CHAPTER VI.

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. (1630-2.)

By Dr A. W. WARD.

[Excerpts from CHAPTER VI of The Cambridge Modern History]

... [W]hen at last, after final delays caused by the weather, [Gustavus Adolphus] on June 26, 1630, anchored off the island of Usedom at the mouth of the Peene in Pomerania, and during the next two days disembarked his troops, he still had good cause for avoiding anything like rashness or haste in his movements. On his fleet, in addition to 3000 marines, were 13,000 soldiers, whose numbers were soon after his landing increased by accessions from Sweden, Livonia, and Stralsund to a marching force of some 40,000 men ; while at home and in the Baltic lands in his rear he may have left behind over 30,000 more. Rather more than half of the soldiery were Swedish or Finnish by birth ; among the foreign levies the Scots were specially notable, but the Baltic lands in general, and even Brandenburg and Poland, had contributed their share. They were all welded together by confidence in their commander, by a firm discipline, and, it cannot be doubted, by the influence of the religious observances with which that discipline was interfused. The infantry was, for the most part, armed with muskets of comparatively light weight and, in part at least, fired by flintlocks in lieu of the old cumbrous matchlocks; mounted foot-soldiers, known as dragoons, formed a complement of the cavalry, which was Gustavus' weakest arm. His strongest was his artillery, for which light iron cannon were largely employed ; the so-called "leather" guns fell into disuse early in the German War. Here, and throughout, extreme mobility was a leading principle of Gustavus' method of warfare, and proved a chief cause of its success.

On his arrival in Pomerania he found a considerable Imperial force still in control of the greater part of the country under the command of General Torquato Conti, who had taken measures for protecting the Oder against a Swedish advance. After securing Stettin, where he established a fortified camp, Gustavus took Stargard (July, 1630), and then, doubtless with a view to drawing nearer to Magdeburg, made a diversion from the line of the Oder into Mecklenburg (September). But no favourable reception was given to the proclamation which from his fortified camp he addressed to the Mecklenburgers, admonishing them in angry terms to throw off the authority usurped by Wallenstein in defiance of the law of God and the Gospel. There was little love in the land for its lawful Dukes ; and Wallenstein's administration, orderly, impartial, and expeditious, was unmistakably popular. Into Rostock the Imperialists, regardless of past compacts, had contrived to throw a garrison. The King's reinforcements from Prussia had not yet arrived ; and he did not yet feel strong enough for more extensive operations at a distance from his base. The Mecklenburg campaign therefore remained a mere demonstration (October) ; and, while Gustaf Horn invested Kolberg (which did not capitulate till March, 1631), the King resumed the campaign on the Oder. Here, less than twenty miles above Stettin, the Imperial forces, under the command of Haimbald von Schaumburg, were massed at Garz, which was connected by a bridge with the fortress of Greifenhagen, likewise in their occupation. A series of successful operations, accompanied by some hard fighting on Christmas Eve and Day, put both places into the hands of the Swedes ; and Schaumburg's army, disorganised and demoralised, and suffering terribly from the severity of the winter, hastily returned to Kiistrin, whose gates were opened to it. Thence it made its way to Frankfort-on-the-Oder, whither-or to Landsberg-such bodies of Imperialists as had remained scattered through Pomerania likewise retreated. Such was the virtual end of Wallenstein's great army of the north. The whole of the duchy, with the exception of Kolberg, Greifswald, and Demmin, was now in Gustavus' hands. The effect of this success was great with both friend and foe, and with the watchful statesman in the west. Gustavus1 own imagination was fired to conceive of a great combination of five armies, amounting together to more than a hundred thousand men, in the face of which all resistance would melt away in Germany. But, for the present, even his advance along the line of the Oder could not continue, so long as the three Brandenburg fortresses which had served as a refuge to the Imperialists shut their gates upon the Swedes.

...

While unable to reach an understanding with the two Protestant Electors, Gustavus Adolphus arrived at a definite settlement with France. Charnacé, whose last negotiations with him had been broken off on a trivial point of form, resumed them at Bärwalde; where, though the chief difficulty was the money part of the bargain, some heat was infused into the discussion. On January 13,1631, however, a treaty of alliance between the Kings of France and Sweden was signed by their commissaries, for the protection, as it purported, of their common friends, and for assuring the security of the Baltic and of the open sea, freedom of commerce, and the restitution of the oppressed Estates of the Empire. The King of Sweden (for the treaty was practically dated as from a year back) was to conduct an army of 30,000 foot and 6000 horse into Germany, and France to pay an annual subsidy of 400,000 dollars, with an additional 120,000 for the year spent in negotiation. The alliance was to continue till March 3, 1636, and to be renewable should peace not have been concluded by that date ; but neither of the allies was to make peace without the assent of the other. The adhesion of German and other Princes and Estates was to be permitted, unless they were openly or secretly acting with the enemy-a clause intended as a warning to malevolent neutrals. With Bavaria and the League there was to be friendship and neutrality, should they incline to accept it. In all localities conquered by the King of Sweden he was to observe the laws of the Empire, and not to interfere with the exercise of the Catholic religion. To this last clause, and to that concerning the League, Gustavus had only with difficulty been induced to assent.

