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THIRTY YEARS' See also:WAR (1618–1648), the See also:general name of a See also:series of See also:wars in See also:Germany which began formally with the claim of See also:Frederick the elector See also:palatine to the See also:throne of Bohemia and ended with the treaty of See also:Westphalia. It was primarily a
Nature religious war and was waged with the bitterness
of the characteristic of such wars, but at the same See also:time struggle. See also:political and feudal quarrels were interwoven with the religious question, with the consequence that the armies, considering themselves as their masters' retainers rather than champions of a cause, plundered and burned everywhere, military violence being in no way restrained by expediency. In a war based on the principle cujus regio ejus religio it was vain to expect either the professional or the See also:national type of See also:army to display its virtues.
Fifty years before the outbreak of the war the See also:Convention of See also:Passau had compromised the burning questions of the Re-formation, but had See also:left other equally important points as to the secularization, of See also: Just as the Protestants and their nominee found themselves looked upon askance by the other Protestants, so the emperor himself was unable to See also:call upon Maximilian's Army of the League without promising to aggrandize Bavaria. Indeed the emperor was at first—before Frederick intervened—almost a See also:mere archduke of See also:Austria waging a private war against his neighbours. Only the in-coherence of his enemies saved him. They ordered taxes and levies of soldiers, but the taxes were not collected, and the soldiers, unpaid and unfed, either dispersed to their homes or plundered the See also:country-side. The only coherent force was the See also:mercenary See also:corps of See also:Ernst von See also:Mansfeld, which, thrown out of employment by the termination of a war in See also:Italy, had entered the service of the Union. Nevertheless, the Bohemians were conspicuously successful at the outset. Under Count Thurn they won several engagements, and Ferdinand's army under Carl See also:Bonaventura de Longueval, Count Buquoi (1571–1621), was driven back. Thurn appeared before See also:Vienna itself. See also:Moravia and See also:Silesia supported the Bohemians, and the See also:Austrian nobles attempted, in a stormy See also:conference, to wrest from Ferdinand not only religious See also:liberty but also political rights that would have made Austria and Bohemia a loose See also:confederation of powerful nobles. Ferdinand firmly refused, though the deputation threatened him to his See also:face, and the See also:tide ebbed as rapidly as it had flowed. One or two small military failures, and the enormous political blunder of bringing in the elector palatine, sealed the See also:fate of the Bohemian See also:movement, for no sooner had Frederick accepted the See also:crown than Maximilian let loose the Army of the League. See also:Spanish aid arrived. See also:Spinola with 20,000 men from the See also:Low Countries and Franche See also:Comte invaded the See also:Palatinate, and Tilly, with no fears for the safety of Bavaria, was able to combine with Buquoi against Defeat of the Bohemians, whose resistance was crushed at the Frederick. See also:battle of the Weisser See also:Berg near See also:Prague (8/18 See also:November 1620). With this the Bohemian war ended. Some of the nobles were executed, and Frederick, the " See also:Winter See also: MansThe eforee" he must of See also:necessity See also:plunder
armies. where he was. His movements would be governed neither by political nor by military considerations. As, soon as his men had eaten up one See also:part of the country they must go on to another, if they were not to See also:die of See also:starvation. They obeyed a See also:law of their own, quite See also:independent of the wishes or needs of the See also:sovereign whose interests they were supposed to serve." These movements were for preference made upon hostile territory, and Mansfeld was so far successful in them that the situation in 1621 became distinctly unfavourable to the emperor. He had had to recall Buquoi's army to See also:Hungary to fight against See also:Gabriel See also:Bethlen, the See also:prince of Transylvania, and in an unsuccessful battle at Neuhausel (See also:July to) Buquoi was killed. Tilly and the League Army fought warily and did not See also:risk a decision. Thus even the proffered See also:English See also:mediation in the See also:German war might have been accepted but for the fact that in the See also:Lower Palatinate a corps of English See also:volunteers, raised by See also:Sir See also:Horace See also:Vere for the service of the English princess See also: The other was the See also:margrave George
See also:arses in Frederick of See also:Baden-See also:Durlach, reputed to be of all German
the way princes the most skilful sequestrator of ecclesiastical lands.
In See also:April 1622, while Vere garrisoned the central fortresses of the Palatinate, Mansfeld, Christian and George Frederick took the See also: The next See also:act in the See also:drama, however, had already begun with the adventures of the outlaw army of Mansfeld and Christian.
Mansfeld After Hochst, had it not been for them, the war might and chris• have ended in See also:compromise. See also:
they marched off to the See also:rich country of See also:East See also:Friesland.
Their presence raised fresh anxieties for the neutral princes of North Germany. In 1623 Mansfeld issued from his Frisian strong-hold, and the See also:threat of a visitation from his army induced the princes of the Lower Saxon Circle to join him. Christian was himself a member of the Circle, and although he resigned his bishopric, he was taken, with many of his men, into the service of his See also:brother, the See also:duke of Brunswick-See also:Wolfenbuttel; around the mercenary See also:nucleus gathered many thousands of volunteers, and the towns and the nobles' castles alike were alarmed at the progress of the Catholics, who were reclaiming Protestant bishoprics. But this movement was nipped in the bud by the misconduct of the mercenaries. The authorities of the Circle ordered Christian to depart. He returned to See also: Thus the war was extended beyond the See also:borders of the Empire, and the way opened for ceaseless foreign interventions. From the battle of Stadtlohn to the pitiful end twenty years later, the decision of German quarrels See also:lay in the hands of foreign See also:powers, and for two centuries
after the treaty of Westphalia the evil tradition was faithfully followed.
