Sigrid Vasa, the daughter of Eric XIV., was twice married to members of the Swedish nobility. Ake Henricsson Tott, her son of the first marriage, was a distinguished warrior in the times of Gustavus II. Adolphus. Queen Carin died, in 1612, beloved and highly respected, at the beautiful estate of Liuksiala in Finland, given her in fief by King John.
John III.succeeded Eric, without sharing his power with his younger brother Charles, as he had promised. John was as learned and highly talented as Eric, and as vain, restless and unreliable. But while Eric was a mystic and a sceptic by turns, John was a Catholic, or leaning toward Catholicism, and a hypocrite who, under the pretence of meekness and piety, tried to hide his vanity, bad temper and utter selfishness. Like Gustavus I. and all his other sons, John was devoted to the fine arts, particularly to architecture, with an ardor that reached the vehemence of a passion. He planned a vast number of churches and castles, which he completed, utterly regardless of cost. The Swedish Castle Renaissance which was established by John and his brothers is influenced by contemporary Flemish art, severe and majestic in outline, graceful and profuse in interior decoration. Good specimens of it were the earlier castles of Stockholm and Svartsjœ, the castle of Vadstena remains so and, to a great extent, the beautiful and memorable castle of Gripsholm.
At his coronation, John issued hereditary privileges to the nobility.Russtjenstbecame no longer essential. Legal offices were preserved for the nobles, the king’s supreme court being abandoned. John’s policy was to win the support of the aristocracy against Charles, who, indignant and sulky, kept within his duchy, consisting of the provinces of Sœdermanland and Vermland, with the town of Œrebro in addition.
In 1570, an unsatisfactory peace was made with Denmark, Sweden ceding all the Norwegian and Danish territory in her possession, together with the island of Gothland, and agreeing to pay something like one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the return of Elfsborg, held by the Danes. A friendly relation to hostile Poland commenced with John’s reign, but a long and bloody war with Russia began in 1570. The Russians tried repeatedly, but in vain, to capture Reval, plundering and killing the population of Esthonia, who remained faithful to Swedish rule. Henric Horn and Clas Tott won laurels for their heroic deeds, while the war was changed into more modern methods and to a successful issue by the Swedish general Pontus de la Gardie, who captured the provinces Keksholm and Ingermanland and the town of Narva.
John III. had set two goals for his ambition: to return the Swedish church to Catholicism and to make his son Sigismund king of Poland. The latter he reached at the death of King Stephan in 1589, Sigismund succeeding him upon the throne. The former ambition John never attained, after years of stubborn and unreasonable perseverance giving up this pet idea. John made some attempts to bring order in the confused conditions of the church, but left it in a worse state of confusion than he found it. The crown andthe aristocracy had deprived the church of nearly all its property and withheld its income from it. Archbishop Laurentius Petri complained of the miserable state of things, the ministers often being useless wretches and the service in some churches impossible to uphold for sheer lack of money. In 1572 the ecclesiastical matters were arranged at a meeting in Upsala, when a new church law was introduced, demanding higher qualifications for the ministers, who were to be elected by their congregations, and enforcing a school law. Laurentius Petri died in 1573 and was succeeded by Laurentius Petri Gothus. The new archbishop willingly subscribed to a set of rules, laid before him by the king, which reintroduced monasteries, worship of saints and the ceremonies of the Roman church. Jesuits were invited to the country, but met with little encouragement from the people. The very climax of John’s reactionary movements was formed by the introduction of his ritual, Liturgia, which was nothing else than an adaptation of the Catholic ritual. It was accepted by the Riksdag of 1577, but Charles refused to accept it for his duchy. The king had many conflicts with his brother, the latter always giving in to his wishes, except on this point. Ministers and university professors who refused to conform to the new ritual, or attacked it, were sheltered by the duke and, in many instances, given high offices. The king grew angry, but the duke remained firm and unyielding. When Queen Catherine died, in 1583, John’s Catholic fervor suffered a relapse, and ceased altogether after his marriage to young Protestant Gunilla Bielke, in the following year. He stubbornly stuck to his Liturgia for some time yet, but exiled the Jesuits, and dismissed with contumely ministers who had joined the Roman Church. During the last years ofhis reign, he said it was best to leave everybody a free choice in religious matters, regretting his Liturgia—which he once considered the gem of his own theological system—because it had caused so much trouble and confusion.
Sweden suffered a great deal through the slack and unsteady government of King John. He spent unreasonable sums on his court and his craze for architectural marvels, while always short of funds for the necessities of war and internal improvements. Commerce and industries suffered and were brought to a standstill by dearth, hunger and pest. The population decreased; the towns were made bankrupt and many farms abandoned. Bad and greedy officials and the recommencing war with Russia increased the evils. After unsuccessful attempts to have his son leave Poland, where he had met with many difficulties, John entered into more intimate relations with his brother, who came to wield a beneficial influence on the government. John III. died 1592, malcontent and tired of life, his death being little regretted by the people.
One of the most famous love episodes of Sweden dates from the reign of John III. It has no bearing upon the affairs of state, but is not devoid of value as an illustration of the history of civilization, giving us a glimpse of the private life of the nobles of that period and the standard of morals of their lives. The episode is told by Countess Anne Banér in a manuscript by her hand with the title: “In the following manner my blessed mother’s sister, Lady Sigrid Sture, lady of Salestad and Geddeholm, related what took place when Lord Eric Gustafson Stenbock carried away our blessed mother’s sister, Magdalen Sture, from Hœrningsholm.”
The dowager-countess, Martha Sture, resided at the castle of Hœrningsholm, enlarged to a four-story structure and fortified with four corner towers by her consort. She was a sister of Queen Margaret, the second queen of Gustavus I., and was married to the renounced lover of that sister, Count Svante Sture. The countess was called “King Martha,” partly because of her stern power and great authority, partly because it was known to have been her ambition to see her husband’s family grace the throne of a country which their forefathers had ruled as uncrowned kings. She had lived to see her husband and two sons killed by the insane Eric XIV., but she had yet two sons who would carry high the glorious name, on which there was not a stain of any kind. There were five daughters, Sigrid and Anne, married to members of the influential Bielke family, and Magdalen, Margaret and Christine, as yet unmarried. There was another young lady at Hœrningsholm, besides the daughters, the little Princess Sigrid Vasa, the daughter of King Eric XIV. and Carin Monsdotter, who had received a home with the stern “King Martha” while her mother was following the tracks of the deposed monarch from prison to prison.