It will be remembered that, after Wallenstein's dismissal, the forces of both Emperor and League had been placed under the supreme command of Tilly. The removal of Wallenstein inevitably had an injurious effect upon so much of the Imperial army as had been kept under arms ; and Richelieu had taken care to close all present prospect of any reinforcements from Italy. The 12,000 troops, or thereabouts, still left of the Imperial army of the north were demoralised by want of pay as well as of success, and could clearly no longer be relied upon for the defence of Oder and Elbe. The forces of the League, on the other hand, which it was at first intended to employ for covering the lands of the west and south, were reckoned at 27,000 in the field and more than half this number in garrisons. But Tilly, after making his dispositions at Ratisbon, waited patiently in the Weser country till his numbers should be complete ; nor was it till the middle of January, 1631, that, after making a transient appearance before Magdeburg, his army reached Frankfort-on-the-Oden After his junction with Schaumburg, Tilly was in command of 84,000 troops; but his Imperialist reinforcements were in a sorry plight. The news having now reached Tilly that Gustavus was about to enter Mecklenburg, the General of the League, by a rapid march, crossed the Middle Mark south of Berlin and approached the line of the Havel, so as to place himself in the way of the Swedish advance upon the Elbe and Magdeburg.

Immediately after the conclusion of the Treaty of Bärwalde, Gustavus, regarding the line of the Oder as temporarily closed, had, though it was mid-winter, started for Mecklenburg with a division of his army amounting to nearly 12,000 men. Before the middle of February he easily took Demmin, on the Mecklenburg frontier, and, after detaching a division to besiege Greifswald, was preparing to advance, when he learnt that Tilly was approaching Neu-Brandenburg (in Mecklenburg-Strelitz, nearly thirty miles south of Demmin), where 3000 Swedes under Kniphausen lay in garrison. Gustavus seems to have hoped to divert Tilly towards Schwedt, where the Swedes would have been nearer to their base at Stettin ; but he sent instructions to Kniphausen to conclude an honourable capitulation if it became necessary. The messenger fell into Tilly's hands, and on March 19 he took Neu-Brandenburg by storm, and put the whole garrison to the sword. "Neu-Brandenburg quarter," though it only carried out the accepted principle that no mercy need be shown to a garrison holding out after surrender has become inevitable, in its turn set a precedent soon afterwards followed at Frankfort and at Magdeburg, and thus opened a more savage epoch in the conduct of the war.

After this success Tilly stood still for some days, and then, perhaps feeling incapable of moving Gustavus from his position at Schwedt, where he continued to be in touch with the other Swedish division under Horn, marched south-west, towards the towns of Neu-Ruppin and Brandenburg. On the march he received an explicit order from Maximilian of Bavaria to lose no time in setting about the siege of Magdeburg, before whose walls and trenches Pappenheim was fretting in enforced inactivity.

No sooner was Gustavus sure of Tilly's departure than, once more leaving Horn behind to finish the siege of Greifswald (it did not fall till June), he marched with 14,000 men upon Frankfort-on-the-Oder. To secure this fortress had long been an object of anxiety to him ; but we have the explicit statement of his secretary Grubbe that his immediate purpose was to draw Tilly away from Magdeburg. Passing Küstrin without any hindrance and constructing a redoubt in face of its walls, he arrived before Frankfort, where lay a force of 5000 men, more or less, with Field-Marshal von Tiefenbach and other officers of note - the remnant, in a word, of Wallenstein's army of the north. On April 13 the fortress was rapidly taken by storm ; but the brilliancy of the exploit was dimmed by the excesses which followed, and which lasted far into the night, long beyond the three hours allowed by the King for plundering. By his orders the lives of the citizens were left untouched ; but of the garrison 2000-according to Munro 3000-were slaughtered " in revenge of their crueltie used at Neu-Brandenburg." Within a fortnight Landsberg, which Tilly had not turned to relieve, capitulated to Gustavus. A panic spread through Silesia, to which and to Moravia the line of the Oder directly led ; and at Prague Gustavus was believed to be about to carry the war to the gates of the city where it had begun. The Emperor himself believed an attack on the Austrian lands to be in serious contemplation. But Gustavus had no such intentions. He still kept the line of the Elbe in view, and, sending a message to Magdeburg, which he had persuaded himself could hold out two months longer, announced his victorious progress to John George of Saxony and the Protestant Estates assembled on his summons at Leipzig.

...

On assuming the command of the troops in the city which, exclusive of the citizens, cannot have much exceeded 3000 men, Falkenberg at once introduced Swedish discipline into their ranks. Magdeburg, which numbered about 36,000 inhabitants, was well fortified except on the river side (north and north-east), where, however, the islets on the bridged marsh offered facilities of defence which were improved by Falkenberg. In the course of November, 1630, the city was invested by Pappenheim ; but during the winter months some negotiation ensued, with an equally futile attempt by Pappenheim to bribe the Swedish commander ; and it was not till the end of March, 1631, after the fall of Neu-Brandenburg, that Tilly at last sat down before Magdeburg, and the siege began in earnest. His and Pappenheim's united forces reached a total of over 22,000 foot and 3000 horse, with 86 heavy guns, besides an additional body of nearly 5000 troops near at hand at Dessau.