France was concerned chiefly with Spain, whose military possessions all along her frontier suggested that a new See also:Austrasia, more powerful than See also: Then, like a See also:deus ex machina, See also:Wallenstein, duke of See also:Friedland, came forward and offered to raise and maintain an army in the emperor's service. It was an army like Mansfeld's in that it lived on the country, but its exactions were systematic and the Wauen- products economically used, so that it was possible to See also:stein feed 50,000 men where Mansfeld and his like had barely raises an subsisted 20,000. This method, the high See also:wages which army he paid, and his own princely habits and commanding See also:personality gave it a cohesion that neither a free See also:company nor an army of mere Lower Saxon contingents could ever See also:hope to attain. In 1625, in spite of Tilly's appeals, Wallenstein did nothing but See also:levy contributions about See also:Magdeburg and Halberstadt, keeping his new army well away from the risks of battle until he could See also:trust it to conquer. It was fortunate for Ferdinand that he did so. Christian IV., who had been joined by Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick, had in 1626, 6o,000 men. Wallenstein and Tilly together had only a very slight numerical superiority, and behind them was nothing. Even the hereditary provinces of Austria were threatening revolt owing to their having to maintain Maxiniilian's troops (the new elector thus recouping his expenses in the Palatinate war) and Gabriel Bethlen was again in the field. But on the other side the English subsidies failed, and the Protestant armies soon began to suffer in consequence. Tilly opposed Christian IV., Wallenstein Mansfeld. The latter, having stood still about See also:Lubeck and in the outskirts of See also:Brandenburg till the food was exhausted, advanced upon Wallenstein, attacked him in an entrenched position at the See also:Bridge of See also:Dessau and was thoroughly defeated (15/25 April 1626). He then wandered across Germany into Silesia and joined Defeat Bethlen. Wallenstein followed up, and by taking up stroa positi, CoMelld Mans and en to and See also:death See also:chose betweensattackingehim andfeld starving. BSo,lwith- ofMans- out a battle, he brought about a truce, whereby Bethlen teld. was disarmed and Mansfeld was required to leave Hungary. Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick died soon afterwards, the one in Hungary, the other in Westphalia. King Christian, left alone and unable without English subsidies to carry on the war methodically, took the offensive, as Mansfeld had done, in See also:order to live on the Thuringian countryside. But Tilly, with whom Wallenstein had left a part of his army, moved as quickly as the king, brought him to See also:action at Lutter-am-Barenberge in Brunswick and totally defeated him (17/27 August). With this, armed opposition to Tilly and Wallenstein in the field practically ceased until 1630. But there was enough danger to prevent the disbandment of their armies, which continued to live on the country. In the intervening years the See also:balance of forces, political and military, was materially altered. France opposed Spain and the emperor in Italy with such See also:Lull vigour as Huguenot outbreaks. permitted, England in the quarrelled with France, but yet. like France sent struggle. subsidies to the North German Protestants. Gustavus held his hand, while Christian slowly gave up fortress after fortress to Tilly. Wallenstein, returning from the See also:campaign against Gabriel Bethlen, subdued Silesia, where a small part of Mansfeld's army had been left in 1626, and afterwardss drove Christian's army through See also:Jutland (1627). But Wallenstein, with his dreams of a united Germany free in See also:conscience and absolutely obedient to the emperor, drifted further and further away from the League. Ferdinand thought that he could fulfil the secular portion of Wallenstein's policy while giving See also:satisfaction to the bishops. The princes and bishops of the League continued to oppose any aggrandizement of the emperor's power at their expense and to insist upon the resumption of church lands. In this equilibrium the North German Protestant cities were strong enough to refuse to admit Wallenstein's garrisons. In 1628 Wallenstein, who had received the duchy of See also:Mecklenburg on its rightful See also:lord being put to the ban for his See also:share in the Danish war, began to occupy his new towns, and also to spread along the coasts, for his united Germany could never be more than a See also:dream until' the possibility of Danish and See also:Swedish invasions was removed. But the Hanse towns rejected his overtures, and See also:Stralsund, second-See also:rate seaport though it was, absolutely refused to admit a See also:garrison of. his See also:siege of See also:wild soldiery. The result was the famous siege steal- of Stralsund (See also:February to August 1628), in which, See also:sand. with some slight help from oversea, the citizens compelled the hitherto unconquered Wallenstein army to. retire. The siege was, as the result proved, a turning-point in German See also:history. The emperor's policy of restoring order had practiclalbr universal support. But the See also:instrument of the restoration was a plundering army. Even this might have been See also:borne had Wallenstein been able to give them, as he wished, not only peace but religious freedom. But when Christian signed the peace of Lubeck, and the See also:Edict of Restitution (1629) gave back one See also:hundred and fifty See also:northern ecclesiastical See also:foundations to the Catholics, men were convinced that one ruler Gustavus meant one religion. Rather than endure this the Adolphus North Germans had called in Gustavus Adolphus, of and, just as Gustavus landed, the resentment of the swede' princes of the League against Wallenstein's policy and Wallenstein's soldiers came to a head, and the emperor was forced to dismiss him. His soldiers were taken over by Tilly, and for the moment he disappeared from the See also:scene.
A thoroughly trained army, recruited from See also:good yeomen and good soldiers of See also:fortune, paid good wages, and led by a See also:great See also:captain, was a novelty in war that more than compensated for Tilly's numerical superiority. Gustavus, however, after landing at Peenemiinde in June, spent the See also:rest of the See also:year in establishing himself firmly in Mecklenburg and See also:Pomerania, partly for military reasons, partly in view of a future Swedish See also:hegemony of the Baltic, and most of all in order to secure the active support of the more important Protestant princes, so as to appear as an See also:auxiliary rather than a See also:principal in the German conflict. First the old duke Bogislav of Pomerania, then George See also: Tilly and See also:sack of Pappenheim pressed the siege of Magdeburg, and Maade- although the citizens, directed by Swedish See also:officers, b'g• fought desperately the See also:place was stormed, sacked and burnt on the See also:night of the loth of May 1631, amidst horrors that neither of the imperialist generals was able to check, or even to mitigate. The Catholics rejoiced as though for another St See also:Bartholomew's See also:day, the Protestants were. paralysed, and even Gustavus, accused on all hands of having allowed the Magdeburgers to perish without giving them a helping hand, sorrow-fully withdrew into Pomerania. But Tilly, in spite of Pappenheim's remonstrances, turned westward against See also:Hesse-See also:Cassel and other See also:minor principalities whose rulers had declared for Gustavus. The king of Sweden, thereupon, clearing away the remaining League garrisons, on the Oder, advanced to Werben (at the junction of the Elbe and the See also:Havel), where the army entrenched itself, and, in spite of sickness and See also:famine, stoically awaited the attack. The desired result was achieved. At the end of July Tilly, returning from the See also:west before he had accomplished its reduction, made his See also:appearance and was twice re= pulsed (13/23 and 18/28 July), losing 6000 men out of 22,000. Moreover, Ferdinand having in his moment of See also:triumph `flatly rejected John George's appeal against the Edict, Saxony took up arms. Thereupon Tilly, ' turning away from Gustavus's entrenchments, invaded Saxony, being reinforced en route by 20,000 Men from Italy (the war there being left to the Spaniards). The elector at once made an alliance with the Swedes. fn which he exacted See also:life for life and plunder for plunder in return fnr'the slaughter at New Brandenburg. Then Gustavus advanced ii! See also:earnest. Tilly had taken no See also:measures to hold him off while the invasion of Saxony was in Battle of progress, and he crossed the Elbe at See also:Wittenberg. See also:Bee/ten- 16,000 See also:Saxons joined the 26,000 Swedes at Duben, fem. and some of the western Germans had already come in. Tilly had just captured See also:Leipzig, and outside that place, carried away by Pappenheim's See also:enthusiasm, he gave battle on the 7/17 See also:September to the now See also:superior allies. The first battle of See also:Breitenfeld (q.v.) was a triumphant success for Gustavus and for the new Swedish See also:system of war, such a battle as no living soldier had seen. The raw Saxons, who were commanded by See also:Arnim, once Wallenstein's lieutenant, were routed by Tilly's men without the least difficulty, and