CHAPTER I.
The opposition between the interests of the house of Hapsburg and of the German nation, and between the old and new faith, led to a bloody catastrophe. If any one should inquire how such a war could rage through a whole generation, and so fearfully exhaust a powerful people, he will receive this striking answer, that the war was so long and terrible, because none of the contending parties were able to carry it out on a great and decisive scale.
The largest armies in the Thirty years' war did not exceed in strength one corps of a modern army. Tilly considered forty thousand men the greatest number of troops that a general could wish to have. It was only occasionally that an army reached that strength; almost all the great battles were fought by smaller bodies of men. Numerous were the detachments, and very great were the losses by skirmishes, illnesses, and desertion. As there was no regular system for maintaining the strength of the army, its effective amount fluctuated in a remarkable way. Once, indeed, Wallenstein united a larger force under his command--according to some accounts a hundred thousand men--but they did not form one army, nay, they were hardly in any military connection, for the undisciplined bands with which, in 1629, he subdued the German territories of the Emperor, were dispersed over half Germany. Such large masses of soldiers appeared to all parties as a terrible venture; they could not, in fact, be kept under control, and after that, no general commanded more than half that number.[1]
An army in order of battle was considered as a movable fortress, the central point of which was the General himself, who ruled all the details; he had to survey the ground and every position, and every attack was directed by him. Adjutantcies and staff service were hardly established. It was part of the strategy to keep the army together in masses, to defend the ranks by earth works, and not to allow horse or man to be out of observation and control. In marching also, the army was kept close together in narrow quarters, generally within the space of a camp; from this arose commissariat difficulties, the high-roads were bad, often almost impassable, the conveyance of provisions compulsory, and always ill-regulated: and worst of all, the army was attended by an intense baggage-train, which, with the wild-robber system, quickly wasted the most fertile countries.
Great care was therefore taken that no such embarrassment should arise. Neither the Emperor nor the Princes of the Empire were in a condition to maintain forty thousand men out of their income even for three months. The regular revenue of the sovereign was much less than now, and the maintenance of an army far more costly. The greater part of the revenue was derived from tithes in kind, which in time of war was insecure and difficult to realize. The finances of the parties engaged in this war were even at the commencement of it in a most lamentable state.
In the winter of 1619 and 1620, half the Bohemian army died of hunger and cold, from the want of pay and a commissariat; in September 1620, more than four and a half million of gulden of pay was owing to the troops, and there were endless mutinies, and the King Palatine Frederick could not aid his Protestant allies with subsidies. The Emperor was then not in much better condition, but he soon afterwards obtained Spanish subsidies. When the Elector of Saxony, whose finances were better regulated, first hired fifteen hundred men in December, 1619, he could not pay them regularly. What was granted by the estates in war taxes, and the so-called voluntary contributions of the opulent, did not go far; loans even in the first year of the war were very difficult to realize; they were attempted with the banking-houses of southern Germany, and also in Hamburg, but seldom with success. City communities were considered safer debtors than the great princes. There were dealings about the smallest sums even with private individuals. Saxony in 1621, hoped to get from fifty to sixty thousand guldens from the Fuggers, and endeavoured in vain to borrow thirty and seventy thousand gulden from capitalists. Maximilian of Bavaria, and the League, made a great loan for the war of one million two hundred thousand gulden at twelve per cent, from the merchants in Genoa, for this the Fuggers became responsible, and the salt trade of Augsburg was given to them for their security. Just one hundred years before, this said banking-house had taken an important share in the election of the Emperor Charles V., and now it helped to secure the victory of the Roman Catholic party; for the Bohemian war was decided even more by the want of money than by the battle of the Weissen-Berge. Thus the war began with the governments being in a general state of insolvency; and therefore the maintenance of great armies became impossible.
It is evident that there was a fatal disproportion between the military strength of the parties and the ultimate object of every war. None of them could entirely subdue their opponents. The armies were too small, and had too little durability, to be able to control by regular strategic operations, the numerous and warlike people of wide-spread districts. Whilst a victorious army was ruling near the Rhine or the Oder, a new enemy was collecting in the north on the shores of the Baltic. The German theatre of war, also, was not so constituted as to be easily productive of lasting results. Almost every city, and many country seats were fortified. The siege guns were still unwieldy and uncertain in their aim, and the defence of fortified places was proportionably stronger than the attack. Thus war became principally a combat of sieges; every captured town weakened the victorious army, from the necessity of leaving garrisons. When a province had been conquered, the conqueror was often not in a position to withstand the conquered in open battle. By new exertion the conqueror was driven from the field; then followed fresh sieges and captures, and again fatal disruption of strength.
It was a war full of bloody battles and glorious victories, and also of excessive alternations of fortune. Numerous were the dark hero forms that loomed out of the chaos of blood and fire; the iron Ernst von Mansfeld, the fantastic Brunswicker, Bernhard of Weimar; and on the other side, Maximilian of Bavaria, and the generals of the League, Tilly, Pappenheim, and the able Mercy; the leaders of the Imperial army, the daring Wallenstein and Altringer; the great French heroes, Condé and Turenne, and amongst the Swedes, Horn, Bauer, Torstenson, Wrangel, and above all the mighty prince of war, Gustavus Adolphus. How much manly energy excited to the highest pitch, and yet how slow and poor were the political results obtained! how quickly was again lost, what appeared to have been obtained by the greatest amount of power! How often did the parties themselves change the objects after which they were striving, nay even the banner for which they desired victory!
The political events of the war can only be briefly mentioned here; they may be divided into three periods. The first, from 1618 to 1630, is the time of the Imperial triumphs. The Protestant estates of Bohemia, contrary to law and their own word, refused the Bohemian crown to the Archduke Ferdinand, and chose for their ruler the Elector Palatine, a reformer. But by means of the League and the Lutheran Electors of Saxony, Ferdinand became Emperor. His opponent was beaten in the battle of the Weissen-Berge, and left the country as a fugitive. Here and there, the Protestant opposition continued to blaze up, but divided, without plan, and with weak resources. Baden-Durlach, the Mansfelder, the Brunswicker, and lastly the circle of lower Saxony with the Danish King, succumbed to the troops of the League and the Emperor. Ferdinand II., who though Emperor, was still a fugitive in the states belonging to his house, obtained through the assistance of an experienced mercenary commander, Wallenstein, a large body of troops, whom he maintained in the territory of the principality by contribution and pillage. Ever greater did the Emperor's army continue to swell; ever higher rose his claims in Germany and Italy: the old idea of Charles V. after the Smalkaldic war became a living principle in the nephew; he would subdue Germany, as his predecessor had done the peasants and the estates in the Austrian provinces; he would crush all independence, the privileges of cities, the rights of the estates, the pride and family power of princes--he hoped to subjugate all Germany to his faith and his house. But throughout the whole of Germany sounded a cry of grief and indignation, at the horrible marauding war which was conducted by the merciless general of the Hapsburger. All the allies of the Imperial house rose threateningly against him. The Princes of the League, and above all Maximilian of Bavaria, looked abroad for help; they subdued the high spirit of the Emperor, and he was obliged to dismiss his faithful General and to control the barbarous army. Nay, more, even the Holy Father began to fear the Emperor. The Pope himself united with France in order to bring Swedish help to the Protestants. The lion of the north disembarked on the German coast.