After Pappenheim had captured the redoubts on the right bank of the Elbe, and one or two on the left had also fallen, a pause followed, owing to the news of the capture of Frankfort and the Emperor's demand that Tilly should proceed at once to protect the Austrian lands. It was, however, resolved first to finish the siege; and on April 28 Pappenheim attacked the fortifications on the islands. By the next day all the outworks of the city were in the hands of the besiegers. On May 4 Pappenheim took possession of the razed northern suburb of Neustadt on the left bank and began erecting his batteries. On the same day, Tilly, who would gladly have preserved the fortifications, summoned the Administrator, the town council, and Falkenberg severally to surrender. The immediate reply on the following day was a brief but successful sortie, followed by two others. On May 10 the town council sent an answer announcing its wish to call in the mediation of the Electors of Brandenburg and Saxony and of the Hanse Towns. Tilly's answer, insisting on surrender as a preliminary condition, did not arrive till May 12; in the meantime Falkenberg had sent an urgent appeal to Gustavus Adolphus. On May 17 the bombardment of the city walls from the Neustadt opened, and it continued during the next two days. Meanwhile on the 18th a further summons from Tilly to surrender reached the city, where hope and fear were striving for mastery. On the 19th the whole body of the citizens, as well as the town council, discussed the question, and it was decided to treat, though Falkenberg succeeded in securing that a consultation should be held with him early on the following morning. On the evening of the 19th there had been indications of a lull in Tilly's operations ; this was probably the reason why a sortie which Falkenberg had intended to make that night was not undertaken ; the charge against him based upon this change of plan can only be described as absurd. At five o'clock in the morning of the 20th a portion of the garrison had as usual withdrawn from the walls. Soon afterwards, while Falkenberg was addressing the town councillors in the Raihhaus, the news of a movement of the enemy towards the walls arrived. By seven o'clock the assault had begun on the Neustadt side.

Pappenheim, who led it, had already mounted the walls when Falkenberg threw himself in his way and a check resulted which Pappenheim afterwards resentfully attributed to want of proper support on the part of Tilly. But soon a gate on this side of the wall was forced; the setting on fire, by Pappenheim's orders, of a few houses increased the terror of the defenders ; through another gate the Croatians poured in ; and finally Pappenheim took in the rear the force which was resisting the Duke Adolphus of Holstein-Gottorp's assault on the south side of the city. Falkenberg had fallen, mortally wounded ; the " Administrator," Christian William, was taken prisoner. (His career was over, and he ended by becoming a convert to the Church of Rome and an Imperial pensioner.) By 1 p.m. Tilly was in complete possession of the Maiden Citys the vaunted bulwark of the Protestant faith.

Then began a massacre of the garrison, and of armed and unarmed citizens, in streets, houses, and churches. The nameless deeds of horror committed are only too well authenticated. In the course of the afternoon fire broke out in several places, and by the following morning virtually the whole of the city, with the exception of the Cathedral, the Liebfrauenkloster (where soldiers are said to have helped to extinguish the flames) and a number of houses in a remoter quarter, was reduced to ashes.

There is no evidence that Tilly interfered with the excesses of his soldiery, till on the evening of the 22nd he granted pardon to all survivors. Among these were about a thousand people who had sought refuge in the Cathedral. On the 24th Tilly commanded the stoppage of all further plundering. The charge that the destruction of the city by fire had been ordered by him is contradicted not only by his own statement but by every argument of probability. The counter-charge that it was due to Falkenberg and some who with him desired to make an earlier Moscow of Magdeburg, is more specious, but rests on no satisfactory evidence. Pappenheim's instructions early in the morning had no connexion with the general conflagration. The mystery of its origin-if mystery it be-remains unsolved. Pappenheim, who estimated-and probably greatly underestimated-the loss of life in the sack of Magdeburg at 20,000, expressed his opinion to Maximilian that no such awful visitation of God had been witnessed since the destruction of Jerusalem.

The moral impression made by the sack of Magdeburg on both friend and foe was without precedent or parallel even in the Thirty Years' War ; it remains reflected in scurrilous songs of savage triumph, in wrathful outcries, penitential psalms, and wild accusations ; it revealed itself in the amazed incredulity of Wallenstein, and in the uneasy eagerness of Gustavus Adolphus to disprove his responsibility for such a catastrophe. But its immediate effect was neither from a military nor from a political point of view overwhelming.

....

Though Greifswald now fell and the restoration of the Mecklenburg Dukes was in progress, Gustavus, leaving part of his forces on the Oder, advanced with the rest towards the Elbe, and, after the capture of Havelberg, established himself in a fortified camp at Werben, in a very strong position between Elbe and Havel. For a moment he had thought of not passing beyond the compact territory already conquered by him ; but he soon elected to follow his star. About this time his Queen arrived at Wolgast with a fresh body of Swedish troops, part of which were united with the 6000 Englishmen and Scots levied and brought to Stettin by the Marquis of Hamilton at his own cost. But this force, like Mansfeld's of old, gradually melted away.

