CHAP. VI.] IS JOINED BY THE ELECTOR FREDERICK.

567

Rhine, the recognised head of Protestant Germany, accompanied by his consort, and surrounded by a crowd of princes and ambassadors. His Chancellor, Oxenstiern, who brought thither some reinforcements from Prussia, viewed with dissatisfaction and alarm the many princes who composed his staff. The Swedish arms. appeared everywhere successful. Tott had completed the conquest of Mecklenburg by capturing Rostock, Wismar, and Dömitz; Horn, though beaten by Tilly at Bamberg, had succeeded in penetrating to the Neckar; Baner had taken possession of Magdeburg after its evacuation by Pappenheim; Duke Bernhard of Weimar had driven the enemy from the Lower Palatinate, with the exception of Frankenthal and Heidelberg; the Landgrave William IV. of Hesse had recovered his dominions, occupied Paderborn and the southern part of Westphalia, and raised a considerable army. Thus the greater part of Germany was in the hands of the Swedes and their allies. The Catholic League had been dissipated. Some of its members had lost their possessions to Gustavus; others had joined the Emperor, or thrown themselves into the arms of France.

In February 1632 the Elector Palatine Frederick V., at the invitation of Gustavus, joined that monarch at Frankfort on the Main. He was received with great honour by Gustavus, whose behaviour, however, was equivocal. Frederick was in hopes that he should be restored to his dominions; but Gustavus was angry and disappointed at getting neither subsidies nor troops from Charles I., although that monarch was continually pressing for his brother-in-law's restoration. Frederick, however, continued to accompany the Swedish army, in the hope that he should at last obtain his rights.

But notwithstanding the apparently triumphant ascendancy of Gustavus Adolphus, clouds had already begun to obscure his success. He found that he could not rely upon the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, both of whom had joined him by compulsion; George William's minister, Schwarzenberg, a Catholic, was privately sold to the Emperor; Arnim, the commander of the Saxon army, and ex-colonel of Wallenstein, remained secretly connected with his former general. When Arnim marched with the Saxons to Prague he did not disturb his old commander's tranquillity; he left his palaces and possessions untouched; and when Wallenstein again assumed the supreme command, he made no attempt to hinder him from levying an army. John George he cajoled with the idea of making himself the head of a third party in Germany. The success of Gustavus had been more rapid and decisive than

568

LORRAINE BECOMES SUBJECT TO FRANCE. [BOOK IV.

Richelieu had hoped or expected, and seemed to threaten the existence of French influence in Germany. Richelieu saw all his plans defeated respecting the neutrality of the princes of the Catholic League, for which he had stipulated with Gustavus. The Cardinal would rather have fomented the divisions in Germany by a league with the Duke of Bavaria and such other Catholic princes and states as were opposed to the Emperor, than by assuming the protection of the German Protestants; but Maximilian still hesitated. The three ecclesiastical Electors had invoked the mediation of France in November. Louis XIII. and Richelieu had proceeded to Metz to reduce to obedience the Duke of Lorraine, who had placed some of his towns in the hands of the Imperialists, and had himself joined the army of Tilly. The French Court arrived at Metz soon after Gustavus had entered Mentz; and here Louis XIII. received the submission of the Duke of Lorraine, who had been advised to make his peace with the King. By the treaty of Vic, January 6th 1632, Charles of Lorraine descended from the rank of a sovereign prince to that of a vassal. He abandoned all intelligence with the Emperor and the King of Spain, promised to contract no alliance without the consent of Louis, and engaged not only to permit the French forces to pass through Lorraine, but also to join them with his own. At Metz also arrived the Bishop of Würzburg, to supplicate the King and Cardinal for aid in the name of religion. A more important suppliant was Christopher von Sötern, Archbishop and Elector of Trèves. By the approach of Gustavus to the Rhine, and the entry of the French army into Lorraine, the Electorate of Trèves was threatened on both sides. The Elector, who was at variance with his Chapter, by a treaty concluded with the French December 21st 1631, made over to them the fortress of Philippsburg on the Rhine, in his bishopric of Spires, together with Coblenz and the opposite fortress of Hermannstein, now known by the name of Ehrenbreitstein. The French thus obtained a footing on the Rhine, which they maintained till the peace of Westphalia. But the Chapter and the municipality of Trèves, called in the Spaniards from the Netherlands, who, before the French could arrive, took possession of Coblenz and Trèves : and as France and Spain were then at peace, they could not of course be driven out without declaring war.