Now began the second period of the war. The swelling billows of the Roman Catholic power had overflowed Germany even up to the Northern Sea. From 1630 to 1634 came the Protestant counter-current, which flowed in a resistless course from north to south over the third part of Germany. Even after the death of their king, the Swedish Generals kept their ascendency in the field; Wallenstein himself abandoned the Emperor, and was secretly murdered. The Roman Catholic party had begun to lose courage, when, by a last effort of collected strength, it won the bloody battle of Nördlingen.
Then followed the third period of fourteen years, from 1634 to 1648, in which victory and reverses were nearly equal on both sides. The Swedes, driven back to the Northern Sea, girding up their whole strength, again burst forth into the middle of Germany. Again the tide of fortune ebbed to and fro, becoming gradually less powerful. The French, greedy of booty, spread themselves as far as the Rhine; the land was devastated, and famine and pestilence raged. The Swedes, though losing one General after another, kept the field and maintained their claims with unceasing pertinacity. In opposition to them stood the equally inflexible Maximilian, Prince of the League. Even in the last decade of the war, the Bavarians fought for three years the most renowned campaigns which this dynasty has to boast of. The fanatical Ferdinand was dead, his successor, able, moderate, and an experienced soldier, persevered from necessity; he also was firm and tenacious. No party could bring about a decisive result. For years negotiations for peace were carried on; whilst the generals fought, the cities and villages were depopulated and the fields were overgrown with rank weeds. Peace came at last; it was not brought about by great battles, nor by irresistible political combinations, but chiefly by the weariness of the combatants, and Germany celebrated it with festivities though she had lost three fourths of her population.
All this gives to the Thirty years' war the appearance of foredoomed annihilation, ushered in as it was by the most fearful visitations of nature. Above the strife of parties a terrible fate spread its wings; it carried off the leaders and prostrated them in the dust, the greatest human strength became powerless under its hand; at last, satiated with devastation and death, it turned its face slowly from the country which had become a great charnel house.
It is not the intention of this work to characterize the Generals and battles belonging to this period of struggle, but to speak of the condition and circumstances of the German people, both of the destructive and suffering portions of the population, of the army, alike with the citizen and peasant. Since the Burgundian war and the Italian battles of Maximilian and Charles V., the burgher infantry had thrown into the background the knightly cavalry of the middle ages.
The strength of the German army consisted of Landsknechte, freemen, either citizens or peasants, and among them occasionally a few nobles. They were for the most part mercenaries, who bound themselves voluntarily by contract to some banner for a time. They carried on war like a trade, sternly, actively, and enduringly. But the full vigour of their power was of short duration: their decadence may be dated from their revolt against the old Fronsperg; from that hour when they broke the heart of their father, the gray-headed Landsknecht hero. Many things combined to corrupt this new infantry: they were mercenaries, serving only for a time, accustomed to change their banner, and not to fight for an idea, but only for booty or their own advantage. They were not called into existence in consequence of the application of gunpowder to the art of war; but they more especially appropriated this new invention to themselves. The introduction of fire-arms into the army, certainly first showed the weakness of their opponents, the old cavalry of knighthood, but at the same time soon caused the diminution of their own efficiency, for these weapons were too clumsy and slow to insure victory on the battle-field. The final result still depended on the rushing charge of the pikemen and the onslaught of their great masses on the enemy.
To this was added other detrimental circumstances; there were as yet no standing armies: when there was threatening of a feud, troops were assembled by the territorial lords great and small, and by the cities, and at the conclusion of the war they were dismissed. These wars were generally short and local; even the Hungarian wars were only summer campaigns of a few months. The German rulers, always in want of money, endeavoured to help themselves by the depreciation of the coinage, striking a lighter coin expressly for the payment of the soldiers, and also by faithlessly paying them less than had been agreed upon. This unworthy treatment demoralized the men, no less than the shortness of the service. Thus the Landsknechte became deceived deceivers, adventurers, plunderers and robbers.
The infantry at the beginning of the war used either firearms or pikes, the former to open the enemy's ranks, the latter to decide the battle by hand-to-hand fighting. At this period we find that the pikemen were the heavy infantry; they wore breastplates, brassarts, swords, and a pike eighteen feet long with an iron point, the handles of the best were of ash; the lance-corporals and subaltern officers had halberds and partisans. The two species of fire-arms which prevailed in the army were the musketoon (which with the Imperialists was a heavy weapon six feet long, with matchlocks and balls, of which there were ten in the pound) and the short handgun, a weapon of lighter and smaller calibre, which in the beginning of the war bore amongst the infantry the old name of arquebuss. The musketeer wore also at his side a hanger, a weapon with a small curved point, and over his shoulder a bandolier with eleven cylindrical cases in which the charges were placed, a match holder, and a musket rest, a staff with a metal point and two metal prongs, on the top of which the musketeer laid his weapon: his head was covered with a helmet or morion; this last piece of armour was soon discarded. The foot arquebussier did not carry a rest or a shoulder-belt; he loaded from his shot-pouch and powder-horn. There were pikemen and musketeers in the same company, and long even before the great war there were companies in which fire-arms alone were borne. Out of the light infantry were formed, in the middle of the war, what were called rifle companies, but among whom only a few had rifles. The grenadiers, who threw hand-grenades, were then formed in small numbers; for instance, in 1634, by the Swedes at the siege of Ratisbon.
At the beginning of the war the pikemen, as heavy infantry, were considered of importance, and they were put down in the muster-rolls as receiving double pay; but in the course of it they were found to be too unwieldy for long marches, helpless in attack, in short, almost useless, since the last decision of the battle now devolved upon the cavalry; thus they gradually sank into contempt, and the clever judgment pronounced by the jovial Springinsfeld, accurately expresses the view that was taken of their utility. "A musketeer is indeed a poor, much harassed creature; but he lives in splendid happiness compared to a miserable pikeman: it is vexatious to think what hardships the poor simpletons endure; no one who had not experienced it themselves could believe it, and I think whoever kills a pikeman whom he could save, murders an innocent man, and can never be excused such a barbarous deed: for although these poor draught oxen--they were so called in derision--are formed to defend their brigades in the open field from the onslaught of the cavalry, yet they themselves do no one any injury, and he who throws himself upon their long spears deserves what he gets. In short, I have during my life seen many sharp encounters, but seldom found that a pikeman ever caused the death of any one." Nevertheless the pikemen kept their ground till towards the end of the seventeenth century. The musketeers who were, however, the great mass of the infantry, were rendered more agile by Gustavus Adolphus; he discarded from the Swedish army the musket rests, lightened their weapons and the calibre of the balls, of which there were thirteen to the pound, and introduced instead of the rattling bandoliers, paper cartridges and pockets; but the musketeers, without bayonets, slow in firing, unaccustomed to fight in close ranks, were little fitted to decide an engagement.