After the sack of Magdeburg, Tilly, uncertain as to the direction which the movements of his adversary would take, had, to the indignation of Pappenheim, remained in the vicinity of the ruins. When, at the end of May, after both League and Emperor had strengthened their forces-the latter by troops from Italy, where the Mantuan War was now over-he at last set forth with nearly 25,000 men, he marched not north-east, but south-west, upon Hesse-Cassel, to stop the levies of Landgrave William. But he was soon summoned back to the Elbe by Pappenheim, and by the end of July once more stood at Wolmirstedt immediately below Magdeburg. Early in August he approached the camp of Gustavus at Werben ; but after some fighting, in which on the Swedish side Bernard of Weimar took a prominent part, Tilly perceived that he could not dislodge the King, and withdrew to the south of Magdeburg. Thus in August Gustavus Adolphus was at leisure to pay a visit to Mecklenburg, and to assist at the entry of the Dukes into Giistrow, now recovered by them, with the whole duchy except Rostock, Wismar, and Dömitz.

... On August 30 John George offered his alliance to Gustavus, then at Brandenburg, and moved his army to Torgau. The Swedes hereupon advanced to Wittenberg ; and during September the two armies lay side by side, awaiting the sequel.

After addressing a last warning to the Elector, on September 4, he occupied Merseburg on the next day. On the 12th John George and Gustavus concluded a close offensive and defensive alliance, which secured the direction of their joint action to the King. A decisive conflict between the Catholic and Protestant armies could now no longer be delayed. On September 15 the Swedish forces, numbering 20,000 foot and 7500 horse, and the Saxon, variously estimated as between 15,000 and 20,000 men, mustered at Diiben on the Mulde.

Tilly's army of 23,000 foot and 11,000 horse was inferior in numbers to that of his enemies, and he had less than half their number (60) of guns. He would therefore have preferred, before risking a battle, to wait for Aldringer, who, with a large force from the south-west, had already reached Erfurt. But this time, not only was the usual pressure exercised on him by Pappenheim and others, but he really had no choice. Leipzig, which he entered on September 16, was almost an open town ; and when he placed himself to the north of it to await the enemy there was no time for fortifying his position. On the following day was fought the great battle of Breitenfeld, so called from the village, a couple of miles north-east of Leipzig, towards which the Swedish right wing at the crisis of the battle drove their adversaries. The incomparably superior mobility of the Swedish troops, only part of whom were actually engaged in the battle, was the main cause of the victory. Neither the charge of Pappenheim's heavy cavalry, which finally lost touch with Tilly's centre, availed, nor the rout of the Saxons on the left, whom the heavy mass of Tilly's right drove in confusion from the field, the Elector himself being carried away as far as Eilenburg. The loose formation of Gustavus' order of battle enabled him to defy the Pappenheimers, throw himself upon Tilly's left, and finally by a sudden cavalry charge from his own right retake the Saxon guns and capture Tilly's. He had thus gained a complete victory before the September evening had closed in. His losses in the battle and the pursuit amounted to barely 5000 of his own troops, besides 2000 Saxons ; of Tilly's army something like half-the numbers were variously stated from 7000 to 12,000-were left on the field or taken prisoners. The remainder rallied at Halberstadt. Tilly himself was wounded ; as was his adjutant-general, Duke Adolphus of Holstein-Gottorp, who had taken so conspicuous a part in the siege of Magdeburg. The latter died in captivity at Eilenburg.

The day of Breitenfeld, on which Tilly was widely held to have lost his reputation as a commander, suddenly raised that of Gustavus Adolphus to a height which it henceforth maintained. But it accomplished something more than this. His plans now entered into a phase which, in view of the negotiations previously carried on by him, cannot be described as altogether new, but in which these plans rapidly assumed a breadth such as they had never before reached. His thoughts now went beyond " satisfaction " and " security " ; for a great Protestant victory, which had redeemed a dire Protestant catastrophe, had now marked him out as the champion of a cause adopted by half the Empire. The momentum temporis proved decisive ; but neither was it his formed intention to carry an armed propaganda of Protestantism through the Empire, nor had he definitely resolved on securing for himself the Imperial Crown, which Bernard of Weimar and others had beyond doubt suggested to him as within his reach.

Of the two alternatives before Gustavus Adolphus the one was to march direct upon Vienna, while leaving Tilly to the Saxons. This course, which John George would have preferred, both as enabling him to enforce the principles of the Leipzig alliance in the west and southwest, and as sparing him a direct conflict with the Emperor, besides bringing Gustavus nearer to Poland, would have been comparatively easy of execution. But, as has been pointed out by Clausewitz in a masterly summary of the situation, Gustavus was by no means one of those generals who achieve great results by sudden blows and rapid incursions ; moreover, at Vienna, though he could have done much there for the Protestants, he could not have established for himself any secure basis either for further action or for an ultimate settlement. Such a basis he sought, and practically established, by making himself master of a line that reached from Oder and Elbe through Thuringia and Franconia by way of Frankfort to the Middle Rhine. The isolated positions still occupied by the enemy in the north were of practically little significance ; in the west he came into close touch with France. The troops of John George, which had gained no laurels at Breitenfeld, would for the present be suitably employed in the recovery of Silesia, a process which would completely estrange him from the Emperor, and furnish him with a field of operation of his own, without forwarding his design of heading a third party in the Empire.