Between Magdalen Sture and Lord Eric Stenbock a passionate love sprang up. Lord Eric was a very fine young man, of an influential family and the brother of the queen-dowager, Catherine, third consort of Gustavus I. But, unfortunately, he was the nephew of Countess Martha, and, as a cousin of Magdalen, considered to be too closely related to her to make a marriage possible. Countess Martha was unwilling to listen to any appeals, and she was strengthened in her resolution by the old Archbishop Laurentius Petri, who still held the same opinions as when he, once upon a time, refused to grant his consent to a marriage betweenKing Gustavus I. and young Lord Eric’s sister, because she was a niece of Queen Margaret. The years passed by, but no change came in the stubborn resistance of “King Martha.” Christmas eve of 1573, Lord Eric visited Hœrningsholm to remain until New Year. He brought with him costly presents which he offered as New Year’s gifts to Countess Martha, her daughters, chaplain and servants. He left to return on Palm Sunday with his sister Cecilia, the wife of Count Gustavus Tre Rosor. One morning a few days later, Lady Sigrid Bielke, who was visiting her mother, entered the so-called rotunda, a large room in one of the towers which Countess Martha and her daughters used as sleeping apartment. She was surprised to find her sister Magdalen kneeling and in tears. Lady Sigrid greeted her: “God bless you, you have a good deed in mind!” “God grant it were good,” answered Magdalen, rising. “Certainly it is good to make one’s prayers amid tears,” Sigrid said. Magdalen caught the hands of her sister and said: “My darling sister, if all the rest forsake me, you will not turn away your faithful heart from me.” Sigrid found the words and emotion of her sister strange, but did not suspect anything. “Why do you use such words to me?” she answered. “I do not believe that you are going to make an evil-doer out of yourself; there are none in the Sture family who have carried themselves in a way to make us turn our hearts away from them.” Tears came again to the eyes of Magdalen, but Sigrid was called into an interior room by her mother. Magdalen went to play with one of her little nieces, when Lord Eric entered. “Dear lady,” he said, “would you like to see the horse that I have given you? It is now waiting in the court.” Magdalen rose and left, escorted by her cousin. They met two of the women of thehousehold, whom Eric commanded to follow them. A horse and sleigh stood in the vaulted entrance. Magdalen was placed between the two servants, while Eric took his position back of them on the runners, holding the reins. In the castle court they met the chaplain and several of the servants, who thought it a pleasure ride and let them pass. When they rode down on the frozen lake, the two servants in the sleigh grasped the importance of the situation for the first time, and commenced praying Lady Magdalen to return. Lord Eric silenced them by displaying his short musket. A few moments later they were surrounded by a force of one hundred men on horseback, who formed an escort. They were a loan to Lord Eric by Duke Charles.
The excitement at Hœrningsholm was great when the elopement was discovered. Margaret Sture happened to look through the window at the moment when the sleigh reached the lake. At her outcry Countess Martha and Sigrid joined her. The old countess fainted on the stairs when making for the court, and Sigrid was ordered to follow up the eloping couple. Countess Cecilia found her aunt on the stairs and hastened to assure her of the mortification that she felt at the daring and unsuspected deed of her brother, also expressing some surprise at the bad manner in which it was accepted. But then the old countess became wroth, exclaiming: “Go to the devil, and may God punish both you and your brother! And if you have any part in his scheme of robbing me of my dear child, betake yourself after him, so that no shame or dishonor may happen.” Countess Cecilia hastened to her sleigh and reached Sværdsbro, where her brother was stopping, ahead of Sigrid.
When Lady Sigrid arrived at Sværdsbro, she was admitted through the lines of soldiers only after some difficulty, finding tailors and seamsters busy cutting and sewing precious stuffs for clothing for Lady Magdalen and her servants, “for she left with uncovered head such as she went and stood in her mother’s house.” Sigrid tried to persuade her sister to return to her mother, who in her great sorrow was willing to forgive all if she only came back. Magdalen sat silent for a long time. Finally she said: “If you can vouchsafe me, that the lady, my mother, will grant that we shall belong to each other, since I have so dearly pledged myself to him, I shall return.” This Sigrid could not do, and Magdalen added, weeping sorely: “The last complication is then as bad as the first.” Lord Eric entered with his sister Cecilia. When Sigrid asked where he intended to bring Magdalen, he answered: “To Visingsœ, to the Countess Beatrix, my sister, where she shall remain until we obtain the consent to marry of the lady, her mother.” It was arranged that Cecilia should accompany Magdalen, and Sigrid try her best to win her mother’s consent. Magdalen sent home to her mother a piece of horn of the fabulous unicorn; “the only thing I have carried with me from my father’s house,” she added. This horn, which really was taken from the incisor of the narwhal, was in those days generally thought to be authentic and of miraculous power.
Countess Martha was, in her grief and dismay, taken ill. She soon gathered strength enough to write to King John, her nephew, pleading her cause. King John at once took action in the matter, calling Lord Eric to account, and issuing a command to all ministers of the kingdom, prohibiting them to unite in marriage the two cousins. Eric Stenbock was on his way to Stockholm when he received the order of the king. Upon his arrival at the capital, he was imprisoned and deprived of all his offices. But Lord Eric had powerful friends in Duke Charles and the Stenbock family. As the king himself did not wish to be without his service, he was soon set free and reinstalled in his offices. He succeeded in obtaining the goodwill of the whole Sture family, but “King Martha” remained irreconcilable. More than a year had passed since the elopement. One day Lord Eric suddenly appeared at the castle of Visingsœ. He made, with Magdalen and his aunt, Lady Anne, a journey into the province of Halland, where a Danish minister joined the two cousins in marriage. The wedding was celebrated at the home of Eric’s father, Baron Gustavus Stenbock of Torpa. But Lady Magdalen was not happy. She grieved because of her mother’s hostile attitude, and continued to dress in black colors, as she had done ever since she left her mother. Duke Charles, the queen-dowager, the royal princesses, and all the members of the state council, yea, the king himself, wrote letters to the indignant countess, whose ire was rather increased than diminished thereby.
Finally, after another year and a half, “King Martha” gave in to the tears and prayers of her daughters. Lady Magdalen returned to Hœrningsholm after three years of absence. She was not allowed to come up to the castle at first, but had to dwell in the building occupied by the baths. As the winter was approaching, and Lady Magdalen was soon to give life to a child, her brothers and sisters prevailed upon their mother to receive Lord Eric and his wife at the castle. The event was arranged in a conspicuous way. Countess Martha was seated in the place of honor in the great hall of the castle, surrounded by her daughters and sons-in-law, when Lord Eric entered withMagdalen. When the mother saw her pale and thin features, she was moved to tears, exclaiming: “Thou unhappy child!” Magdalen approached her on her knees, and the countess embraced her, stammering her forgiveness between tears. Magdalen remained at the castle, where she bore her husband a son, who was called Gustavus. Lady Martha invited the king, the duke and the princesses to be present at the baptism, at the same time granting Magdalen an equal share of inheritance with the other daughters. Lady Magdalen continued to dress in mourning as a self-imposed punishment for her disobedience to her mother. One day she was preparing to leave for a wedding, when her mother asked her the reason why she dressed thus. When “King Martha” learned why, she took a costly cross of diamonds intended for the bride and placed it on her daughter’s breast, telling her to put aside her black dresses. From that day joy and happiness seemed to return to Lady Magdalen, who commenced to put on lighter colors and to wear diamonds. Of Magdalen Stenbock—a child of these Stures, who so often had protected and preserved Sweden—Count Magnus Stenbock was a lineal descendant, he who during the reign of Charles XII. saved his country in the hour of its greatest peril and distress.
Sigismund, the son and successor of John III., was not apt to become more popular than his father. Born at the pleasant prison of Gripsholm, which yet was a prison, he was of a cold, unsympathetic disposition, a king of few words and hard to approach. At John’s death, Sigismund was twenty-six years of age and had reigned several years in Poland. Charles stepped to the front as the head of the government until Sigismund’s arrival.
The Protestants, fearing the worst from their new Catholic king, decided to take firm and early action. The duke ordered a Riksdag at Upsala in February, 1593, the deliberations being held by the clergy alone. The Liturgia was abolished with the majority of Catholic church ceremonies, Luther’s catechisms, L. Petri’s ritual, church visitations, etc., being reintroduced. Abraham Angermannus was elected archbishop, and decision made for the re-establishment of the Upsala University. The duke had not been present at the deliberations, and appeared displeased because not consulted. He, who was secretly accused of being a Calvinist, pointed out more Catholic ceremonies to be abolished, whereupon the decisions won the sanction of the duke, the state council and the bishops. By this act the Lutheran Church was re-established, the Augsburgian Confession being laid down by the meeting as its corner-stone. When this action had been taken, the chairman, Nicolaus Bothniensis, a young Upsala professor, exclaimed: “Now Sweden has becomeoneman, and we all haveoneGod.”