the balance of See also:numbers returned again to the imperialist side. But the veterans of the League army were nevertheless driven off the field in disorder, leaving 6000 dead. Tilly himself was. thrice wounded, and only the remnant of his own faithful Walloon regiments remained with him and See also:bore him from the field. All Protestant Germany hailed Gustavus as the liberator. Wallenstein, glad of the defeat of the Catholic army, proposed to co-operate with the Swedes. John George, the Swedish general See also:Horn and the Swedish See also:chancellor Oxenstierna united strong in advising Gustavus to march straight upon Vienna. See also:post- Richelieu, who desired to humble Ferdinand rather tioo of than to disestablish the power of the Catholic princes, Gustavus was of the same mind. But Gustavus deliberately Adolphus. chose to move into South Germany, there to relieve the Protestants oppressed by Maximilian, to organize the cities and the princes in a new and stronger Protestant Union, the Corpus Evangelicorum, and to place himself in a country full of resources whence he could strike out against the emperor, Tilly, and the Rhine Spaniards in turn. To the Saxons he left the task of rousing the Bohemian Protestants, perhaps with the See also:idea of thoroughly committing them to the war upon Ferdinand. The' Swedish army pushed on through See also:Halle, See also:Erfurt, See also:Wurzburg to See also:Mainz, where in the See also:middle of the " Pfaffengasse," the long See also:lane of bishoprics and abbacies along the Main and the Rhine, it wintered in luxury. The Palatinate was reorganized under Swedish officials and the reformed religion established again. In March 1632. the campaign was. resumed. See also:Nuremberg and See also:Donauworth welcomed Gustavus. Tilly's army, rallied and re-organized for the See also:defence of Bavaria, awaited him on the See also:Lech, but after a fierce battle the passage was forced by the Swedes (4/14 April) and Tilly himself was mortally wounded. See also:Augsburg,, See also:Munich and all the'towns and open country. south of the See also:Danube were occupied without resistance. At the same time John George's army entered Prague without firing a shot. The emperor had now either to submit or to reinstate Wallenstein. Wallenstein demanded as the See also:price of his services the reversal of the. Edict, and power to dethrone every wages- stela re- prince who adhered to the Swedes. His terms were turns accepted, and in April 1632 he took the field as the to the emperor's alter ego with a new army that his recruiters lo:perial had gathered in a few See also:weeks. He soon expelled the service. Saxons from Bohemia and offered John George See also:amnesty and the rescinding of the Edict as the basis of peace. The elector, bound by his alliance with Gustavus, informed the Swedish king of this offer, and a series of negotiations began between the three leaders. But John George had too much in See also:common with each to follow either Wallenstein or Gustavus unreservedly, and the war recommenced. Gustavus's first danger was on the Rhine side, where Pappenheim, aided by the Spaniards, entered_ the field. But Richelieu, the half-hearted enemy of distant Catholic princes, was a vigorous enough opponent of Spain on his own frontier, and Gustavus was free in turn to meet Wallenstein's new army of 6o,000, composed of the men immortalized by See also:Schiller's See also:play, excellent in war and in plundering, destitute of all See also:home and national ties, and owning See also:allegiance to its general alone. While Gustavus in See also:Franconia was endeavouring with little success to consolidate his Corpus Ewangelicorum Wallenstein came upon the scene. Gustavus, as soon as' his. Rhine detachments had rejoined, offered him battle. But as in 1625 Wallenstein would risk no battle until his ' army had gained confidence. He entrenched himself near See also:Furth, while Gustavus camped his army about Nuremberg and a contest of endurance ensued, in which the Swedes, who, although they had learned to plunder in Bavaria, were kept rigidly in hand, fared worse. Wallenstein, aided by his superiority in irregular See also:cavalry, was able to starve The for three days longer than the king; and at last lines of Gustavus furiously attacked the entrenchments Norval- (battle of the Alte Veste, 24 August/3 September, berg. 1632) and was repulsed with heavy losses. Thereupon Gustavus retired, endeavouring in vain to tempt Wallenstein out of his stronghold by making his See also:retreat openly and within striking distance of the imperialists. Wallenstein had other views than See also:simple military success. Instead of following Gustavus, who first retired north-westward and then returned to the Danube at See also:Ingolstadt, he marched into Saxony, his army plundering and burning even more thoroughly than usual in order to force the Saxons into peace, Gustavus followed with the swiftness that was See also:peculiar to the Swedish system, and his detachments on the Main under Bernhard of See also:Saxe-See also:Weimar having secured the road through Thuringia, he concentrated at Erfurt when Wallenstein had scarcely mastered Leipzig. But it was now See also:late in the See also:season, and Wallenstein, hoping to spin out the few remaining weeks of the campaign in an entrenched position, allowed Pappenheim, who had joined him, to return towards the See also:Weser country, where, as in many other districts, spasmodic minor See also:campaigns were waged by See also:local forces and small detachments from the lesser bodies. Within See also:forty-eight See also:hours Pappen-
helm was called back. Gustavus, without waiting for Battle Arnim's Saxons to join him, had suddenly moved for- of See also: Winning a victory at Steinau (See also:October It, 1633) and capturing one See also:town after another, he penetrated almost to the Baltic. But he was recalled to the south-west before his operations had had any effect. The Swedish army, under Bernhard, Horn and Bailer, had before the formation of. the League of Heilbronn returned to the Palatinate, and while Horn and See also:Baner operated against an imperial army under See also:Aldringer in the Neckar country, Bernhard took See also:Regensburg from Maximilian's army. But it was now late in the year and Wallenstein was See also:intent upon peace. With this See also:object he endeavoured to secure the higher officers of the army, but these were gradually won over by Spanish emissaries; the emperor, having. decided to Dismissal continue the war in affiance with Spain, dismissed m,d his general for ' the second time. Wallenstein then See also:murder openly attempted to unite the Swedish, Saxon and other Protestant armies with his own, so as to compel /enstein. all parties to make peace. But his army would not follow, the coup d'etat failed, and Wallenstein was murdered at Eger (15/25 February 1634). All unity, Catholic or Protestant, died with him, and for the next fourteen years Germany was simply the battle-ground of French, Spanish, Austrian and Swedish armies, which, having learned the impunity and advantages of plunder in the school of Mansfeld and Wallenstein, reduced the country to a See also:state of misery that no historian has been able to describe, See also:save by detailing the horrors of one or other See also:village among the thousands that were ruined, and by establishing the See also:net result that Germany in 1643 was worse off than, England in 1485, so much worse that while England was the healthier for having passed through the See also:fever of the Wars of the See also:Roses, Germany remained for 15o years more in the stillness of exhaustion. Success was for the present with the emperor and Spain. See also:Gallas, now appointed to Wallenstein's place, was Aldringer's See also:companion from boyhood, whereas Bernhard, the See also:Rupert of the German war, disagreed with Horn. Under the leadership nominally of the king of Hungary, Ferdinand's See also:heir, but really of Gallas, the army re-captured Regensburg and Donauworth, and when the Spanish See also:Cardinal See also:Infante joined them with 15,000 men on his way from Italy to the Netherlands, they were invincible. Bernhard attacked them in an entrenched position at See also:Nordlingen (27 August/ Battle 6 September 1634) and was beaten with a loss of ofNdrd- 17,000 men to 2000 of the defenders. Nordlingen was to Riven. the Swedes what See also:Malplaquet was seventy-five years later to the Dutch. The See also:model army of Gustavus perished there, and for the rest of the war a Swedish army, except for some advantages of organization and technical See also:form, was intrinsically no better than another. Gallas reconquered the towns in See also:southern Franconia. John George, having obtained from Ferdinand a compromise on the question of the Edict—its See also:complete revocation Wallenstein's death and Bernhard's defeat had made impossible—agreed to the Peace of peace of Prague (2o/3o May 1635), wherein all that Prague, was Protestant in 1627 was to remain so, or if since resumed by the See also:Roman Church to be returned to the See also:Lutherans. A certain number of princes followed John George's example on the same terms, but those who were excepted by name from the amnesty and those who had to gain or to regain the lands lost before 1627 continued the war. There was now no ideal, no See also:objective, common even to two or three parties. The Catholic claims were settled by compromise. The power of the central authority, save in so far as the army could without starvation make itself successively See also:felt at one place and another, had long disappeared. Gustavus's Corpus Evangelicorum as a German institution was moribund since Nordlingen, and Richelieu and the Spaniards stepped forward as the protagonists, the League of Heilbronn and the emperor respectively being the puppets. The centre of gravity was now the Rhine valley, the highroad between Spanish Italy and the Spanish Netherlands. Richelieu had, as the price of his assistance after Nordlingen, taken over the Alsatian fortresses held by Bernhard, and in May, just before the treaty of Prague was signed, he declared war on Spain. The French army numbered 130,000 men in 1635, and 200,000 in Aggressive the year after. One army assembled in Upper Alsace Asf for the attack of the Spaniards in Franche Comte ; France, another occupied Lorraine, which had been conquered