The influence of the cavalry on the other hand increased. At the beginning of the war there were two contending principles concerning them, the method and arming of old knightly traditions were mixed up with the Landsknechte characteristics, many of whom were also horsemen. The heavy cavalry were still considered an aristocratic corps, the nobleman still placed himself with his charger, his knightly armour, his old knightly lance, and his troop of vassals, for whom he drew pay, under the standard of the cavalry regiments. But the war made an end gradually of this remnant of old customs. It was still, however, an object of ambition to join the army as a soldier of fortune, either with an esquire or alone, and whoever estimated himself highly or had made much booty, thronged to the cavalry standard. In the German army there were four kinds of regular cavalry, the Lancers, in full armour even to the knightly spurs, without shield, with the knightly lance or the spear of the Landsknechte, a sword, and two holster pistols; the Cuirassiers, with similar armour, pistols and sword; the Arquebussiers, called later Carbineers, half armed, with morion, and pistol proof back and breast pieces, with two pistols and an arquebuss on a small bandolier; finally the Dragoons, mounted pikemen, or musketeers, who fought either on foot or on horseback. Besides these there were irregular cavalry Croats, Stradiots, and Hussars, who almost a century before, in 1546, had made a great sensation in Germany when Duke Maurice of Saxony borrowed them from King Ferdinand of Bohemia. Their appearance was not displeasing; they wore Turkish armour, a sabre, and a targe, but they were wild robbers, and in the worst repute. Gustavus Adolphus brought to Germany only Cuirassiers and Dragoons. His Cuirassiers were more lightly armed than the Imperial, but far superior to them in energy of attack. During the whole war the endeavour of the cavalry was to lighten their heavy armour; the more the army separated into military companies the more pressing was the necessity for greater activity.
In the sixteenth century the heavy guns were very varied in calibre and length of barrel, and had divers curious names. The sharp metz, the carronade, culverin and nightingale, the singer, the falcon and the falconet, the field serpent and serpentine, with balls from one hundred pounds down to one pound, besides the organ,[2]mortars large and small, rifle-barrelled guns and rifles. But in the beginning of the Thirty years' war the forms were already simplified; they cast forty-eight, and twenty-four pounders, twelve and six pounders, with forty-two, twenty-four, twelve and six pound balls;[3]the first were fortress and siege guns, the last were field guns; besides these, disproportionately long culverins and falconets, also chamber pieces for throwing shells, or bomb mortars which were soon called howitzers, smaller mortars for throwing fire-balls, stinkpots, &c.; and in the beginning of the war bombarders, which fired pieces of iron, lead, small shot, and stones. Lastly from forged pieces they fired half-ounce bullets, double, single, and half-hooks, or grappling irons. But the length of the barrels of the guns was too long for balls; the powder was bad, and the aim consequently uncertain. Gustavus Adolphus introduced shorter and lighter guns; his leather cannon, made of copper cylinders with thick hemp and leather coverings[4]held together by iron hoops, soon ceased to be used, probably because they were not sufficiently durable, but his short four-pounders, two of which were given to every regiment, and which worked best with grape shot, lasted over the war. These field pieces fired not only from position but were moved with tolerable rapidity during action, but the bombardes and petards were unwieldy; the last were twisted round with ropes more like a sort of cannon than our bombs and grenades, but were of uncertain effect because the locks were badly prepared and they did not measure the time for the explosion. The old disposition of the Germans to give life to the inanimate had already in earlier times bestowed especial names on favourite guns, and the custom remained, even after pieces of the same calibre were cast in greater numbers; then particular guns, for example, were called after the planets, months, and signs of the zodiac, like a high sounding alphabet,[5]and in this case indicated by single letters. There was always a new name given according to the calibre, which in spite of all the simplification was still very varied. The progress of artillery and its influence on the conduct of war was impeded in the last half of the war by the want of experienced master gunners, the greater portion of them were infantry commanders; the loss of an artillery officer of capacity was difficult to replace.
The relative numbers of particular branches of the service were changed during the war. In the beginning the proportion of the cavalry to the infantry was as one to five, but soon they became one to three, and in the latter period they were sometimes the strongest. This striking fact is a proof both of the deterioration of the troops and of the art of war. In the exhausted country, the army could only be maintained by a strong force of cavalry, who could forage further and change their ground with more rapidity. As all who hoped for independence or booty pressed into the cavalry it was in better condition proportionately than the infantry, who at last were reduced to support themselves by reaping the scanty remains left by the horsemen. Undoubtedly the cavalry also became worse, the want of good horses was at last more sensibly felt than that of men, and the heavy cavalry could not be kept up, whilst in the last year the service of the scouts and foraging parties for the commissariat was brought to great perfection. Nevertheless the cavalry were the most effective, for it was their task to decide the battle by their charge. The last army with skilled infantry and Dutch discipline was that of Bavaria under Mercy, from 1643 to 1645.
The tactics of armies had slowly altered in the course of the century. The old Landsknecht army advanced to battle in three great squares,--the advanced guard, the main body, and the rear guard--disregarding roads and corn-fields; before it went pioneers, who filled in ditches and cut down hedges to clear the way for the bulky mass. For battle, the deep square masses of infantry placed themselves side by side, each square mass consisted of many companies, sometimes of many regiments; the cavalry formed in a similar deep position at the wings. There was no regular reserve, only sometimes one of the three masses was kept back for the final decision; a select body of men, the forlorn hope, was formed for dangerous service, such as forcing the passage of a river, covering an important point, or turning the enemy's flank. Since fire-arms had prevailed over pikes, these great battalions were surrounded by files of sharpshooters, and at last special bodies of sharpshooters were formed and attached to them. In the war in the Netherlands, the unwieldiness of these heavy squares led to breaking the order of battle into smaller tactical bodies. But it was only slowly, that formation in line and a system of reserve were organized. Much of the old method continued in the Imperial army in the beginning of the war. Still the companies of infantry were united in deep squares--in battalions. To take firm positions and assume defensive warfare had become too much the custom in inglorious campaigns against the wild storming Turks. The weight and tenacity of deep masses might certainly be effective, but if the enemy succeeded in bringing his guns to bear upon them, they suffered fearfully, and were very unwieldy in all their movements. Gustavus Adolphus adopted the tactical innovations of the Netherlanders in an enlightened way; when in battle he placed the infantry six, and the cavalry only three deep; he distributed the great masses into small divisions, which firmly connected together, formed the unity of the Swedish brigade; he strengthened the cavalry, placing between them companies of sharpshooters, and introduced light artillery regiments besides those that were in reserve and position, and accustomed his soldiers to rapid offensive movements and daring advances. His infantry fired quicker than the Imperial, and at the battle of Breitenfeld the old Walloon regiments of Tilly were routed by their close platoon firing; he also laid down for his cavalry, those very rules by which a century later Frederick the Great made his, the first in the world; viz., not to stop in order to fire, but at the quickest pace to rush upon the enemy.