In this conjuncture, in which the views and interests of Louis and Gustavus seemed to clash, the Swedish King behaved with firmness and dignity. He declined an interview with Louis and Richelieu. He would make no concessions to those princes of the Catholic League whose domains he had occupied, as the Elector of

CHAP. VI.]

WALLENSTEIN RECALLED.

569

Mentz and the Bishops of Würzburg and Worms; and he refused to restore them anything till a general peace. He reserved the right of punishing the Bishop of Bamberg, alleging that he had violated his capitulation with the Swedes. Towards the other members of the League he agreed to observe neutrality, and to restore what he had taken from the Duke of Bavaria and the Electors of Trèves and Cologne, except Spires; but he demanded in return that the Duke of Bavaria and his allies should restore all that they had taken from the Protestants since 1618; though a brief delay was to be accorded to arrange, under the mediation of France and England, an accommodation between Maximilian and the Palatine.

The Duke of Bavaria could not resign himself to these conditions; he beat about to gain time and raise troops, and thus brought the storm of war upon his dominions. Gustavus, after a rapid march into Franconia, where he punished the Bishop of Bamberg, pursued Tilly and his retreating army into Bavaria. The Danube was passed at Donauwörth without opposition; but Tilly, strongly posted at the little town of Rain, disputed the passage of the Lech. The Swedes, under cover of their guns, with difficulty threw a bridge across that rapid stream, and succeeded in passing, despite the furious resistance of Tilly (April 5th 1632); a cannon-ball having carried away that commander's thigh, the Bavarians abandoned their position. Maximilian, who came up towards evening, ordered a retreat to Ingolstadt, where on the following day the veteran Tilly died of his wound. Maximilian now took the sole command, and determined to procrastinate the war till he should be assisted by the Imperialists.

After the battle of Leipsic, Ferdinand II. had looked around in various quarters for assistance. He had invoked the aid of Spain, of the Pope, of the king of Poland, of the Italian princes, of his son Ferdinand, now king of Hungary; but none of these could afford him any effectual succour. The only chance of safety seemed to be to recall the Duke of Friedland. The Emperor had remained on friendly terms with Wallenstein after his dismissal, and continued to address him as "Duke of Mecklenburg, Friedland, and Sagan." Wallenstein was first sounded about resuming the command in October, but he excused himself, pleading indisposition from the gout, and the Emperor was compelled to make the most humble and pressing appeal to him for assistance. It was not till towards the end of December that he consented to raise another army, when he engaged to serve for three months only, declining however the title of generalissimo and all the emoluments of the office. His conduct resembled that of a coquette who seeks by

570

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS ENTERS MUNICH.

[BOOK IV.

As the

feigned reluctance to enhance the value of her favours. term of the three months drew nigh, and the advance of the Swedes inspired fresh alarm, the Emperor's solicitations that Wallenstein should continue in the command were redoubled, the sound of whose drum had attracted recruits from all quarters, and he was now at the head of 40,000 men. The time was come when he might make his own terms. He drew up a capitulation for the Emperor's signature which seemed to reverse the situation of sovereign and subject. He insisted on being the sole commander, not only of the Imperial, but also of the Spanish troops; he stipulated that the Emperor's son, Ferdinand 13 should not even show himself in the army, still less exercise any command in it, and that when Bohemia was recovered he should reside at Prague, under a Spanish guard of 12,000 men, till a general peace was effected. Wallenstein demanded as his reward an hereditary estate in Austria, secured to him by the Emperor, together with many other rights and privileges. No Imperial pardon was to be valid except it was confirmed by Wallenstein; and then only in cases which concerned life and honour, not territorial possessions. The Duke and his private interests, particularly his Duchy of Mecklenburg, were to be considered and provided for in any general peace. In short, Wallenstein usurped some of his sovereign's most important functions; yet, such was Ferdinand's necessity, he submitted with apparent cheerfulness to all his general's demands; in which the latter might not unnaturally find a little satisfaction for the affront put upon him by his dismissal two years before, as well as a means of securing himself from any future caprices of the Emperor.

