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1632.]
Designs of
Wallenstein. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. Importance of the
Baltic iiarbours. 255
in addition to his other titles that of "
general of
the ocean and Baltic seas ’." With what a network
of great plans, keeping a constant watchfulness
for his own advantage, he loved to sui’round him-
self, the letter of Gustavus Adolphus to the king of
Denmark betimes shows us.
" We have sufficiently
discerned," he says,
" that the designs of the papal
league have been turned towards the Baltic, at-
tempting such now directly, now indii’ectly, by the
subjugation of the united Netherlands or our king-
dom of Sweden, and lastly also through Denmark.
For this end not only force but plots and intrigues
have been employed. Thus we have heard, that
the new admiralty of the Roman empire has been
proffered to your lovingness, with a proposal to
cede the Sound for restitution of the expenses of
tlie war : as to us also in these days underhand pro-
posals have been made, to conjoin ourselves with
the emperor against your lovingness ;
for which
they would not only procure us perpetual peace
with the king of Poland and the crown of Poland,
and the permanent possession of Livonia and
Prussia, but would transfer to us the Danish
throne as an imperial fief,
—and more of the like
sort, with intent to hinder our mutual conjunction
by such illusions. For the issue we have had
alarms beforehand, well knowing the might, the
unity, the industry, and constancy of the adverse
party ;
on the other side, the remissness, unthank-
fulness, and unsteadiness of those who are in-
terested in our cause, whence their power, which
well united might have been superior to the enemy,
is become so feeble that none was able to defend
himself, but every one injured the other, to the
detriment and ruin of all. We have according to
our ability suggested to our friends that, disregard-
ing all private interests, they must embrace such
counsels as might save the commonwealth. But
our good meaning has been ill
interpreted, so that
we, setting aside all, must look only to carry out
our war with Poland, and thereby to divert the
Polish power, that it may not be conjoined with
the other leaguists. The extremity of your loving-
ness pains our heart, but we could have wished
that the intention of your majesty to unite with us
for the defence of the Baltic had been earlier
known to us. Nevertheless we have wished to
write forthwith after our return home, in order that
the matter, for the defence of the Baltic and the
security of both kingdoms, might be settled during
the winter." This letter the king wrote in (’almar
Sound, October 21, 1627, immediately after his re-
turn from the second Prussian campaign *.
On the German seaports, especially Stralsund,
his attention was above all set. For no price would
he allow the emperor to gain firm footing on the
’
Already at the diet of Spires, in 1567, the emperor
Maximilian II. had proposed to form the circles of Bur-
gund}’, Westphalia, and Saxony into an imperial admiralty,
and nominate an admiral. Neubur, Siege of Stralsund,
i. 36.
8
Reg. for 1627.
9 To P. Baner, Elbing, July 6, 1627. Reg.
’
To the same, Dirschau, Aug. 15, 1627. Id.
2 To the palsgrave John Casirair, in Sweden, Dirschau,
Sept. 17, 1627. Id.
3 To the chancellor, upon the alFdirs of Denmark, Stock-
holm, Nov. 6, 1627. Id.
* " We are moved, in consideration of the afflicted condi-
tion of the Mecklenburg princes, to provide for and support
Baltic. He abandoned this purpose only for a
moment, but immediately embraced it again with
renewed ardour. In the summer of 1627 he had
sent Peter Baner to North Germany with instruc-
tions, which in respect to intimate knowledge of the
personal character of the princes and their politi-
cal relations, are master-pieces 9. His main object
was, that Wismar and Rostock should receive
garrisons neither of imperial nor Danish troops,
but rather of Swedish, as the dukes of Mecklen-
burg had requested in their need ; although these
princes, the king says, were " in heart like the
duke of Holstein and the archbishop of Bremen,
wholly and solely imperialist," and jealous besides
of one another, for wiiich reason Baner was to use
great cu’cumspection in his intercourse with them.
The regiment which under the command of colonel
Duwall was to occupy Wismar was already
selected, when Wallenstein’s conquest of Mecklen-
burg frustrated this plan ;
and this was the point
at which Gustavus Adolphus for a moment aban-
doned all participation in the affairs of Germany. (
Baner was recalled, since " the Catholics now ap-
pear to have gotten the upper hand >." Duwall
was sent home with his regiment,
" since affairs in
Germany," writes the king,
" have much altered,
and we are not now minded to engage in this Ger-
man business ^." He soon changed this disposi-
tion, and already in the beginning of November in
the same year he thus expresses himself to the
chancellor touching the losses of the Danes ;
" True it is, the enemy hath not only taken from
them Holstein and Jutland, but they are also them-
selves fallen into desperation and dissensions. We
can hardly escape being entangled in this war, as
the danger daily draws nearer ^."
The dukes of Mecklenburg, kinsmen of Gustavus
Adoiphus, were expelled fi-om their possessions.
They sought help in Sweden, where their sons
found a refuge *. Gustavus Adolphus threw open
his kingdom as an asylum for all his persecuted
coreligionaries 5. Duke Bogislaus XIV. of Pome-
rania was the last of his race. It was reported at
this time that the emperor wished to make himself
master of the dukedom, notwithstanding the claims
of Brandenburg ^. Wallenstein seems to have
been inclined to add this conquest to Mecklenburg
on Ills own account ^. He occupied Pomerania and
Rugen, and gave orders for the equipment of a
fleet.
" There are said to be eiglit-and-twenty
ports in Pomerania," he writes to his lieutenant
Arnheim ;
"
they must all be garrisoned and forti-
fied. Look that we are strong at sea by the spring ;
for what remains to be done must be done at sea.
in our land, the young dukes, their sons." Gustavus Adol-
phus to the Council of State, Dirschau, July 1, 1628. Id.
5 See his warrant thereupon, Nov. 11, 1627.
6
Cliemnitz, on the Swedish War, i. 7, says,
" That dan-
gerous discourses were current on all hands of a pretension
which the duke of Bavaria was said to have to Pomerania ;
whence it had been conjectured, that in case of tlie death
of the last prince, the succession of the elector of Bran-
denburg might be contested, and the oppressions of free
quartering might be regarded as a future Sequestration of
Juliers."
"
Of the duke of Pomerania Wallenstein writes,
" He will
not, with God’s favour, commence a war with us. I would
that he had a liking that way, for Pomerania would fit
mighty smooth to Mecklenburg." Fbrster, Wallenstein,
Potsdam, 1834, p. 128.
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