The Thirty Years War

by C. V. Wedgwood

  Had the King entered the war at some genuine personal loss as the ally of the King of Denmark in 1626, that joint intervention might have cut short Ferdinand’s advance at the outset, saving Protestant self-respect and German Liberties. Politically the King was justified in not engaging in an undertaking which would have been unremunerative and difficult although far from impossible. In 1630 he was too late to revive the dead cause. Instead he broke the one power which might have united Germany, and set up nothing in its place.

  A few days after the battle of Lützen, Frederick of Wittelsbach, who was no longer either Elector Palatine or King of Bohemia, rode into Bacharach on the Rhine. At thirty-six he was a broken man, old before his time and so worn with care that his own brother did not recognize him.[204] Down the Rhine there was famine, and in Bacharach plague; on all sides he saw the ghastly results of the war he himself had caused. He should not have stayed in Bacharach, but the plague caught him before he could fly. It was a slight attack and might have passed, but the news of Lützen and the King of Sweden’s death coming at the turning point of the fever, he sank into a heavy gloom and on November 29th died. Dead, as living, he he remained a wanderer and an outcast; the last known resting place of his coffin was a wine-merchant’s cellar at Metz.[205]

  Thus within a fortnight the successful and the unsuccessful champions of the Protestant Cause had gone. The man had been worse but the Cause had been better in 1619, and the Germans had made their choice. Gustavus might defeat the Emperor, force John George to fight, exploit the policy of Richelieu, but he could not put back the clock. The opportunity that had been lost in 1619 had been lost for ever. He could not alter that numbed willingness of the German Protestants to be crushed; he could break the Hapsburg Empire, but he could build nothing, and he left German politics, as he left her fields, a heap of shards.

  1. Avenel, Lettres de Richelieu, Paris, 1853, III, p. 878.

  2. Moser, Patriotisches Archiv, VI, pp. 133 f.

  3. G. Droysen, Gustaf Adolf, II, p. 151; Gustaf Adolfs Landungsgebet. Mitteilungen des Instituts für Oesterreichische Geschichtsforschung, XXII, pp. 269–87.

  4. Chemnitz, De Bello Suecico. Stettin, 1648, I, p. 55.

  5. Haeberlin, XXVI, pp. 28–9.

  6. Roe, Negotiations, p. 56.

  7. Oxenstiernas skrifter och brefvexling. Stockholm, 1888, I, i, pp. 247–8.

  8. See Droysen, Gustaf Adolf, II, p. 71.

  9. Brefvexling, I, i, pp. 351–459; the best recent books on Gustavus Adolphus are: Ahnlund, Gustav Adolf den Store. Stockholm, 1932; G. Wittrock, Gustav Adolf, 1932; Johannes Paul, Gustav Adolph. Leipzig, 3 vols, 1927–32; M. J. Roberts, Gustavus Adolphus: A History of Sweden, 1611–32. London, 1953 seq. There is also an interesting article on his strategy in Germany by Tingsten in Historisk Tidskrift for 1928.

  10. See Droysen, Gustaf Adolf, I, pp. 59–60, 77.

  11. G. Westin, Negotiations about Church Unity. Uppsala, 1932, p. 208.

  12. Annales, XI, p. 1326.

  13. Roe, Negotiations, p. 74.

  14. Moser, Patriotisches Archiv, V, p. 8.

  15. Arckenholtz, Historische Merkwürdigkeiten. Leipzig, Amsterdam, 1751, 1752, II, p. 46.

  16. Lorentzen, Die Schwedische Armee im dreissigjährigen Kriege und ihre Abdankung. Leipzig, 1894, p. 9.

  17. Ditfurth, Die historisch-politischen Volkslieder des dreissigjährigen Krieges. Heidelberg, 1882, pp. 177 f.

  18. Annales, XI, p. 1757; Brefvexling, I, vi, pp. 584 f.; II, i, p. 619; I, V, pp. 10, 16, 46, 316; Gebauer, Ein Schwedischer Militärprozess. Historische Zeitschrift, XCVIII, pp. 547 f.