In August, 1593, King Sigismund arrived in Sweden, surrounded by Jesuits and Polish nobles, and with a sum of money wherewith to pay the expenses of a Catholic revival. To the demands made to sign the decisions of the Upsala meeting he gave a flat refusal. The conditions in Stockholm grew perilous, Jesuits and Lutheran ministers preaching denouncements upon each other in the churches and conflicts between the Polish troops and the populace taking place. In January, 1594, Sigismund, accompanied by the state councillors and the members of the Riksdag, came to Upsala for his father’s funeral and his own coronation. Duke Charles arrived with 3,000 men, whom he quartered in the neighborhood. He dismissed the papal legate, Malaspina, and his Jesuits from the funeral procession, before it entered the cathedral, and told the king, in behalf of all, that no coronation would take place before the confessional liberty of the Lutheran Church was confirmed. The Estates declared themselves ready to sacrifice their lives for the pure faith. The king still refused his sanction, whereupon the duke replied that the Riksdag would be dismissed within twenty-four hours if he insisted. Sigismund gave in, upon the advice of the Jesuits, who told him that pledges to Lutherans were not binding. Sigismund was crowned and returned suddenly to Poland.
The king had left matters in an unsatisfactory condition, placing six governors with great authority in various districts, but leaving the government to be conducted by the duke and the state council in common. This little pleased the energetic Charles, who soon called a Riksdag at Sœderkœping, in 1595, forcing the councillors to sanction this act and follow him to the Riksdag. In Finland, the governor, Clas Fleming, had tried to have a peace agreement with Russia postponed as an excuse to keep the navy and army at his disposal in the interest of the king. At Sœderkœping, Charles had himself chosen regent, the last vestige of Catholicism abolished, and the punishment of Fleming decided on. In consequence, the Catholics were dealt with in a merciless way through the instigation of the archbishop, whom the duke called an executioner on account of his recklessness. The convent of Vadstena was closed, its eleven nuns scattered and its property confiscated. In Finland a bloody revolt against the oppression of Fleming cost 11,000 people their lives. It was called the “War of Clubs,” on account of the rude weapons used by the peasants. The state council refused to consent to Fleming’s punishment, whereupon the duke suddenly resigned. Buthe convoked a Riksdag at Arboga, in 1597, at which the councillors and nobles were absent, also the burghers. The peasants and clergy were abundantly represented and cheered the propositions of the duke to the echo. It was then decided that the king should be asked to return, until which event the duke was to remain regent, and that peace should be restored in Finland. Fleming died in the meantime and was succeeded by Arvid Stolarm, who also was one of the duke’s enemies. The Riksdag at Arboga was the first in the deliberations of which the state council had not taken a part. The councillors were disposed to punish the duke; but, not agreeing as to means, they left the country to seek the king.
King Sigismund arrived in the summer of 1598 with an army of 5,000 Poles, gathering a good deal of strength by reinforcements from Gothaland. The duke had his stronghold in Svealand, the Dalecarlians rising to join him. The Uplanders warded off an attempt made by Stolarm to land with his army; they were led by Nicolaus Bothniensis, the Upsala professor, who called his exploit “a crusade.” The two princes met in East Gothland, near Stegeborg. The duke and his peasant army were surrounded by the king’s cavalry, and would have been doomed if not for the outcry of one of the king’s followers that his subjects would be killed on either side. The king gave order to stop the attack, feeling pity at the sight. The duke was deeply moved by this act and offered to leave the land with his family. But the deliberations which followed were without result.
On the 25th of September a battle was fought at Stongebro, near Linkœping, ending in the defeat of the royal army. An armistice followed. The conditions ofpeace were that the king should remain in Sweden, dismissing his foreign troops, and take charge of the government. No one should be punished except five of the nobles, to be placed before a jury of ambassadors. The king agreed to the conditions, but soon left Sweden never to return. A meeting of nobles and clergymen, in 1599, accepted him as reigning king if willing to return within four months. In July, a Riksdag was called at Stockholm, which declared Sigismund dethroned and his son Vladislav king if sent to Sweden to be educated in the Lutheran faith. Sigismund took no heed of these stipulations, planning to regain his throne by force.
Charles followed up the punishment with such unprecedented severity that it has left a stain upon his memory. Three nobles were beheaded after Kalmar was taken, and proceeding to Finland, the duke applied capital punishment to a wide extent, in more than twenty cases at Abo alone. At a Riksdag in Linkœping, in 1600, the duke appeared as an accuser against the five imprisoned nobles and several others, eight state councillors being among them. The accused, thirteen in number, were sentenced to death for high treason, but the majority were pardoned upon confession of guilt. The councillors Gustavus Banér, Eric Sparre, Sten Banér and Ture Bielke were beheaded. They were all men of learning and great ability, who had faithfully served their king. During John’s reign they had already suffered years of imprisonment for intrigues against a hereditary kingdom and a strong government.
Charles IX.was chosen king at the bloody Riksdag of Linkœping, and his son Gustavus Adolphus heir-apparent. The hereditary rights of Duke John, second son of John III., were acknowledged, and a duchy, consisting of EastGothland and Leckœ Castle, granted him; but he was passed over as too young and too closely related to Sigismund. Measures to strengthen the financial administration and the army were passed.
Sigismund prepared, by alliances with Catholic powers, to gather support, Charles turning to England and France for the same purpose. A conflict was unavoidable, and Charles decided to invade the disputed province of Livonia, which he captured, only to be ousted by the Polish general, Zamoisky. The castle of Volmar was long and heroically defended by the Swedes under Jacob de la Gardie, a son of General Pontus, and Charles Gyllenhielm, an illegitimate son of Charles IX. After their surrender the former received for five years a tolerable treatment, the latter a most severe one for twelve years. After attempts to place conditions on a better footing in Finland, where the peasants had long suffered through aristocratic oppression, Charles increased the army still further and invaded Livonia once more, in 1604. He met with a crushing defeat at Kerkholm, close by Riga, at the hands of the Pole, Chodkiewitz, losing 9,000 men. But the Poles did not understand how to use their victory, and the centre of the conflict changed to Russia.
On Russian territory, the troops of Sigismund and Charles were to meet. The line of Rurik became extinct in 1598, its last descendant, Dimitri, being murdered. Great complications ensued with usurpers and two “false Dimitris” in succession. Sigismund supported the false Dimitris in order to gain ground and place the royal line of Vasa upon the throne of Russia after that of Rurik. Charles sided with Vassili Schuisky against the second false Dimitri. In 1607 an agreement was made that Sweden,upon the receipt of the province of Kexholm, should send an army to Russia to support Czar Vassili. In 1609, a small Swedish army, consisting of Swedes, Finns and some hired troops, entered Russia, under command of Jacob de la Gardie. It was received at Novgorod with the blaze of cannon and tolling of church bells. A victory was won at Tver over the pretender, but further progress was impeded by mutiny among the hired troops, the stubborn Finns returning home. With his 1,200 faithful Swedes, reinforced by hired troops to 5,000, De la Gardie made a daring march eastward to Moscow, scaring away the Polish army, attacking it and making a triumphant entry into the Russian capital. Sigismund was at Smolensk, and met De la Gardie at Klusina, winning the battle on account of renewed mutiny of the hired troops in the Swedish army. De la Gardie was given free leave with 400 men, upon pledge not to support Czar Vassili, and later captured the promised Kexholm, while Sigismund’s son Vladislav for a short time became czar of Russia.
