The Thirty-Year War Part Two

The Emperor's anger could terribly fall upon it if it submitted itself hastily to the King of Sweden, and this latter should not remain powerful enough to protect his partisans in Germany against the imperial despotism. However, still more chaotic for it was the unwillingness of an irresistible winner who, with a fearsome army, stood already so to speak before its gates and could punish it at the cost of their whole commerce and prosperity for its resistance. In vain did it accomplished, through its deputies, an apology in order to remove the dangers which menaced its fairs, its privileges, maybe its imperial freedom itself, when it, through assault on the Swedish Party, should burden itself with the anger of the Emperor.

Gustav Adolph was astonished that the city of Frankfort in such an extremely important cause as the freedom of the whole Germany and the destiny of the Protestant church were, speak about their fairs and for timely advantages, hence neglecting the great affairs of the fatherland and its conscience. He has, he added menacingly, found the keys from the island of Rügen to all the fortifications and cities on the Main and will know to find also the keys of the city of Frankfort. The best of Germany and the freedom of the Protestant Church were alone the goal of his armed arrival and in the conscience of a rightful cause, was he simply not resolved to allow himself through some hinders to be stopped in his march.

He realized that the people of Frankfort wanted to tend nothing else but their fingers, however their whole hands he must have in order to be able to remain there. He made the representatives of the city who brought back the answer, return again accompanied with his own army, on foot, and awaited in full order of battle before Sachsenhausen the last declaration of the council.

If the city of Frankfort had scruples to submit itself to the Swedes, hence, it was only from fear of the Emperor; its own inclination allowed not the citizens any moment to be hesitating between the oppressor of German freedom and the protector of the same. The menacing preparations under which Gustav Adolph demanded, now, their declaration, could be lessening the illegality of their refusal in the eyes of the Emperor and the move which they voluntarily took, embellish through the appearance of a forced treatment. Now, people opened, hence, to the King of Sweden the gate which his army in splendid costume and admirable order crossed in the middle of this imperial city. 600 men remained back in Sachsenhausen for the occupation; the King himself advanced with the remaining army still on the same evening toward the city of Höchst on Main which was already conquered before the end of the day.

While Gustav Adolph made conquests along the river Main, fortune has also crowned the enterprises of his generals and co-allies in the north of Germany. Rostock, Wismar and Dömitz, the unique still remaining places in the Dukedom of Mecklenburg which still sighed under the yoke of the Imperial occupation, would be conquered by the rightful owner, the Duke Johann Albrecht, under the direction of the Swedish military commander Achatius Tott. In vain did the imperial General Wolf, Count of Mansfeld, seek to take back from the Swedes the foundation of Halberstadt, from which they, immediately after the siege of Leipzig, have taken possession of; he had to leave in their hands soon afterwards also the foundation of Magdeburg.

A swedish General, Banner, who with an 8 000 men strong army has remained on the Elbe, kept the city of Magdeburg most rigorously and submitted already many more imperial regiments which to the support of this city was sent there. The Count of Mansfeld defended it, in truth, in person with very much ardour; however, too weak in manpower in order to be able to oppose for long the numerous troops of the besieger, he thought already on the conditions under which he would surrender the city as the general Pappenheim came to help and occupied elsewhere the weapons of the enemies. Yet, Magdeburg or much more the terrible cottages which appeared sadly from the ruins of this big city, would move voluntarily on the side of the Imperial troops and immediately afterwards, would be taken into possession by the Swedes.

The authorities of the circle of Lower Saxony dared also, after the lucky enterprises of the King to raise their leader again from the blow which they have suffered in the unfortunate Danish war against Wallenstein and Tilly. They held in Hamburg a gathering on which the establishment of three regiments would be convened with which help they hoped to get rid of the utmost pressing Imperial occupations. The Bishop of Bremen, a relative of the swedish King; did not leave matters there, he put also together for himself personal troops and frightened with the same troops the armless priests and monks, had however the misfortune to be disarmed soon by the imperial general, Count of Gronsfeld. Georg, Duke of Lüneburg, previously high commander at the service of Ferdinand, attacked also now Gustav Adolph’s party and recruited some regiments for this monarch through which the imperial troops in Lower Saxony would be occupied with no less advantage for the King.