During the battle the soldiers recognized one another by their war-cries and distinguishing marks, the officers by their scarfs. For example, at Breitenfeld Tilly's army wore white bands on their hats and helmets, and white lace round the arm, and the Swedes had green branches. The Imperial colour in the field was red, therefore Gustavus Adolphus prohibited his Swedes from wearing that colour,[6]the scarfs of the Swedish officers at the battle of Lützen were green, those of Electoral Saxony during the war were black and yellow, and later, after the acquisition of the Polish crown, red and white.
The soldiers were formed in troops or companies, and these were combined in regiments which had administrative unity. The German infantry regiments consisted of three thousand men, in ten companies of three hundred men; they seldom reached their normal strength, and lost their men in the war with frightful rapidity, so that there were frequently regiments of from a thousand to three hundred, and companies of seventy to thirty men. Cavalry regiments were required to be from five hundred to a thousand men strong; the numbers of the troops were different, and their effective war strength was still more variable.
The titles and duties of officers had already much similarity to the modern German organization. He who had raised a regiment for his Sovereign, was called the colonel of the regiment, even if he had the rank of General; under him were the Lieutenant-colonel and Major. More important for the object of these pages were the officers of companies; the Captain of infantry or cavalry, with his Lieutenant, an Ensign, and sergeant, or troop sergeant-major, non-commissioned officers and lance-corporals, and finally the provost-marshal.
When an officer at the mustering of his company in a circle, was installed as chief captain and father, he begged his dear soldiers, in a friendly manner, to be true and obedient to him, recounted to them their duties, promised to stand by them in every emergency, and as an honest man, devote himself to them in life or death, and leave them whatever he had. Unfortunately the captain's first duty was to be faithful in money concerns, both towards the colonel and his own soldiers, to procure clever good soldiers for the reviewing officer, not to charge for more mercenaries than was right, and to give the soldiers their full pay; but this seldom happened. The temptation to a system of fraudulent gain was great, and conscientiousness in the uncertain life of war was a virtue which quickly disappeared; even the most honourable fell upon dangerous rocks when the pay had been long in arrear, or not fully given. Besides this, it was necessary for him to be an energetic experienced man, just and kind in disposition, but strict in maintaining rights. During the week, he was, according to the old proverb, to look severe, and not to smile upon the soldiers before Sunday; when there was preaching in the camp, the soldiers sat on the ground, but stood up, taking their hats off, before the captain, but he who wore a morion kept it on. On the march, the captain rode, but before the enemy he went on foot, carrying either the pike or the musket of his company.[7]
The banner of the infantry, which was held sacred by the company, had a standard about the size of ours, but the silken flag, like an enormous sail, reached almost to the end of the standard; it was of heavy material, according to the taste of that time, with allegorical pictures painted on it, and short Latin sentences beautifully illuminated. The "cornete" of the cavalry, sometimes vandyked, were smaller, and fixed to the standard like our banners. The regiments were sometimes called after the colours of the banners; for example, in Electoral Saxony, where the ground of the banners was always of two colours, they were called the black and yellow, blue and white, red and yellow, regiments; each of the ten banners of the regiment also had its especial emblem and motto, and different combinations of the regimental colours, grained, striped and in squares, yet the chief standard showed the regimental colours only on the border. The "cornete" of the cavalry had a ground of only one colour: the corps of cavalry were denoted according to the colours of their banners, and not by their uniforms, which they hardly ever wore; for example:--"two corps of orange-coloured cornet cuirassiers," "five corps of steel-green cornet arquebussiers." The Swedes also distinguished their brigades, which were in Germany frequently called regiments, by the colour of their banners; thus, besides the yellow (Body Guard) there were the green, blue, white, and red. The colours of regiments were often chosen from the armorial bearings of the colonel, especially if he had raised the regiment. Gradually, however, it became the custom in all the armies to call the regiments after the names of the officers.
The flag was attached to the standard and erected in the midst of the circle of enlisted soldiers; then the Colonel delivered the banner to the Ensign, and thus gave it into his charge:--"As your bride or your own daughter, from the right hand to the left; and if both your arms should be shot or cut off, you should take it with your mouth; and if you cannot preserve it thus, wrap yourself therein, commit yourself to God so to be slain, and die as an honourable man." As long as the colours were flying, and a piece of the standard left, the soldiers were to follow the Ensign to the death, till all should lie in a heap on the battle-field, that no evildoer or blameworthy person should be sheltered by the flag; if any one should transgress against the banner oath, the Ensign was to furl the banner, and forbid the transgressor to march under it or mount guard, and he was obliged to go among the bad women and children with the baggage till the affair was arranged: the Ensign was not to leave the colours a single night without permission; when he slept he was to have them by him, and never to separate himself from them; if they should be torn from the standard by treachery or some roguish attendant, the Ensign should be delivered over to the common soldiers to be judged for life or death, according to their will. It was necessary for him to be tall, powerful, manly, and valiant, and a cheerful companion, friendly to every one, a mediator and peace-maker; he was not to inflict punishment on any one, that he might incur no hatred. In the open field under the unfurled colours appointments were declared and the articles of war read. A trooper was not, without permission, to be out of sight of the colours when the army was marching or encamped; whoever fled from the colours in battle was to die for it, and whoever killed him was to be unpunished: if an Ensign should abandon a fort or redoubt before he had held out against three assaults without relief, he transgressed the rules of war; a regiment lost its colours if from cowardice it yielded a fortress before the time. It was not long since pike-law was given up, the severe tribunal of the Landsknechte, where, before the circle of common soldiers, the provost-marshal accused the evil-doer, and forty chosen men, officers and soldiers, pronounced judgment: at the beginning of the trial the Ensigns furled their colours, and reversed them with the iron point in the ground, and demanded a sentence, because the colours could not fly over an evil-doer. If the transgressor was condemned to the spear, or to be shot by the arquebussiers, then the Ensign thanked them for their judgment on the offender, unfurled the colours, and caused them to fly towards the east, comforted the poor sinner, and promised to meet him halfway, and thereby to deliver him by taking him under the protection of the colours. When the line of pikes was formed they went to the end of it with their backs towards the sun; but the transgressor had to bless the soldiers and pray for a speedy death, then the provost gave him three strokes with his staff on the right shoulder and pushed him into the lane. Whoever had disgraced himself, if the colours were waved three times over him, was freed from his disgrace. The Ensign received every three years, money for a new flag or dress (from eighty to a hundred gulden), and for that he was to make a present to the company of two casks of beer or wine.