  19. Sonden, Axel Oxenstierna och hans Broder. Stockholm, 1903, p. 18; Wittrock, p. 251.

  20. Droysen, Gustaf Adolf, II, p. 76.

  21. Roe, Negotiations, p. 57.

  22. Boethius, Gustaf II. Adolfs instruktion för Salvius den 30 juni 1630. Historisk Tidskrift, 1913, p. 120.

  23. Lundorp, IV, pp. 73–7; Lünig, VI, i, pp. 359–65.

  24. Lundorp, IV, p. 80.

  25. Roe, Negotiations, pp. 60–1.

  26. Zacharias Bandhauers Deutsches Tagebuch der Zerstörung Magdeburgs, ed. P. P. Klimesch. Archiv für Oesterreichische Geschichte, XVI. Vienna, 1856, p. 279.

  27. Brefvexling, II, ix, p. 846.

  28. Sverges Traktater, V, i, pp. 438–42.

  29. L. Weibull, Gustave-Adolphe et Richelieu. Revue Historique, CLXXIV, pp. 219–25.

  30. Roe, Negotiations, p. 39.

  31. Ibid., p. 69.

  32. Roe, Negotiations, pp. 39–40.

  33. Gaedeke, Zur Politik Wallensteins und Kursachsens. Neues Archiv für Sächsische Geschichte, X, pp. 36–7.

  34. See Gebauer, Kurbrandenburg und der Restitutionsedikt von 1629. Halle, 1899, pp. 72–89, 132–7.

  35. Lundorp, IV, pp. 133–4.

  36. Lundorp, pp. 142–3.

  37. See Hurter, Friedensbestrebungen Kaiser Ferdinands II. Vienna, 1860, pp. 9–10.

  38. Lundorp, IV, pp. 143–4.

  39. Arkiv till upplysning om Svenska Krigens, I, p. 413; Monro, II, p. 34.

  40. Lundorp, IV, pp. 148–58.

  41. Ernstberger, Wallenstein als Volkswirt, pp. 34–5; Ernstberger, Wallensteins Heeressabotage und die Breitenfelder Schlacht. Historische Zeitschrift, CLXII, pp. 46–9, 51–3; Pekař, I, pp. 75 f.; II, pp. 32–6.

  42. Hallwich, Briefe und Akten, I, pp. 204–5, 210–12, 214–15, 232, 251, 255, 288–90.

  43. Brefvexling, II, viii, pp. 34, 37; Hallwich, Briefe und Akten, I, p. 308.

  44. Wittich, Dietrich von Falkenberg. Magdeburg, 1892, pp. 73–4.

  45. R. Usinger, Die Zerstörung Magdeburgs. Historische Zeitschrift, XIII, p. 388; Brefvexling, II, viii, p. 39.

  46. Wittich, Falkenberg, p. 159; Droysen, Gustaf Adolf, I, pp. 313–14.

  47. Ditfurth, Volkslieder, pp. 143 ff.; Bandhauers Tagebuch, p. 267.

  48. Droysen, Gustaf Adolf, II, p. 295.

  49. Ibid., p. 296.

  50. Brefvexling, II, viii, p. 45; II, i, p. 695.

  51. Droysen, Gustaf Adolf, II, p. 289.

  52. Sverges Traktater, V, i, pp. 449–54.

  53. W. Lahne, Magdeburgs Zerstörung in der zeitgenössischen Publizistik. Magdeburg, 1931, p. 33; Usinger, pp. 391–3.

  54. Klopp, III, ii, pp. 167–8; Foerster, Wallenstein, II, p. 94.

  55. F. Spanheim, Le Soldat Suédois. Geneva, 1633, p. 39.

  56. Bandhauers Tagebuch, pp. 276 ff.

  57. Wittich, Magdeburg, Gustav Adolf und Tilly. Berlin, 1874, I, p. 15.

  58. See Stieve, Abhandlungen. Leipzig, 1900, pp. 181–94; also Wittich, Dietrich von Falkenberg, and Magdeburg, Gustav Adolf und Tilly.

  59. Bandhauers Tagebuch, p. 278.

  60. Ibid., p. 282.

  61. Bandhauers Tagebuch, p. 287; Wittich, Magdeburg als Katholisches Marienburg. Historische Zeitschrift, LXV, p. 433.

  62. Ibid., Magdeburg als Marienburg, p. 444.

  63. Bandhauers Tagebuch, pp. 280–1.

  64. Usinger, p. 399.

  65. Lundorp, IV, pp. 214–15.

  66. Sverges Traktater, V, i, pp. 457–63.

  67. See Droysen, Gustaf Adolf, II, pp. 303, 351–3; Reinhold Koser, Gustav Adolfs letzter Besuch in Berlin. Festschrift zum 50 jährigen Jubiläum des Vereins für die Geschichte Berlins. Berlin, 1917, pp. 3–10; Monro, II, p. 43.

