick, and Lüneburg, while Wallenstein cantoned his army in Brandenburg, and treated the unfortunate Elector, George William, like a conquered enemy, although he was completely submissive to the will of the Emperor. Brandenburg, as well as Mecklenburg 51 Von der Decken, Herzog Georg von Braunschweig, ap. Geijer, B. iii. S. 141. |