Before the end of May Wallenstein had driven the Saxons under Arnim from the greater part of Bohemia. Meanwhile Gustavus was pushing on his conquests. After a fruitless attempt on Ingolstadt, where his horse was shot under him, the Swedish king occupied Augsburg, and caused the citizens to do homage to him; and he prized as one of his highest triumphs the restoration of Protestantism in this cradle of its infancy. He then entered Bavaria, where, however, he encountered a formidable resistance from the fanaticism of the peasantry, forming a strong contrast to the reception he had experienced in other parts of Germany. Munich was entered May 17th, and the Elector Palatine, who accompanied the Swedes, had the transitory satisfaction of passing a brief time in the capital of his arch-enemy. Hence Duke Bernhard of SaxeWeimar was despatched with the van towards the Tyrol. Vienna

"Förster, Wallenstein, S. 179.

CHAP. VI.]

WALLENSTEIN'S CAMP.

571

was in consternation; even Italy began to tremble. Wallenstein had now an opportunity to indulge his grudge against Maximilian, the principal author of his disgrace. The Duke of Bavaria found himself reduced to congratulate on his success the man whom he had so loudly denounced at Ratisbon, and to solicit his aid. Prague had been recovered early in May, and it would have been easy for Wallenstein to march into Bavaria; but he did not stir a foot till towards the end of June, and then on conditions the most humiliating to Maximilian. The Duke of Bavaria, who was in the Upper Palatinate with his army, was obliged to make a virtue of necessity and put himself under the control of an upstart condottiere like Wallenstein. When they met at Eger all eyes were turned on two such enemies to note their bearing; and the inquisitive remarked that his Serene Highness the Elector had learned the art of dissembling better than the Duke of Friedland." After the junction of their armies Wallenstein assumed the command in chief. Gustavus, who had in vain endeavoured to prevent this junction, now hastened to seize Nuremberg, leaving Bernhard of Weimar and General Baner to protect his conquests in Bavaria and Upper Suabia. Nuremberg offered him many advantages both in a strategical and tactical point of view. He could easily communicate there with his allies both in North and South Germany, while the situation of the place rendered it easy of defence; and the town with its immediate environs was converted into one vast fortified camp, capable of sheltering 50,000 men. But Wallenstein, with equal tact, took up a position which neutralised all these advantages. On a height called the Alte Berg, within a few miles of Nuremberg, he also established a fortified camp, defended with trenches and palisades, whence he infested the convoys and communications of the Swedes. Here the two great generals of the Thirty Years' War sat nine weeks watching each other. Wallenstein's forces were the more numerous; but, being mostly composed of raw recruits, he resolved to stand on the defensive. Gustavus, whose army, after calling in Duke Bernhard, Baner, and other generals with their forces, amounted to 50,000 men, found a difficulty in subsisting them; and having in vain offered battle at the foot of the wooded height where Wallenstein was encamped, he was rash enough to storm the position; but after an assault which lasted ten hours, and in which every regiment in the Swedish army was successively engaged, he was repulsed with the loss of several thou

14 ""

Doch haben die curiosi vermerkt, dass Ihre Kurfürstliche Durchlaucht die Kunst zu dissimuliren besser als der

Herzog gelernt."- Khevenhiller, B. xii.

S. 24.