  68. Lünig, VIII, pp. 78–9.

  69. Gardiner, History of England, VII, p. 188.

  70. Lundorp, IV, pp. 175–8.

  71. Hallwich, Briefe und Akten, I, pp. 389–90.

  72. Pekař, p. 75.

  73. Sverges Traktater, V, i, pp. 476 ff.

  74. Lundorp, pp. 199–204.

  75. Hallwich, Briefe und Akten, p. 473.

  76. Wittich, Zur Würdigung Hans Georgs von Arnim. Neues Archiv für Sächsische Geschichte, XXII, p. 31.

  77. Sverges Traktater, V, i, pp. 513–16.

  78. See Foerster, Wallenstein, II, p. 120.

  79. Foerster, Wallenstein, II, p. 109.

  80
. Droysen, Gustaf Adolf, II, p. 401.

  81. Foerster, Wallenstein, II, p. 104.

  82. Delbrück, pp. 232 f.; Droysen, Gustaf Adolf, II, p. 404.

  83. Foerster, Wallenstein, II, p. 108.

  84. The account of the battle is assembled from the various contemporary accounts given in Archiv für Sächsische Geschichte, VII, pp. 342 ff.; in Arkiv till upplysning Svenska Krigens, pp. 492–5; in Brefvexling, II, i, pp. 739–42; in Foerster’s Wallenstein, pp. 119 ff.; Monro, His Expedition, II, pp.63–7; and a few indications in the Relation of Sydnam Poyntz. See also Sveriges Krig 1611–32, IV, pp. 477–523.

  85. G. Müller, Dresden im dreissigjährigen Kriege. Neues Archiv für Sächsische Geschichte, XXXVI, p. 255.

  86. Written in 1937.

  87. See Gaedeke, Wallensteins Verhandlungen mit den Schweden. Frankfort, 1885, pp. 108–9; Inner, Die Verhandlungen Schwedens und seine Verbündeten mit Wallenstein. Leipzig, 1888, I, p. 87.

  88. Poyntz, p. 58.

  89. See Foerster, Wallenstein, II, pp. 168 f.; Gaedeke, Die Eroberung Nordböhmens. Neues Archiv für Sächsische Geschichte, IX, pp. 243 ff.

  90. Droysen, Gustaf Adolf, II, p. 437; Monro, II, p. 81.

  91. Gebauer, Die Restitutionsedikt in Brandenburg, p. 201.

  92. Poyntz, pp. 56, 62.

  93. Sverges Traktater, V, i, pp. 1631–2 passim.

  94. Droysen, op. cit., II, pp. 464–7; Arkiv till upplysning Svenska Krigens, I, pp. 546–8.

  95. Ditfurth, pp. 180, 241.

  96. The Swedish Intelligencer, second part, p. 68.

  97. Annales, XII, p. 2399.

  98. Spanheim, pp. 122–3.

  99. Chemnitz, I, p. 297.

  100. Hallwich, Briefe und Akten, I, p. 306.

  101. Ibid., pp. 648–9.

  102. Foerster, Wallenstein, II, pp. 186–92.

  103. Hallwich, Briefe und Akten, I, pp. 657 ff.

  104. Paul, III, pp. 84–6.

  105. Sverges Traktater, V, i, pp. 601–3.

  106. Hallwich, Briefe und Akten, I, p. 501.

  107. Brefvexling, II, viii, p. 69.

  108. Geyl, p. 127.

  109. Abreu y Bertodano, IV, pp. 342 f.

  110. The allusion is, of course, to the titles of the Kings of Spain and France, ‘His Catholic Majesty’ and ‘Most Christian King’.

  111. Abreu y Bertodano, IV, pp. 330 f.

  112. Fagniez, Le Père Joseph et Richelieu, Paris, 1894, II, pp. 494–500.

  113. Avenel, IV, pp. 251–4.

  114. Avenel, IV, pp. 257–9.

  115. Lundorp, IV, pp. 275–8.

  116. Brefvexling, II, i, p. 760.

  117. Hallwich, Briefe und Akten, I, pp. 527 f.

  118. Inner, Die Verhandlungen Schwedens, I, pp. 107–8.

  119. G. Droysen, Die Verhandlungen über den Universalfrieden im Winter 1631–2. Archiv für Sächsische Geschichte. Neue Folge, VI, pp. 223–6.