A far more important service, however, performed for the King the Landgrave Wilhelm of Hessen-Kassel, whose victorious weapons made tremble a great part of Westphalia and Lower Saxony, the foundation of Fulda and even the Electorate Principality of Cologne. People remembered that immediately after the Alliance which the Landgrave has concluded with Gustav Adolph to recruit in the camp, the Count of Tilly would order to Hessen the punishment of the Landgrave for his defection from the Emperor. However with a virile courage, this Prince has resisted the weapons of the enemy as well as protected his local authorities from the tumultuous preaching manifests of Count Tilly and soon, the battle of Leipzig liberated him from these devastating hordes.

He used their remoteness with as much courage as decisiveness, conquered in a short period Vach, Münden and Höxter and frightened through his prompt advances the foundation of Fulda, Padeborn and all the foundations in Hessen. The fearful states rushed through a temporal submission to limit his advances and avoided the plundering through considerable amount of money which they donated to him willingly. After these fortunate enterprises, the Landgrave united his victorious army with the main army of Gustav Adolph and he found himself in Frankfort by this monarch in order to convene with him of a more remote operation plan.

Many more Princes and foreign envoys were appearing with him in this city in order to pay homage to the Great Gustav Adolph, to implore his favour or to soften his anger. Among these, the most remarkable was that of the expelled King of Bohemia and Palatinate Count, Frederic the Fifth who was rushing from Holland, to throw himself into the arms of his avenger and protector. Gustav Adolph showed to him the infertile honour of greeting him as a crowned leader and strived through a noble compassion to relieve his misfortune. However, no matter how much Fredrick was promised of the might and luck of his protector, no matter how he counted on the justice and generosity of the same protector; so far away was, yet, the hope of re-conquest of his throne for this unfortunate king in his lost territories.

The inactivity and the absurd politic of the English court has dampened the zeal of Gustav Adolph and a sensitivity over which he could not really be master, allowed him to forget here the glorious occupation of a protector about the oppressed which he has announced so loudly in his appearance in the German Empire. The fear of the irresistible might and the close revenge of the King has also lured the Landgrave Georg of Hessen-Darmstadt and moved him into a momentary submission. The relationships in which this Prince entered with the Emperor and his lesser zeal for the Protestant cause were not a secret for the King; however he enjoyed himself to deride such a powerless enemy.

As the Landgrave knew little enough about himself and the political situation of Germany, he was ignorant of himself as well as brazen in order to position himself as an intermediary between both parties, hence cared Gustav Adolph to call him ironically “peace broker”. Often, people heard him saying when he was playing with the Landgrave and allowed him to gain: “He enjoyed twice the amount won because it was Imperial coins.” Landgrave Georg thanked it only to his relatedness with the Electorate Prince of Saxony whom Gustav Adolph has reason to be friendly with, that this monarch with the surrender of his fortification in Rüsselsheim and enjoyed the promise of observing a rigorous neutrality in this war. The Count of Westerwald and of Wetterau were appearing in Frankfort to the King in order to establish an alliance with him and to request his assistance against the Spanish who was very useful to him later on. The city of Frankfort itself had all the reasons to glorify itself of the King’s presence who through his royal authority took into protection its commerce and reinstated the security of the fairs which were very disturbed by the war, through the most impressive precautions.

The Swedish army was now strengthened by 10 000 men which Landgrave Wilhelm of Kassel has brought to the King. Gustav Adolph has already allowed the attack of Königstein, Kostheim and Flörsheim surrendered themselves to him after a short siege, he dominated the whole river of Main and in all hurry, vehicles would be built in Höchst in order to settle the troops over the Rhine. These dispositions filled the Electorate Prince of Mainz, Anselm Casimir, with fear and he doubted not any moment more that he would be the next who was menaced by the storm of the war. As a partisan of the Emperor and of the most active member of the Catholic League, he has not any better fate to hope than what both his fellow brothers, the Bishops of Würzburg and Bamberg have already had. The situation of his territories on the river Rhine made it necessary to the enemy to secure its own position and across this river, was this enviable stretch of land for the needy troops an irresistible attraction.