It has been suggested that Gustavus Adolphus had yet another reason for not directing his own attack upon the Habsburg lands. There can be no doubt-though until after the close of these transactions our knowledge concerning them is drawn from the untrustworthy confession of Sezyma Rasin-that already in the earlier part of 1631 negotiations had been in progress between Gustavus and Wallenstein, and it is at least highly probable that to these dealings Arnim was no stranger. In the summer before the battle of Breitenfeld these communications, managed by Thurn and Rasin, Wallenstein's secret agent, led to a promise on the part of Gustavus that 12,000 Swedish troops should be entrusted to Wallenstein, who should be recognised as "Viceroy" of Bohemia (the title "King" not being used as yet, out of consideration for Frederick) ; Wallenstein undertaking in return to overthrow the Habsburg dominion in Bohemia, Silesia, and Moravia, and to invade the Austrian duchies. But after his great victory, Gustavus, feeling no longer dependent on such help, suggested that the collection of a force on the Bohemian frontier should be left to Thurn. The King therefore does not appear to have at this time reckoned on any important intervention from this quarter; but Wallenstein was soon to show that he had not forgotten the slight.

Leaving the Saxon Elector to deal with Leipzig, Gustavus Adolphus, after concluding an alliance with the Princes of Anhalt, set forth from Halle (Sept. 27, 1631). Erfurt, where he held his entry on October 2, and where he concluded a final alliance with the Weimar Dukes, placing the command of the Thuringian reserve in the hands of the eldest, William, was to serve as base of operations for the main force (numbering about 25,000 men), with which, a few days later, the King, by way of Gotha, advanced into Franconia. On the Middle and Lower Elbe, Bauer and Tott commanded smaller armies, of which the former occupied Magdeburg as a strategical position ; whereupon the rebuilding of the town at once commenced (February, 1632). Rostock capitulated to Tott (October, 1631), who then advanced towards the Weser.

The conquest of Franconia was rapidly accomplished by Gustavus Adolphus. After taking the important Würzburg fortress of Königs-hofen, he on October 12 entered the episcopal city itself. After he had reconstructed the bridge across the Main, a struggle of several days made him master of the castle of Marienburg on the left bank, with its enormous accumulation of military supplies and ecclesiastical and literary treasures (of which latter some found their way to Upsala). The Prince-Bishop had taken refuge in France; and Gustavus, relying on his title by conquest, at once prescribed the form of homage to be taken to himself as Duke of Franconia, and to his heirs. The administration which he set up was composed of natives mixed with Swedish officers ; and of the conventual and other landed property which he proceeded to distribute the larger share went to members of the Franconian nobility who had taken his side.

The news of the Swedish progress had scattered to the winds the Frankfort " composition " meeting ; and, while the Bishop of Bamberg tried to negotiate with the conqueror, the Protestant Princes and towns near and far solicited his friendship. Nürnberg haggled long over her bargain, but by the end of October concluded, for a year in the first instance, a close alliance, as did the Margraves of Ansbach and Baireuth: all the petty Protestant Estates round about following suit. Duke George of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the north, after protracted negotiations, and the House of Württemberg in the south-which had suffered severely by the Edict of Restitution-sought and obtained the alliance of the King ; and with all Franconia, as far west as Hanau, under his control, he could enter upon the next stage of his resistless advance.

Meanwhile Tilly, who on finding that he was not pursued after Breitenfeld had turned into the much-vexed Hesse-Cassel, had been at last reinforced by Aldringer and was now at the head of 18,000 troops. With these he, early in November, attempted a movement upon Würzburg, and, after being smartly repulsed here by Gustavus himself, essayed to lay siege to Nürnberg. But the alliance with Gustavus and the presence of a Swedish garrison had infused into this city a spirit which determined him to raise the siege, before Gustavus, who had turned aside from his advance, had come near ; whereupon the baffled veteran took up his quarters at Nördlingen further south towards the Danube, on the right bank of which Maximilian had collected another army for the defence of Bavaria itself.

On November 19, Gustavus, leaving Horn behind him to guard Franconia, set out on his march towards the Rhine. Aschaffenburg was occupied without a blow ; Frankfort opened its gates, and, passing them, the King continued his march to Höchst, in the electorate of Mainz, where he was reinforced by 17,000 men under William of Hesse-Cassel. Thence he passed through the territory of William's Hesse-Darmstadt kinsman, to whom he granted moderate conditions, being at first intent on seizing Heidelberg (December). But he found the line of march much occupied by Spanish troops, and on drawing back had to dislodge them from a fortification on the right bank of the Rhine facing Oppenheim. The garrison of Mainz, upon which he now moved, was commanded by a Spaniard, de Suva. The fortress surrendered (December 20), and the city redeemed itself from being plundered by a payment of 80,000 dollars. Bernard of Weimar brought the campaign to a brilliant close with the capture of Mannheim by a stratagem (January 8, 1632).

At Mainz, the capital of one of the leading Princes of the League, which now became Gustavus' head-quarters, he established a civil administration resembling that set up at Würzburg, and prepared for his next campaign. His intention was, by means of vast armaments, to raise the forces with which he had carried on his campaigns of 1631 to more than twice their present total. But even more notable was the expansion of the general scope of his enterprise. In the course of the last operations of 1631 he had been unexpectedly brought into conflict with the troops of a Power with whom he had hitherto avoided entering into direct hostilities. But, though anxious not to precipitate a quarrel, he was prepared to face this new complication. While, therefore, mindful as ever of Sweden's maritime safety, he sent directions home that attention should be paid to the fortification of Göteborg on the Cattegat, he put the explicit question to his Riksrad whether he should treat what had occurred as a rupture of the peace and openly declare war against Spain. The Riksrâd replied that Spain must be held to have broken the peace, but that a declaration of war had better be adjourned. Yet the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs had unmistakably been added to the list of his de facto adversaries.

