1633] Military dispositions.-Alliance of Heilbronn 225

had been made Swedish commissioner, to Arnim, now a Saxon FieldMarshal (February-March). John George hereupon began once more to incline to think of concluding peace without Sweden. Though nothing as yet came of the idea, he was encouraged in it both by Wallenstein's former agent Sparre, and by Christian IV of Denmark, who eagerly proffered a not wholly disinterested mediation.

In January, 1633, Oxenstierna had divided the main Swedish army, giving the command of the larger half to Duke George of Lüneburg, who, with Kniphausen under him, occupied the Weser lands, and that of the smaller to Bernard of Weimar, to the dissatisfaction of his elder brother, Duke William. Oxenstierna was well aware of the difficulty which must beset any attempt to secure the adhesion of the Protestant Estates at large to an alliance directed by Sweden, against the wishes of Saxony, so long as Brandenburg remained lukewarm and most of the Lower Saxon Estates only wished for a safe neutrality. Sweden's one trustworthy friend was Landgrave William of Hesse-Cassel; and his troops were needed for the defence of his own territory. Perceiving that in the present instance the half was greater than the whole, Oxenstierna therefore fell back upon those portions of the Empire — the Franconian, the Swabian, and the two Rhenish Circles-which had been placed under his direct control by King Gustavus. United with these Estates by means of a separate alliance under her own direction, Sweden must endeavour to carry on the war side by side with another combination of Estates under Saxon leadership; and perhaps in time the weaker might be absorbed by the stronger body.

The alliance concluded at Heilbronn (Ulm having seemed too remote a place of meeting) on April 23, 1633, was accordingly one of those compromises which deserve to be regarded as great political achievements because they avert paralysis. In order to reach a conclusion, Oxenstierna consented to important sacrifices; and, though Sweden obtained the direction of the alliance, especially in military affairs, a Federal Council was established, of which seven members were to be nominated by the Estates of the four Circles, and only three by Sweden. The functions of this Council were to be consultative rather than executive; but it was likely to find many opportunities for interference. These chances were not ignored by Richelieu, who, desirous as he was of securing the continuance of hostilities between Sweden and the House of Austria, jealously watched Sweden's intervention in what he regarded as the French sphere of influence on the Rhine. While, therefore, the conclusion of the Heilbronn Alliance was furthered by the French ambassador at the Convention, Manasses de Pas, Marquis de Feuquières, who had in 1633 been sent on an extraordinary mission to the Emperor and the Catholic and Protestant Estates of the Empire, his efforts were also directed to the diminution within that alliance of the dominant influence of Sweden. For the rest, the annual war contributions of the four

C. M. H. IV.

15

226

Richelieu and Oxenstierna

[1631-3 Circles were fixed at no less a sum than 2,500,000 dollars; and before the Convention separated it resolved on the restoration of the Palatinate to Frederick's heir, Charles Lewis. Frederick's brother, Lewis Philip, undertook the administration of the country, to which, after the easy recapture of Heidelberg (May 24, 1633), prosperity began to return.

Oxenstierna's rapid conclusion of the Heilbronn Alliance, however much it left to be desired from the Swedish point of view, had successfully isolated the Elector of Saxony, especially after the Elector of Brandenburg had come into the new league. But the Chancellor could not shut his eyes to the fact that his achievement was quite as advantageous to France as it was to Sweden. Richelieu, for reasons explained elsewhere, and because he wished to prepare his ground before proceeding to action, continued to defer any direct French intervention in the German War. In 1631, the Peace of Cherasco, which secured an open way into Italy for France, had enabled him to devote a closer attention to her relations with the Empire. Its rights or claims over Lorraine he treated with contempt; but when, in obliging Duke Charles to conclude the disastrous and humiliating Treaty of Liverdun (June, 1632), Richelieu imposed upon him as one of its conditions neutrality during the continuance of the German War, he saw that the course of that war would furnish him with opportunities of mixing up the question of Lorraine with that of Elsass, now almost entirely in Swedish hands; and he was therefore most desirous that the war should continue. His action towards the Spiritual Electors on the left bank of the Rhine has already been noted in a previous chapter. On the approach of Gustavus, and the occupation of Mainz, the Electors of Cologne and Trier had appealed to France for the protection of their neutrality; and, though this appeal had remained unanswered, the quickwitted Philip Christopher of Trier had admitted French garrisons both into the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein opposite his residence of Coblenz and into Trier itself, previously occupied by Spanish troops. The footing thus gained by France she was unlikely to relinquish to either friend or foe. Thus, after the death of Gustavus, Richelieu's most pressing interest was to keep together the offensive alliance against the House of Austria, now once more in close coöperation with Spain, and to preclude the possibility of the withdrawal of the Swedish army, which had been actually threatened by Oxenstierna. On the other hand, Richelieu was ready to take immediate advantage of the removal of Gustavus himself, before whose commanding personality his own indomitable will had found itself obliged to bend. Hence the twofold activity of Feuquières at Heilbronn in favour of the compact concluded there; while at the same time the hands of Oxenstierna were bound as far as possible by a renewal of the Franco-Swedish alliance, on terms essentially the same as those of the Treaty of Bärwalde, and renewing the promise of a French subsidy (April 19, 1633).