However, too little aware of his forces and of the opponent’s whom he had before himself, the Electorate Prince flattered himself about responding violence to violence and through the insuperability of his walls to tire the Swedish bravery. He allowed in hurry to improve the fortification works on his city of residence, insured that it was provided with all that could make it capable to endure a long siege and brought still over 2 000 Spanish soldiers in his walls whom a Spanish General, Don Philip of Sylva commanded. In order to make impossible to the Swedish vehicles the approach, he allowed the muzzle of the Main to be barricaded through many buried sticks, sank also many blocks of stones and whole ships in this surrounding. He himself flew accompanied with the Bishop of Worms, with his best treasures to Cologne and left the city and the land to the avidity of a tyrannical occupation.

All these precautions which betrayed lesser true courage than powerless confidence, contained not the Swedish army to advance towards Mainz and to make assault on the city despite the most serious dispositions. While a part of the troops extended to the Rheingau, anything Spanish that people found there, was destructed and pressed into excessive contributions; another part of the army ransomed the Catholic places of the Westerwald and the Wetterau, the main army has already besieged in Kassel, across the Mainz, and Duke Bernhard of Weimar even on this side of the Rhine conquered the tower of Mäuse and the castle of Ehrenfiels. Gustav Adolph was already preoccupied seriously with crossing over the Rhine and to surround the city from the land side as the advances of Count Tilly in Frankia made him leave hurriedly this siege and create a respite, even of short duration, to this Electorate Principality.

The danger of the city of Nuremberg which Count Tilly during the absence of Gustav Adolph on the river Rhine made the intention of besieging and in case of resistance, menaced with the terrible fate of Magdeburg, has moved the King of Sweden to this rapid break out from Mainz. In order not to expose himself, for a second time, to the reproaches and the shame before the whole Germany, to have to sacrifice an allied city to the arbitrariness of a terrible enemy; he decided in hasty marches to assault this important city; however, already in Frankfort he experienced the arduous resistance of the people in Nuremberg and the withdrawal of Tilly, and resolved, now, not to follow at any moment his plans in Mainz.

As it was not succeeded him, in Cassel, to win under the canons of the besieged the passage on the Rhine, hence he headed now to scout, on the other side of the city, his course towards the Bergstrasse, got hold on his way of any important place and appeared for the second time on the bank of the Rhine in Stockstadt between Gernsheim and Oppenheim. The whole Bergstrasse was abandoned by the Spanish; however, this side of the Rhine they sought still to defend with ardour. They have, to this end, partly burned all the vehicles in the neighbourhood, partly sank down and stood on this side of the river, military equipped for the most horrible attack if something would push the King to this place the passage.

The courage of the King exposed him, in this occasion, to the very great danger of falling into hostile hands. In order to inspect this side of the bank, he has dared, in a small boat, to cross over the river; hardly however has he landed, that a group of Spanish cavaliers fell over him, from whose hands only the hastiest retreat liberated him. Finally, he succeeded with the help of etlich surrounding ships to get hold of some vehicles, on two of which he allowed the Count of Brahe to cross over with 300 Swedes. Not so soon has they had enough time to put themselves behind protection, on this side of the bank that he would be attacked by fourteen companies of Spanish dragons and cuirassiers.

The more overwhelming was the superiority of the enemy, the more bravely Brahe fought with his small troop and his heroic resistance created enough time for the King to support him himself with fresh troops. Now, the Spanish were fleeing after a loss of 600 men; some rushed to the fortified city of Oppenheim, others to Mainz. A lion of marble set on a high pillar, with a bare sword on the right clutches, carrying a helmet; still indicated 70 years later to the passer-bys the place where the immortal King crossed the main river of Germanium.

Immediately after this lucky action, Gustav Adolph established the cannons and most part of the troops over the river and besieged Oppenheim which after a dubious resistance would be conquered on the 8^th of December with a storming hand. Five hundred Spanish men who have defended so fiercely this place, would become altogether a victim of the Swedish fury.