Although the short reign of Charles IX. was filled with continual warfare, the king never for a moment lost interest in the peaceful development of the country. He continued his father’s work in furthering the mining industry, and tried to build up the commerce and trade relations. He founded the city of Gothenburg, on the western coast, in the island of Hising, opposite Elfsborg, also founding the towns of Karlstad, Christinehamn, Mariestad and Philipstad. The aristocracy looked upon his administration with coldness. It received sanction of the privileges granted by John III., but nothing more, except in return for additionalrusstjenst. The peasants were his favorites and he was surnamed the “Peasant King.” To the Church, Charlesstood in a good relation, supporting its re-established Reformation with his whole authority. Also the University had in him a patron, although he severely criticised the too conservative spirit in both, exchanging a series of pamphlets with the archbishop on theological questions, firm in his Calvinistic tendencies. To make the government stronger it was stipulated that four members of the state council were always to hold the four principal offices, with the titles of drotsete, kansler (chancellor), admiral and treasurer. The greatest economy was enforced at court and throughout the whole system of government, various minor country offices being established for the enforcement of order, justice and economy. The king was liberal only with severe orders and harsh words, the artistic tendencies of his youth succumbing to the cruel necessities of his reign.
In private he was as severe as in public life. His first consort, Maria of the Palatinate-Zweibrucken, had a quieting influence upon him, but the second, Christine of Holstein, stern and sharp like the king, strengthened the harshness and violence of his disposition. During the last years of his reign, Charles gave his attention to the critical European situation, desiring to join the Netherlands, England, France and the Protestant German princes into an alliance against the forming Catholic league. This man, so assured of his power to reign and so unscrupulous as to his means, was very careful not to do any act of importance without the sanction of his people, and for a long time refused to be called king. In 1604 he agreed to accept that name, but was in 1606 ready to cede it to Duke John. Still, after his coronation he admitted the hereditary right of his nephew, who was a good-natured man without the qualificationsof a ruler. At the Riksdag of Norrkœping, in 1604, the crown was made hereditary among the descendants of Charles, also in the female line, provided that the monarch confessed the Lutheran faith and had not accepted the government of, or residence in, any other country.
The stress placed upon Charles was greater than his originally strong health could carry. In 1609 he suffered a stroke of paralysis, which deprived him of his full power of speech. He still stood firm at the head of the government, with Prince Gustavus Adolphus, now sixteen years of age, at his side, who took part in the affairs of State and spoke for the paralytic king. The young and ambitious Christian IV. of Denmark thought that the opportune moment was come to turn down the rising power of Sweden. He declared war, in April, 1611, in spite of the efforts made by King Charles to avoid the conflict, pointing to Germany, where their joined forces would be needed. Christian captured the town of Kalmar, while its castle withstood his attacks, being handed over to him by treason. In his wrath and disgust, Charles sent word to Christian to meet him in a duel face to face, which the latter refused to do in a letter of abusive contempt. Gustavus Adolphus had made a dash into Bleking, capturing the store of provisions at Christianopel. In the autumn, the war came to a temporary standstill.
Charles started for Stockholm from Kalmar, but was taken ill during the journey and died at Nykœping, October 11, 1611, surrounded by his sons and councillors. To his death-bed came the news that Jacob de la Gardie had captured the important city of Novgorod, and that the Russians offered the crown to either of his sons, Gustavus Adolphus or Charles Philip. With Charles died the only worthy sonof Gustavus I. Vasa. In strength of intellect and stern power, he stands first among Swedish rulers. Devoted to the work of his great father, he educated the Swedish people, through hardships and sacrifices, to its political grandeur.
Gustavus II. Adolphus is the greatest figure of Swedish history, revered and beloved as one of the noblest of heroes, a genius in whom the qualities of the great statesman and warrior were blended with the faith of a man ready to sacrifice his life for the loftiest of causes—religious liberty. Gustavus Adolphus was, by his own triumphant deeds and through his school of discipline, which turned out men worthy to follow up his work, destined to bring his country up to the fulfilment of its mission in the history of human progress, and to open for it an era of glory and political grandeur which its limited resources made it impossible to preserve, but which was fruitful of results for its later cultural evolution.
The secret of Sweden’s success in solving the stupendous conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism, between reaction and progress, rested in the fact that this little country was eminently ready to wage a war for religious liberty. It had been more perfectly rejuvenated by the spirit of Protestantism than had, at the time, any other country. The mediæval state, completed later in Sweden than on the continent, also gave way there sooner and more completely than elsewhere. The yeomanry, never fully suppressed, had preserved its old spirit of independence,fostered and guided by patriotic leaders of the nobility, with or without a crown. The population was suffering, hungering, bleeding, but free, indomitable, and devoted to its once more hereditary kings of Swedish birth and to their new faith, which had made strong in them their old individuality of views and life.
When Gustavus Adolphus ascended the throne, the country was in the greatest peril and distress, and had many a lesson to learn before entering the universal conflict of the Thirty Years’ War.
Gustavus Adolphus was born, Dec. 9, 1594, at the castle of Stockholm. When six years old, he followed his father to devastated Finland, returning through Norrland, for the settlement and future of which territory great plans were made. At ten, he was ordered to be present at the deliberations of the state council; at thirteen, he received petitions and complaints, rectifying wrongs and soothing suffering. His father said of him, in speaking of the fulfilment of great works, placing his hand on the curly blond head: “Ille faciet.” The prince received a severe and carefully supervised education, led by Johan Skytte. He acquired knowledge of a considerable number of languages, probably all in a mechanical way, except the Swedish and German, with both of which he was made equally and thoroughly familiar, speaking and writing the latter language with greater ease and perfection than the emperor Ferdinand, or Maximilian of Bavaria. In the sciences of economics and war he was well read, himself inaugurating novel theories in both. In him the best traits of the Vasa dynasty were admirably blended and enlarged. He possessed an acute intellect, far-reaching views of almost prophetic discernment, a mastery and patience in detail, and an indomitable strength of will. To the ceaseless and painstaking care of the welfare of his subjects, characteristic of his father and grandfather, were in him added a harmony of endowment and a gentleness of disposition which made him their superior. In him the turbulent blood of the Vasas was held in noble self-restraint. After his rare outbursts of passion, he made good his faults in a most royal manner. His youth was not without the temptations which beset all richly endowed natures, but they were vanquished as he grew up to the importance of his grand mission. He stood in the paternal attitude to his people so becoming to his grandfather, but lacked the fiery democratic tendencies and the sympathy for the untitled, unpretentious and lowly, so strong in his stern father. To his relatives he was as gentle as to his subjects, treating his resolute and ambitious mother, Christine of Holstein-Gottorp, with love and respect; on her demand sacrificing the love of his youth and intended bride, Ebba Brahe, who became the consort of victorious Jacob de la Gardie. Also to his brother Charles Philip he stood in an exemplary relation; but firmly refused to grant him privileges for his duchy of Vermland which could be injurious to the country at large.
Gustavus Adolphus was a man of commanding presence, tall and of a heavy frame. The color of his face was clear and light, his eyes blue, his hair and beard blond. Foreign contemporary authors called him “the golden king of the North.” He carried his head high, and his open, frank eye, and the clear voice of manly resonance, gave added charm to his noble appearance. Gustavus Adolphus possessed a majestic dignity of bearing coupled with the unfeigned kindness of a noble heart.
Charles IX. had left his son the Danish war as an inheritance. It was carried on in the provinces of the frontiers, and consisted chiefly in small conflicts, which caused fatigue and detriment without being decisive. The Danes entered the interior of Smaland during the first days of the year 1612. Gustavus Adolphus, in his turn, moved from the fort of Ryssby into the province of Scania, destroying by fire the town of Væ and several castles belonging to the wealthy nobility. During a smaller conflict which then took place, Gustavus Adolphus was in imminent danger of his life.