The office of Cornet of cavalry was less responsible. It was his duty to rush vigorously upon the enemy, and after the attack to raise his standard on high, that his people might collect round him. In the Hungarian war the Cornet passed sometimes into the rank of Lieutenant, and in some regiments (the Wallenstein army for instance) this custom was kept up.
The most important man of the company next to the Captain was the Sergeant; he was the drill-master and spokesman for the soldiers, and had to mark out with flags the position to be taken up by the troops of the Imperial batons, or Swedish brigades, to arrange the men, placing in the front and rear ranks and at the sides, the best armed and most efficient men, to mingle the halberds and short weapons, to lead and keep with the arquebussiers; he was the instructor of the company, and knew the proper and warlike use of his weapons.
As the "mob" who came together from for and near under a banner were difficult to keep in order, the greater part of them not to be depended on, and unskilled in the exercise of their weapons, the number of non-commissioned officers was necessarily very great, frequently indeed they formed more than a third of the troop. Any one who had military capacity or could be depended upon, was marked out by the subordinate commander for higher pay and posts of confidence. Amongst the numerous functions and manifold designations of the subalterns, some are particularly characteristic. In the beginning of the war every company had, according to the oldLandsknechtcustom, their "leader," who, in the first instance at least, was chosen by the soldiers. He was the tribune of the company, their spokesman, who had to lay their grievances and wishes before the Captain, and to represent the interests of the soldiery. It may easily be understood that such an arrangement did not strengthen the discipline of the army; it was done away with in time of war. Even the thankless office of quartermaster was of greater importance than now; the complaints of the soldiers, who quarrelled about the bad quarters he had provided for them, he met with defiance, and inspired them with fear of his usurious practices. When a company came to a deserted village, the serjeants threw their knives into the hat of the quartermaster; he then went from house to house, sticking the blades as they came to his hand in the door-posts, and every band (of six or eight men) followed their leader's knife. When poor members of the nobility, candidates for commission, of whom the number was often great, presented themselves, their names were inscribed on the list of lance-corporals. Old vagabonds full of pretension were designated in the military kitchen Latin by the title of "Ambesaten," and afterwards "Landspassaten;" they were orderlies and messengers receiving higher pay, representatives and assistants of the Corporals. There was a general endeavour to add a deputy to every office, as the Lieutenant to the Captain, an under Ensign to the Ensign, to the Serjeant an under Serjeant, and frequently with the infantry a vidette for the sentinels at out-posts; in the same way serjeants were deputies to the officers, and the "Landspassaten" to the Corporal, and the provost to the provost-general, &c., &c.
The army consisted, with few exceptions, of enlisted soldiers. The Sovereign empowered an experienced leader by patent to raise for him an army, a regiment, or a company; recruiting places were sought for and a muster place established where the recruits were collected. The recruits were paid their travelling expenses or bounty; at the beginning of the war this was insignificant, and sometimes deducted from their pay, but later the bounty increased, and was given to the soldiers. At the beginning of the war negotiations were carried on with every mercenary, about the pay, at the muster-place. The soldier in quarters received nothing but his pay, which in 1600, for the common foot soldier, amounted to from fifteen to sixteen gulden a month.[8]With this they had to procure for themselves weapons, clothing, and food. Garrisons were provided with stores by the quarter-master, the cost being reimbursed to him. During the great war, however, the arrangements about pay were often deviated from, the distribution of it to the soldiers was very irregular.
In the Imperial army the pay, exclusive of food, was nine gulden to the pikeman and six to the musketeer. In the Swedish army it was still lower, but was in the beginning more regularly paid, and there was more care about the provisions. The whole sustenance of the army was charged upon the province by a hard system of requisition, even on friendly territory. The maintenance of the upper officers was very high, and yet formed only a small share of their income. During the time of service the troops were entered on the muster-roll by a court of comptrol, the reviewing officer, or commissary of the Prince; in order to prevent the officers and commanders drawing too much pay, when they were assembled round the flag, the names of the deserters were written apart, and beside each name a gallows was painted. At the time of muster if any one was unserviceable or had served a long time, he was taken off the muster-roll, and declared free, given his discharge, and provided with a pass or certificate. Whoever wished for leave, obtained a pass from the Ensign. The soldier had to clothe himself, uniforms were only found exceptionally; the halberdiers of the life-guards, and the heavily armed cavalry, so far as armour was concerned, were generally furnished by the Sovereign; but before the war it was only occasionally done, and then pay was deducted for it, or the Colonel took back the armour after the campaign.
The military discipline of the Germans was, in the beginning of the war, in the worst repute. The German soldiers were considered by other nations as idle, turbulent, refractory bullies;[9]they had been not a little spoilt by service in half-barbarous countries, as Hungary and Poland then were, and against the barbarian Turks. When individuals had to chaffer about their pay, discontent began; when the Captain would not satisfy the claims of the enlisted mercenary, the malcontent threw his musket angrily at the feet of the former, and went off with the money for his travelling-expenses, there was no means of detaining him. Though the Ensign was bound by oath, the Captain only too frequently found advantage in favouring plunder and the nightly desertion of the banner, for he had his share of the soldier's booty; the worst thieves were the best bees.