in 1633; a corps under See also:Henri de See also:Rohan was despatched from the same See also:quarter across See also:Switzerland, doubling itself from soldiers of fortune met with en route, to expel the enemy from the Valtelline, and so to cut the route to the Netherlands. Another force, co-operating with the duke of See also:Savoy, was to attack the Milanese. Bernhard was to operate in the Rhine and Main country, French garrisons holding the places of Alsace. Having thus arranged to isolate the Spanish Netherlands; Richelieu sent his main army, about 30,000 strong, thither to join Frederick See also: The the Nether. army on the See also:Meuse won a victory at Avins, south of lands. Huy, and afterwards joined Frederick Henry in the siege of Maestricht. But the Brabanters and Flemings had in sixty years of warfare parted so far from their former associates over the Waal that the inroad of Frederick Henry's army produced one of those rare outbursts of a momentary ' people's war," wi'ich occur from time to time in the wars of the 17th and 18th centuries. The effect of it was that Frederick Henry withdrewto his own country, and ht 1636 the French northern army had to face the whole of the Cardinal Infante's forces. In Italy the Franco-Piedmontese army achieved practically nothing, the gathering of the French contingent and its passage of the See also:Alps consuming much time. In the Valtelline Rohan conducted a successful See also:mountain campaign, which even to-day is quoted as a model of its See also:kind.' In Alsace and Lorraine, besides the Spaniards, the dispossessed duke of. Lorraine was in the field against the French. Neither side was strong enough to prevail completely. Bernhard waged a desultory campaign in Germany, and then, when supplies gave out and Gallas advanced, joined the French. Towards the end of the year his army was taken into the French service, he himself remaining in command and receiving vague promises of a future duchy of Alsace. Gallas's army from Frankfurt-on-Main pushed far into Lorraine, but it was late in the season and want of food compelled it to retreat. In eastern Germany the consequences of the peace of Prague were that Saxony, Brandenburg and other states, signatories to the treaty, were ipso facto the enemies of those who continued the war. Thus John George turned his arms against the Swedes in his neighbourhood. But their See also:commander Balser was as superior in generalship as he was inferior in numbers, and held the field until the renewal. of Gustavus's truce with Poland, which expired in this year, set free a fresh and uncorrupted Swedish corps that had been held ready for eventualities in that country. This corps, under See also:Torstensson, joined him in October, and on the 1st of November they won an action at Demitz on the Elbe. Thus Richelieu's great scheme was only very partially executed. The battle of Avins and Rohan's Valtelline campaign, the only important military events of the year, took place outside Germany; within Germany men were chiefly occupied in considering whether to accept the terms of the peace of Prague. But the land had no rest, for the armies were not disbanded. In 1636 the movements foreshadowed in 163 were carried out with energy. John George, aided by an imperialist army, captured Magdeburg, *drove back Bailer to See also:Luneburg, and extended his right wing (imperialists) through Mecklenburg into Pomerania, where, however, a Swedish force under the See also:elder See also:Wrangel checked its progress. The Saxons then passed over the Elbe at ITangermunde and joined the imperialists, threatening to interpose between Baner and the Baltic. But Bailer was too See also:quick for them. He destroyed an. isolated See also:brigade of imperialists at Perlebeeg, and before the Brandenburg contingent could join John George, brought on a general action at Wittstock (24 September /4 October 1636). The elector had 30,000 men against 22,000 and sought Bathe of to attack both in front and See also:rear. But while his µ, t entrenchments' defied the frontal attack Bailer threw
most of his army upon the enveloping force and crushed it. The Swedes lost 5000 killed and wounded, the combined army 11,000 killed and wounded and 8000 prisoners.. The See also:prestige of so brilliant a victory repaired even Nordlingen, and many North German princes who were about to make peace took fresh See also:heart.
In the west, though there were no such battles as Wittstock, the campaign of 1636 was one of the most remarkable of the whole war.. , The Cardinal Infante was not only relieved by the retreat of the Dutch, but also reinforced by a fresh army ' under a famous cavalry officer, Johann von Weert. He pre-pared, therefore, to invade France from the north-west. Even though the army that had fought at Avins and Maestricht re-turned by sea from Holland, the French were too much scattered to offer an effective resistance, and Prince See also: Thus the army at Compiegne was soon 1 See See also:Shadwell, Mountain Warfare; and See also:Hardy de Perini, Batailles francaises, vol. iii., for details. a Composed partly of Bavarians, who had fought their way from the Danube to the Weser, partly of See also:Cologne troops who had joined the Bavarians against the Protestants of north-west Germany. 50,000 strong. The army of Lorraine under Duke Bernhard 1 and Louis de See also:Nogaret, Cardinal de La Valette (d. 1639), placed itself at Epinal to prevent any junction between Prince Thomas and the army of Gallas. But Gaston of Orleans, the king's lieutenant at Compiegne, was no more enterprising as a de-See also:fender of the country than he had been as a rebel and conspirator, and the army itself was only half See also:mobile owing to its rawness and its " trained-See also:band " character, and the Spaniards and Bavarians retired unmolested to oppose Frederick Henry in the Low Countries. They left a garrison in the little fortress of Corbie, which See also:Monsieur's army recaptured in November. The gallantry of the defenders, which bore heavily on the towns-people, was alloyed with a singular trait of professionalism. The time had come for the Cardinal Infante to distribute his forces in winter quarters, and the garrison of Corbie, it is said, surrendered in good time in order not to be omitted in the See also:allotment of comfortable billets in Belgium. During the See also:episode of Corbie another storm burst on the eastern frontier of France. The prince of Conde, See also:governor of See also:Burgundy, had in the spring entered Franche Comte and besieged See also:Dole, but the inhabitants as well as the Spanish troops vigorously War in opposed him, and his army ultimately went to swell that Lorraine of Gaston. But, although Duke Charles IV. was active and See also:Bur- in repossessing himself of Lorraine, Gallas with the main gundy. imperialist army' stood still in Lower Alsace during the summer. At first he had to await the coming of the nominal commander, Ferdinand's son, but afterwards, when heavy detachments from the defending armies had gone to Compiegne, Gallas himself missed his opportunity. It was not until September that he joined the duke of Lorraine, aad later still when he made his inroad into Burgundy. He took a few small towns, but See also:Dijon and the entrenchments of Bernhard's army there defied him, and his offensive dwindled down to an See also:attempt to establish his army in winter quarters in Burgundy, an attempt of which the heroic defence of the little town of St See also:Jean-de-Losne sufficed to See also:brin about the See also:abandonment. Charles IV., however, continued a small war in Lorraine with some success. In Italy the duke of Savoy with his own army and a French corps under Crequi advanced to the See also:Ticino, and an action in which War in both sides lost several thousand men was fought at iy Tornavento a few See also:miles from the future battlefield of See also:Magenta, to which in its details this affair bears a singular resemblance (June 22, 1636). But the victory of the French was nullified by the refusal of See also:Victor Amadeus, for political reasons, to advance on See also:Milan, and Rohan, who had come down from the Valtelline to co-operate, hastily See also:drew back into his stronghold. On the edges of the western See also:Pyrenees a few towns were taken and retaken. The campaign of 16 7, on the French and Spanish side, was not productive of any marked See also:advantage to either party. From See also:Catalonia a Spanish army invaded See also:Languedoc, but was brought to a standstill in front of the rocky fortress of Leucate and defeated with heavy losses by the French relieving army under See