  120. R. Schulze, Die Projekt der Vermählung Friedrich Wilhelms von Brandenburg mit Christina von Schweden. Halle, 1898, pp. 2–3 f.

  121. Westin, Negotiations about Church Unity, pp. 135–6; Gebauer, Die Restitutionsedikt in Kurbrandenburg, pp. 235–6.

  122. Kretzschmar, Gustav Adolfs Pläne und Ziele in Deutschland und die Herzöge von Braunschweig und Lüneburg. Hanover, 1904, p. 176 n. 1.

  123. Arkiv till upplysning Svenska Krigens, I, p. 521.

  124. F. Bothe, Gustav Adolfs und seines Kanzlers wirtschaftspolitische Absichten. Frankfurt, 1910, p. 179; Irmer, Die Verhandlungen Schwedens, I, p. 111.

  125. Spanheim, p. 226.

  126. Aitzema, I, pp. 1260–1.

  127. Moser, Patriotisches Archiv, VI, pp. 176–84.

  128. Hurter, Friedensbestrebungen Ferdinands II, pp. 14 f.; Irmer, Die Verhandlungen Schwedens, pp. 8–68 passim; Droysen, Die Verhandlungen über den Universalfrieden, pp. 144–5.

  129. Irmer, Die Verhandlungen Schwedens, I, p. 109; Spanheim, p. 211.

  130. Moser, Patriotisches Archiv, IV, pp. 466–73.

  131. Monro, II, p. 111.

  132. Hallwich, Briefe und Akten, II, p. 277.

  133. Lammert, pp. 120, 124.

  134. Droysen, Gustaf Adolf, II, p. 553.

  135. Foerster, Wallenstein, II, pp. 196 f., 202 f.

  136. Droysen, Gustaf Adolf, II, p. 537.

  137. Chemnitz, I, p. 310; see also Brefvexling, II, viii, p. 55; Poyntz, 65; Swedish Intelligencer, II, p. 142.

  138. Gindely in the Historische Zeitschrift, XCVII, and in Waldsteins Vertrag mit dem Kaiser, Abhandlungen der Classe für Philosophie, Geschichte und Philologie der Königlich böhmischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, VII, iii; Ritter, Der Untergang Wallensteins. Historische Zeitschrift, XCVII; Gliubich, Gli ultimi successi di Alberto di Waldstein narrati dagli Ambasciatori Veneti. Archiv für Oesterreichische Geschichte. Vienna, 1863, XXVIII, pp. 361–2; W. Michael, Wallensteins Vertrag mit dem Kaiser im Jahre 1632. Historische Zeitschrift, LXXXVIII.

  139. Ernstberger, Wallenstein als Volkswirt, pp. 20–2, 38–9, 47.

  140. Gaedeke, Wallenstein und Arnim, pp. 11–13.

  141. Chronik des Jakob Wagner, Augsburg, 1902, pp. 10–12.

  142. Klopp, III, ii, p. 646 n.

  143. Dudik, Waldsteins Correspondenz. Archiv für Oesterreichische Geschichte. Vienna, 1866, XXXVI, p. 222.

  144. Spanheim, p. 272.

  145. Swedish Intelligencer, II, p. 161; Spanheim, p. 211.

  146. Hallwich, Briefe und Akten, II, pp. 404 f.; Arckenholtz, Mémoires concernant Christine, Reine de Suède, II, App. pp. 21–4.

