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1632.]
Apprehensions of a
rupture.
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. rrtcautinns against it.
Diet of l()2y.
259
side, Christian IV. could not conceal his feelings,
when he saw Gustavus Adolphus appearing as the
leader of a cause which he himself was obliged to
abandon. At an interview between the two sove-
reigns 2, which occurred while the negotiations for
peace at Lul)eck were proceeding, when Gustavus
Adol])lius solicited his advice how the German
war might best be carried on, he replied by the
question,
" What he (Gustavus Adolphus) had to
do with the emperor ?
Why he would mix himself
up ill the German affair ?" Shortly before Gus-
tavus Adolphus ci’ossed to Germany, he appre-
hended a rupture with Denmark. It escaped not
a glance like his, that he here left a danger behind
him. " We are in doubt," he writes to the chancel-
lor,
" what we should first or last turn to, since
the king of Denmark is secretly holding levies,
fortifying Rugen, (on this little island at Peene-
munde he took toll,) and treating with the states of
Pomerania for its purchase ^." Orders were there-
fore sent to the Swedish commandant in Stralsund,
he was to remonstrate, that his majesty did not come as an
enemy, but as a friend of the emperor and tlie king of Den-
mark, to obtain fair conditions (amounting to no less than
tiie restoration of Denmark, Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pome-
rania. and all the circles of Lower and Upper Saxony to their
former state); which conditions Salvius was to take every
opportunity privily to disseminate among the princes and
towns, and thereby show the fair intentions of his majesty.
It is characteristically said :
—" If they reply slightingly, he
shall enter into disputation with them the more, that he
may expiscate such a resolution as will certainly inform his
majesty whether they would be friends or foes." Instruc-
tions for the envoys to Denmark and Germany, January 26,
1C29. Reg.
2 Feb. 20, 1629. Hereupon Gustavus Adolphus writes to
the chancellor :
—" The course of tlie matter was this, that
for more than two winters in succession it was signified to
me, how much good might he wrought if I were to meet the
king of Denmark. But partly the past year left me not
time, and partly I conjectured that it would go as it hath ;
therefore I made as if I marked it not. Now I feared to
give offence if I were too constant in refusal, and declared
myself content to meet him the 20th of last month. We met
in the manse of Ulfsback. 1 was host, and the king guest ;
little was eaten, but much bad wine drunk, which perad-
venture had been frozen. On the king’s side no other pro-
position was made than for two or three ships, not that they
were necessary, but ad augendam famam. I proposed four
points:
—1. That we should agree in one and the same opi-
nion touching the peace of Lubeck. 2. To be accordant upon
the means of peace generally. 3. Alliance between the two
realms upon the conditions which should be approved by
botli sides. 4. I remarked that he excused himself for want
of money, and thinking that I could find a good way, I re-
quested his opinion how the German war might best be
carried on." Thereupon followed the answer given in the
text. Gustavus Adolphus adds ;
—"To the tirst two points
he replied, that he had sent his terms to the emperor, from
which he could not depart; the alliance must be made by
consent of the estates, which required time. When I saw
this, I thanked God that I could be silent, and so let it pass."
Palmsk. MSS. t. 37. p. 2023. (Copy from the original by the
king, but with an incorrect date.)
3
Stockholm. March 1?, 1G30. Reg.
" It is known to all
the world, that the king of Denmark will give a sum of
money for Rugen." Salvius to the Swedish resident Fce-
greus, April 8, 1630. Id.
* He writes to the chancellor, June 2, 1C30, that the king
of Denmark and Hamburg were in open rupture at Gluck-
stadt, and that the towns supposed this was with the em-
peror’s connivance. The opportunity must be used, in spite
of the otfence which Denmark might take, to induce the
immediately to occupy Rugen, and expel the Im-
perialists from it, which was effected. In the dis-
putes between Hamburg and Denmark, the king
offered the town his assistance *. After his arrival
in Germany, he was informed that the Danish fleet
was preparing to cruise in the Baltic. The coni-
])rehensive oi’ders which the king Lssued against
such a contingency, sufficiently show the iutentness
with which he watched his neigliljours ^. In his
proposition to the commission of estates, which
met in 1C31, he also represents the probability of
a war with Denmark ;
and it is plain, from his
oi’ders in the autumn of the same year, that he
looked upon the struggle to be at hand *.
At a general diet the estates declared their as-
sent to the opinion which their commission had
already given upon the German war. They wished
that the king "might carry the war as far as
possible from the borders of Sweden, and lay its
burden on the enemy’s country." By this statute,
passed in the king’s absence, on the 29th June,
towns to an alliance with Sweden, and to push them under-
hand to request it. Reg.
5 .’
Fsegreus advises us respecting the naval preparations
of Denmark. I have therefore written to the council to take
notice whether the Danish ileet comes out into the Baltic
"
III such case the king commanded that the Swedish fleet
should be assembled at Stockholm, with three regiments,
and Skeppsholm (an island off the town) be retrenched with
cannon, so that the fleet might be able to defend itself there,
since no battle was to be hazarded. Matthias Soop was to
defend Calmar with two regiments, Oeland was to be occu-
pied with troops, and the garrisons of Ellshorg, Wibnrg, and
Abo to be strengthened. With the remainder of the Swe-
dish foot and horse, and the retainers of the nobility, Jacob
de la Gardie was to overrun Scania, and secure the Sound,
"until we can come to his relief," says tlie king. An attack
on Oesel was at the same time to be made from Livonia, in
order to take this island from Denmark, and upon Norway
by the peasants of Dalecarlia and Norrland. On these
arrangements the king writes (Stettin, August 2, 1630) on
the same day to the Palsgrave John Casimir, the council of
state, Oxenstierna, who held the government in Prussia, and
John Skytte, now appointed g vernor of Livonia. Reg. To
show how tills was connected with his first plan for the Ger-
man war, we quote the following from liis letter to Oxen-
stierna, Stettin, March 1, 1631 :
—"We ourselves can render
no greater service to our country than by clearing the .sea-
side, gaining Rostock, Wismar, and Mecklenburg, and be-
coming masters of the Elbe." Reg. To this also point the
king’s expressions in the council, on the deliberations re-
specting the German war, Oct. 27, 1629 :
—" It must be car-
ried on in, per, prnpe, the land and rivers of the king of Den-
mark." Palmsk. MSS.
s " We perceive by your letters, that the king of Denmark
practises to make his son commander of the war in the circle
of Lower Saxony. To this ye may protest, that if he inter-
fere with our absolute directory of this war, we will unite
with the enemy. If he continue his levies, ye must remon-
strate that such would appear suspicious to us. If he desist
not from them, Tott must take a position in Holstein."
Gustavus Adolphus to Salvius, Hiichst, Nov. 26, 1631. Reg.
Oxeiistiern, in his letter to the king, dated Elbing, Jan. 8,
1631, gives a detailed opinion on the case of a rupture wiili
Deimiark, which he considers probable:
—"I can judge no
otherwise than that, if your majesty continue the German
war, we, beyond all doubt, must fight Denmark sooner or
later."
" There I am of opinion that your majesty should
take order for the war in Germany as well as may be, but
turn all your force by land and water against Denmark—cross-
ing to the Danish islands, and so striking at the head, which
is the Sound and Copenhagen, and at the same time attack-
ing Scania."
S 2
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