The Swedes had made a camp for themselves at the cemetery of Vittsjœ, when suddenly surprised by a force of Danish cavalry. The Swedes fought with determination, but found it necessary to leave their camp. They took a firm stand on the frozen waters of the adjoining lake, but were forced to leave that position also. A tumult ensued, during which the ice gave way on the spot where the king found himself, for the moment, alone and without an escort. Per Banér, a son of Gustavus Banér, who was executed at Linkœping at the command of Charles IX., perceived the king in the moment of greatest danger, and hastened with Thomas Larsson, a trooper from Upland, to rescue him. When in safety, the king at once unbuckled his silver belt, and, handing it to the trooper, said: “I shall remember thee with a piece of bread, which neither thou nor thy children shall ever find lacking.” Thomas Larsson received in the following year a farm in the province of Westmanland, which has remained in the possession of his descendants to this very day. Per Banér received in fief the estates which had been in the possession of his uncle, Sten Banér, also executed at Linkœping, and roseto the dignity of a state councillor during the minority of Queen Christine.
It was the ambition of Christian IV. of Denmark to cut Sweden off from any communication with the North Sea. As Bohuslæn and Halland both were parts of the Danish dominion, there was only the small strip of territory surrounding the mouth of the Gotha River to conquer. The island of Hising constituted the larger part of it, and was the site of the new town of Gothenburg, which was defended by the fortress of Elfsborg. The town of New Lœdœse was situated on the opposite shore, some few miles up the river, defended by the fort of Gullberg. The Danish king approached Gullberg from Bohus, having with him a smaller force, which he considered sufficient in numbers. Gullberg was only a poor little nest, but it was valiantly defended by Morten Krakow and his wife, the stanch Lady Emerentia Pauli. One day the Danes made a violent attack. The ladders which they placed against the walls were crushed by heavy beams which the Swedes let fall down on them. In spite of this, the Danes succeeded in forcing the gates of the place. The position was a critical one for the Swedes. The commander had met with an accident and was unable to lead the defence. But Lady Emerentia resolved to take the command. She gave orders to the wives of the soldiers to fill up the vaulted passage of the gates with barrels, washtubs, timber, etc. When the Danes stormed on in a compact body, they were received by a downfall of scalding-hot lye, which the women kept pouring down on them from behind their barricade. The daughter of Lady Emerentia thus graphically describes the effect: “They lay in the vault and around the gates like scalded hogs.” Lady Emerentia had placed two pieces of artilleryon the top of a small building fronting the gates. They were loaded with broken horseshoes and the like and sent out a disastrous fire. The few surviving Danes fled hurriedly for their lives, leaving Lady Emerentia in proud possession of the fort. A second attack which was made later on proved as futile as the first. King Christian then gave command to abandon the plan of taking the fort. The Danish army collected in a field in front of Gullberg. But Lady Emerentia was vigilant. From the walls of the fort she espied a man of prepossessing appearance who rode a white horse. “Shoot that man!” was her immediate command to the nearest soldier. The shot took effect, killing the white horse, whose brains and blood spattered the king. For the man on horseback was King Christian. “That devilish crow does never sleep!” exclaimed the king, referring to the commander.
King Christian turned on New Lœdœse, killing without mercy all the male inhabitants of the town. West Gothland was invaded, the province appearing to be an easy prey because the Swedish army, commanded by Duke John, had just left it to march into Halland. But the bailiff of Hœjentorp called on the peasants to rise, which caused the Danes to recede. The Danes next made an attack on the fortress of Elfsborg, commanded by Olof Strole. Elfsborg was defended with heroism, but when fire threatened to destroy the towers, Olof Strole at last surrendered. On account of their valiant conduct the commander and his men, who were reduced to 200, were granted free passage with their music and banners. The able Morten Krakow of Gullberg had been promoted to the fortress of Vaxholm. His successor surrendered Gullberg to the Danes shortly after the fall of Elfsborg. King Christian planned a seriesof invasions in the year 1612, but, thanks to the vigilance of Gustavus Adolphus, he failed to accomplish the desired effect.
Gustavus Adolphus wanted peace with Denmark, and such was made at Knerœd in 1613, after a war of mutual invasions and without any decisive battles or conquests of territory. The frontiers were to remain the same as before the war; the Danish king was allowed to keep the emblem of three crowns, but had to resign his claims upon the Swedish crown. The fortress of Elfsborg remained in the hands of the Danes for six years, until $1,000,000, an exorbitant sum in those days, was paid for it. It cost the people of Sweden very dear to pay this sum, sacrifices being made by the king and his friends to contribute to it. But Elfsborg, the only approach to the North Sea, was indispensable. It was returned in a miserable condition, and Gothenburg, on the opposite side of Gotha River, destroyed. Gustavus Adolphus ordered Gothenburg to be moved to its present site, on the mainland, and endowed it with extensive commercial privileges, encouraging Dutch merchants to settle there.
The war with Russia began once more in 1614. Gustavus Adolphus not having been found willing to accept the crown for his brother Charles Philip, the negotiations were dropped. Count de la Gardie resumed control of the movements, although the king was present in person. The Swedes won a great victory at Bronitz and captured the fortress of Augdof. An attempt to take Pskof was unsuccessful, Evert Horn, the hero of a hundred battles, losing his life; but the Russians were willing to make peace. Through the honorable peace of Stolbova, in February, 1617, Russia gave up all claims on Esthonia and Livonia,and ceded to Sweden Ingermanland and Kexholm. This cut off the Russians from the Baltic, fixed the Swedish frontier on the lakes Ladoga and Peipus, and left Sweden in peace with the mightiest of her enemies during almost a century. The armistice with Poland ended in 1616, but after two years of insignificant movements it was continued up to 1620.
Gustavus II. Adolphus with untiring energy continued the work of building up the new state founded by Gustavus I. At the death of his father, the royal youth had won everybody by his gentleness and generosity. His first act was perhaps the wisest of all, in selecting among the councillors the young, highly talented Axel Oxenstierna as his chancellor. This couple have no peers in history, being united by the firmest of friendships and rising simultaneously to the highest ability of statesmanship, the gifts of the one wonderfully supplementing those of the other. The chancellor was cooler and slower than his royal friend. He placed supreme the duties to his country, but was of very aristocratic tendencies, through his influence leading the king still further away from the democratic principles of his father. To the nobility were granted the old privileges, with others in addition, which became menacing to the ancient freedom of the peasantry. The management of internal affairs and all branches of the administration were placed under various departments. They were presided over by the high functionaries and their offices chiefly filled by noblemen. A permanent supreme court was established in Stockholm, with the Drotsete as president, in 1614. In 1623, a supreme court for Finland was established and a governor-general for that grandduchy appointed, who was also to be president of the court. In 1630, a supreme courtfor the Baltic provinces was established at Dorpat. The Riksdag, governed by the new rules of 1617, was to convene yearly, and to consist of the four Estates of the kingdom: the nobility, clergy, bourgeoisie and yeomanry, each divided into various classes. These latter were as yet not quite distinct or organized, except those of the nobility, who, in 1625, formed a knightly chapter, the Riddarhus, which kept a register of the legitimate noble families of Sweden and Finland and watched over the interests of its members. The Estate of the nobility was divided in three classes, lords, knights and squires. To the first belonged the holders of counties and baronies, to the second those whose ancestors held the rank of state councillors, and to the third the rest of the nobility. As each class had one vote in the Riksdag, the supremacy of lords and knights, called the “higher nobility,” was secure, when standing united, over the more numerous third class, the “lower nobility.” The king appointed the speaker of the nobility, thelandtmarskalk, who also was the president of their chapter. The Swedish church had its greatest epoch during the period of political grandeur, being characterized by a remarkable strength of faith and by a praiseworthy energy and earnestness. The clergy, high and low, set beautiful examples of piety, learning and patriotism. It was beloved by the people and spoke in their behalf with authority and courage. Not able to win Gustavus Adolphus over to more democratic views, it won his admiration, and he surnamed the ministers “tribunes of the people.” The burghers, touched by the patriotic spirit, developed great energy during this period, trade and commerce having a devoted patron in the king, who, besides the new Gothenburg, founded twelve other towns in Sweden and Finland. The miners occupiedof old an uncertain position between burghers and yeomen. They were strengthened and encouraged by the personal interest which the king took in the mining industry. He visited the mines repeatedly, descending into the bowels of the earth to inspect the ore and the new methods introduced from abroad by foreign miners. Among the latter the immigrated Dutchman, Louis de Geer, exerted a beneficial influence upon that industry. The factories producing clothing and weapons for the army were also encouraged. The yeomen occupied a difficult, almost desperate position between the increasing privileges of the nobility and the increasing taxes of the crown. Their burdens were doubled and their rights reduced; yet sustained by the church, and believing in the lofty ideals of the king, they persevered, fulfilling their duties with a high degree of patriotism.