also:Schomberg, due d'See also:Halluin. In Italy nothing was done. In the Valtelline the local regiments raised by Rohan mutinied for want of pay and Rohan had to retire to France. On the Low Countries frontier the cardinal de La Valette captured Chteau Cambresis, Landrecies and See also:Maubeuge. The deaths of Ferdinand II., the See also:landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, the duke of Savoy and the duke of See also:Mantua, which occurred almost simultaneously, affected the political foundations of the war but little. The balance, such as it was, however, was unfavourable to France, for the duchess of Mantua went over to the imperialists and the duchess of Savoy was opposed by the princes of her See also:house. On the other hand, Ferdinand III., in spite of Spain, had to concede more power to the electors as the price of the imperial dignity. On the Rhine and in the adjacent countries Johann von Weert, returning from Belgium with his Bavarians, captured Ehren- breitstein, the citadel of See also:Coblenz, and expelled small War on French detachments from the electorate of See also:Trier, whose the Rhine. ruler, the See also:archbishop, had been put to the ban by the emperor. Then, passing into the Main valley, he took See also:Hanau. The main imperialist army, still under Gallas, had departed from Alsace to the east in order to repair the disaster of Wittstock, and Charles of Lorraine, with his own small force and a detachment under Count See also:Mercy left by Gallas, was defeated by Bernhard on the See also:Saone in June, after which Bernhard advanced vigorously against See also:Piccolomini, the imperialist commander in Alsace, and crossed the Rhine at Rheinau. But soon Piccolomini was joined by Johann von Weert, and Bernhard retired again. ' For the first time in the history of western See also:Europe See also:Cossacks appeared on the Rhine. Their march through Germany was marked by extraordinary atrocities. They did not remain long at the front, for their insubordination and misconduct were so flagrant that even Gallas found them intolerable and dismissed them. In the north-east, the effect of Wittstock proved but 'transient. The widow of the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, after an attiintOt at resistance, agreed to the treaty of Prague. In 1638 See also:Bank after taking Erfurt and See also:Torgau found himself the See also:target of several opponents—the Bavarians under Gotz, who had remained on the Weser to subdue Hesse-Cassel when their comrades war in passed into Belgium in 1635, the beaten army of Witt- northern stock, and a potential Brandenburg contingent. The andaorta. Saxons did no more than defend their own country, but eastern the imperialists and Bavarians uniting under General Qermany. Geleen manoeuvred See also:Barter out of his strongholds on the Elbe. He retreated on the Oder, but there found, not the expected assistance of Wrangel's Pomeranian army, but Gallas with the main imperial army which had hurried over from the west to cut off the Swedes. See also:Bauer escaped only by a stratagem. Deluding Gallas with an appearance of retreat into Poland, he turned north-wards, joined Wrangel, and established himself for a time in Pomerania. But Gallas ruined his army by exposing it to an open winter in this desolate country, and at last retired to the Elbe. Pomerania. by the death of the old duke Bogislav, became a See also:bone of contention between See also:rival claimants, and in the prevailing equilibrium of greater powers its fate remained unsettled, while a feeble small war slowly consumed what Wallenstein and Gustavus, Gallas and Wrangel had spared. In 1638 the French operations in Italy, Belgium and Spain were in the main unsuccessful. In Italy Crequi was killed in an action on the 17th of March, and the Spanish commander in the Milanese, Leganez, advanced to the Sesia and took See also:Vercelli. In the Low Countries Prince Thomas and Piccolomini repulsed in turn the Dutch and the French. In the south Conde led from See also:Bayonne an invading army that was to dictate terms at See also:Madrid, but the fortress of Fontarabia, though invested by land and sea, checked the French until a relieving army arrived and drove Conde in disorder to Bayonne. So angry was King Louis at this Fighting
failure that Conde's lieutenant-general, the brother of Fighting
de La Valette, was condemned for high See also:treason. Nether-But the case was different in Alsace. There Richelieu lands and was more than ever determined to strike at the Spanish Alsace. power, and there too was Bernhard, who hoped that
Alsace was to be his future principality, and under whom served the survivors of Breitenfeld and Nordlingen, now in French pay under the name of the " Weimar Army." After the See also:raid into south Germany Bernhard had wintered about Basle, and began operations by taking a few towns in the See also:Black See also:Forest. He then besieged Rheinfelden. Johann von Weert, however, See also:fell upon him by surprise and drove him away (February 28th). Rohan was amongst the dead on the French side. But Bernhard reassembled his adventurers and invited them to return and See also:beat the imperialists at once. The outcome was the battle of Rheinfelden, in which the redoubtable Weert, who had terrified Paris in 1636, was taken prisoner and his army dissipated (March 3rd). Although the Bavarians in the Weser country hurried south to oppose him, Bernhard took Rheinfelden and Ereiburg. Lastly he invested See also:Breisach—the town that, scarcely known to-day, was then the " See also: In the east, 1639 began with Barters pursuit of the retreating Gallas. Beginning Thanks to his skill the Swedish See also:star was again in the of aegotia. ascendant. Barer crossed the Elbe, captured Halle and bons for See also:Freiburg, inflicted a severe defeat on the imperialists at peace, See also:Chemnitz (April 14, 1638), and then after overrunning western Saxony advanced into Bohemia, judging rightly that See also:Bern-hard was too much occupied with his prospective duchy to co-operate with him in the south-west. Ferdinand III. sent his brother, the archduke See also:Leopold William, to take command of Gallas's army and sent all available reinforcements to Bohemia. But Barter contented himself, after an unsuccessful attempt upon Prague, with thoroughly eating up the country and, as winter came on, he retired into the Saxon mountains. The other Swedish troops overran Brandenburg and fomented a revolt in-Silesia. In 1639, as before, Richelieu's attacks on Spain, other than those directed upon Alsace and Baden, were unsuccessful. In the north the French devoted this year, as they had devoted 1637 and 1638, to a methodical See also:conquest of walled towns in France view of a future frontiere de fer. The two objectives and Spain. selected, Hesdin and Thionville, were far apart, and a covering army to protect both sieges against Piccolomini was posted midway between them. Piccolomini, by a forced march from See also:Liege and Huy through the See also:Ardennes, flung himself upon the besiegers of Thionville before their " See also:circumvallation " was completed, and being greatly superior in numbers he almost annihilated them (June 7, 1639) before the covering or rescuing army had even passed the See also:Argonne. Then, however, Piccolomini, whose troops had bought the victory dearly, stood still for a time, and Hesdin, besieged with much pomp by Richelieu's See also:nephew, La Meilleraye, surrendered on the 29th of June. On the side of the Pyrenees Conde as usual showed himself both unlucky and incapable. In Italy Cardinal de La Valette died, after allowing Prince Thomas to win over Savoy to the emperor's side and seeing every French post except Casale, See also:Chivasso and the citadel of See also:Turin taken by Thomas and Leganez. His successor was the duc d'See also:Harcourt, called by his men " Cadetla-Perle " on See also:account of his earrings, but a bold and exceedingly competent soldier. Under him served See also:Turenne, hitherto known only as a younger brother of the duke of See also:Bouillon. Harcourt reviewed his army for the first time late in October. The day after the See also:review he advanced from See also:Carignano to revictual Casale, detaching Turenne as flank-guard to hold off Prince Thomas on the side of Turin. The enterprise was entirely successful, but Thomas and Leganez determined to cut off the French on the return march. Leganez beset a See also:defile on the See also:Chieri-Carignano road (whence the action is called the Route de Quiers) while Thomas lay in wait to the north. But Turenne and the flank-guard sharply repulsed the prince, and by hard fighting the French returned safe and victorious (November 29th). In Alsace Bernhard was carried off by a fever just as he was preparing to fight his way to a junction with Basler. Nevertheless Death of he was fortunate in the opportunity of his death, for Deanhard his dream of a duchy of Alsace had already brought ernha- him into conflict with Richelieu, and their conflict could Weimar See also:Sax only have ended in one way. Marshal Guebriant at and its once took steps to secure his army i for the service of effects. France, and Richelieu's officers were placed in See also:charge of the fortresses he had conquered. At the same time the long negotiations between the landgravine of Hesse-Cassel and the various powers ended in her allying herself with France and raising an army in return for a See also:subsidy. Another event of importance in this year was the episode of