The news of Gustav’s crossing of the river Rhine frightened all the Spanish and other people in Lorraine who occupied the other side of the country and thought to have hidden on the other side of the river from the rage of the Swedes. Rapid fleeing was now their unique security; every untenable place would be abandoned most rapidly. After a long range of violent attacks against the armless citizens, the people of Lorraine abandoned the city of Worms which they mistreated still before their withdrawal with wanton cruelty. The Spanish hurried to lock up in Frankenthal in which city they hoped to defy the victorious weapons of Gustav Adolph.

The King lost, from now on, not any time, to take his intentions to the city of Mainz in which the bulk of the Spanish troops has thrown itself. In the meantime, he advanced on this side of the river Rhine against this city, the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel has approached the same river from the other side and on the way there, brought many more fortified places under his dominance. The besieged Spanish, even if surrounded on both sides, showed in the beginning many courage and determination, expecting the worst, and an unbroken, violent bomb firings fell many more days long on the Swedish camp which cost many brave soldiers to the King. However, despite this courageous resistance, the Swedes gained ever more terrain and have already advanced so close from the city trenches that they resolved seriously for a storming.

Now, sank the courage of the besieged. With reason, they trembled before the wild fierceness of the Swedish soldiers from which the Marienberg in Würzburg was a terrible proof. A fearsome fate expected the city of Mainz if it should be defeated during the storming and easily could the enemy fell himself being chased; to avenge Magdeburg’s terrifying destiny to this rich and splendid residence of a Catholic Prince. More to take care of the city than for their own life, the Spanish occupation capitulated on the fourth day and obtained from the generosity of the King a secure accompaniment until Luxembourg, hence, the major part of the same Spanish soldiers established themselves, as has already happened until now with many more soldiers, under Swedish flags.

On the 13th of December 1631 the King of Sweden held his entry in the conquered city and took in the palace of the Electorate Prince his residence. 80 canons fell as loot into his hands and the citizenry had to pay 8000 Guld to avoid the plundering. From this evaluation were excluded the Jewish and the spiritual institutions which still had to pay particularly great sums of money for themselves. The library of the Electorate Prince took the King as his own possession and sent its content to his royal Chancellor Oxenstierna who allocated it to the school in Westeräs, however, the ship that should bring them to Sweden sank and the East sea devoured this irreplaceable treasure.

After the loss of the city of Mainz, the misfortune did not stop to follow the Spanish troops in the surroundings of the Rhine. Shortly before the conquest of this city has the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel taken Falkenstein and Reifenberg, the fortification of Königstein surrendered to Hessen, the Rhinegrave Otto Ludwig, one of the generals of the King, had the luck to beat nine Spanish squadrons which were approaching Frankenthal and taken over the most important cities on the Rhine, from Boppart to Bacharach. After the take over of the fortification of Braunfels which the Counts from Wetterau brought into stand with the Swedish help, the Spanish lost every place in the Wetterau, and in the whole Palatinate they could, outside Frankenthal, only save very little cities. Landau and Kronweissenburg declared themselves loudly for the Swedes. Speyer demanded to recruit troops for the service of the King. Mannheim was lost because of the prudence of the young Duke Bernhard of Weimar and the neglect of the then present commandants who because of this misfortune would also be summoned before the martial court and beheaded in Heidelberg.

The King has prolonged the battle deep into the winter and apparently, even the roughness of the weather constituted a cause of superiority which the Swedish soldier affirmed over the enemy. Now, however, the exhausted troops needed the recuperation in the winter quarters which granted them Gustav Adolph soon after the conquest of the city of Mainz in its surroundings. He himself used the respite which the weather put to his warring operations, to take care of the occupations of his cabinet, together with his royal Chancellor, to care about the negotiations with the enemies because of the principle of neutrality and to end with a co-allied might some political disputes which was originated by his previous conduct.