No Swedish king has done so much for education as Gustavus Adolphus. To the University of Upsala he donated 300 of his hereditary estates, founding its library, improving its courses, banishing misrule, and appointing his old teacher, John Skytte, its chancellor. He created the German University of Dorpat in Esthonia, in 1632; later for some time moved to Pernau. Colleges were established in the larger towns. The king was, through his thorough studies of Swedish laws and conditions, in a position to take an active part in the reforms which he promulgated, never resting long in one place, but travelling from one point to another, where his presence was most necessary; shaping plans and reforms by his own judgment, to have them indorsed by the next Riksdag, and then enforcing them himself. Especially the army passed through an evolution, thanks to new methods, devised by the king, who was to win his victories throughthe introduction of improved tactics and divisions, by means of which the troops were easier to move and the co-operation between the various weapons increased.
In 1618 the “Thirty Years’ War” began. The dethroned Frederic of the Palatinate turned, among others, to Gustavus Adolphus for support, which the latter was not able to give in a direct way. But he promised to attack Poland as soon as the armistice was at an end, thereby making it impossible for Sigismund to support Emperor Ferdinand with troops. In 1621, Gustavus Adolphus commenced operations against Poland, taking the command himself. Riga and Mitau were captured, the former important commercial centre regaining its privileges, but sending representatives to the Swedish Riksdag and accepting a Swedish governor. After having conquered Livonia, Gustavus Adolphus entered Courland the following year, when an armistice was agreed to. Gustavus followed the events in Germany with increasing interest, forming the plan of an alliance between the Protestant powers. Learning that the emperor was willing to support Sigismund, Gustavus Adolphus offered to invade Silesia. But as Christian IV. of Denmark was anxious to lead the Protestant forces, Gustavus Adolphus quietly withdrew, resuming action against Poland. After a victory at Wallhof, he entered Polish Prussia, where he was dangerously wounded at Dirschau. The Poles were reinforced by imperial troops, but suffered a defeat at Gurzo; the Swedish general, Herman Wrangel, winning the day. When the considerable reinforcements of 10,000 men joined the Poles, the Swedes receded in good order. A smaller conflict occurred at Stuhm, famous because Gustavus Adolphus was twice in danger of his life during the struggle, which otherwisewas of no importance. An imperial trooper caught him by the belt and tried to drag the king with him. According to the report of Axel Oxenstierna, the king loosened the belt and let it go. In so doing, he also lost his hat, which was carried to Vienna and preserved as a token of the “great victory.” Another trooper, shortly afterward, caught the king by the arm, aiming at the head with his sword. In the critical moment, Eric Soop, the colonel of a Swedish cavalry regiment, appeared, killing the trooper with a pistol-shot. Gustavus Adolphus referred to this struggle as the “hottest bath” that he was ever in.
In September, 1629, an armistice was agreed to, at Altmark, to last for six years, during which period Sweden was to keep Livonia and the Russian towns of Elbing, Braunsberg, Pillau and Memel. The new acquisition of territory was small, but the revenue from these commercial towns, and from Dantzic, Libau and Windau, was considerable, and went to pay for the army expenses of the German campaign. The new temporary possessions in Prussia were formed into a Swedish governmental section, over which Axel Oxenstierna was appointed governor-general.
What follows belongs to one of the most noted chapters of universal history. The unbroken chain of Swedish victories, the noble character of the king and the severe discipline upheld among his men, who commenced and ended their battles with prayers and hymns, astounded the world. The exalted nobility of Gustavus Adolphus appears to us all the more striking, contrasted with the faithlessness, vanity and cowardice of the contemporary reigning princes of Germany and Denmark. His victories appear all the more remarkable because the greatest warriors of the age—Tilly, Wallenstein and Pappenheim—were his adversaries.He was received by the people of Germany as a liberator, and his memory is blessed by every thinking German, who admits that the Swedes, Gustavus Adolphus and Axel Oxenstierna, completed the work which the Germans, Luther and Melanchthon, created. The loftiness of the ideals which inspired Gustavus Adolphus have been doubted, but not with justice. He was brought up in a severely Christian home and the sincerity of his piety is unmistakable. His father’s clairvoyant views upon the coming religious conflict were familiar to him since his early youth, while he was, through his mother, related in blood to the majority of Protestant princes. Thus apparently predestined, as the greatest statesman and warrior of his age, to take up the cause of his persecuted brethren, he did not do so before the ambitious Christian IV. had utterly failed in his attempts and with contumely been forced to retire. It is not probable that Gustavus Adolphus ever thought of placing the crown of the Roman empire upon his head, but plausible to suppose that he had in view the formation of a strong union of the Protestant countries of Northern Europe.
Before leaving Sweden, Gustavus II. convoked the representatives of his people, holding on his arm his little daughter Christine, four years old, for whom he asked their pledge of allegiance. His farewell speech was touching in its simplicity and the premonition of his tragic end. Not for worldly glory, but to save his country from peril and his brethren from distress, he undertook this risky war. “Generally,” he said, “it happens thus that the vessel hauls water until it goes to pieces. With me likewise, that I, who in so many perils for the weal of my country have shed my blood, and yet until this day have been sparedthrough the grace of God, now at last must lose my life. For that reason I will this time commend you, the collected Estates of the realm, to the hand of God, the Supreme One, wishing that we, after this our miserable and burdensome life, according to the will of God, may meet again, to dwell in the celestial and infinite.” These words do not resemble the terse, striking speeches of his grandfather, but they bear the stamp of sincerity, and by them Gustavus Adolphus, his work and his purpose, are judged by the Swedish people.
Midsummer Day, 1630, Gustavus Adolphus landed with his troops at the island of Ruden, on the coast of Pomerania. Two days later he proceeded to the larger island of Usedom. His troops consisted of 13,000 men. Gustavus Adolphus was himself the first to land. He knelt on the shore and prayed to God in a loud voice; his prayer moved those surrounding him to tears. When the king noticed it he said: “Do not cry, but pray to God with fervor. The more of prayer, the more of victory; the best Christian is the best soldier.” Then he took hold of a spade and commenced to assist personally in the work of building a camp. When it grew dark, the heavens were illuminated by the fire of burning villages, giving evidence of the manner in which the enemy conducted his warfare.
