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246 Campaign of 1622.
Three years’ truce. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES,
Third Polish campaign.
Livonia and Courland reduced. [1612-
brotlier surely, and lias himself described his
character.
" He had couraj^e and heart," says the
kinji;,
" to bear what the world’s deceit and un-
steadiness would have laid upon him. Out of love
for his fatherland, he would not remain at home
in the last Polish war, to the end that he might
incite by his example the young chivalry of Sweden.
For thee, oh fatherland, he cherished a pure
affection, and held it
glorious to die for his country.
O fatherland, what hast thou lost ! The stock of
thy kings is now again reduced to a single man,
but few years since flourishing with thi-ee young
and well-grown princes ! No need that I should
augment tliy cares, by dwelling on the calamities
and confusions that might arise were such mishap
to be thine, again to be brought to beg for a king *."
Charles Philip was the last son of a king of Sweden
invested with a duchy. It became afterwai’ds a
maxim never to confer such a fief, and this principle
Christina says was " a secret of the royal family."
Gustavus Adolphus, who, in the middle of Janu-
ary, 1622, had journeyed home through Finland,
was again in Livonia by the beginning of June. He
broke into Courland to relieve Mitau, or, as about
this time it was taken by the enemy, to besiege it.
Fever among the troops, by which he was himself
twice attacked (though he sought to conceal this
from his soldiers), obstructed his progress. At a
personal interview with prince Radziwil the king
again proffered peace, and ended the conversation,
which was carried on in Latin, with these words :
"Do your endeavour, that as we now join hands
we also may become of one mind, that one day I
may lead these troojis you see here for your safety
against the Turk ’’." He again concluded a truce
for one year with Poland, provided for tlie defence
of Riga, arranged the government of Livonia, and
returned home in August. The Polish truce was
j)rolonged from one to two, and ultimately to three
years ;
but as Sigismund had not ratified it, was
considered so unsure, that when that sovereign
made a journey to Dantzic in the summer of 1623,
an attack on Sweden was apprehended. For this
reason Gustavus Adolphus blockaded with his fleet
the port of Dantzic, and exacted from the town an
assurance, that during the truce no hostilities should
be directed from that station against Sweden. The
year 1624 is one of the few which the king could
devote to the cai-es of internal government ;
in the
following year the war again broke forth.
The third campaign of Gustavus Adolphus against
Poland completed the conquest of Litland, and
through the possession of Courland secured that
of Riga. The first plan was, thai the high admiral
should try his fortune against Windau, and other
place.s on the coast of Courland, in order thereby
to perplex the Poles and Lithuanians in their
designs, and at the same time divide their atten-
tion. By the closing of the two harbours of Win-
dau and Liebau, besides, the trade of Livonia, and
a portion of that of Poland and Russia might be
" Ibid. Ex MSto reg. Gust. Adolphi. Two years before
his death Charles Philip had contracted a private marriage
with Elizabeth. dauf;hter of the high treasurer, Sewed Ilib-
biiig. She bore, shortly after his death, a daughter, married
tirst to Axel Thureson Natt och Dag, afterwards to Balthasar
Marshall.
9 Da operam, ut, sicut nunc manibus jungimur, ita et
animis conjungaraur, ut alicjuando istura peditatum et copias
turned to the behoof of Riga and Sweden. The
j)ossession of the Baltic ports was, moreover, a
standing aim of the policy of Gustavus, soon ex-
tending from those of Livonia to those of Courland,
Prussia, and Germany.
—Gustave Horn v/as de-
spatched to Finland, to repair to Narva with two
regiments of Finnish infantry and twelve com-
panies of horse, to increase his force from the gar-
risons of Ingermanland and Estlaud, and then, in
conjunction with Jacob de la Gardie, to fall upon
the town and fortress of Dorpt in Livonia. As in
this manner the enemy would be compelled to di-
vide his strength on Courland and Dorpt, Gustavus
Adolphus intended, with the foreign infantry and
the Swedish and other levies of cavalry, to attack
Kockenhusen and other places along the Duna,
and make himself, as far as possible, master of the
course of that river. The 17th June, 1625, the
king sailed from Sandliaven with six regiments of
foot and eight companies of horse, in a fleet of
seventy-six vessels, and landed on the 2nd July at
Riga. The high admiral, instead of cruizing with
the fleet, was appointed commander there, while
the governor general, de la Gardie, was occupied
with the siege of Dorpt. Military stores were sent
up the Duna in barges: the king, following the
stream, moved upon Kockenhusen, which was al-
ready invested by Baner, and surrendered upon
the loth July. Thereafter, on the I8th, the king
having crossed the Duna, ensued the capture of
Seelburg, on the side of Courland. The invasion
of that territory he had reserved for himself. On
his march to Mitau lay the strong towns of Birze
in Lithuania, and Baiiske in Courland. After the
taking of Birze, which ended, on the 26tli August,
a siege of some days, the Poles could not without
difficulty come into Livonia, while Lithuania lay
open to the Swedes. Bauske was taken by storm
on the 17th September ;
Mitau afterwards sur-
rendered by capitulation. At the end of the month
the king returned to Riga, and there equii)ped a
flotilla of small vessels, which was to be perma-
nently maintained for the defence of the town.
—Meanwhile Dorpt had been reduced, on the 16th
August, by de la Gardie and Horn. The Poles
again made an overture of negotiation. Gustavus
Adolphus sent the high chancellor, who attended
him on this expedition, to meet the Polish commis-
sioners, but refused any cessation of arms. To-
wards harvest the Poles assembled in two camps,
one under Sapieha and Gosiewski, the other under
Radziwil, and drew near to the Duna. The king
first pitched his camp at Kockenhusen, in the de-
sign of again crossing the stream ’, afterwards at
Bei’son, when the unhealthiness of the place, scar-
city and sickness, had forced him to quit his former
leaguer.
" On this journey," he observes in a let-
ter,
•’
have I seen more woe than ever, for so long
as I have followed the war; here I was obliged to
throw the hungry men such crumbs as one does to
the hens; so badly hath Magnus Martenson (the
meas, quas cernitis, pro vestra salute contra Turcum afTerre
queam. — Colloquium inter sereniss. Su. Reg. et Ducem
Kadzivilium mense Septembri, 1()22. Palmsk. MSS. t. 36.
When we see Gustavus Adolphus, after Sigismund’s death,
seeking the crown of Poland, these words come to mind.
’
In a recognoscence with this view, the king had a horse
shot under him, by the ball of a falconet from the other
bank.
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