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1645.]
Fruitless efforts of
Oxenstieriia for peace.
CHRISTINA. THE REGENCY. John Baner, tlie new
commander-in-chief. 305
I
to what honour than to what iiitei’est required; for
the armies consisted in the largest part of Ger-
mans ^ "
Concerning the peace," the ministry write
to the chancellor, on the 28th January, 1G36,
" we
hold to our ultimatum, namely, the contentment of
the soldiery, and a hypothec on the sea-coast ; bet-
ter to escaj^e the incalculable cost which the prose-
cution of the war would bring with it, than to fish
with a golden hook, and lose ten millions for one 2."
The Swedish estates assembled in the autumn of
1635, and declared, that Sweden could not submit
to the peace of Prague ;
the treaty must be con-
cluded between Sweden and the emperor ;
Sweden
could not content itself with the guarantee of the
elector of Saxony; the elector was a subject, could
not guarantee himself, and had not so conducted
himself in this war that he should be allowed to
have that honour. In the instructions which the
chancellor recei%’ed, it was specified, that he should
negotiate with the emperor, and with Saxony only
so far as the elector should be empowered to con-
clude peace as well for the emperor as for the
League and Spain; in the peace Hesse should be
included, and France, if she wished it. All shows
that Oxenstierna himself sincerely souglit for peace.
He followed his instructions truly, as if they had
proceeded from himself. But his proposals of peace
to the emperor remained vmanswered. Saxony
evei’y where interposed with the demand, that Swe-
den should submit, unconditionally, to the peace of
Prague : if the Swedes would disband their army,
evacuate all conquests, and quit Germany, but not
till
then, the elector would employ his mediation to
obtain, within four or five years, an indemnity in
money of a million of guilders: for the rest, this
point concerned him not, since Gustavus Adolphus
had declared that he had no claim upon him ;
the
Swedes ought to rely upon his word, that they should
experience no hostilities from the emperor and the
German empire ^. At the same time he caused his
troops to enter the Swedish quarters, and instigated
the officers of the Swedish army to mutiny. Then
it seemed more honourable and tolerable —says
Chemnitz—to be beaten out of Germany by force,
than thus to be cast off", to fall down before the
enemy, and to beg for peace ;
the one would at most
be a misfortune, which had overtaken many power-
ful kingdoms and republics ;
the other would be
shame, to be answered neither to contemporaries
nor posterity, especially as ia any case they could
obtain no real and secure peace, much less enjoy
its fruits. Yet the chancellor was almost resolved
to desist from all satisfaction, if he could, with
honour and safety, have parted from this work,
and the burden of the foreign soldiery had been
taken from his neck ; but even this he could not
compass on account of Saxony *.
• " His majesty of blessed memory had employed for the
carrying on of this war not only the Swedes, his own people,
and other foreigners, but principally and before others the
German nation, so that at the present time the chief part,
both offirers and soldiers, consist of the German nation."
Oxenstierna’s proposition to the elector of Saxony, Aug. 1,
1G35. Chemnitz, ii. 743.
2
Registry.
3 Declaration of the elector of Saxony. Chemritz, ii. 7G8.
* " All these things so offended the Swedes, that they re-
solved to defend themselves, and rather with arms in their
hands be stripped by force, than basely yield what they had
acquired with so much glory, and the blood they had gene-
Thus we see the work of Gustavus Adolphus
tottering on all sides. Two great ministers, com-
bining their efforts against the predominance of
Austria, although in many other points at variance,
had in vain attempted to complete it. To succeed
in this lay beyond the limits of merely political cal-
culations, though framed by Oxenstierna’s skill,
and supported with Richelieu’s treasures. Success
in arms alone could accomplish what success in
arms had begun. It was a task not for the pen
only, but for the sword also. We shall see it re-
established on its first foundation from the moment
when, after discords and defection, Swedish gene-
ralship again had the governance of the war. It
was John Baner who wrested the truncheon of
Gustavus Adolphus from the hands of the German
princes.
France was at this time poor in commanders.
The rebellious spirit of the nobility, fostered by
dissensions in the royal family and foreign intrigues,
had spread to the army. The French soldiery
shunned a war in Germany. For the cavalry ser-
vice reliance was to be placed only on foreigners ;
so Richelieu himself complains *. Gustavus Adol-
phus had left behind him a school of warriors, the
first in Europe.
" All these are generals," he said
to Charnace’, after crossing to Germany, pointing to
seven or eiglit Swedish lords who surrounded him.
The Swedes, he declared on another occasion,
would not want for leaders after him ;
he should
feel it grievous for him to be their king, if he were
not convinced that they would, by God’s help, per-
fect his undertaking ". After the battle of Leipsic,
the general staff of the victor was filled with Ger-
man princes. Whatever might be the political
objects he designed with them, it is yet clear from
some remarkable expressions during his last days,
that he foresaw their defection. We have an ac-
count that on the eve of the field of Lutzen, in an
autograph letter to the chancellor, he stated Baner
as the most capable of holding the command, in
case he himself should be ovei’taken by the hand
of death ’. Baner was then still suffering from his
wounds received at Nui’emberg ;
the death of the
king affected him so deeply, that he for a moment
thought of abandoning all. Oxenstierna’s repre-
sentations alone withheld him, in consequence of
which he first assumed the command on the Elbe,
with the difficult commission of acting in conjunc-
tion with the Saxons. He had penetrated with
them into Bohemia, and stood before Prague, when
the disaster of Nordlingen compelled him to retire
with his troops, Sweden’s last army, upon German
soil. When Oxenstierna came from France, he met
Baner on the Saale. The troops were removed to
Magdeburg.
rously shed." (Toutes ces choses offens^rent tellement les
Suedois, &c.) Richelieu, Mem. ix. 3.
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