Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XIX. Christina's Government and Abdication. A.D. 1644—1654
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
1654.]
Campaign of 1646.—Junction
with the French. CHRISTINA’S ADMINISTRATION. Truce concluded with
Bavaria. 329
hand, the enemy rejoiced, supposing that Torsten-
son’s cannon were now silenced, and valued his
removal from the army as equal to a loss of ten
thousand men for the Swedes. The plan above-
mentioned was imperfectly executed. Wrangel
began by drawing out of Thuringia to the Weser,
in order conjointly with the Hessians to sweep the
country between the Weser and the Elbe from
the enemy, until the French came up. He took
Hdxter and Paderborn, and resolved to wait for
Turenne in Hesse. But the latter, although he
had promised the utmost possible haste, did not
cross the Rhine until the beginning of July ’, and
then delayed so long (being probably bound by
secret orders, though the French minister at
Munster gave assurances to the contrary *), that
the junction with Wrangel, who had meanwhile
been reduced to great danger thi’ough the invasion
of Hesse by the Imperialists and Bavarians, could
not be effected until the beginning of August, in
Giessen. The combined armies, after they had
offered battle at Nidda to the enemy (who instead
drew back to Lahn), placed Hanau in safety, took
Aschaffenburg; and then marched—Wrangel along
the Jaxt, Turenne along the Neckar—in haste to
the Danube, which the former passed at Donau-
werth, the latter at Lauingen ^. They formed a
junction on the Lech and besieged Augsburg
^
for
nineteen days in vain, until the Imperialists and
Bavarians, who had hastened through Franconia
to the defence of Bavaria, relieved the town ’.
Notwithstanding this, the allies made an irruption
into Bavaria, and Wrangel wished to attempt to
advance on Munich. Turenne opposed this course,
3 Je vous supplie d’estre asseure que je feral toutes les
choses necessaires pour la jonrtion, pourveu que je le puisse
faiie avec quelque seurete. Turenne to Wrangel ;
Au camp
pr^s de Bacharai-h, le 9 Juin, 1646. The words are under-
lined hy Turenne himself. Je passerai sans faute le Rlien
le lundi le 2 Juillet. To the same: Au camp d’Ohcrwesel,
le 18 Juin, 1646. C. G. Wrangel’s correspondence.
"*
"Concerning Turenne’s delay, the duke of Longueville
swears on his conscience and honour, that France conceals
under it no secret design, but that Turenne has not fully
executed his orders as he ought to have dojie. The main
cause of the delay, they surmise, is the slowness of the
Hollanders to come into the field, and their zeal to hasten
the treaty of peace here. Turenne had on this account
received orders, to take the opinion of the Swedish generalcy,
whether the conjunction might not bear some delaj." John
Oxenstierna to Wrangel, Osnaburg, July 11, 1646. Corre-
spondence.
5 Je passe aujourd’hui le Danube et niarcherai entre Augs-
bourg et Rhain. J’espere avoir bientost I’honneur de voir
Vostre Excellence. Turenne to Wrangel : Au camp de
Lauingen, V Sep., 1646. Correspondence. On the 4th
September, Wrangel took the town of Rhain, on the Lech.
6 This town may serve as an example, how the edict of
restitution by the emperor Ferdinand 11. was enforced. The
emperor had ordered that in Augsburg all should be brought
into accordance with the religious peace, and the mutation
was effected by the armed hand, on the 8th August, 1629.
Hereby the evangelical burgesses lost their religious liber-
ties, seven churches in and two out of the town, their gym-
nasium, which they vacated to the Jesuits, their schools,
hospital, and orphan-house. The children were compelled
to become catholics, and violently carried into the churches;
all praying and singing in the houses of the protestants was
forbidden ; ihey were excluded from the council, and not
allowed to marry without having heard mass. No artizaa
could become a master-craftsman, and attendance on the
catholic church was commanded for all, on pain of exile; all
and alleged, as usual, the need of winter-quarters
for the French troops. These the latter occupied
in Swabia, and the Swedes on the lake of Con-
stance. The fluctuations of the war had again
brought them to the extreme frontier of Germany.
Meanwhile Wittenberg, who first received rein-
forcements fi’om Sweden in August, had penetrated
fi-om Silesia into Bohemia, where Montecuculi,
who was already on his way to the defence of
Bavaria, received orders to stay. Wittenberg
obtained an important advantage over his cavalry
at Horschitz on tlie 21st of September, and wrote
on tlie 24th to Wrangel, that " he hoped the re-
inforcement from hence of the enemy’s main armv
would not very greatly inconvenience the field-
marshal." He strengthened the Swedish garrisons
in Moravia, but was obliged, on account of the ad-
vanced season of the year, to retire to Silesia.
The winter months passed away in negotiations
respecting the neutrality requested by Bavaria,
which was granted at Ulm, on the 4th of March,
16 17> chiefly througli French mediation ’
; upon
which Tureime recrossed the Rhine, and Wrangel
returned to Franconia. Tlie so-called Weimar
troops, the remnant of duke Bernard’s army, had
hitherto been in French service, long with secret
discontent. They hated the French, and had
never forgotten their old connexions with the
Swedes. Now, when Turenne wished to lead them
back over the Rhine, they revolted, deposed their
officers, broke up to Franconia, beat the troops
who were despatched in their pursuit, and pro-
ceeded to unite with the Swedes. Turenne de-
manded them back ^. But Wrangel, who had
this under pretence that the bishop of Eichstedt should be
installed in those rights which he had possessed over Augs-
burg in the year 1548, without respect to the religious peace
of 1555. From this oppression Gustavus Adolphus freec!
the protestants of Augsburg. It recommenced when the
Imperialists took Augsburg, after a two years’ siege, March
13, 1635. Short Relation concerning the troublous state oi
the Evangelical Burgesses in the town of the Holy Roman
Empire, called Augsburg, from the year 1628 to 1643. Ii;
the documents belonging to C. G. Wrangel’s correspondence.
7 " I cannot say nay to it, the enemy have gained the ad-
vantage against this quarter. But we expect that the Impe-
rialist and combined armada of the empire will very soon
come to blows with them, and that the well-affected princes
and estates of the empire may he defended from the enemy’s
power." The elector Maximilian of Bavaria to the counts
Martin Francis and Joachim Eri:est of Ottingen-AVallerstein.
Munich, Sep. 1, 1645. Original in C. G. Wrangel’s corre-
spondence. These counts surrendered their castle of Wal-
lerstein, "although when it is well garrisoned, it may be
called in respect of its situation impregnable," to Kiinigs-
mark, and treated him well, according to his letter of the
29th August to Wrangel.
8 March 26, 1647, the ministry write to Wrangel: "We
have understood the negotiations for the truce; there is little
earnestness in them. Howbeit, as the Ba.arian prince is
worn out with years, and has children in their non-age,
knows the house of Austria, and perhaps fears the guardian-
ship of the emperor, —but has great regard for France, and
perhaps seeks our atTection in the conclusion of peace, that
we should not insist on the restitution of the palatinate,
—it
cannot therefore harm, that ye should conclude a cessation
of arms upon our ratification ; but manage that he should
disarm. If Bavaria’s brother, the elector of Cologne, should
be comprehended in the truce with Wurtzburg and Bam
berg, it were the better." Reg. The elector of Cologne
actually acceded.
9 Je supplie trfes-humblement Vostre Excellence de vouloir
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
