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1629].
Articles of war
for the GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. POLISH WAR. Swedish army.
Courts- martial.
243
council to despatch a declaration to that of Poland,
that he must continue the war against his will,
while the Poles were attacked at the same time
by the hereditary foes of Christendom, the Turks.
He assembled his army and fleet in July, 1G21, in
order to repair in person to Riga.
In the harbour of Elfsnabben, wliile the ships
were detained by contrary winds, Gustavus Adol-
phus issued his articles of war. The oldest Swedish
articles of Avar are those of Gustavus I., in 1545 ;
others were afterwards Lssued by Eric XIV. and
John III. They had been found necessary, as
would appeal", for the foreigners levied for the
Swedish service, of whom the greatest number
were Germans. Under Eric XIV. some thousand
Scots were brought into the kingdom, to procure
whom Gustavus I. had opened negotiations. John
III. had a squadron of English cavalry, and Charles
IX. retained in pay Dutch soldiers, as well as a
French regiment of horse. In the treatment of
these latter, the king gave orders that especial care
should be observed. " The French," he wi-ites,
" are good people, but of a capricious humour ;
therefore must we deal warily with them, give
them good words, and no blows’’’." It is well
known, that from the pursuit of the trade of war
for pay standing armies originated. Before these
became national, the military adventurer sold him-
self to the highest bidder ;
and thus was formed
over all Europe a sort of freebooters’ common-
wealth, among the members of which the German
Landsknechts were long the most famous. The
conditions under which an association of soldiers,
—that is, a regiment under its colonel—entered
the service of a prince were specified in a so-called
brief of articles, confirmed by oath ^. Out of ser-
vice the soldier was generally independent of his
officers ;
the commandei’s again were only bound
by a tie of voluntary obedience to the prince, or
the commander-in-chief appointed by him, who
was usually distinguished from the rest by the title
of field-general. The existence of such relations
is abundantly attested likewise by the military
history of Sweden at this time, which so often
speaks of mutinies among the foreign soldiery,
their bloody feuds with each other, when they were
of ditt’erent nations, (as between the Scots and the
Germans in the Livonian wars of king John,) and
their atrocities upon Swedish subjects. This evil,
so often complained of, appears to have been little
remedied by king Eric’s articles of war; since they
ordain, that if any one of the foreign auxiliaries
should offer violence to an inhabitant of the country,
all the soldiers under the same standard should
investigate the matter themselves, and replace the
sent to Poland, in the hope that reasonahleness and their
own peril might correct their arrogance, the vice of that
nation. Sed naturam expdlas furca, tamen risque recurret.
To this came our fine plenipotence." Gustavus Adolphus
to his brother-in-law, the elector of Brandenburg, from the
camp before Riga, Aug. 29, 1621. Palmsk. MSS. t. 36.
3
Compare Adlersparre, Essay on the Military Force of
Sweden, in the Academic Transactions, iii. 313.
•»
Compare George of Frundsberg, or the trade of war in
Germany at the time of the Reformation, by Barthold.
Hamburg, 1833.
<•
Hallenberg, i. 525.
<<
At first so large that each consisted of twelve battalions,
together 6000 men, and consequently 500 to each battalion.
Charles IX. diminished the number to 400, 300, and even
200 men.
person maltreated in his rights, or conjointly make
good his loss*. In courts martial on the soldiers,
according to these articles, was to sit a naemnd or
jury of twelve or twenty-four men,
"
honourable,
brave men at arms," yet not of the supei’ior
officers ;
but if such officers were arraigned, then
some were to be among the assessors. The divi-
sion by regiments^ was introduced into Sweden by
Eric XIV. It was suspended, like all that be-
longed to the military system, under John III.,
but was again adopted by Charles IX., yet in a
different mode, and first icceived a permanent
existence with the erection by Gustavus Adolphus
of a standing national force.
That monarch’s articles of war are drawn up by
his own hand. According to them the king, as
" God’s justiciai’y upon earth," is the highest
judge as well in war as peace. The troops were to
be under the jurisdiction <if
special courts, superior
and inferior, on march and during war. The lower
courts were the regimental court for the foot, and
the cavalry court for the horse. In the regimental
court, the colonel, or in his stead the lieutenant-
colonel, presided. The assessors were chosen by
the whole regiment, namely, two captains, two
lieutenants, two ensigns, two Serjeants, two quarter-
masters, and two lance-prisades (forare). In the
cavalry court the colonel, or in his stead the cap-
tain of the king’s troop of guards, was president.
The assessors were chosen by all the squadrons of
horse, three captains, three lieutenants, three cor-
nets, and three corporals. In the superior court
the high-marshal, or in his absmce the field-mar-
shal, pi’esided. The marslial’s assessors were the
field-marshal, the general of artillery, the field-
watchmaster ’, the general of cavalry, the field-
quartermaster, and the muster-masters, with all
the colonels (or in their absence the lieutenant-
colonels); namely, first the colonel of the king’s
household regiment, then the colonels of the Up-
land, West-Gothland, Smaland, East-Gothland,
Norrland, Finland, and Carelian regiments ^, lastly,
the colonels of all the other regiments embodied,
according to the dates of their service. These
courts had besides their clerks and apparitors. lu
the superior court the "
provost-general" was pro-
secutor ;
he had power to arrest and lodge in
prison every man whom he held to be an offender,
but not to "justify," that is to execute him, with-
out the receipt of special orders. Wh(jsoever re-
sisted him, his lieutenant or Serjeant, forfeited his
life. In the inferior court the regimental provost
was prosecutor : he had the .same power in his
regiment, and the battalion-provosts in their bat-
talions, as the provost-general in the camps. Be-
7 "Who appears to have answered to the major-general. In
the year 1612,
" John Other, a valiant and honourable
soldier, is appointed serjeant-major or chief guardma.ster in
the fortress of Elfsborg ;
there to take all matters into his
good keeping, especially watch and ward against the foe,"
Reg. In the regiments also, the major does not appear, but
instead of him an upper-watchmaster. The first major-
general in the Swedish army was Francis Bernard count
Thurn, son of the Bohemian leader, whom, when ir. 1623 he
entered the Swedish service, the king named to be "
major
of the field." Hallenberg, v. 111. Yet Thurn is also called
general field- watchmaster.
8 This was consequently the order and number of the
regiments in 1621. Their size was various. There were
some of twenty-four companies, each about 150 men, and
others of sixteen or eight.
b2
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