...

From Rain the Swedes without loss of time advanced upon Augsburg, which was entered upon April 24. A garrison was placed here, and a monthly contribution was promised by the Free Imperial City. Its municipal administration was entirely Protestantised, and the citizens swore an oath of " security " to the King. From a military point of view the triangle of Donauwörth, Ulm, and Augsburg, between Danube and Lech formed a position of incomparable strength. But Gustavus had no thought now of taking up a defensive position. On April 26 the advance continued upon Ingolstadt, which Maximiliaii had likewise abandoned. His only hope now lay in Wallenstein, whose aid he had urgently solicited; for his attempt at securing a recognition of his neutrality from Gustavus Adolphus through the French resident Étienne, who was well aware how unwelcome the tidings of the "Goth's" progress must be to Richelieu, broke down on the demand of disbandment. But the siege of Ingolstadt proved more difficult than had been foreseen; and on May 1 Gustavus pushed on towards Landshut, which soon fell into his hands.

...

But his intention of crushing the Bavarians before their junction with Wallenstein was frustrated ; though, moving on from Forth, he occupied the road leading from Ratisbon to Eger by Amberg and Weiden. The Bavarians had already reached Eger ; and, massing his forces, Wallenstein was clearly desirous of waging a decisive conflict (June). That, with forces scattered over so wide an area, Gustavus should exhibit some uncertainty in his movements was inevitable ; but after he had resolved in his turn on giving battle at Nürnberg, the energy with which he concentrated his forces is extremely remarkable. Before the actual conflict he more than doubled his numbers, raising them to little short of 48,000 troops, as against more than 60,000 enemies. The latter estimate, however, is very uncertain, because of the extraordinary numbers of non-combatants-15,000 men it is said and as many women-comprised in Wallenstein's army.

After falling back on Nürnberg, and marking out a camp for his forces on the western and southern sides of the city, Gustavus paused to await both the arrival of the enemy and that of his own reinforcements. The fortifications of Nürnberg itself were strengthened, and the citizens cheerfully prepared for the defence, contrasting-if we may attach credit to a song of the day-their own hopefulness, as they beheld their " father " and his " heroes " in their midst, with the desolation of Magdeburg when her fate was upon her. By the middle of the month Wallenstein had taken up his position in a vast fortified camp which extended on the left bank of the Regnitz as far as Fürth immediately opposite Nürnberg, and faced the main Swedish position from heights covered with batteries. The Swedes had failed in all their attempts to prevent the construction of the vast camp which threatened an effective blockade of the city and of the Swedish camp at its gates. Within the walls the signs of famine were already at hand ; for the town was crowded with fugitive peasantry ; and the ravages of disease were spreading among the Swedish soldiery.

Soon after the middle of August, however, Gustavus had gathered his forces, Wallenstein, strangely as it was thought, hazarding no interference with the arrival of the service contingents. The most important of these was that brought by Oxenstierna from Rhine and Mosel, with which, after effecting a junction with the troops of Banér and those of William of Weimar, he had reached Nürnberg on August 20. All was now ready for a decisive struggle.

On August 31, the Swedish army was drawn up in fighting order along the Begnitz opposite Wallenstein's camp. But he would not accept battle. A cannonade opened on the following day remained ineffectual; and on the night of September 2 the Swedes crossed the Regnitz at a lower point, and pitched their camp immediately opposite that of the enemy. On the morning of the 3rd the attack upon the heights on the northern side of the camp began. The chief point of attack and defence was the alte Veste, a ruined castle in the middle of a clearance of the wood which had been specially fortified by the Wallensteiners ; thrice the Swedes entered it, and thrice they were ejected from its walls. The struggle continued caldissimamente, in Wallenstein's phrase, till darkness and the fall of rain rendered its continuance on the part of the Swedes impossible. But they held their ground during the night, and in the morning essayed another attack, but again in vain. Hereupon Gustavus withdrew his troops into the camp at Forth.

The King frankly confessed to the Nürnbergers the failure of his great effort, but the preparations in which he engaged for constructing another camp showed that he had as yet no design of moving. Hereupon he once more tried negotiations with the adversary whose resistance had at last stayed his victorious course. The intermediary was the Imperialist general Sparre, one of Wallenstein's former agents, who had been taken prisoner by the Swedes. Thurn, too, and the Bohemian agitator Bubna were in the King's camp, and may have contributed to complicate the situation. But the proposals of Gustavus, placed on record by Oxenstierna, were both clear and moderate. Pomerania and the dignity of a Prince of the Empire were to be the King's own " satisfaction " ; the Elector Palatine was to be restored, but so likewise was the Elector of Mainz; Saxony and Brandenburg were to be compensated by Magdeburg and Halberstadt ; Wallenstein by a duchy of Franconia. The Emperor was to guarantee these arrangements. But Gustavus' offer of a conference on the question of peace, to be held in the sight of both armies, was declined by Wallenstein till he should have referred the proposal to the Emperor. (It was actually referred to him, and an indecisive answer came two months afterwards.) As we know from Oxenstierna, the impression left on Gustavus by the apathetic bearing of Wallenstein was that no settlement remained possible between them but war to the knife.

