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314 Campaign of 1643.
Its interruption.
HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Rupture with Denmark.
War resolved upon.
[1633-
denburg, only the ratification of the treaty of armis-
tice is wanting ;
in Silesia and on the Oder, we
must seek to keep our rear free by Stalhandske.
The field-marshal liimself, I judge, should press
the enemy in Bohemia, Moravia, and Austria,
remove the seat of war to the Danube, and at the
same time secure, by a flying corps, the communi-
cation with the Elbe and the sea-coast. The king
of France and the landgravine of Hesse shall be
solicited by letter to keep Hatzfeld warm on the
Rhine; the other diversion in the hereditary terri-
tories of the emperor might best be made by
Ragotzi, prince of Ti-ansylvania." Witli the latter,
Torstenson had already, by the mission of two
colonels, entered into communication. In the letter
to the chamberlain, the chancellor adds : that the
chancery of the archduke Leopold, which had been
taken at Leipsic, and whence information might be
drawn respecting the enemy’s plans, must be sent
home. The field-marshal is also exhorted, if he
came into any papistical towns, where fine and
valuable libraries existed, such as during the previ-
ous summer had been found in Neisse and Olmutz, to
send the books to Sweden, for the improvement of
the libraries in the high schools and gymnasia of
the kingdom*.
After the taking of Leipsic, Torstenson had a
conference with marshal Gue’briant, who, in concert
with the Hessians, had carried on the war upon the
Lower Rhino, and marked the beginning of the
year 1642 with the victory of Kempen. The two
generals are said to have agreed respecting the
plan of the campaign for the next year. That
no such plan was conjointly executed, the French
lay to the l)lame of the Swedes, while these again
make it matter of charge against the former 5. It
is certain that Gue’briant moved to the Rhine, and
Torstenson, on the other hand, through Bohemia
against Austria, without, however, being able in
any manner to force Gallas, who had regained the
command-in-chief ", to a battle. We shall not detain
the reader with the campaign of 1643 against
Austria, in which Torstenson again penetrated to
Olmutz and Brunn, and by one of his partisan
officers imperilled the persoii of the emperor him-
self ^
;
while Konigsmark, so excellent in petty
warfare, kept the enemy busy on the Elbe and the
Weser, repulsing last of all a hostile inroad into
Pomerania, wliich the Imperialists effected by
violating the Polish territory, through which they
also extricated themselves on their retreat. We
pass over this campaign, which was interrupted by
an unexpected event. After Torstenson, from
Moravia, had re-established the communication
with his garrisons in Silesia, he received at the
castle of Eulenburg, on the 23d September, Jacob
have not allowed us space to follow the movements of the
military divisions there stationed, which depended mostly
on tlie main army.
* The chancellor paid close attention to matters of this
kind. When upon the outbreak of the Danish war in the
winter of 1G44, Gustavo Horn invaded Scania, the chancellor
instructs his secretary to remind the field-marshal that
where there were any piihlic libraries, especially where ma-
nuscripts were to be obtained, they should not he dispersed,
but be sent to Stockholm. To Samuel Anderson, Feb. 24,
1644. Reg.
s
Compare Histoire du Marechal de Guebriant, c. x. Puf-
fendorf, xiv. 39.
6 " At this the Swedes rejoiced, for they knew his manner,
TornskiJld, who, despatched fi’om Sweden, had
long waited for him in Oppeln. This agent brought
information from the Swedish government, of the
25th May last, that war against Denmark had been
resolved upon, and that Torstenson was to repair
to Holstein.
It is supei-fluous to enumerate the various causes
of war, which now and afterwards, with many rea-
sons and counter-reasons, were alleged on the Swe-
dish side, and denied with bittei-ness on the Danish.
Denmark was an unsafe friend, and on the first
decisive reverse of the Swedes in Germany, their
natural and dangerous enemy. That a Danish war
was implied in the German, and sooner or later
would proceed from it, Gustavus Adolphus and
Oxenstierna had long ago foreseen. Our relations
upon this side liad become more and more entan-
gled, especially since the king of Denmark, in the
summer of 1640, had assisted the queen dowager of
Sweden in her escape from the kingdom ’. It was
determined to make use of the superiority of the
Swedish arms, in order to cut the knot with the
sword.
On the 25th May, the high chancellor writes to
Torstenson ’••
:
" We must disclose to you our domes-
tic condition, and the dangerous designs of our
neighbours, beginning to break forth, according
to which we must alter our counsels. We have
long remarked that our neighbours have, in this
German war of ours, fixed their eyes on the issue
of the contest, hoping that if we by any disastrous
occurz’ence should be robbed of our advantages, a
door might open itself to them to treat us here at
home after their own pleasure. Now, since the
enemy’s power has been broken by Baner and you,
and the emperor brought to the defensive, he seeks
help in Poland by such arguments as little become
the greatness of the house of Austria. He strives
likewise to provoke Denmark, the rather that it is
already inclined thereto. Both discover their ill-
will against us, especially Denmark, which under
the semblance of a mediator has intermeddled in the
treaty of peace. Now, when this is so far advanced,
that the preliminai-ies are agreed upon, and the
mediator should seek to further the beginning of
the treaty itself, he arms, on the contrary, by land
and water, and draws his army together under pre-
text of quieting Hamburg, but in reality for pur-
poses of terror, and to appear as an armed nego-
tiator. It is said that the bishop of Bremen and
the duke of Oldenburg will join him with their
people, as also Brunswick-Luneburg; Cologne, and
several Catholic states, are joining in the game of
playing the third party, which has been long spoken
of. This we know as sure and certain, that tliis
that he always ruined the army." Puffendorf, xv. \ 4. The
archduke quitted the army in discontent ; Piccolomini en-
tered the Spanish service.
7
Puffendorf, xv. § 12.
s Maria Eleonora, who was constantly dissatisfied with the
Swedish government, fled secretly on the 23d July, JC40,
from Gripsholra, travelled in the company of a Danish
emissary, attended by a single lady in waiting, and in dis-
guise, to Nykoeping. There she embarked in a Danish
vessel, and was received at Gottlaiid by two Danish ships of
the line, which carried her to Denmark. She resided for some
time in that country, afterwards in Brandenburg, and lirst
returned to Sweden in 1048. Ekholm’s Hist, and Critical
Collec. iii.
9
Reg. for 1643.
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