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I629].’^’"’j.^.f/"’^J,^°’JJ3^ GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. POLISH WAR. Fourth campaign.
Junction of the 251
continually more complicated. Sigismund would not
make peace except with the establishment of his
rights to the throne of Sweden ;
for a prolongation
of the truce his negotiators demanded the cession
of all the Swedish conquests.
" For Prussia and
Livonia the Poles might renounce their pretended
claims for awhile, to resume them afterwards,"
says the king.
" For what concerns the title, the
king of Poland may call himself as he will, only not
king of Sweden. If there were any mode by which
neither of us might be named, it were best."
Gustavus Adolphus forbids the conclusion of a
truce, except on condition that during its term the
conquests should be retained, especially the Prus-
sian harbours ;
" because the Papists already have
so many ports on the Baltic, that it would not be
advisable to give them more. Keep the negotia-
tions open until we see how affairs will turn with
the Imperialists. Give out that ye have yet received
no discretion from us. We must now turn towards
Riga, where the condition of affairs is somewhat
strange ;
but we exi)ect to take off our army from
Livonia by Whit-Sunday, in order afterwards to
come in force to Prussia, or proceed home for the
defence of our own borders^." The rumour of a
Spanish fleet arriving in the Baltic was renewed.
" We can expect nothing else," he writes some-
what later to the council,
" than that it should be
destined for the Sound ;
we command that all the
ships of the realm be kept at all hands in good
readiness ’." The motive of the royal resolve to
proceed to Livonia in person was again displeasure
with Jacob de la Gardie. " You yourself know,"
he declares to the chancellor,
" that count Jacob is
somewhat slow in his counsels and transactions, as
Well as slack in his commands, and has executed
most things by Gustavo Horn. We have there-
fore committed the military concerns to this latter,
and ordered count Jacob to reside in Riga as
governor of the town and territory*." Horn having
subsequently beaten the Poles, who under Go-
siewski had crossed the Duna, and advanced into
Livonia, the king altered his resolve, set out for
Prussia, and came, May 15, 1628, to Pillau. The
capture of Neuenburg (which however was again
lost) and Strassburg were the most important
occurrences of this campaign, which was more
tedious than any of the foregoing, because the
enemy could not be induced to hazard an action.
His main body was assembled at Graudentz, upon
an island in the river Ossa, and surrounded by
marshes, whence the king was obliged to abandon
the notion of an investment. " The enemy," he
writes to the chancellor ^,
" wars after a new
fashion, drives off cattle and men, but avoids fight-
ing like fire." The accounts of the retreat give a
mournful picture. "Officers, who have served
thirty years," says Adler Salvius *,
" never knew
our army in such a condition. The decrement is
already more than 5000 men, since we marched
from Ossa, and our Swedes are still deserting
every day. The foreigners are so refractory that
we have only mutiny to expect, and we have no
means of making them willing. The king has been
able to imdertake nothing in Prussia, out of appre-
9 To the same, Nov. 18, 1627, and March 31, 1628. Reg.
’
June 10, 1628. Id.
2 Instruction for Gustave Horn in Lifland, April 20. Letter
to Axel Oxenstierna, April 21, 1628. Id.
hensions from the side of Germany. In the land
all is misery. No good quarters ; four houses to
one regiment ;
the roads so bad that we cannot
make half a mile in a day with the guns. The
enemy presses after and cuts off all supplies."
At length the army was disposed in winter
quarters, and the king set out in the end of October
to Sweden, after he had again committed the
highest authority in Prussia to Axel Oxenstierna,
who, with the assistance of field-marshal Herman
Wrangel, kept the enemy at bay during the winter.
The great German war began now to attract
within its own sphere every lesser conflagration.
This is the feature which distinguishes the two last
Prussian campaigns of Gustavus Adolphus. During
the one just described he had undertaken the de-
fence of Stralsund ;
in that which was now impend-
ing he was encountered by an imperial army in
Prussia. Immediately after his arrival in the end
of May, 1629, he writes to the council from Elb-
mg ^: "Here we find Arnheim before us with an
imperial army of 8000 foot and 2000 horse, or
twenty-six companies ;
doubtless with great de-
signs, when they shall have made a junction with
the Polish army. For this reason we cannot so
soon get away, and induced by the change of cir-
cumstances have caused a new proposition to the
estates to be drawn up, which we transmit. Keep
them still together for some weeks. The enemy
appears to entertain a design on Konigsberg. We
know not how far our brother-in-law has yielded
thereto ^. We have written for more men from
home for the defence of Konigsberg. Three of the
newly-levied Scottish regiments may remain some
time in Sweden, to inure themselves to our dis-
cipline. The high-admiral (Gyllenhielm) and vice-
admiral (Clas Fleming) shall lie in Dalehaven, with
nine of our greatest ships and the sixteen promised
by the towns, until further orders ;
John Baner,
with six vessels of war, shall keep open the navi-
gation to Stralsund, and Eric Ryniug with three
smaller shall protect Calniar." " The Imperialists,"
he says in a subsequent letter to the chancellor ^,
"are not yet provided with money, and belike will
receive none until the king come. If we could
strike a vital blow before, perchance a great por-
tion would come over to us.’’—Kouiecpolski had
drawn together his power at Graudentz, and the
junction between him and Arnheim took place on
the 15th July, without Gustavus Adolphus being
able to hmder it. The king had pushed forwards
to Marienwerder, but now retired to the strong
fortifications of Marienburg, in order there to wait
for reinforcements from Sweden. He caused the
baggage to be taken the shortest way, by Stum, but
marched himself to cover it on the right hand along
the stream of Liebke to the hamlet of Honigsfeldt.
There the enemy showed themselves, having broken
up with their combined force to intercept his pro-
gress. A skirmish began with the rear-guard, during
which the king caused the remainder of the troops
to continue their march. " Then it came to pass,"
he says, "that while we were supporting one
of our patrols which had been sent out to Riesen-
3 October 13, 1628. Reg.
<
Sept. 10, 1628. Id.
s
May 26, 1629. Id.
6 The elector afterwards renewed his neutrality.
’
Liessov, June 2.
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