To his winter stay/sojourn and in the middle of this stately occupation, he chose the city of Mainz, against which he overall allowed to see a greater inclination than with the interest of the German Princes and endured with the short visit which he would pay to the Kingdom. Not happy to have established himself strongly on the city, he allowed it also, across on the Winkel which links the Main with the Rhine, to erect a new citadel which was named after their founder Gustavburg, however, has became famous under the name of Pfaffenraub or Pfaffenzwang (the place of rob or coercion of the priest)

While Gustav Adolph made himself master of the Rhine and menaced the three neighbouring Electorate Principalities with his victorious weapons, a malicious politic would be set into motion in Paris and Saint Germain by his watchful enemies to remove from him the assistance of France and to entice him, whenever possible, to enter into war with this military might. He himself has astonished his friends, through the unexpected and ambiguous turn of his weapons along the Rhine, and offered to his enemies the means to arouse a dangerous mistrust toward his intentions. After that he has submitted the main foundation of Würzburg and the major part of Frankia to his might, it remained to him to break out into Bavaria and Austria through the main foundation of Bamberg and through the Upper Palatinate; and the expectation was so general as natural that he would not resolve to attack the Emperor and the Duke of Bavaria in the middle of their might and through the occupation of both these two major enemies, to end the war most rapidly.

However, at no less surprise of both disputing parties, abandoned Gustav Adolph the prescribed way standing before him by the general opinion, and instead of his weapons to turn to the right, he turned them to the left in order to allow to feel his might to the lesser innocent and lesser to be feared Princes of the Kurrhine, in the sense that he gave a deadline to his two most important enemies to gather new forces. Nothing else than the intention to put, before anything else, the unfortunate Palatinate Count Frederic the Fifth again into the possession of his lands through the expel of the Spanish, could make obvious this surprising move and the belief in the imminent reinstatement of Frederic put into silence, in the beginning, really the suspicion of his friends and the slander of his opponents.

Now, however, was the Lower Palatinate almost all throughout cleared from enemies and Gustav Adolph continued, to project new plans of conquest on the Rhine; he continued to give back the conquered Palatinate to the rightful owner. In vain remembered the envoy of the King of England the conqueror what justice demanded from him and what his own solemn promises made honourably dutiful to him. Gustav Adolph answered this demand with a bitter complaint about the inactivity of the English court and equipped himself very actively to extend his victorious flag until the vicinity of Alsace and even in Lorraine.

Now would the mistrust against the Swedish Monarch become apparent and the hatred of his opponent motivated them to be extremely busy spreading the most disadvantageous rumours about his intentions. Already for long has the Minister of Louis the 13^th, Richelieu, considered with nervousness the presence of the King around the French borders and the distrustful mind of his ruler opened itself all too easily to the terrible guesswork which about this subject would be established. France was, precisely in this time, embroiled in a civil war with the Protestant part of its citizens and the fear was in fact not unfounded that the proximity of a victorious King from their party would renew the sunken courage of the French Protestants and would encourage it to the fiercest resistance.

This could also happen when Gustav Adolph was the farthest away from it, to give them hope and to commit a real infidelity on his fellow ally, the King of France. However, the revengeful mind of the Bishop of Würzburg who sought to hurt the loss of his territories on the French court, the poisonous eloquence of the Jesuits and the active zeal of the Bavarian minister exhibited this dangerous understanding between the Huguenots and the King of Sweden as totally proved and knew to torment the fearsome spirit of Louis with the most terrible worries. Not only silly politician but also some not fully aware Catholics believed in full earnest, the King will attack the most inner part of France to make common cause with the Huguenots and to destroy the Catholic religion in the Kingdom.

Fanatical zealots saw him already with an army climbing over the Alps and dethrone even the governor of Christ in Italy. It is so easy for oneself to refute dreams of this kind, hence, it was not to be denied that Gustav, through his warring enterprises on the Rhine, gave a dangerous surge to the suspicion of his opponents and justified fairly the suspicion as he would direct his weapons lesser against the Emperor and the Duke of Bavaria than mainly against the catholic religion.

