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302 Inquiry into tlie degree
of his guilt.
HISTORY OF THE SWEDES.
Dissensions of the Protestant
states of Germany.
[1633—
Even the most strenuous defender of this general
must confine himself to the question, in itself idle,
whether he was a voluntary or constrained traitor
to his lord. The imperial court, in order to cloak
a murder, naturally insisted on the former. Great
contemporary statesmen, Oxenstierna, and still
more Rieheliou (althou^^h the cardinal had offered
him his assistance in gaining the Bohemian crown),
appear inclined to give admittance to all that alle-
viation which the latter ciiaracter can bring with
itself^. To us, no words appear sufficient to adjust
or reconcile transactions in themselves conflicting.
These, so far as they are explicable, can only be
explained by Wallenstein’s position, which was in
itself so slippery that we almost pardon a great am-
bition, when on its neck-periUing career it asks
counsel of the stars. A few words are sufficient to
ilescribe this position. Already on the first dis-
missal of Wallenstein, at Ratisbou in 1630, his
friends ventured to indicate its dangers; "since
lie," they said, "as being a man otherwise resent-
ful, might seek revenge, .associate himself to the
emperor’s enemies, and draw the soldiers to and
with himself, who would give more obedience to
his wink than to the law and order of another."
Wallenstein himself submitted without complaint,
\vith the expression that what had happened stood
written in the records of heaven. But at what a
height he aimed is best shown by those conditions
which he afterwards, in the emperor’s extreme
need, imposed and obtained on resuming the most
unlimited command ; among others, an imperial
iiereditary province in reward, and the superiority
of all conquered territories. He that can ask like
this, must place himself in a situation to watch
over its fulfilment. Wallenstein had, in his former
command, both won and lost Mecklenburg, his
title from which he continued to bear. The cha-
racter of prince of the empire which he had won
strengthened his independence as general. Under
such circumstances, to decide on what side that
suspicion and those apprehensions first arose which
led to so violent a breach, is, and remains perhaps,
as impossible as it appears inevitable, that such
sliould sooner or later have occurred.
In order rightly to comprehend the consequences
of the battle of Nordlingen, it is
necessary to cast a
glance upon the internal relations of the Protestant
l)arty in Germany at that time. Count Peter Brahe
was sent from Sweden to the assistance of the
chancellor, and visited the convention in Frank-
ing;,"
—1. c. 236. 240; and such gracious expressions are con-
tinued even after orders had been given for the seizure or
n raoval of Wallenstein.
5
"We doubt not without reason, whether from the com-
mencement of the pending treaties he meant in right earnest
a conspiracy against the emperor, or whether the whole
transaction was not intended to clieat the evangelical party ;
whereas he, by too coarse a trick, and using too extravagant
and wliimsical manners in his discourse and actions, fell
into suspicion with the emperor, whicli was so fomented and
increased by his mislikers and opponents, that he was at
length hereby obliged to embrace the counsels which he had
at first taken up fraudfuUy and deceitfully in semblance
af;ainst the evangelics, now as it were compulsorily and
from necessity in earnest, although too lale. However tiiis
may be, the issue showed that the lord high-chancellor
judged rightly of him and his purpose; it would be impos-
sible for him to accomplish such designs, and he had taken
more upon himself than he could perform. Since the im-
))erial officers, when he had fairly discovered his intent of de-
fort.
" Tlie estates," he writes in his journal,
" allowed free course to pomp and state, many living
in daily riot and excess, troubling tViemselves little
about the general weal, envious of Sweden’s for-
tune, and grudging it the directory. Tlie elector
of Saxony disturbed and threw down what others
built up; the elector of Brandenburg looked only to
Pomei-ania, the Calvinists to the king of England,
duke Bernard of Weimar to his dignity, and how he
might rule and govern alone, and be dependent on
no man; the dukes of Brunswick and Luneburg had
a rivalry with the landgrave of Cassel; every one
sought his own advantage ;
French money seduced
high and low; the baronage and towns quarrelled
about seats. No where was confidence to be found ;
one envied the other ; princes, counts, and lords,
were as children, following that which their doc-
tors and jurists preached before them, who stood at
all the meetings behind their masters, speaking and
answering as for mutes’". Every one wished to live
for himself, and act both as king and general’.
They bore lawless arms against their lord the em-
peror, whom they so entitled ;
for so long as they
called him their lord, and drew the sword against
him, their war could be called nothing else than
rebellion. But whatever argument a man used, it
helped nothing ; they would never declare the em-
peror their enemy, much less unworthy of the
Roman crown ; they played and trifled with the
war and the state of public and private affairs.
The high-chancellor they honoured much as Swe-
dish legate and director of the evangelic league,
and paid, both to him and me, great respect ;
but
when the chancellor meant it best with them, they
interpreted it worst, and in truth with them neither
reason nor counsel availed for the right and their
own good weal. Thus delays and disputes continued,
and time was consumed in vain, until the unfortu-
nate battle of Nordlingen was fought."
This defeat at once brought the so-called third
party to consistence ;
as moisture at the freezing
point is changed into ice on the first shock. Saxony
concluded for itself, and without commission, for
its religious associates likewise, the peace of Prague,
which gave no security, defei’red the main ques-
tion, but gained Lusatia for the elector. He for
whose rescue Gustavus Adolphus had fallen, men-
tions in these negotiations for peace, the immortal
achievements of the hero under the expression,
"the troubles which arose in the empire in 1630,"
whose traces must be obliterated*, and remarks
fection, laid more stress on the duty which they owed to the
emperor than the respect they bore to him (Wallenstein), and
for the most part renounced him. So that even his own
creatures, in whom he put most trust, became his murder-
ers." Chemnitz, ii. 333. In the protocol of the council for
lliSO, Oxenstierna reckons " Wallenstein’s business" among
the things on which right knowledge could never be attained.
Richelieu’s favourable judgment of Wallenstein may he
found in the Memoirs, viii. 100. The reflections upon the
dangers of faithful servants in high place from enviers
appear not to be written without reference to the cardinal’s
own position.
6
Quantum degeneraverint a pristina virtutei the author
exclaims.
? "Not reflecting that they were all only members of a
body under one head, whence it follows that while indi-
viduals fight all are conquered."
8 "
Touching the restitution, there should be restored to the
emperor and his adherents all that of which they have been
deprived since the troubles which arose in the year 1630 and
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