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1632].
Backwardness of the
electors. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. The war in Bavaria.
Passage of the Lech. 275
lieutenants of the provinces should deal with the
people on the subject of the cattle-tax. By this
time the Commission of Estates had already as-
sembled, as the council tells their sovereign *, and
the deputies had been received with an account of
the heroical victories and actions of his majest3’.
The estates declare, they had learned that the war
and its difficulties had led the king far from the
borders of Sweden, thank him most humbly for his
great toils and cares for the welfare and security of
themselves and the oppressed Evangelics, and pro-
mise the continuance of the tax for two jears more.
Afterwards the council, in letters to the chancellor,
requests his decision upon various exigent affairs,
whei’ein they had received no answer by reason of
the daily fatigues and burdens of warfare which en-
grossed his majesty’s time. Some of his majesty’s
servants, councillors of the exchequer, lieutenants,
assessors in the palace court, were taken off by
death, others old and in bad health, others past ser-
vice; several provinces were without lieutenants.
The council beg for warrant to appoint and de-
prive, as also to decide in high criminal cases on
petitions for pardon, which powers they had not
ventured to assume. They express also apprehen-
sions of Denmark, and complain, that from the
king’s prohibition of any other copper coins than
kreutzers, so great a want of copper money was
felt in the country, that the people knew not how
to help themselves’.
While duke Bernard of Weimar, Christian, Pals-
grave of Birkenfeld, and the Rhinegrave Otho
Lewis, spread the king’s victorious arms on the
Rhine, Horn carried them from Franconia to the
Neckar ;
Tott completed the conquest of Mecklen-
burg, by the capture of Rostock, Wismar, and
Domitz ; Baner made himself master of Magde-
burg, given up to him by Pappenheim^ Yet in so
brilliant a sky the storm-clouds were already rising.
It was chiefly Protestant princes and states of the
second and third rank who acknowledged Gustavus
Adolphus for their protector. Saxony and Bran-
denburg, the most powerful of them, allies upon
compulsion, more in name than deed, kept them-
selves remote, and followed their own counsels.
The Saxon army had indeed advanced without
opposition to Prague; but thei-e the elector rested,
to the ruin of the country and his army 1. In
Torgau he held a conference with the elector of
Brandenburg in reference to the re-establishment
of peace, but they were unable to come to any
agreement as to the means to be adopted. How-
beit the elector of Saxony declared, that they
should demand from the emperor a bond for his
abdication of the imperial dignity, if he would not
consent to reasonable terms ^; a sentiment which
"^
To his majesty, concerning the diet. Stockholm, Feb. 4.
3 The council to the chancellor, Stockholm, May 5, 1632.
1 " Whereas the elector’s Saxons contented themselves
with what God and fortune sent them at the close of the
year, let no further care annoy them, rested in winter-quar-
ters, and made good cheer." Chemnitz, i. 291. Withal they
so oppressed the inhabitants, that in Prague two thousand
houses were soon standing empty. From their intemperance
a violent malady broke out in the army. Ibid.
2
Chemnitz, 1. c.
3
Chemnitz, i. 28". The king replied,
" It would be
almost impossible for the estates to take upon themselves,
besides the load they were constrained now to bear, additional
contributions. The elector, out of Christian condolence,
in one like John George of Saxony may Jje cited
as an indication of the political temperature of the
moment. Furthermore, the elector declared, that
"his highness and reputation" would not permit
him to place his troops under Swedish command,
whereas he requested the king to take up on
account of Saxony the contributions which the
Protestant estates, at the convention of Leipsic,
had promised to him as their head ^. Austria,
" whose best ally is time," as Bernard of Weimar
said warningly to Gustavus Adolphus in Mentz,
had meanwhile found opportunity to collect its
strength, by great sacrifices, and especially by the
unrestricted surrender of the destinies of the mo-
narchy into the hands of that dreaded man, whom
Ferdinand had lately sacrificed to the complaints
of Germany. Upon conditions which, in regard to
powers and rewards, were unheard of, Wallenstein
created a new army for the house of Austria.
The king returned to Franconia to support Horn
against Tilly, and summoned Baner with duke
William of Weimar to join him*. He now com-
pleted the conquest of Franconia, secured Nurem-
berg, crossed the Danube and the Lech, routed
Tilly, restored the extinguished religious liberties
of Augsburg, which paid homage to its deliverer,
and entered Munich.
Of the bold passage of the Lech, against which
the king’s generals had advised him "’,
the Swedish
council observe in their account to the estates, that
Tilly and the prince of Bavaria had posted them-
selves near the town of Rain on the Lech, where
they had great advantage, as well from the height
of the bank as from a forest. Under a heavy fire,
and in the face of the enemy, his majesty caused a
bridge to be thrown over the river, and commanded
some companies of Finns to cross it, who, ui spite
of all attacks and all the enemy’s fire, threw up a
small intrenchment on the other side. Presently
afterwards his majesty caused some companies of
horse to pass the bridge, who skirmished with the
enemy, until he himself crossed with the army.
Immediately the king fell upon the enemy, posted
behind a small wood. From this he drove the
enemy to the town, which also they were obliged to
abandon, and so to flee towards Ingolstadt. Tilly
was mortally wounded, Altringer badly hurt; about
3000 men were slam.—Thereafter his majesty took
divers places, and with the greatest part of his
force repaired, on the 8th April, to Augsburg. The
enemy’s soldiers surrendered on the 10th ; where-
upon the town of Augsburg concluded with liis ma-
jesty an accord glorious for the country, of which
the instrument is deposited in the royal chancery *.
would not demand of them that they should be beaten with
double rods."
•>
This duke, who commanded in Thuringia, had before
refused to support Horn. Rose, i. 161.
5 Swedish Intelligencer, ii. 147. Horn was against the
invasion of Bavaria, and counselled the king to march
against Bohemia. Francheville, 130.
6
Proposition to the estates, with a relation of the war,
Nov. 7, 1632. Reg. The king’s court-preacher. Dr. Jacob
Fabricius, preached, when the evangelical worship was again
held on the 14th April in St. Anne’s church at Augsburg.
We quote from this sermon what follows :
" It is not reason-
able nor Cliristianlike, to strangle, kill, and extirpate mis-
believers on account of their false belief and doctrine only,
as the Jesuitical murder-drones (mordhummein) and blood-
suckers write thereof. For one of their principal ringleaders,
T 2
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