The general outcry of unwillingness which the Catholic courts, pushed by the Jesuits, raised against the links of France with the church’s enemies, enticed finally the Cardinal of Richelieu, for the security of his religion, to do a decisive step and to convince the Catholic world, at the same time, of the serious religious zeal of France and of the selfish politic of the German imperial authorities. Convinced that the intentions of the King of Sweden as well his own, were directed only at the humiliation of the House of Austria, hence, he carried not any remorse to promise a perfect neutrality to the leaguing Princes towards Sweden, as soon as they would retract from the Alliance with the Emperor and would be pulling back their troops.

No matter what resolution, now, the Princes would be taken, hence, has Richelieu already reached his goal. Through their separation from the Austrian party would Ferdinand make defenceless the united weapons of France and Sweden, and Gustav Adolph liberated from all his remaining enemies in Germany, could turn his undivided military might against the imperial hereditary territories. Unavoidable was then the fall of the Austrian House and this last, great goal aroused all the efforts of Richelieu without any disadvantage to the Church. Unequally doubtful, to the contrary, was the success if the Princes of the League should remain on their refusal and moreover, should still remain faithful to the Austrian Alliance.

Then, however, has France before the whole Europe proved its catholic disposition and has satisfied its duties as part of the Roman Church. The Princes of the League appeared, then, alone as the author of all the misfortune on which the enduring war over the Catholic Germany must hang inevitably; they alone, through their selfish partisanship to the Emperor, have prevented the rules of their protector to be applied, threw the Church into an extreme danger and itself into chaos.

The more arduously Richelieu followed this plan, the more he would bring about, through the repeated requests of the Electorate Prince of Bavaria, the French assistance into crash. People remembered that this Prince, already since the time when he had reason to distrust the dispositions of the Emperor, has entered into a secret alliance with France through which he hoped to secure the possession of the Kurwürde of Palatinate against a Ferdinand’s future change of mind. Hence, distinctively, the origin of this agreement already allowed to recognize, against which enemy it would be directed, hence Maximilian asked him now, arbitrarily enough, to extend also on the attacks of the King of Sweden and carried not any scruples to demand the same assistance which people have promised him only against Austria, to also use it against Gustav Adolph, the Allies of the French crown.

Embarrassed by this contradicting alliance with two opposed military mights, Richelieu knew only to help himself with the excuse that he put a rapid end to the hostilities between both parties; and was equally little inclined to abandon Bavaria as through his contract with Sweden he not put himself into stand out to protect it, he turned himself with a whole zeal for neutrality as the unique means to satisfy his double relationships. His own plenipotentiary, Earl of Breze, would be sent to this end, to the King of Sweden in Mainz, to inquire about his dispositions on this specific point and to preserve his favourable conditions for the allied Princes.

However, such important reasons had Louis the 13^th to see this neutrality be brought into stand, no matter how important grounds Gustav Adolph had to wish the contrary. Convinced through numerous proofs that the disgust of the leaguing Princes of the Protestants’ Religion was insuperable, that their hatred for the foreign might of the Swedes was indelible and their leaning to the House of Austria indefectible, he feared their public enmity much lesser than he distrusted a neutrality which stood in contradiction so much with their leaning. As he saw himself enticed, over this matter, through his situation on German soil, to pursue the war at the cost of the enemies, hence, he lost apparently, when he, without winning new friends through that, lessened the number of his open enemies. No wonder then that Gustav Adolph showed little inclination to compensate the neutrality of the Catholic Princes, through which so little would help him, with the sacrifice of his aroused advantages.

The conditions under which he allowed the neutrality to the Electorate Prince of Bavaria, were pressing and in accordance with these dispositions. He demanded from the Catholic League a complete inactivity, a withdrawal of their troops in the Imperial army from the conquered places, from all the Protestant countries. Moreover, he wanted to bring down the number of the military power of the League. All their countries should be closed to the imperial armies, and from the same countries should be granted to the House of Austria neither manpower nor provisions and ammunition. So harsh was the law which the winner imposed on the loser, hence flattered himself always the French mediator for having succeeded the Electorate Prince of Bavaria to adopt the same conditions.