  147. Brefvexling, II, viii, p. 56.

  148. Brefvexling, loc. cit.; Foerster, Wallenstein, II, pp. 225 f.

  149. Brefvexling, loc. cit.; Droysen, Gustaf Adolf, II, p. 557.

  150. W. Michael, p. 387.

  151. Hildebrand, Wallenstein und die Schweden. Frankfort, 1885, p. 10.

  152. Letter from George Fleetwood giving an account of the battle of Lützen. Camden Miscellany, I. London, 1847, p. 5.

  153. Brefvexling, II, i, pp. 766, 798 f.

  154. Irmer, Die Verhandlungen Schwedens, I, p. 211.

  155. Annales, XII, p. 24.

  156. Hallwich, Briefe und Akten, II, pp. 644–5.

  157. Hurter, Wallensteins vier letzte Lebensjahre. Vienna, 1862, pp. 155–6; Hallwich, Briefe und Akten, III, p. 95.

  158. Swedish Intelligencer, III, pp. 38 ff.

  159. Chronik Jakob Wagners, pp. 20–1; see also The Swedish Intelligencer, III, p. 24.

  160. Westin, p. 208.

  161. Brefvexling, I, i, pp. 540–3 ff.

  162. Brefvexling, I, vii, p. 574.

  163. Ibid., II, viii, p. 73; Schulze, pp. 5 f.

  164. Sonden, Lars Tungels Efterlämnade Papper. Historiska Handlinger. Nyföljd, XXII, p. 45.

  165. Brefvexling, II, viii, p. 57.

  166. Spanheim, p. 411.

  167. Aretin, Bayerns auswärtige Verhältnisse. Passau, 1839, I; Urkunden, p. 343.

  168. Irmer, Die Verhandlungen Schwedens, I, pp. 249–50; Konung Gustaf II Adolfs Skrifter, ed. C. G. Styffe. Stockholm, 1861, p. 553.

  169. Sonden, Lars Tungel, p. 611.

  170. Hallwich, Briefe und Akten, III, pp. 231 f.

  171. Spanheim, pp. 427–8.

  172. Brefvexling, II, i, pp. 855–69.

  173. Fleetwood, Camden Miscellany, I, pp. 5–6; Fyra relationer om slaget vid Lützen. Historisk Tidskrift, 1932, p. 302.

  174. Fleetwood, p. 6.

  175. Foerster, Wallenstein, II, p. 273.

  176. Hallwich, Briefe und Akten, III, p. 500.

  177. Fleetwood, p. 6.

  178. Ibid., p. 7.

  179. Foerster, Wallenstein, II, p. 308.

  180. Fleetwood, p. 6; Fiedler, Diodatis Bericht über die Schlacht bei Lützen. Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, IV, Göttingen, 1865, p. 561.

  181. Poyntz, p. 126.

  182. Poyntz, p. 126.

  183. Hallwich, Briefe und Akten, III, p. 503.

  184. There are several accounts o
f Lützen. I have used chiefly Fleetwood’s in the Camden Miscellany, vol. I; Diodatis Bericht über Lützen; Holk’s account in Hallwich, Briefe und Akten, III, pp. 499–503; Fyra relationer om slaget vid Lützen. Historisk Tidskrift, 1932, pp. 299–309; Swedish Intelligencer, III, pp. 127 f.; Monro, II, pp. 162–5.

  185. Sonden, Lars Tungel, p. 72; Ditfurth, p. 261.

  186. Archenholtz, II, p. 46.

  187. Annales, XII, p. 199.

  188. Walther, p. 28.

  189. Fleetwood, p. 10.

  190. Lammert, p. 114; Theatrum Europaeum, II, pp. 658, 645.

  191. Brefvexling, II, vi, p. 89.

  192. Hanauer, p. 175.

  193. Lammert, p. 114.

  194. Ibid., pp. 113 f.; Duhr, II, i, p. 406.

  195. Lammert, p. 120; Chronik des Jakob Wagner, p. 28.

  196. C. G. von Murr, Beyträge zur Geschichte des dreissigjährigen Krieges. Nürnberg, 1790, p. 62.

  197. Westin, pp. 208–9.

  198. Riezler, Geschichte, V, pp. 420 f.

  199. Annales, XII, p. 144.

  200. Furtenbach, Jammerchronik, pp. 67 f.

  201. Hanauer, La Guerre de Trente Ans à Hagenau. Colmar, 1909, p. 172.

  202. Droysen, Die Verhandlungen über den Universalfrieden, p. 179.

  203. Irmer, Die Verhandlungen Schwedens, I, pp. 176, 177.

  204. Aretin, Beyträge, VII, p. 270.

  205. Moser, Neues Patriotisches Archiv, II, pp. 113–32.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  FROM LÜTZEN TO NÖRDLINGEN — AND BEYOND

  1632–5

  The House of Austria hath a root will up again.

  THOMAS WENTWORTH

  1.

  The death of Gustavus kindled once again a spark of hope for peace in Germany, which flickered up only to be ruthlessly extinguished. The war had now lasted for between fourteen and fifteen years, and almost any peace would have been welcome to almost everyone within the Empire. But those who had power to make a conclusion were divided in opinion. Had the choice depended on Ferdinand alone, he was ready to take the hopeful opportunity; so also were John George of Saxony and Arnim; so also was George William of Brandenburg, but his desire was qualified by the fear that Sweden might demand his heritage of Pomerania as the price of withdrawal.