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GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. 253
CHAPTER XVII.
GUSTAVUS II. ADOLPHUS. THE GERMAN WAR.
OVERTURES OF THE PROTESTANTS OF GERMANY TO GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. STATE OF THAT COUNTRY DURING
THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR. POWER AND DESIGNS OF WALLENSTEIN. VIEWS OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AS
TO THE INTEREST OF SWEDEN AND THE PROTESTANT CAUSE. HIS SUCCOUR OF STRALSUND AGAINST THE
IMPERIALISTS. RELATIONS WITH DENMARK AND FRANCE. PREPARATIONS IN SWEDEN. INVASION OF
POMERANIA, AND CAMPAIGN OF 1630-1631. OPERATIONS AGAINST BRANDENBURG. STORMING OF FRANK-
FORT-ON-THE-ODER BY THE SWEDISH ARMY. MAGDEBURG TAKEN BY THE IMPERIALISTS. BATTLE OF
LEIPSIC. PLANS FOR THE FUTURE PROSECUTION OF THE WAR. OPERATIONS ON THE RHINE AND MAINE.
THE SWEDES IN MENTZ. COVENANT BETWEEN GUSTAVUS AND THE PROTESTANT STATES OF THE EMPIRE.
CAMPAIGN OF 1632. PASSAGE OF THE LECH. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AND WALLENSTEIN AT NUREMBERG.
BATTLE OF LUTZEN. VICTORY OF THE SWEDES AND DEATH OF THE KING.
A. D. 1628—1632.
GusTAVUS Adolphus was thirty-four years old,
consequently in the bloom of all youthful energies.
Already no greater or fairer name was to be found
in Europe.
«’
This king of Sweden," says Riche-
lieu ^,
" was a new rising sun, young, but of great
renown. The injured or dispossessed princes of
Germany raised their eyes to him in their distress,
as the seaman to the north star." From the year
1614 negotiations may be traced between the
German Protestants and Gustavus Adolphus. He
then received in Narva an envoy from the land-
grave Maurice of Hesse-Cassel, who exhorted him
to bring the Russian war to a conclusion, and in
expectation of coming events, not to quit his own
country ;
a union was formed by several electors
and estates of Germany against the Catholics, for
the defence of religious freedom ; England, the
Netherlands, and Switzerland had taken a part
in it ;
and it was intended publicly to call upon the
king of Sweden to become a member of the league.
To this invitation succeeded immediately after a
special legate from Heilbr-onn, where the evan-
gelical party had recently held a congress. The
letter announcing it, dated February 25, 1C14, was
subscribed by Frederic V., elector palatine, by
John II., palsgrave of Bipont, John Frederic duke
of Wurteinberg, George Frederic Margrave of
Baden, Christian prince of Anhalt, and Joachim
Ernest, elector of Brandenburg. The answer of
Gustavus Adolphus expressed his good will, detail-
ing at the same time the obstacles which still
opposed his wishes, so long as the Russian and
Polish wars lasted. In a rescript of May C, 1615,
5 Memoires de Richelieu, v. 119. 123. Paris, 1823.
5
Hallenberg, i. 246, seq.
^
Raumer, History of Europe from the Fifteenth Century,
iii. 354.
8 When John Ernest, duke of Saxe Weimar, wished to
assist the elector palatine, the theologians of Wittemberg
dissuaded liim on this ground among others, that the duke
was bound to aid the emperor Ferdinand, because the Son of
God was born into tlie world under the Roman emperor.
Hallenberg, iv. 801, after Londorp. The feeble Frederic V.
led by his puritanically-minded English wife, and his violent
court-preacher Scultetus, showed himself on his side highly
intolerant, not only towards the Catholics, but even the
Hussites and Lutherans. During his short ti-nure of power
in Bohemia he caused the images and pictures in the churches
of Prague to be destroyed, forbade the bells to be rung, ex-
changed the altars for tables, and silver and ^’olden chalices
for wooden cups in the dispensation of the Supper, &c.
Westenrieder, History of the Thirty Years’ War, i. 117, from
appointing a day of prayer, he called upon his
subjects to offer up their petitions for their brethren
in faith ^.
It was unity most of all that was wanting to
these. The elector of Saxony hud begun by pre-
ferring to seek admission into the Catholic league ’,
rather than acknowledge the Calvinistic palatinate
as the head of the Evangelic Union ;
and when
the unfortunate Frederic V. lost as quickly as he
had won the crown tendered to him by the insur-
gent Bohemians, men saw John George of Saxony,
after he had set his theologians to prove that the
Lutherans were more nearly allied to the Catholics
than to the Calvinists, lend the emperor, for the
pawn of Lusatia, assistance for the suppression of
religious freedom in Bohemia ^. The thirty years’
war was begun.
In that commenced subjugation of Germany by
the united arms of the emperor, Spain, and the
league, which followed the disasters of the Pala-
tine house and the dissolution of the Evangelic
Union, the raonarchs of the Scandinavian North
soon remained the only surviving hope of their
oppressed brethren in the faith ;
the rather that of
the two most powerful Protestant princes of Ger-
many, Saxony was inclined to the imperial side,
and Brandenburg, led by counsellors Papistically
disposed (as was made matter of public reproach in
Sweden), showed little earnestness in the commoii
cause 8. England, Holland, and France sought to
incite Denmark and Sweden to war against the
house of Austria and the Catholic league. Gus-
contemporary accounts. Gustavus Adolphus supported the
elector palatine with military stores. Instruction for Martin
Paulson to take eight cannon and four thousand balls to
Bohemia, Aug. 26, 1620. Reg.
9 When the court of Brandenburg in its correspondence
with Sweden began to set the elector’s title before the king’s,
giving Gustavus Adolphus the style of "royal dignity," in-
stead of majesty, the lords of the Swedish council wrote to
that of Brandenburg;
" Were declining reputation to be re-
paired with words and great names, then would the king’s
majesty make little difficulty, and be willing to fill whole
sheets with the same.—Our meaning verily is good, and
directed to the maintenance of friendship, good correspond-
ence, and increment of the universal evangelic common-
wealth ; but because we mark that your court is in great
part swayed by Papistical counsellors, we may easily surmise
what fruit our well-meaning will bear." Notes in the name
of the Councillors of State to the Privy Councillors of Bran-
denburg. Gripsholm, Aug. 8, and Dec. 10, 1628. Hallen-
berg, v. 101.
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