1632-3]

Horn and Bernard of Weimar

227

Inasmuch as the Heilbronn Alliance placed all the military forces of the west under Swedish control, it was upon the commanders of those forces that the mantle of the conquering Gustavus may be said to have fallen. After their junction near Donauwörth (April, 1633), Horn and Bernard of Weimar alternately held the chief command, neither of them consenting to regard himself as the subordinate of the other, and Oxenstierna being desirous of offending neither. Though both had high qualities as commanders, the want of unity in their counsels made itself at times disadvantageously felt in the course of the next campaign. Gustaf Karlsson Horn, Count of Björneborg, who sprang from a family of high distinction in the Swedish service, had, after taking a prominent part in the Polish War, during Gustavus' German campaigns held the position of the King's Field-Marshal (lieutenant-general). He had materially contributed to the victory of Breitenfeld, and had subsequently been named "Director of the Würzburg principality." He was a commander of much circumspection, learned in the theory as well as experienced in the practice of war, and a strict disciplinarian. Within the last months of 1632 he had conquered the whole of Elsass, with the exception of Hagenau. In the personality of Bernard of Weimar there was something which more nearly resembled that of the great King, whose last battle he had fought to a conclusion. From his Ernestine ancestors he had inherited a passionate disposition-which in one of his brothers, the unhappy John Frederick, swerved into madness, but in Bernard was disciplined into a noble ardour. His own statement, that from his youth upwards his thoughts had been bent upon doing service to God and his beloved country, was no mere profession. His intellectual tastes (he was a lover of books) and his modest simplicity invested him with a chivalrous charm; in the field he was all eagerness for battle. Unfortunately for himself, he was, like Duke George of Lüneburg, who commanded in the Lower Saxon Circle and its vicinity, only a younger brother in a princely House a position which, while it aroused in him a strong dynastic ambition, left him unable to meet on an independent footing the great Powers whose support was indispensable to the cause of Protestantism and of "German liberty."

Once more, then, the Swedish army stood at the gate of Bavaria; and once more Maximilian was soliciting the aid of Wallenstein, who remained immovable in Bohemia. The Swedish forces seem to have numbered about 18,000 men ; and if, as Bernard expected, Wallenstein marched to offer them battle, he could not be met without Saxon assistance. But before long a new difficulty arose, the inner history of which remains to some extent obscure.

Since the Swedish army had landed at Usedom, it had changed in its composition, and to some extent in its character. Losses, made good by reinforcements of which only a fraction was derived from