The paymasters were always deeply hated, because they generally gave the regiments short pay and bad coin; they and other commissaries of the sovereign were exposed to much insult when they came to the camp. The worst things are related of the Commanders-in-chief, above all, that they received more pay than they distributed to the soldiers; still worse were the Generals. Frequently open mutiny broke out, and then the mutineers placed a Colonel or Captain in the middle of them, and chose him for their leader. The same thing took place in Hungary. Indeed it happened, during the armistice preceding the Westphalian peace, that in a Bavarian dragoon regiment, a corporal of the garrison of Hilperstein nominated himself Colonel of the regiment, and by the help of his comrades drove away the officers; the regiment was surrounded by loyal soldiers, the new Colonel with eighteen of the ringleaders were executed, the muskets were taken from the regiment, it was resworn and formed anew as a cavalry regiment. The arrears of pay were the usual cause of mutiny. In the year 1620, the regiment of Count Mansfeld mutinied. He began to pay, but meanwhile leaving his tent, struck down two of the soldiers with his own hands, severely wounding them; he then mounted his horse, sprang into the midst of the mutineers, and shot many of them. He alone with three captains subdued the insolence of six hundred men, after having slain eleven, and severely wounded six-and-twenty. If it was difficult to secure obedience to military commands whilst the banner was waving, still greater was the burst of resentment when it was furled and the regiment was disbanded. Then the provost, the prostitutes, and the soldiers' sons hid themselves; the Captain, Lieutenant, and other commanders were obliged to submit to abusive language and challenges, and to hear themselves thus accosted: "Ha, you fellow, you have been my commander, now you are not a jot better than I; a pound of your hair is of no more importance to me than a pound of cotton; out with you, let's have a scuffle!" Whenever punishment was administered, the commanders were in danger from the revenge of the culprit or his friends. The disbanded soldiers quarrelled amongst each other, as they did with their officers, and sometimes there were as many as a hundred parties in one place engaged in duelling. The most wanton death-blows were dealt, and murders perpetrated, such as have never been heard of since the beginning of Christianity. When the banner was unfurled, it was customary for the combatants to join hands and vow to fight out their quarrel when their term of service was ended, and till then to live together in brotherly love. When this disbanding took place, the most disorderly of the soldiers combined together and began an "armour cleaning" of those comrades to whom, during service, the officers had shown favour; that is to say, they robbed them of all, deprived them of their clothes, beat and almost killed them. All these crimes were tolerated, and the powerless commander-in-chief looked passively on these proceedings as a mere custom of war.
During the Hungarian campaigns the soldiers adopted the habit of only remaining by their banners during the summer months; they found their reckoning in serving a short time, and mutinying if more was desired of them; for during the autumn and winter they went with two, three, or more boys as "Gartbrüder"[10]through the country, a fearful plague to the farmers in eastern Germany. In the frontier countries, Silesia, Austria, Bohemia, and Styria, it was even commanded by the sovereigns to pay a farthing to every soldier who was roving about as "Gartbrüder." Thus by their refractory conduct they daily obtained a gulden or more; their boys pilfered where they could, and were notorious poachers. Wallhausen, whilst making other energetic complaints, reckons that the support of a standing army would cost less to the princes and states, and secure greater success against the enemy, than this old bad system.
More than once during the long war, these wild armies were brought under the constraint of strict discipline by the powerful will of individuals, and each time great military successes were obtained; but this was not of any duration. The discipline of the Wallenstein army was excellent in a military point of view; but what the commander permitted with regard to citizens and peasants was horrible. Even Gustavus Adolphus could not preserve for more than a year, the strict discipline which on his landing in Pomerania was so triumphantly lauded by the Protestant ecclesiastics. It is true that the military law and articles of war contained a number of legal rules for all soldiers, concerning the forbearance to be observed even in an enemy's land towards the people and their property. The women, invalids, and aged were under all circumstances to be spared, and mills and ploughs were not to be injured. But it is not by the laws themselves, but by the administration of them, that we can judge of the peculiar characteristics of a period.
The punishments were in themselves severe. With the Swedes,--for the embezzlement of money intended for the hospitals or invalid soldiers, the wooden horse with its iron fittings was awarded, or running the gauntlet (for this hardy fellows were hired to take upon them the punishment), or loss of the hand, shooting, or hanging. For whole divisions,--the loss of their banners, cleaning the camp and lying outside it, and decimation. In the beginning of the war many of the old Landsknecht customs were maintained, for instance, their criminal court of justice, in which the law was decided by the people through select jurymen. And before the war, together with this, court-martials had been introduced. During the war a military tribunal was organized according to the modern German method, under the presidency of the advocate-general, and the provost-marshal superintended the execution. But even in punishments there was a difference between the army and the citizens and peasants. The soldier was put in irons, but not in the stocks or in prison; no soldier was ever hanged on a common gallows, or in a common place of execution, but on a tree or on a special gallows, which was erected in the city for the soldiers in the market-place; the old form by which the delinquent was given over to the hangman was thus expressed: "He shall take him to a green tree and tie him up by the neck, so that the wind may blow under and over him, and the sun shine on him for three days; then shall he be cut down and buried according to the custom of war." But the perjured deserter was hanged to a withered tree. Whoever was sentenced to death by the sword, was taken by the executioner to a public place, where he was cut in two, the body being the largest and the head the smallest portion. The provost and his assistant also were in nowise dishonoured by their office; even the avoided executioner's assistant, the "Klauditchen" of the army, who was generally taken from among the convicts, and who was allowed to choose between punishment and this dishonourable office, could, if he fulfilled his office faithfully, become respectable when the banner was unfurled; he could then receive his certificate like any other gallant soldier, and no one could speak evil of him.
There was one circumstance which distinguished the armies of the Thirty years' war from those of modern days, and which made their entrance into a province like an eruption of a heterogeneous race of strangers: each soldier, in spite of his short term of service in the field, was accompanied by his household. Not only the higher officers, but also the troopers and foot-soldiers, took their wives, and still more frequently their mistresses with them in a campaign. Women from all countries, adorned to the utmost of their power, followed the army, and sought entrance into the camp, because they had a husband, friend, or cousin there. At the mustering or disbanding of a regiment, even respectable maidens were, through the most cruel artifices, carried off by disorderly bands, and when the money was all spent, left sometimes without clothes, or at some carousal sold from one to another. The women who accompanied the soldiers cooked and washed for them, nursed the sick, provided them with drink, bore their blows, and on the march carried the children and any of the plunder or household implements which could not be conveyed by the baggage waggons. It is known that the King of Sweden on his first arrival in Germany would not suffer any such women in the camp; but after his return from Franconia, this strict discipline seems to have ceased. Whoever peruses the old church records of the village parishes will find sometimes the names of maidens, who, having been carried off, returned at the end of a year to their village home, and submitted themselves to the severest Church penances in order to die amongst the ruined population of their birthplace. The women of the camp were also under martial law. For great offences they were flogged, and driven out of the camp; the soldiers too were hard masters, and little of what had been promised them in the beginning was kept.
The children accompanied the women. In the Swedish army military schools were established by Gustavus Adolphus, in which the children were instructed even in the camp. In these migratory schools strict military discipline prevailed, and a story, which cannot be warranted, is told of a cannonball having passed through a school in the Swedish camp, and having killed many of the children, but the survivors continued their sum in arithmetic.
Some soldiers maintained one or more lads, a crafty, stubborn set of good-for-nothings, who waited upon their masters, cleaned their horses, sometimes bore their armour, and fed their shaggy dogs; nimble spies who prowled about far and near on the traces of opulent people, and on the look-out for concealed money.