The supercilious Wallenstein had been dismissed by the emperor at the time when Gustavus Adolphus landed in Germany, but his wild hordes were pillaging Pomerania. Yet Gustavus Adolphus had great difficulty in persuading the old duke of Pomerania to accept the alliance he offered him. But when this was done, it took the Swedes only a short time to clear the duchy of its enemies. The young landgrave of Hesse and the free city of Magdeburg wereglad to accept an alliance with Gustavus Adolphus. A treaty was made with France, which country promised to pay subsidies to Sweden as long as the German war lasted. Tilly, who was in command of the imperial troops, approached Magdeburg. Gustavus Adolphus sent proper provisions to Magdeburg with an experienced commander, as he could not go himself, because the elector of Saxony refused to let him pass with his army through Saxon territory. Magdeburg was captured by Tilly, who sacked and destroyed it by fire in a most barbarous way.
The discipline and moderation of the Swedish troops formed a great contrast to the reckless behavior of the imperial army. The Swedes left the peaceful inhabitants in undisturbed possession of their lives and property; the strictest order was maintained within the army; each regiment held morning and evening prayers in the open air; gambling, carousing and plundering were sternly prohibited. For these reasons the Swedish king and his army were received by the poor downtrodden people as saviors and liberators. Gustavus Adolphus deeply mourned the fall of Magdeburg, whose fate it had not been in his power to prevent. He took a fortified position at Werben, where the river Havel is joined by the Ube. Tilly entered Saxony with a hostile demeanor, not satisfied with the lukewarm friendship of the elector. Burning villages marked the way of his army. The poor elector, not knowing what to do, in his despair turned to Gustavus Adolphus, whom he had treated so coldly and begged him for help. The king at once was ready to forget past differences, and, joining forces with the elector, he marched toward Leipsic.
Tilly, with 35,000 men, occupied an advantageous position near the village of Breitenfeld, not far from Leipsic,at the summit of a long ridge of sandy hills. The infantry and the greater part of the cavalry were grouped in heavy divisions, forming one single line of battle with artillery behind at the very top of the hills. Tilly himself commanded the centre, while his able and fiery sub-commander, Pappenheim, had the command of the left wing, being in hopes to encounter the Swedish king personally. The Swedish army consisted of 22,000 men, who were joined by 11,000 Saxons.
Early in the morning of September 7, 1631, the Swedes started toward Breitenfeld. Tilly turned pale, it is said, when he saw the order and firmness with which the Swedes marched up to take their positions on the narrow slips of ground between the Lober brook and the reach of the imperial cannon. The Swedes were arranged in a double line of battle, infantry in the centre and cavalry on the wings. Between the squadrons of cavalry divisions of musketeers were placed. The regimental artillery was distributed over a number of places. The king commanded the right wing in person, with John Banér as sub-commander. Teuffel led the centre and Gustavus Horn the left wing. The king had no confidence in the Saxons, for which reason he had arranged them by themselves at some distance to the left of the Swedish army. When everything was arranged, the king rode to the front. With his head uncovered, and his sword pointing to the ground, he prayed: “Almighty God, thou who holdest victory and defeat in the hollow of thy hand, turn thine eyes unto us, thy servants, who have come hither from distant dwellings to fight for liberty and truth, for thy holy Gospel. Give victory unto us for the glory of thy hallowed name! Amen!” The prayer of the king could be heard by almost every man of the army, and allwere touched and strengthened by his pious trust in a righteous cause. The Swedes of the right wing were soon attacked by Pappenheim and his cavalry. But the horses of the imperialists were frightened by the flashing fire of the musketeers, and the attack failed to have an effect. It was ended as quickly as it was begun. Pappenheim concluded to make an attempt to surprise the Swedes from the left side. But the king divined his plan. He ordered John Banér with the second line to make a movement by which to turn at an angle with the first and face the attack from the side. Pappenheim was surprised to find a new line facing him. A bloody struggle ensued. Seven times his men made an inroad on the Swedish line and were seven times repulsed, badly damaged by the fire of the musketeers. The Swedes, in their turn, made an attack which scattered Pappenheim’s forces from the field in wild flight.
Tilly had with his light cavalry attacked the left wing of the Swedes. His men were mostly made up of Croats and other semi-barbarous people. When repulsed by the Swedes they concentrated their forces to crush the Saxons. These withstood the first assault, but the second routed them completely. The imperialists then made a second attack upon the left Swedish wing, made up of only 2,500 men. Gustavus Horn acted with coolness and great presence of mind. He let the first line close in on the second till it was able to take a firm stand against the heavy force of the attacking enemy. The Swedes never for a moment lost their position, in spite of the frightful onslaught. The king arrived and remained for some time with the left wing. He ordered the Scotch brigade of hired troops to support him. The Scotch had cannon hidden behind their lines. These had a telling effect upon the attacking imperialists,who were thrown back, suffering great losses. Everywhere the battle was fought with frenzy, the clouds of dust and smoke changing the day into night.
The king made sure that the left wing of the enemy’s army was engaged in continued flight. Then he commenced an attack with his own right wing upon the imperial artillery, which had kept up a steady fire against the Swedish centre. Tilly’s cannon were captured at the first attempt and turned on the imperial troops, causing consternation. Horn opened an attack on his side and the king hastened to support him with his troops. Tilly tried in vain to lead his troops into the battle. Pappenheim had returned and gave brilliant proofs of personal courage. The defeat of the imperial army was unavoidable; it scattered in helpless confusion. Tilly lost his horse and was near being captured himself. Four of his best infantry regiments took a stand and tried to resist the conquering foe. These imperial soldiers, who never had suffered a defeat, preferred death to surrender. Tilly fled at last, followed by only 600 men. After five hours of fighting the Swedes had won a glorious victory. They finished the day with prayer and remained on the battlefield over night, arranged in order of battle. The following morning they entered the deserted camp of the enemy where a rich booty awaited them.
The progress of Gustavus Adolphus along the shores of the river Main to the towns of Frankfort and Mayence was a march of triumph. In capturing Mayence, the Swedes fought the Spanish allies of the emperor. The towns surrendered to violence or by their own consent. Gustavus Adolphus made their inhabitants pledge their fidelity to him and strengthened his power with the richresources of the Frankish country. Then he turned against Maximilian of Bavaria. Tilly, who was to defend Bavaria, was again encountered and defeated at Lech. He was carried from the battle mortally wounded and died soon afterward. Gustavus Adolphus made his triumphal entry into Munich, with Frederic of the Palatinate at his side. The danger to the crown lands of the emperor was imminent.
Wallenstein was the most famous of German generals. Reticent and secretive, he appeared to be unable to feel mercy. He was devoted to the secret doctrines of astrology, which in him had taken the place of religion. He cared naught for the cause of religious liberty or the fall of the German empire, looking only for occasions to satisfy his own ambition and the means of obtaining power and wealth. He had served the emperor, who had raised him to the dignity of a duke of Mecklenburg, but had been dismissed and deprived of his dignities at the time of the arrival of Gustavus Adolphus on German soil. His downfall was caused by complaints of his insolence and recklessness, made by Maximilian of Bavaria and other German princes. Wallenstein retired to Prague, at the castle of which town he surrounded himself with princely luxury and comfort, scheming for revenge. His plan was to join the enemies of the emperor. He approached Gustavus Adolphus for such purpose, before the battle of Breitenfeld, and was delighted to hear of the defeat of Tilly. Gustavus Adolphus seemed at first inclined to take up relations with Wallenstein, but at the point where an agreement was to be made he suddenly changed his attitude. The king probably hesitated to accept the services of a man who had no other aim than to satisfy his own ambition. The emperorwas placed in a bad predicament, at the second defeat of Tilly, for want of an army to defend his lands and a commander to lead it. There was only one way out of the difficulty, and that was to pacify the mortally offended Wallenstein, and to persuade him to re-enter the service of the emperor. The emperor resigned himself to accept this humiliating condition, and Wallenstein agreed to resume command, but only at a high price. The name of Wallenstein was enough to bring thousands of warriors under the imperial banners, and Wallenstein was soon at the head of an army of sufficient proportions. His doctrine was that “the war should support itself,” according to which his soldiers were allowed to sack and plunder at will the countries through which they were passing. He cared naught for the recklessness of his subordinates, if they only showed blind obedience to him.