228 Outbreak of discontent in the Swedish army [1632–3

Sweden, while they mainly consisted of soldiery levied near and far, and in all the regions of the Empire through which the troops had passed during their ceaseless marches and counter-marches, had changed the very texture of the army. The disproportion between Swedes and soldiers of other nationalities was much greater than before, more especially in the divisions detached from the force commanded by the King in person. As has been already seen, the principle of making war pay for itself had been more and more fully adopted by Gustavus. But even during his lifetime, notwithstanding the heavy contributions exacted and requisitions made, and (when they had been received) the French subsidies, it had been found impossible to provide the full pay of the soldiery, especially in the detached divisions. The King had thus fallen into debt with his troops, but more especially with the colonels who commanded, and had frequently themselves levied, regiments, advancing sums for their pay in the expectation of being duly repaid with interest. Here and there in the conquered territories, especially in Franconia, some of the officers had been compensated by the grant or promise of landed estates. For many reasons, the death of the King inevitably impaired the cohesion and the general discipline of the army. During the winter of 1632-3, the commanding officers took to levying contributions on their own account, while the soldiers seized the goods and chattels of the inhabitants, and committed all kinds of depredations and other excesses. The general discontent grew apace; and, when it was found that the Convention of Heilbronn, on which great hopes had been placed, was more anxious for the "reformation" of the army than for its "contentment," the accumulated dissatisfaction burst forth. A remonstrance was drawn up by two officers of the Franconian army one of them the Colonel Mitzlaff who had commanded the remnants of Mansfeld's troops in Silesia and had then passed first into the Danish, and then into the Swedish, service. Quite in the style of the English "agitators" of a rather later date, this document insisted on the payment within four months of the outstanding balances; failing which, instead of continuing to fight the enemy, the officers and troops would establish themselves as a corpus in the conquered lands, and hold these in pledge for their pay. The paper was numerously signed by the officers; but there is no trace of an organised mutiny among the common soldiery. The attitude of Horn and Bernard of Weimar toward this agitation is obscure. While they protested against the menaces of the officers, they were found willing to advocate the claims preferred; and, while Horn insisted on carrying the remonstrance in its crude and unamended form to Heilbronn, Bernard, who was certainly to benefit by the movement, and who may (as Pufendorf hints) have helped to set it on foot, wrote in support of the demands. Oxenstierna in his turn was so much impressed by the gravity of the situation that he persuaded the Estates at Heilbronn, before separating, to agree to the principle of a month's

1633]

Bernard Duke of Franconia

229

immediate pay to the troops, and resolved upon bestowing estates in the conquered lands as Swedish Crown fiefs upon the chief commandersBernard in particular-in return for their undertaking to satisfy the claims of officers and men.

On these lines the grievances of the army were settled in the course of the summer and autumn of 1633. Bernard, who during Horn's absence had employed the troops in seizing the bishopric of Eichstedt, which they were freely allowed to loot, in May held an interview with Oxenstierna at Frankfort to arrange his share the lion's share — of the settlement. About the middle of June the document was signed in which the Crown of Sweden, by its own authority and without the concurrence of any of the Estates of the Empire, created Bernard Duke of Franconia in his own right.

Bernard, who had hitherto held no independent position of his own, had long desired a hereditary principality; and some promise of the kind may have been made to him by Gustavus Adolphus. His further wish to become, not only, as he now did, a member of the Heilbronn Alliance, but also the commander-in-chief of its forces, was frustrated by the jealousy of Horn, and perhaps also by the foresight of Oxenstierna. The new duchy of Franconia included, in substance, only those parts of the Franconian Circle which had formed the sees of Würzburg and Bamberg; and even here the Crown of Sweden reserved to itself the fortresses of Würzburg and Königshofen. Bernard was not declared an immediate Prince of the Empire-the comparison between his dukedom and Wallenstein's in Mecklenburg is therefore imperfect; on the contrary, he had to renounce all connexion with the Empire and declare himself explicitly a vassal of the Crown of Sweden, to whom in the event of his dying without male issue the duchy was to escheat.

In this new character Bernard, with Oxenstierna, made his appearance at an assembly of the chief princes of the Heilbronn Alliance, held later in June, 1633, at Heidelberg. The capital of the Palatinate, the last place in it held by the Imperialists, had on May 24 capitulated to Count Palatine Christian of Birkenfeld. The assembly agreed to levy in all the lands included in the alliance a 10 per cent. tax on the produce of all fields and vineyards; and, the means being thus provided, a settlement was arranged here and completed at Frankfort (July), which at last put an end to the critical condition of affairs in the army.

Bernard's absence from the army was prolonged during July, while he was taking possession of his new duchy and establishing his brother Ernest there as regent. In the meantime Horn held the command without making much progress, though in the course of the month he took Pappenheim, and then Neumarkt (near Landshut), having advanced from Donauwörth with his main force. He was beginning to lose all control over his troops; villages were destroyed; the peasantry was maltreated. The officers neglected their soldiery; and the men,