The plundering by the baggage-train was almost worse in a friendly country. When the soldiers with the women and children came to a farmhouse, they pounced like hawks upon the poultry in the yard, then broke open the doors, seized upon the trunks and chests, and with abusive language, threatened, importuned and destroyed, what they could not consume or take away. On decamping they compelled the owner to horse his waggons and take them to their next quarters. Then they filled the waggons with the clothes, beds, and household goods of the farmers, binding round their bodies what could not otherwise be carried away.
"Frequently," says the indignant narrator Wallhausen, "the women did not choose to be drawn by oxen, and it was necessary to procure horses, sometimes from a distance of six miles, to the great cost of the country people, and when they came with the waggons to the nearest quarters, they would not allow the poor people to return home; but dragged them with them to another territory, and at last stole the horses and made off."
In the beginning of the war, a German infantry regiment had to march for some days through the country of their own sovereign; there were as many women and children with the baggage-train, as soldiers, and they stole in eight days from the subjects of their sovereign almost sufficient horses for each soldier to ride. The colonel, a just and determined man, frequently dragged the soldiers himself from the horses, and at last enforced their restoration by extreme severity. But it was impossible to prevent the women from riding; there was not one who had not a stolen horse, and if they did not ride them they harnessed them three or four together to the peasants' carts.
Only a few of the otherwise copious writers of that time make mention of this despised portion of the army; yet there are sufficient accounts, from which we may conclude that great influence was produced by the baggage-train on the fate of the army and the country. Especially by the enormous extent of it. At the end of the sixteenth century Adam Junghans reckons, that in a besieged fortress where the camp-followers were reduced to the smallest possible number, to three hundred infantry soldiers, there were fifty women and forty children, besides sutlers, horseboys, &c., &c., somewhat more than a third of the soldiers. But in the field the proportion was quite different even in the beginning of the war. Wallhausen reckons as indispensable to a German regiment of infantry, four thousand women, children, and other followers. A regiment of three thousand men had at least three hundred waggons, and every waggon was full to repletion of women, children, and plundered goods; when a company broke up from its quarters, it was considered an act of self-denial if it did not carry away with it thirty or more waggons. At the beginning of the war a regiment of north German soldiers, three thousand strong, started from the muster-place where it had remained some time, followed by two thousand women and children.
From that time the baggage-train continued increasing to the end of the war. It was only for a brief space of time that great commanders, like Tilly, Wallenstein, and Gustavus Adolphus were able to diminish this great plague of the army. In 1648, at the end of the great war, the Bavarian General, Gronsfeld, reports that in the Imperial and Bavarian armies there were forty thousand soldiers who drew war rations, and a hundred and forty thousand who did not; on what were these to subsist if they did not obtain their food by plunder, especially as in the whole country where the army encamped, there was not a single place where a soldier could buy a bit of bread. In the year 1648 the camp-followers were more than three times the number of the fighting-men. These numbers tell more significantly than any deductions, what a dreadful amass of misery surrounded these armies.
Before we proceed to describe the influence which armies thus composed exercised upon the life of the German people, we must once more remind the reader, that this monstrous evil was not created by the Thirty years' war, but for the most part already in existence. Some observations will therefore be here introduced from the above-quoted and now rare little book, written by Adam Junghans von der Olnitz, at that period when the worth and capacity of the old Landsknecht army passed away into the wild dissolute life of mercenaries. It appears here as the prologue to the monstrous tragedy which began twenty years later.
"Each and every officer, captain of horse, or other captain, knows well that no doctors, magisters, or any other God-fearing people, follow in his train, but only a heap of ill-disposed lads, out of all kinds of nations; strange folks, who leave wives and children, abandon their duties, and follow the army; all that will not follow the pursuits of their fathers and mothers, must follow the calf-skin which is spread over the drum, till they come to a battle or assault, where thousands lie on the field of battle, shot or cut to pieces; for a Landsknecht's life hangs by a hair, and his soul flutters on his cap or his sleeve. Besides, three kinds of herbs always grow with war; these are, sharp rule, fifty forbidden articles, and severe judgment with speedy sentence, which fits many a neck with a hempen collar.
"It is not enough that a soldier should be strong, straight, manly, tyrannical, bloody-minded, in his actions like a grim lion, and behave like a bully, as if he himself would catch and eat the devil alone, so that none of his comrades should partake of him; but these trigger-pullers wantonly bring themselves to destruction by their stupidity, and other good fellows with them. Another is a snorer, and a kicker, and stamps like a wild horse on the straw, and when he goes into battle, and the balls whistle about his head, he is a martyr and poor sinner, who would for very fear soil his hosen, and allow his weapon to fall from his hand. But when they sit at the tap, or in the cantinières' stalls, or in public-houses, then they have seen much and can do nothing but fight, then a fly on the wall irritates them, there is no peace with them, then they are ready to fight the enemy with great curses. Such 'bear-prickers' are generally found out; one seldom finds one who is not maimed in the hands or arms, or has a scar on the cheek, and they have never really all their lives long, faced the enemy. The captain may well keep clear of such fellows, for they are generally seditious mutineers. A wise soldier avoids quarrels and public-house brawls whenever he can, that he may have his skin whole and uninjured to bring in front of the enemy. To be wounded by the enemy is an honour, but he who injures himself wantonly must expect scorn and derision, and is of no use to any army. Such a fellow must remain all his life a paltry beggar; he roves about the country, begs bread and sells it again, feeds like a wolf, and when the rats and mice are drowned in the countrywoman's milk, he maintains himself on the cheese made from it, and must submit to the rough words of the peasants, and herd with other poor beggars to the end of his life. Besides these, there are many who wish to be soldiers, mothers' sons, beardless boys, like young calves, who know nothing of suffering, who have sat beside the stove and roasted apples, and lain in warm beds. When they are brought to a foreign country, and meet with all kind of strange arrangements, food, drink, and other things, they are like soft eggs that flow through the fingers, or like paper when it lies in the water. It is thus not only with foot Landsknechte, but also with young nobles. When they are led to the field in devastated countries, where all is consumed and laid waste, and they can no longer carry their well-filled bread wallets and drinking-flasks on their necks, they first pine away, hunger and thirst, then eat and drink unusual things, from which result all kinds of maladies. These delicate vagabonds ought to remain at home, attend to the tillage, or sit in the shop by the pepper-bags, and shift for themselves, as their fathers and mothers have done, fill their stomachs at eventide, and go to bed; thus they would not be slain in war. It is truly said that soldiers must be hardy and enduring people, like unto steel and iron, and like the wild beasts that can eat all kinds of food. According to the jocose saying, the Landsknechte must be able to digest the points of their wheel-nails; nothing must come amiss to them, even if necessity required that they should eat dogs' or cats' flesh, and the flesh of horses from the meadow must be like good venison to them, with herbs unseasoned by salt or butter. Hunger teaches to eat, if one has not seen bread for three weeks. Drink one may have gratis, for if one can get no water from the brook, one can drink with the geese out of the pond or the puddle. One must sleep under a tree, or in the field; there is plenty of earth to lie on, and of sky for a canopy; such must often be the Landsknecht's sleeping-room, and from such a bed no feathers will stick to his hair. Hence arises the old quarrel between the fowls and geese and the Landsknechte, because the former can always sleep in feathers, whilst the latter must often lie in straw. There is another animal that clashes with the Landsknechte, that is the cat; as the soldiers know well how to pilfer, they are enemies to the cats, and friendly to the dogs. According to the old doggerel, a Landsknecht should always have with him a beautiful woman, a dog, and a young boy, a long spear, and a short sword; he is free to seek any master who will give him service. A Landsknecht must make three campaigns before he can become an honourable man. After the first campaign, he must return home wearing torn clothes; after the second, he should return with a scar on one cheek, and be able to tell much of alarms, battles, skirmishes and storming parties, and to show by his scars that he has got the marks of a Landsknecht; after the third, he should return well appointed, on a fine charger, bringing with him a purse full of gold, so that he may be able to distribute whole dollars as he would booty-pence.