Wallenstein expelled the Saxons who had invaded Bohemia. But he showed disinclination to assist the elector of Bavaria, who was compelled to leave his country. At Eger, Wallenstein was reinforced and marched on Nuremberg with an army of 60,000, prepared to meet Gustavus Adolphus. He was confident of his superior force. “Within four days,” he said, “it shall become evident whether I or the Swedish king is the master of Germany.” Gustavus Adolphus hastened to relieve Nuremberg, taking his position in the immediate neighborhood of said town. He had only 18,000 men with him, but he surrounded this army with solid fortifications, and Wallenstein dared not risk an attack, in spite of his superior force. Wallenstein took his position at the summit of three steep hills, surrounded by trenches and ramparts. His intention was to cut off the Swedes from all sources of supplies and force them to surrender by starvation. “I shall teach the Swedish king,” he said, “a new method of warfare.”
For nine weeks the two armies were facing each other. The suffering became great in both camps. The Swedes suffered most, although the inhabitants of Nuremberg tried their utmost to supply them with food. When the provisions were diminishing, the bonds of discipline were loosened. Especially the Germans of the Swedish army made themselves conspicuous by licentiousness and plunder. Gustavus Adolphus decided to try an attack on Wallenstein’s camp, in order to put an end to the critical state of things. He was so much more anxious to risk it, as his army had been considerably reinforced and was almost equal to Wallenstein’s in numbers. At noon, August 24, 1632, the Swedish army made ready for battle. The attack was first made on Burgstall, the most important one of the three hills occupied by the enemy. The battle was a fierce and bloody one, the whole mountain being clothed in fire and smoke. Several of the most distinguished of the Swedish officers were killed or captured. A bullet passed through the boot of the king; an officer was killed at his side. The Swedes were thrown back on one hand, while on the other, Duke Bernhard of Weimar, one of the German commanders of the king, succeeded in capturing one of the forts built on the Burgstall. But as the day was over and the army exhausted, the Swedes were not able to profit by their success. A heavy rain commenced, continuing through the night. This made it impossible to haul any cannon up to the captured fort, which was then abandoned. The Swedish army returned to the camp. This unsuccessful attack cost the Swedes almost 2,000 men. Gustavus Adolphus wrote in regard to it: “It was too much to be considereda page’s trick, but too small to be of real earnest.” Wallenstein wrote of it. “Never in my life have I seen a more desperate fire, but I hope that the Swedes have lost their horns in this conflict.”
The king broke camp a fortnight later, arranging his army into a line of battle. For four hours he waited for Wallenstein to come forward, but the latter did not risk an attack. Gustavus Adolphus intended to enter Swabia, to complete the conquest of Southwestern Germany. But Wallenstein, who soon afterward also broke camp, invaded Saxony. This caused the king to change his plans. He was obliged to follow Wallenstein in order to protect his ally and to avoid the danger of being cut off from the connections with his own empire. Wallenstein marked his way by cruel devastation, and the appeals of the unhappy population persuaded the king to take an early decision.
The people of Saxony received Gustavus Adolphus with great enthusiasm, of which they gave evidence in the most exultant manner. People were seen kneeling everywhere on his way, imploringly stretching their hands toward him. The king was not content with their exaggerated devotion. “I fear that God is offended by their vain demonstrations of joy and soon shall show them that the one whom they adore as a god is naught but a weak and mortal man.”
Wallenstein was in the neighborhood of Leipsic, at the little town of Lutzen. He had sent away Pappenheim, his best sub-commander, to Halle with a considerable force. Gustavus Adolphus found this circumstance favorable and decided on an attack.
It was the 6th of November, 1632. A heavy mist covered the spacious fields around Leipsic. Wallenstein was, with the right wing of his army, close on Lutzen, the littletown being set on fire, in order not to shield a clandestine attack. The flame of the conflagration appeared dull but magnified through the mists of the early morning. In front of the imperial army was the highway. Musketeers were stationed in and above the ditches, which were made deeper and provided with ramparts. The musketeers were so arranged that higher lines could shoot over the heads of the lower ones. Behind them was another chain of musketeers. The artillery was placed partly behind the musketeers, partly on the sides of a hill where some windmills were situated. The cavalry was placed on the wings, the infantry in the centre, both arranged in great square divisions. A courier had been sent to recall Pappenheim, as the army without his force counted only 18,000 men. The Swedish army was 20,000 strong and was arranged according to a plan similar to the one followed at Breitenfeld. It was arranged in two lines. Musketeers were interspersed among the cavalry. The regimental artillery was placed before the front. The king commanded the right wing, Nils Brahe the centre, Kniephausen the second line of the centre, and Duke Bernhard the left wing.
The king, who for the time being had none of his best officers around him, spent the night in a wagon, together with Duke Bernhard and Kniephausen. He rose in the morning, dressed, without armor, in a blouse and a gray coat, and mounted his usual white charger, without having tasted food. He conducted in person the morning prayers of the army, when Luther’s psalm, “Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott,” was sung. After the song had ceased, the king made a short speech in Swedish, which he repeated in German. He said: “There you have the enemy. He is not now at the top of the hill or behind intrenchments, butin the open field. You know well how eagerly he has sought to avoid a conflict and that he is forced to fight because he cannot escape us. Fight, then, my dear countrymen and friends, for God, your country and your king. I will reward you all. But if you flinch, you know well that not a man of you will ever see his country again.” Then the psalm, “Versage nicht du Hæuflein klein,” the words of which were written in German by Gustavus Adolphus himself, was sung. The king gave the sign of attack by waving his sword over his head and cried: “Forward in God’s name; Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, help us to-day to strive to the honor of thy holy name!”
It was eleven o’clock, and the mists had, to a great extent, scattered. The Swedish centre, with the battery behind, marched toward the highway. The left wing made an attempt to penetrate between the burning Lutzen and the batteries below the windmills. A terrible fire from muskets and cannon met the attacking Swedes. Whole lines of infantry were killed. The left wing suffered in particular. But when the Swedes reached their destination, the centre moved on with great force, cleaning the ditches of musketeers, capturing seven pieces of artillery and making two of the great squares of imperial infantry retire from their position. While fighting the third, the Swedes were surprised by the reserve and cavalry forces of the enemy, and had to abandon what they had taken, retiring into the open field.
The king had, in the meantime, with the cavalry of the right wing, forced the ditches. When notified of the danger in which the centre was placed, he hurried to assist his infantry. At the head of his Smaland cavalry he moved on so quickly that he was separated from the rest of hisforces. The king was near-sighted and the mist once more thickening. For these reasons he happened to ride close up to the lines of the imperial cuirassiers. His horse was wounded, and the king himself received a pistol shot in the arm. He turned to one of his companions, Duke Frantz Albrecht, of Sachsen-Lauenburg, with a request to be escorted out of the battle, but was at that instant wounded in the back, immediately falling off his horse. Duke Frantz Albrecht, only thinking of saving his own life, fled from the spot. But a German page, eighteen years of age, who accompanied the king, jumped from his horse and tried to assist the king in mounting it. Some imperial cavalrymen passed by. They inquired for the name of the wounded lord. The page tried to hide his identity, but Gustavus Adolphus answered: “I was once the king of Sweden.” One of the imperialists attempted to drag the king with him, but seeing some Swedish soldiers approaching, he sent in leaving a bullet through the wounded hero’s brain.