the Spanish See also:fleet in the See also:Downs. Now that the land route was imperilled the sea communications of Spain and Belgium were brought into use. A See also:squadron sailed from Spain for the Netherlands, and, though it evaded the now powerful French See also:navy, it was driven into English territorial See also:waters by the Dutch. Charles I. of England offered France free See also:access to the victim if France would restore the elector palatine, and Fate of the offered Spain See also:protection if she would furnish him with Spanish funds for his army. Richelieu in reply encouraged the fleet. growing opposition to Charles at home, and the Dutch, contemptuous of his neutrality, sailed in and destroyed the fleet at See also:anchor. In 164o the French still kept up their four wars in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain. But the Belgian and Spanish frontiers were no longer directly attacked. On the side of Languedoc there was no further danger, for the foolish See also:imposition of strict military forms, and equally foolish threats to punish those who did not appear at the See also:rendezvous, caused the Catalans, who were already defending themselves against the French both efficiently and vigorously, to turn their arms against the old enemy See also:Castile. In December 164o See also:Portugal declared herself independent under a king of the house of See also:Braganza. In the Low Countries Louis XIII. himself presided over the siege of the important fortress of See also:Arras, which surrendered on the 8th of August. In Italy, however, See also:Cadet-la-Perle kept the moral ascendancy he had won in the brave action of the Route de Quiers. In April with io,000 men he advanced from Carignan against the 20,000 Spaniards who were besieging Casale and attacked their See also:line of Casale circumvallation boldly and openly on the 29th of April. and Turin. He himself on horseback led his stormers over the See also:parapet. Turenne spread out his cavalry in one thin line and, thus overlapping Leganez's cavalry on both flanks and aiding his charges with the See also:fire of his dismounted dragoons, drove it away. The Spanish See also:infantry rearguard was cut off and destroyed, and at the end of the day half of Leganez's army was killed or See also:captive. After this, Harcourt promptly turned upon Prince Thomas, and then followed one of the most remarkable episodes in military history. Thomas, himself defending Turin, was besieging the French who still held the citadel, while Harcourt, at once besieging the town and attempting to relieve the citadel, had, externally, to protect himself against Leganez's army which was reorganized aid reinforced from See also:Naples and the Papal States. For long it seemed as though the latter, See also:master of the open country, would starve the small army of Harcourt into submission. But Harcourt's courage and the disunion of his opponents neutralized this advantage. Their general attack of the IIth of July on the French lines was made not simultaneously but successively, and Harcourt repulsed each in turn with heavy losses. Soon afterwards the French received fresh troops and a large See also:convoy. The citadel was relieved and the town surrendered soon afterwards. Leganez retired to Milan, Prince Thomas was allowed to take his few remaining troops to See also:Ivrea, and recognized the duchess's regency. i See also:Forestalling others who desired its services, notably the Winter smg's son, who intended to ally himself with Spain and so to See also:farce the retrocession of the Palatinate. The war had indeed progressed far since the days of the Protestant Union ! In Germany Baner's course was temporarily checked. The See also:arch-duke dislodged him from his few remaining posts in Bohemia, and when at last Bernhard's old army, under the duc de Longueville, crossed the Rhine at See also:Bacharach and joined Bailer in Thuringia, the Austrians held them in check in the broken country about See also:Saalfeld until the country would no longer support the combined army. The Weimar army then retired to the Rhine valley and Baner to Waldeck, and, in the hope of detaching both George of Luneburg and the landgravine of Hesse-Cassel from the Swedish alliance, the imperial general wasted their territories, ignoring Bailer. After the departure of the Luneburgers and Hessians, recalled for home defence, the Swedish general could only See also:watch for his opportunity. This came in the winter months of 1640-41. Negotiations for peace were constantly in progress, but no result seemed to come out of them. The Diet was assembled at Regensburg, the imperial army scattered over north-western Germany. Baner suddenly moved south heading for Ratisbon, for the defence of which the archduke's and all available troops—even Piccolomini's from the upper Rhine—were hurried up by the emperor. The Weimar Army under Guebriant joined the Swedes en route, and the combined army reached the objective. But a thaw hindered them and gave the emperor time to concentrate his forces, and after a variety of minor operations Bailer's army found itself again in See also:possession of Hesse, Luneburg, Brunswick, &c. Guebriant's army, however, had again separated from him in order to live, and in May was at See also:Bamberg—even an army of 18,000 could hardly keep Baner's, the field at this See also:stage of the war. On the loth of May lase suc• Barter, worn out by fatigue, died, and after some intrigues ceases. and partial mutinies, Torstensson succeeded to the command. The last fortified place held by the Austrians in Lower Saxony, Wolfenbiittel, was now besieged by Torstensson's Swedes and Germans and Guebriant's French and Weimarians, and the archduke and Piccolomini advancing to its See also:relief were defeated outside the walls on the 29th of June. The war had now receded far from Alsace, which was firmly held by France, and no longer threatened even by Charles of Lorraine, who had made his peace with Louis XIII. in the spring, and whose army had followed Guebriant into Germany. The losses of the Germans at Wolfenbuttel caused some of their princes to accept the peace of Prague, but, on the other hand, the new elector of Brandenburg (Frederick William, the Great Elector) gave up the Austrian alliance and neutralized his dominions. In 1641 Harcourt thoroughly established his position, without much fighting, in See also:Piedmont. In Spain the Catalan and Porttt- tuese insurrections continued and the French occupied See also:Barcelona, but underwent a serious See also:reverse at See also:Tarragona. In the north La Meilleraye captured and held some of the See also:Artois towns, but was driven out of the open country by the superior army of the Cardinal Infante. A formidable See also:conspiracy against Richelieu brought about a See also:civil war in which the king's troops civil war were defeated at La Marfee, near Sedan (the fortress of hr France. Turenne's discontented brother, the semi-independent duke of Bouillon), by a mixed army of rebels, Spaniards and Imperialists (July 6th). This, however, led to nothing further and the conspiracy collapsed. Charles of Lorraine having joined the rebels, his newly regained fortresses were reoccupied by the French. In December 1641 there began at See also:Munster and See also:Osnabruck in Westphalia the peace negotiations which, after eight more years of spasmodic fighting, were to close this ruinous war. In 1642 Torstensson, having cleared up the war for a moment in the north-west, turned upon Silesia, defeated an imperialist corps at See also:Schweidnitz and took some fortresses, but drew back when the archduke and Piccolomini came up with the main Austrian army. In October, however, he was joined by fresh troops from the north-east, crossed the Elbe and besieged Leipzig. The imperialist army, which was joined by the Saxons when Torstenstheir country was again the See also:theatre of war, marched to the son's rescue. But Torstensson defeated them with enormous goy of loss in the second battle of Breitenfeld 2 (November 2, Breften-1642). But, although the Austriansfeared an advance on fell. Vienna itself, the victors waited for the fall of Leipzig and then took up winter quarters. Guebriant had throughout the year operated independently of the Swedes. The Bavarians had advanced into the lower Rhine region in order to support, in concert with the Belgian army of Spain, a fresh outbreak in France (Cinq-See also:Mars' conspiracy). But Lamboy, the Spanish general, was attacked and defeated before Hatzfeldt's Bavarians came up, at Ffulst between See also:Kempen and See also:Crefeld (January 17th), whereupon the Bavarians took shelter under the guns of the fortress of Jiilich. On the northern frontier of France Harcourt, the brilliant commander of the See also:Italian army, failed to prevent the Spaniards from capturing See also:Lens and La Bassee, and Guiche, with another army farther east at Le Catelet, was defeated and routed at Honnecourt (May 26th), saving only 2000 of his 9000 men. But Francisco de 2 The emperor executed all the officers and every tenth See also:man of the See also:regiment in which the panic began. The Swedes checked. Melo, the Cardinal Infante's successor, did not profit by his victory, turning back instead to oppose the Dutch and Guebriant. In Italy Thomas of Savoy and his brother, submitting to the regency of the duchess, led her troops in concert with the French against the Spaniards of the Milanese, and took See also:Tortona. Louis himself conquered See also:Roussillon, Richelieu