Meanwhile, though Gustavus had pressed forward the entrenchments, the lack of provisions was becoming serious on his side ; and Wallenstein was in his turn being pressed by those around him to assume the offensive. But he was still immovable. At last the King, in order if possible to "draw the fox," resolved on abandoning his position. Placing a garrison of nearly 5000 in Nürnberg, and sending a formal challenge of battle for the morrow to Wallenstein, he broke up his camp on September 18. Three days later, after the Swedes had reached Neustadt (near Coburg), Wallenstein also broke up his camp, and, burning down the villages round Nürnberg, marched north.

The course now pursued by Gustavus Adolphus is open to much criticism; nor can it be denied that his wonderful versatility and buoyancy at this time began to resemble a hazardous mutability of design. It should, however, be noted that the plan on which he now resolved had the persistent approval of Oxenstierna, who so often, as he told the King, had occasion to pour water upon his fire. Gustavus determined on returning to Swabia, and thence, moving down the Danube, to invade the Austrian lands, where he reckoned on being supported by a rising among the sturdy peasants of Upper Austria, of whose continued unrest satisfactory assurances had reached him. Wallenstein, the King seems to have calculated, would by such a movement be drawn out of Saxony ; and in the meantime he ordered a Swedish force under D u wall from the Brandenburg side to join Arnim, who now had 16,000 men under his command. If, however, it proved necessary to furnish Saxony with further assistance, this task was to fall to Bernard of Weimar, who was placed at the head of the force in Franconia during the illness of his elder brother, William. Yet, when Bernard proposed to move forward on his own account, the King showed much displeasure. He had once more modified or postponed his plan of action ; and after crossing the Danube at Donauwörth, and recapturing Rain, halted at Neuburg, with the intention of continuing his march to the Lake of Constance (October). Here at last definite news reached him of Wallen-stein's movements, and an interval of high-strung expectation ended in clear and firm resolve.

Notwithstanding the doubts of Gustavus, who remembered the old dealings with Arnim and his master, Wallenstein had never hesitated in his determination to crush the Saxons, after Gustavus had himself failed to come to their aid. Against Arnim, Maradas had led an Imperialist force from Bohemia ; and, in the middle of August, Field-Marshal Hoik had by Wallenstein's orders broken into the south-west of the Electorate, and finally carried his raids as far as the neighbourhood of Dresden. Hoik, a Dane and a Lutheran by birth and breeding, who had formerly served against Wallenstein at Stralsund, by the brutal excesses of his flying column earned for himself in the Erzgebirge and its near neighbourhood a long-enduring infamy. In September Wallenstein detached Gallas with a force of from 10,000 to 12,000 in Hoik's wake ; and, in the middle of October, the Bavarian troops having marched south to operate nearer home against the Swedes, himself approached by way of Thuringia, and after effecting a junction with both Hoik and Gallas, reached Leipzig. Both town and castle (the Pleissenburg) after a show of resistance capitulated. The Commander-in-Chief was here also joined by Aldringer, with a division from Bavaria, and by Pappenheim, who during the greater part of the year had been carrying on successful operations in the north-west against the Swedish commanders Tott and Baudissin, and against the wary Duke George of Luneburg. With some reluctance Pappenheim relinquished a kind of warfare in which he excelled, and took up his position, near that of Wallenstein, at Halle. The whole district between the Elbe and Saale was now under the control of the Imperialists, whose head-quarters were at Weissenfels. Their entire force (including the Pappenheimers) may be reckoned at over 25,000 foot and 15,000 horse, with, it is stated, 70 guns. But, as in the case of the Swedish army, there is much uncertainty in this estimate.

Sure at last of Wallenstein's purpose, Gustavus determined upon keeping his promise to the Saxon Elector. The intentions of John George may even now have seemed doubtful to the King; but whether Wallenstein were to crush Saxony, or whether it were to lapse -into neutrality, Gustavus, as he seems now to have fully recognised, would be placed in an impossible position. His way home would be blocked, his tenure of Pomerania imperilled by the "Duke of Mecklenburg," and the freedom of the Baltic might once more be threatened by the Imperial Commander-in-Chief. If so, where was he to look for allies? Denmark's jealousy was stronger than ever. The desire of the United Provinces for peace grew with the revived ambition of Spain to take part in the war. He could place no trust in English diplomacy, which in the person of Sir Henry Vane continued to occupy itself with the subsidiary question of the restoration of Charles I's brother-in-law. Even France, while leaving the subsidies promised at Bärwalde unpaid, was alike intent upon her own operations on the Rhine, and undesirous of making Gustavus the arbiter of the German War. His progress had reached a stage of great difficulty, and we know for certain that in these closing weeks of his career of conquest his mind was much occupied with what had been his primary concern when he had opened his German campaigns- the problems of safeguarding the destinies of his own Swedish kingdom.

