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„„.. Operations on the Weser and
"5"" in Svvabia.
HISTORY OF THE SWEDES.
Ralishon taken by the
Imperialists.
[1633-
uiiited forces of the enemy were utterly routed at
tlie villajje of Hessian Oldeudorf, near the eastern
bank of the Weser. Kniphausen had, according to
his custom, dissuaded from the battle, but yet de-
cided the victory (which also was not unusual with
him) by a masterly movement executed with the
Swedish cavalry 3.
’
In the action all the Swedish
officers and soldiers wore an image of Gustavus
Adolphus on their breast. His natural son, the
young Gustave Gustaveson, fought by the side of
Kniphausen *. The surrender of Hameln was the
only fruit of the victory. Duke George wrote to
Oxenstierna that he had received the homage of
the town for himself, enforced old claims of money,
land, and towns, and, like others, spoke of promises
from Gustavus Adolphus. The high-chancellor
replied to these demands by new promises ;
but as
the duke’s views for his own aggrandizement more
and more revealed themselves, he gradually with-
drew from him the command of the Swedish troops.
Kniphausen went, at the chancellor’s order, to
northern Westphalia ; Kagg was sent to the army
of the Danube, and when duke George got himself
chosen general of the circle of Lower Saxony, the
chancellor induced the estates of Saxony to set
Baner, who had now been removed to the Elbe, at
his side. It is the same spectacle every where. In
the battle of Nordlingen these scenes were to find
their solution.
On the Rhine and the Danube likewise, the
Swedes yet for some time ran their old course of
victory. With the capture of Heidelberg (on the
24th May, 1633), the conquest of the Lower Pala-
tinate, by the palsgrave Christian of Birkenfeld,
had been completed. His victory of the 1st August,
won by the Swedish infantry at PfafTenhof, drove
the Loi’rainers out of Alsace. After the quelling of
the sedition in the army of the Danube, Horn had
tui’ned with one division of it against Upper Swa-
bia, to hinder the Spaniards coming up from Italy,
under the duke of Feria, from uniting with the im-
perialist general Altringer. Duke Bernard also was
called to Swabia by the advance of Altringer,
whose junction with Feria, however, could not be
prevented. The Swedish leaders, after having been
divided in opinion whether a battle should be
hazarded (Horn’s dissuasions prevailed), parted
anew; Horn to recover his advantages in those
tracts, Weimar to seek new conquests on the
Daimbe, where, after he had received reinforce-
ments with general Kagg, the taking of Ratisbou,
3
Compare von der Decken, duke George of Luneburg, il.
32. Count Merode, a Netherlander, who by his differences
with Gronsfeld principally contributed to the loss of the
battle, made himself, as colonel of one of Wallenstein’s regi-
ments, formed in 1620, so notorious by his plunderings, that
the word maraud (marodera) thence originated. He died of
his wounds received in this battle.
^ On a page of count Gronsfeld, who was taken, was found
the general’s portfolio, with various papers written in French.
In the head-quarters of duke George there was no one who
could translate them but the young Gustave Gustaveson.
So little was the French language yet known. Von der
Decken, ii. 180.
5
Rose, i. 259.
6 " Instead of forcing the dilatory Franconian estates to
furnish provisions, for which he had orders, and opening his
own stores in Wurtzburg, he resolved, to the great alarm of
the chancellor, to let his starved regiments refresh them-
selves in the district of Swabia, hitherto spared, and destined
on the loth November, 1633, crowned his progress.
Of this key to Austria and Bavaria, the duke took
possession in his own name^. In the beginning of
1634, he stood ready to invade the hereditary do-
minions of the emperor, and requested Horn’s
assistance in that project. The latter would not
abandon Svv’abia, which was still threatened by
Altringer and Feria. The high-chancellor approved
the opinion of his son-in-law, but transferred the
troops heretofore under the command of the pals-
grave of Birkenfeld to the duke, who concealed
his dissatisfaction so little, that he seemed to wish
to bring about a violent rupture. Under the pre-
tence of not being able to maintain his troops in
Franconia (although he had not opened the maga-
zines he had formed there), he threw himself sud-
denly, with hostile incursion, upon Horn’s quarters
in Swabia ’’.
They met in Ulm, and words of passion
were interchanged, in which the notorious colonel
Mitzlaff", leader of the mutiny just suppressed, took
part, being now openly received into the duke’s pro-
tection. Bernard brought his claims to the supreme
command before the diet of the league, now sitting
in Frankfort, which, however, does not appear to
have been inclined to his interest. The estates of
Swabia complained that they were treated by him
like enemies; and colonel Mitzlaff, notwithstanding
the ducal protection, received his dismissal. Mean-
while the emperor’s son, the king of Hungary, with
15,000 men, moved against Ratisbon on one side,
Altringer on the other ;
while Bernard, between
disgust at the power of the chancellor, and the
desire of saving this important town, gave himself
up to vacillating, discrepant, and headstrong im-
pulses. We see him now hastening in person to the
relief of Ratisbon (the garrison of which he suc-
ceeded in reinforcing), now in despondency reject-
ing Horn’s offer to unite with him for that object,
and again, when the danger rose, vehemently press-
ing for this junction. At length it took place.
Between the 3rd July, when Horn and the duke,
with 24,000 men in all, met in Augsburgh, and the
27th, when they retreated with an army almost
dissolved by sickness and want, lay the devastations
of the predatory foray into Bavaria, the capture of
Landshut, and the loss of Ratisbon.
The main strength of the league of Heilbronn
was in Swabia. The enemy, who now advanced
against this circle, crossed the Danube, took Do-
nauwerth, requited the devastation of Bavaria with
the most inhuman cruelty ’, and besieged Nordlin-
to the support of Horn’s army ;
and threw himself with im-
petuosity, as it were in hostile guise, on Horn’s quarters, so
that it remained doubtful whether the junction sought with
the field-marshal was to be made difficult, or the direction of
the high-chancellor odious." Bose, i. 277.
7 See the description of Isolani’s Croats in Hochstedt.
"Very many women are outraged so that they are dead;
men and women (without respect had) thrown amidst hot or
cold water, ice, puddles of mire or ordure ; some with chains
and ropes at their heads haled to death ;
to some thumb-
screws applied; others hung up by the privy parts, and
pierced therein with needles until the blood ran down; their
shin bones sawn through ; the feet grated to the bone with
billets ; the soles crushed and beaten so long that they fell
away from the feet; the arms bound to the backs, and they
thus hung behind themselves; dragged much about the town
stark naked, slashed, beaten, and wounded with axes and
hammers in such sort, that for biood they seemed as if they
had been dyed no otherwise than black-red. In the whole.
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