crushed the conspiracy of Cinq Mars by executing its leaders, and Marshal de la Motte-Houdencourt held Catalonia and defeated Leganez at See also:Lerida (October 7th). Before the next campaign opened Louis and Richelieu were dead. One of the last acts of the king was to designate the young duc d'See also:Enghien, son of the incapable Conde, as general of his northern army. Harcourt had strangely failed, Guebriant was far away, and the rest of the French marshals were The Duc experienced but incapable of commanding an army. d'Enghien. Yet it was no small See also:matter to put in their place a youth of twenty-one, who might prove not merely inexperienced but also incompetent. But Enghien's victory was destined to be the beginning for the French army of a long hegemony of military Europe. Melo had selected the Meuse route for his advance on Paris. On it he would meet only the places of See also:Rocroi and Rethae; these mastered, he would descend upon Paris by the open lands between the See also:Marne and the See also:Oise. He began by a feint against Landrecies, and under See also:cover of this secretly massed his Sambre and Ardennes corps on the Meuse, while Enghien, having the safety of Landrecies in mind, moved to St Quentin. There, however, the young general learned at the same moment that Louis XIII. was dead and that the Spaniards had invested Rocroi. With the See also:resolution and swiftness which was to mark his whole career, he marched at. once to offer them battle. Enghien's more experienced counsellors, the generals of the old school, were for delay. To risk the only French army at such a moment would, they said, be madness, and even the fiery Gassion asked, " What will become of us if we are beaten?" But Enghien replied, " That will not concern me, for I shall be dead." and his personality overcame the fears of the doubters. The battle took place on the lgth of May 1643, in a See also:plain before Battle of Rocroi, without any marked See also:tactical advantage of RocroL ground in favour of either side. Melo's cavalry was routed, and nearly all the infantry, 18,000 men of the best regiments in the Spanish army, the old Low Countries tercios, with their general the Conde de Fuentes,' a See also:veteran of fifty years' service, in their midst, stood their ground and were annihilated. 850o were dead and 7000 prisoners. Two hundred and sixty See also:colours and See also:standards went to See also:grace Notre See also:Dame. But even Rocroi, under the existing conditions of warfare, was decisive only in so far as, by the destruction of Spain's superiority in Belgium, it saved France from further inroads from the north. Enghien indeed followed up the debris of Melo's army beyond the Sambre, but on the Rhine Guebriant had marched away from the region of Cologne into See also:Wurttemberg, and there was nothing to prevent. the imperialists in the north-west from joining Melo. The thorough See also:establishment of the French on the Rhine and the need of co-operating with the Swedes was considered by the young general to be more important than fighting Melo in front of See also:Brussels, and in spite of Surrender the protests of the See also:Regent and See also:Mazarin, he decided of Thioa- to attack Thionville. Taking a See also:leaf out of Melo's See also:vine, See also:book, he threatened Brussels in order to draw all the defenders thither, and then suddenly turned eastward. Enghien arrived on June 18th, a corps from See also:Champagne had' already reached the place on the 16th, and on the 8th of August Thionville surrendered. The small fortress of Sierclr followed suit (September 8th).. Guebriant meanwhile had attempted without success. to cover the French and Protestant posts in Wurttemberg against the united forces of his old opponents from the lower Rhine (Hatzfeldt's Bavarians) and a fresh Bavarian army under Mercy, and had retired into Alsace. Thither Enghien, before dispersing his army into rest-quarters in October, sent him a corps under Josias Rantzau to enable him to recross the Rhine and to seize winter-quarters in Germany so as to spare Alsace. Guebriant did so, but he was mortally wounded in the siege of See also:Rottweil, a town at the source t See also:Paul See also:Bernard See also:Fontaine de Fougerolles, a See also:noble of Franche Comte.of the Neckar, and Rantzau, taking over the command, allowed himself to be surprised in the act of dispersing into winter-quarters by Charles of Lorraine (who had again changed sides and now commanded his own, Hatzfeldt's and Mercy's armies 2). At See also:Tuttlingen on the headwaters of the Danube, Rantzau was taken prisoner with the greater part of his army of 12,000 men (November 24th), and the rest hurriedly fell back into Alsace. In the east the campaign had as usual turned more upon subsistence than upon military operations. Torstensson, by his See also:halt before Leipzig after Breitenfeld, had given the emperor Torsions-a whole winter in which to assemble a new army. The son against hereditary provinces, as the devastations of war ap- Gallas. preached their own borders, willingly supplied a force of 12,000. men, which under Piccolomini manoeuvred for a while to the west of Dresden. But Piccolomini was replaced by Gallas, who, though cherishing visionary schemes of uniting Hatzfeldt's troops and Gotz's Cologne-Bavarian-North German army with his own for a decisive See also:blow, had in fact to fall back through Bohemia. The Swedes followed. Taking the small towns and avoiding the large places, Torstensson swept through Bohemia and Moravia, his steps dogged through the devastated country by Gallas, until he reached See also:Brunn. Thence, however, he suddenly retreated to the shores of the Baltic. Christian of Denmark had declared war on Sweden, and threatened to isolate the Swedish forces in Germany. Torstensson, therefore, wintered in Holstein, Gallas, unable to follow him through districts already eaten up, in Saxony. In Italy and Spain there was no event of any importance. In 1644 Gaston of Orleans, with La Meilleraye and Gassion under him, began the conquest of the See also:Dunkirk region, capturing See also:Gravelines in July. Melo, having no army to oppose See also:roe war in them, remained inactive. In Italy Prince Thomas and the Nether_ Marshal Plessis-Praslin undertook nothing serious, while lands and in Spain La 'Motte-Houdencourt lost Lerida, and was Italy. imprisoned by Mazarin in consequence. But the Rhine campaign is memorable for the first appearance of Turenne at the head of an army, and for the terrible battle of Freiburg. The momentary See also:combination of forces on the other side that had ruined Guebriant's expedition soon broke up. Hatzfeldt was called by the emperor to join Gallas, Charles of Lorraine wandered with his mercenaries to the Low Countries, and Mercy's Bavarians alone were left to oppose Turenne, who spent the first months of the year in restoring discipline and confidence in the shaken Weimar Army. But Mercy was still considerably superior in strength, and, repulsing Turenne's first inroad into the Black Forest, besieged Freiburg. Turenne made one cautious attempt at relief, then waited for reinforcements. These came in the shape of Enghien's army, and Enghien as a prince of the See also:blood took over the supreme command. But both armies together numbered hardly 17,000 men when Enghien and Turenne united at Breisach on the 2nd of August. On the 3rd, although Freiburg had meantime surrendered, they crossed the Rhine and attacked Mercy's position, which was of great natural and artificial. strength, in Battles front and flank. Three separate battles, which cost the around Bavarians one-third of their force and the French no Freiburg. less than half of theirs, ended in Mercy's retreat (seeFREIBURG) on the loth of August. Enghien did not follow him into the mountains, but having assured himself that he need not fear interferertce, he proceeded to the methodical conquest of the middle Rhine fortresses (See also:Philippsburg, Heidelberg, See also:Mannheim, Mainz, &c.), and returned with his own army to the Moselle, leaving Turenne and the Weimar Army at Spire. In the east, or rather in the north, a desultory campaign was carried on during 1644 between Torstensson and the younger Wrangel, on the one side, the Danes and Gallas on the other, and in the end Gallas retreated to Austrian territory, so completely demoralized. t" at for want of supervision his army dwindled on the way from 20,000 mep to 2000. Torstensson followed him, having little to fear from the Danes. Meanwhile the prince of Transylvania, George Rak6czy, playing the part of Gabriel Bethlen his predecessor, made war upon the emperor, who not being able on that account to send fresh troops against Torstensson, called upon Hatzfeldt, as above mentioned, to reform the Battle of wrecks of See also:Dallas's army on the nucleus of his own. See also:Asthma Maximilian of Bavaria sent most of his own troops under Weert on the same errand—hence Mercy's defeat at Freiburg.: But Torstensson pressed on by Eger, See also:Pilsen and See also:Budweis towards Vienna, and on the 24 February/6 March 16 45 he inflicted a crushing defeat on Gotz, Weert and Hatzfeldt at Jankau near See also:Tabor. Gotz was killed and half of his army dead or captive. In his extremity Ferdinand offered part of Bohemia and Silesia to Maximilian in return for soldiers. But the Bavarian ruler had no soldiers to give, for Turenne ,was advancing again from the Rhine. At the end of March the Weimar Army was at Durlach, on the 6th of April at See