On October 17 the Swedish army reached Nördlingen ; and on the 24th Gustavus rode into the faithful city of Nürnberg, there to confer with Oxenstierna on the situation. The Chancellor was to remain as the King's plenipotentiary in southern Germany, with instructions to summon to Ulm a meeting of the Swabian, Franconian, and two Rhenish Circles, which should there renounce their allegiance to the Emperor, accept the King's "direction and protection," and order a general excise towards the prosecution of the war. The Chancellor received the King's instructions as to the government of his daughter and heiress, Christina, should his death take place during her minority. At Erfurt Gustavus bade farewell to his Queen, and on November 11 he reached Naumburg, about nine miles from Weissenfels. After the Hessians and the Weimarers had joined him, his force is reckoned to have amounted to 19,000 foot, with 6500 horse and 60 guns. The troops of John George of Saxony and Duke George of Luneburg were not on the spot. Arnim, who commanded the Saxon forces that were still in Silesia, was busily negotiating according to his wont. But with all his coming and going, Gustavus1 urgent entreaties could not induce the Elector to do more than order two regiments of horse to march south with the Luneburg troops. None of these, or of the Saxons, appeared on the field of battle.

To keep in touch with Pappenheim, Wallenstein moved back his main army on Merseburg and Lützen, and by this movement induced Gustavus to advance. On the evening of November 15 the Swedes stood on the border of the great plain which opens east of the Saale upon Lützen, Markranstädt, and Leipzig-in this war, as in the Napoleonic, the chosen battle-field of the nations. On the morning of the 16th, in a November fog, the battle of Lützen began. The high road to Leipzig had been entrenched by Wallenstein and was defended by artillery. Behind it stood his army, in three lines of battle, with cavalry on either wing ; upon it the Swedes advanced in their lighter formation of two lines, the King and his blue and yellow guards on the right ; Bernard of Weimar (but as to this the accounts differ) in command on the left. About ten o'clock the fog for a time dispersed, and the attack, led by the King in person, began. Notwithstanding a charge of Ottavio Piccolomini's cavalry, the Swedes had taken the battery on the road, but they were driven out again ; and, as the fog thickened, Gustavus, hastening to the assistance of one of his regiments, was momentarily isolated and carried among the enemy's cavalry. His horse received a wound, and then he was wounded himself, whereupon he begged the Duke Francis Albert of Lauenburg to help him from the field ; but the Duke fled. A royal page (Leubelfing) remained by the side of his master, when some troopers rode up and put an end to his life. His body was found naked, and covered with wounds. The supposed foul play on the part of the Duke of Lauenburg is an exploded fiction.

This happened about noon. But the battle continued to rage till nightfall. So soon as the King's death became known the command of his army was taken over by Bernard of Weimar. Pappenheim, whose cavalry now intervened in the battle, was in his turn mortally wounded; he died next day at Leipzig. After the Imperialists had recovered their batteries on the high road, they were finally driven out by the valour of the Swedish infantry ; but nearly the whole of the Yellow Regiment was destroyed in the process. Late in the evening, after making a last attempt to rally his yielding troops, Wallenstein ordered retreat to be sounded, and Leipzig was reached in the course of the night. He had left 6000 dead on the field, the Swedes 4000. The stern judgment afterwards held by Wallenstein at Prague, when he magisterially distributed capital and other punishments as well as large pecuniary rewards, seems to indicate that he had no choice but to retreat. Yet though the Swedes held their ground, they ventured on no pursuit. Both sides thought fit to claim the victory, and a Te Deum was celebrated at Vienna. The exultation, however, both here and at Madrid, where the Death of the King of Sweden was enacted on a stage accustomed to present to its spectators miracles and visitations of divine Providence, was due to a single incident in the battle, rather than to its general result.

The death of Gustavus Adolphus, at the height of his fame and almost at the height of his power - when still in the prime of life (he was not yet thirty-nine years of age) and full of aspirations which, marvellous as his career had been, were still unsatisfied - struck the world with awe, and was fitly moralised by Cardinal Richelieu, the man who best knew how to turn the event to political account. The full significance of the removal of such a personality from the very midst of the scene of military as well as that of political action it would be almost impossible to overestimate. He was great, not only because of what he achieved, but of what he set himself to accomplish. Oxenstierna may have been warranted in asserting that his master intended to be Emperor of Scandinavia, and to rule over an empire comprising all the Baltic lands. He certainly meant Sweden to be made impregnably strong, and left free to hold to the faith which she had chosen. Thus, as the simple triplet on the stone at Breiterifeld avers, he saved religious libei'ty for the world. He did so consciously, and not as a mere consequence of his political designs. To the fulfilment of his purpose he brought the gifts of a born ruler of men, as well as those of a great general and a great statesman. Cast in heroic mould, of commanding stature and fair-haired (re d'oro), he was a Swede every inch of him. Affable, free of speech, full of wrath if discipline were broken or disaster provoked, he was the comrade of his soldiers, by whose side he fought and prayed. He was at the same time a master of military detail; his reforms were grounded on experience, and his tactics inspired by the prescience of victory. He had been carefully trained in the art of government, and besides being able to speak eight languages, and interested in letters and learning, was versed in the administrative business of his own country and capable of understanding the political systems of other lands. He was an adept in negotiation ; he was proof against the diplomatic insinuations of Wallenstein, and met as an equal the statecraft of Richelieu. His occasional political miscalculations and his strategic mistakes - not always easily distinguishable from one another - were almost invariably redeemed by his courage and resource ; but the foundation of his strength lay in his unfaltering conviction that his cause was that of his country and one of which God had charged him with the defence.