"It is truly said, that a soldier must have to eat and drink, whether it is paid for by the sacristan or the priest; for a Landsknecht has neither house nor farm, cows nor calves, and no one to bring him food; therefore he must procure it himself wherever it is to be found, and buy without money whether the peasants look sweet or sour. Sometimes they must suffer hunger and evil days, at others they have abundance, and indeed such superfluity, that they might clean their shoes with wine or beer. Then their dogs eat roast; the women and children get good appointments, they become stewards and cellarers of other people's property. When the householder is driven away with his wife and children, the fowls, geese, fat cows, oxen, pigs, and sheep have a bad time of it. The money is portioned out in their caps, velvet and silk stuffs and cloth are measured out by long spears; a cow is slaughtered for the sake of the hide; chests and trunks are broken open, and when all has been plundered and nothing more remains, the house is set on fire. That is the true Landsknecht's fire, when fifty villages and country towns are in flames. Then they go to other quarters and do the like again; this makes soldiers jolly, and is a desirable life for those who do not pay for it. This entices to the field many a mother's child, who does not return home, and forgets his friends. For the proverb says: 'The Landsknechte have crooked fingers and maimed hands for work, but for pilfering and plundering all the maimed hands become sound.' That has been so before our days, and will remain so truly after us. The longer the Landsknechte learn this handiwork the better they do it, and become circumspect, like the three maidens who had four cradles made, the fourth as a provision in case one of them had two children. Wherever the soldiers come, they bring with them the keys of all the rooms, their axes and hatchets, and if there are not enough stalls in a place for their horses, it does not signify, they stall them in the churches, monasteries, chapels, and best rooms. If there is no dry wood for fire, it matters not, they burn chairs, benches, ploughs, and everything that is in the house; if they want green wood, no one need go far, they cut down the fruit trees in the nearest orchard; for they say, whilst we live here we keep house, to-morrow we go off again into the country, therefore, Mr. Host, be comforted; you have a few guests you would gladly be free from, therefore give freely and write it on the slate. When the house is burnt the account is burnt also. This is the Landsknechts' custom; to make a reckoning and ride off, and pay when we return.
"The French, Italians, and Walloons are as adverse to the Germans as to dogs, but the Spaniards are friendly to them; they however have an unheard-of weakness for women, and are disposed to profligate and godless conduct. Altogether, the Germans are but little thought of by these nations, who call them nothing but drunkards, proud featherpates, mighty braggadocios, blasphemers of God, 'Hans Muffmaff' with the beggar's wallet, who would willingly play the great man. And if one comes to look at it, it is not far from the truth. For there is a new custom amongst the North Germans when they go to war, or collect together under a master, they spend all their goods and possessions on ostentatious splendour, as if they were going to a bride, or riding to a banquet. Thus the Germans who were formerly called the Blackriders, come riding along with silver daggers, seven pound in weight, in velvet clothes, and shining boots, with short holster pistols inlaid with ivory, and large wide padded sleeves; they are ashamed of carrying cuirass or armour, or indeed a spear, or any other murderous weapons, as in the olden time. Hence it arises, that they never hold together. Then when Hans Spaniard comes with his tilting spear and proof armour, these chaw-bacons, with their short holster pistols, must run away or yield their money and blood.
"Further, it is a misfortune to the Germans, that they take to imitating, like monkeys and fools. As soon as they come amongst other soldiers, they must have Spanish or other outlandish clothes. If they could babble foreign languages a little, they would associate themselves with Spaniards and Italians. The Germans would like to mingle with foreign nations, and take pleasure in outlandish dress and manners, 'but one should not place the vermin in the fur, it comes there without.' It is clear that foreign people have become our neighbours, and it is to be feared that they will in a few years come nearer. The frontier lords, who still rest in tranquillity, fight against the wind, speak quite wisely thereupon, comfort themselves, and have in talk, all their cities and villages full of soldiers to defend the country and withstand all enemies. But I fear that they prefer sitting by the stove in winter, and in the shade in summer, playing draughts, or striking the guitar, or dancing withJungfrauGreta, to providing their houses with good weapons or armour.
"On this account, and because all foreign nations cry out all over Germany, 'Cruci, cruci, mordio, mordio!' and grind their teeth like ravenous wolves, and desire and hope to bathe in German blood, one must earnestly pray God not to withdraw his hand, but to take under his protection this little vessel, tossed on the wild sea, cover it with his wings, and preserve it from all storms; for we see how the Roman Empire has declined from day to day, and still continues to do so. These sufferings come from nothing but the proceedings of the ecclesiastics, whereof the whole world complains. If one finds one right-minded preacher there are ten to the contrary; every tradesman praises his own wares, everyone will feed his own flock, and lead them the right way to heaven, yet no one knows, save the devil and our Lord, where the false shepherds go to themselves. Every one abuses, slanders, and condemns the other; when they stand in the pulpit, the devil is their preceptor, who helps them to manage so that one kingdom is at variance with another, one country rebellious against the other; neighbour can no longer agree with neighbour; nay one finds even at one table four or five different faiths, one will worship on this mountain and another on yonder. May the eternal Almighty God strengthen the hearts of the dear North Germans, give them an upright spirit, and raise them up again, that they may one day rise from the ashes, and renew their ancient repute, and their good name. God help the righteous."
Thus writes an honourable officer before the year 1600.