also:Pforzheim. Thence it marched to Heilbronn, and Rothenburg-on-Tauber, when Turenne resolved to go northward in See also:search of supplies and recruits in the territories of his ally and ' The three " armies " combined were hardly more than 25,000 strong. See also:cousin the landgravine of Hesse-Cassel. But at this point the army, headed by Bernhard's old colonels, demanded to be put into rest-quarters, and Turenne allowing them to disperse as they wished, was surprised by Mercy and Weert—who brought his courage, if nothing else, back from the field of Jankau—and lost two-thirds of his forces. But Turenne instead of retreating to Turenne's the Rhine installed himself in the landgravine's country, Army. where he collected reinforcements of Hessians and Swedes, while Enghien hurried up from the Moselle and crossed the Rhine to repair the disaster. The " Army of Weimar " and the " Army of France " joined forces, as in r644, almost under the eyes of the enemy. Enghien at once pushed forward from Ladenburg, by Heidelberg, Wimpfen, See also:Rottenburg and See also:Dinkelsbuhl. But from day to day the balance leaned more and more on the Bavarian side, for Torstensson, after threatening Vienna (April), had See also:drawn off into Moravia without waiting for the See also:dilatory See also:Rakoczy, and the emperor was able to give Maximilian an Austrian corps to be added to Mercy's army. Mercy therefore, after manoeuvring for a time on Enghien's left flank, placed himself in a strong position at Allerheim near Nordlingen, directly barring the way to the Danube. The second battle of Nordlingen (August 3, 1645) was as desperately fought as the first, and had not Mercy been killed at the crisis of the day Enghien would probably have been disastrously defeated. As it was, the young duke was victorious, but he had only 1500 infantry left in See also:rank and See also:file out of 7000 at the end. Soon after- wards Enghien fell See also:ill, and his army returned to France. Turenne, left with a few thousand men only, attempted in vain to hold his ground in Germany and had to make a hasty retreat before the archduke Leopold William, who had meantime made peace with Rakoczy, and, leaving Torstensson's i successor Wrangel undisturbed in his Silesian cantonments, brought Gallas's and Hatzfeldt's troops to aid Weert's. Turenne wintered around Philipps-See also:burg, almost the only remaining conquest of these two brilliant but costly campaigns. But before he settled down into winter quarters he sent a corps to the Moselle, which dislodged the imperialist garrison of Trier and restored the elector in his arch-bishopric. In See also:Flanders Gaston of Orleans conquered a number of fortresses, and his army united with that of the Dutch. But the allies separated again almost at once, each to undertake the sieges which suited its own purposes best. From Silesia Wrangel passed into Bohemia, where he remained until the forces employed against Rakoczy and Turenne could send help to the imperialists opposed to him. He then drew away into Hesse 2 to support the landgravine of Cassel against the landgrave of See also:Darmstadt, the archduke Leopold William and the Bavarians following suit. The campaign of 1646 in Hesse up to August was as usual uneventful, each army being chiefly concerned with its food. But at last the archduke retired a little, leaving Turenne and Wrangel free to join their forces. Turenne had no intention of repeating the experiences of Freiburg and Nordlingen. War had by now settled down into the groove whence it did Tteg y. s stmrategy. not issue till 1793' It was more profitable to attain the small See also:objects that were sought by manoeuvre than by battle, and the choice of means practically lay between manoeuvring the enemy's army into poor districts and so breaking it up by starvation, and pushing one's own army into rich districts regardless of the enemy's army. The usual practice was the first method. Turenne chose the second. Delayed at the opening of the year by orders from Mazarin to stand still—the elector of Bavaria had opened negotiations in order to gain time for the archduke Leopold William to march into the west—Turenne found it impossible to reach Hesse by the short and See also:direct route, and he therefore made a rapid and See also:secret march down the Rhine as far as See also:Wesel, whence, See also:crossing unopposed, he joined Wrangel on the upper See also:Lahn (August loth). The united armies were only 19,000 strong. Then the imperialists, fearing to be hemmed in and starved between Turenne and the Rhine, fell back to See also:Fulda, leaving the Munich road clear. The interior of Bavaria had not been fought over for eleven years, and was thus almost the only prosperous land in desolated Germany. Turenne and Wrangel marched straight forward on a broad front. On the 22nd of September, far ahead4 of the pursuers, for whom they left nothing to eat, they reached i Torstensson, suffering from See also:gout and worn out by the campaign, retired after the unsuccessful Vienna raid. 2 John George of Saxony, seeing that his country was faring worse in a state of open war against Sweden than it would even in the most impotent neutrality, had made a truce with Wrangel on what terms he could obtain. Augsburg, and for the rest of the year they devastated the country about Munich in order to force Maximilian to make terms. An See also:armistice was concluded in the winter, Maximilian having been finally brought to consent by an ill-judged attempt of the emperor (who feared that Bavaria would go the way of Brandenburg and Saxony) to seduce this army. The French and Swedes wintered in southern Wurttemberg. In Flanders, Gaston of Orleans and Enghien took Dunkirk and other fortresses. In Italy, where the Tuscan fortresses were attacked, the French and Prince Thomas their ally were 'Last completely checked at first, until Mazarin sent a fresh "'the of corps thither and restored the balance. In Catalonia "'the the war. Harcourt underwent a serious reverse in front of Lerida at the hands of his old opponent Leganez, and Mazarin sent Enghien, now Prince of Conde, to replace him. 1647 was a barren year. The Low Countries Spaniards, concluding a truce with the Dutch, threw their whole force upon France, but this attack dissipated itself in sieges. In Italy Plessis-Praslin won an unprofitable victory over the See also:viceroy of the Milanese on the Oglio (July 4th). In Spain Conde, resuming the siege of Lerida, was repulsed with even more loss than Harcourt had been the year before, and had to retire upon the mere appearance of a relieving army. In Germany Turenne and Wrangel parted company. The latter returned to Hesse, whence he raided into Bohemia, but was driven back by the imperialists under their new general, Melander-Holzapfel. As the few obtainable See also:supply areas gave out one by one, the Swedes gradually retired almost to the See also:coast, but the imperialists did not follow, swerving into Hesse instead to finish the See also:quarrel of the landgravine and the landgrave. Turenne meanwhile had had to send all the French troops to Luxemburg to help in the defence of northern France against the Spaniard. The Weimar Army had refused to follow him to the Meuse, and mutinied for its arrears of pay. Turenne, however, promptly seized the ringleaders and after a See also:sharp fight disarmed the rest. Thus ignominiously Bernhard's old army vanished from the scene. In the autumn the elector of Bavaria was reconciled to the emperor and his army re-entered the field. Turenne was therefore sent back to Germany to assist the Swedes. But winter came on before any further inroads could be made into south Germany. The campaign of 1648 brought the decision at last. Turenne and Wrangel, having refitted their forces and united in Hesse as in 1646, steadily drove back the imperialists and Bavarians, whose 30,000 combatants were accompanied by a See also:horde of nearly 130,000 hangers-on--men, See also:women and See also:children—to the Danube. For a moment, at Nordlingen, the French and the Swedes separated, but they soon reunited, moved on to and beyond the Danube, and at Zusmarshausen (May 17th) catching the enemy in the act of manoeuvring, they destroyed his rear-guard, Melander being amongst the dead. The Battle of victors advanced as far as the See also:Inn, but Piccolomini, Zusmarsreorganizing the debris of the Austro-Bavarian army, hausen. checked their further progress and even drove them back to the line of the See also:Isar. Meantime, however, the Swedish general Konigsmarck, gathering all the scattered forces of his side in Saxony and Silesia, had entered Bohemia and was besieging Prague. This caused the recall of Piccolomini's army, and Turenne and Wrangel invested Munich. But Mazarin ordered the French to retire into Suabia so as not to compromise the peace negotiations at the See also:critical moment, and Wrangel followed suit. Before Konigsmarck was in a position to See also:assault Prague See also:news came of peace. Meanwhile in Artois Conde had repulsed the Spanish invasion by his brilliant victory of Lens (August 5th), which was a second Rocroi. After the thanksgiving service for the victory at See also:Nitre Dame, Mazarin arrested the leaders of the See also:Parlement of Paris, and in a few hours the streets were barricaded and a civil war in progress. This was the See also:Fronde (q.v.), which went on for another eleven years. Second battle of Nordllngen. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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