1636. DUKE BERNARD IN PARIS.
Duke Bernard made an agreement with Louis XIII. whereby he received the rank of Marshal of France, and a subsidy of four million livres a year, to pay for a force of 18,000 men, which he undertook to raise in Germany. After the death of Gustavus Adolphus, the hope of the Protestants was centred on him; soldiers flocked to his standard at once, and his fortunes suddenly changed. The Swedes were driven from Northern Germany, with the aid of the Elector of Brandenburg, who surrendered to the Emperor the most important of his rights as reigning prince: by the end of 1637, Banner was compelled to retreat to the Baltic coast, and there await reinforcements. At the same time, Duke Bernard entered Alsatia, routed the Imperialists, took their commander prisoner, and soon gained possession of all the territory with the exception of the fortress of Breisach, to which he laid siege.
On the 15th of February, 1637, the Emperor Ferdinand II. died, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, after having occasioned, by his policy, the death of 10,000,000 of human beings. Yet the responsibility of his fatal and terrible reign rests not so much upon himself, personally, as upon the Jesuits who educated him. He appears to have sincerely believed that it was better to reign over a desert than a Protestant people. As a man he was courageous, patient, simple in his tastes, and without personal vices. But all the weaknesses and crimes of his worst predecessors, added together, were scarcely a greater curse to the German people than his devotion to what he considered the true faith. His son, Ferdinand III., was immediately elected to succeed him. The Protestants considered him less subject to the Jesuits and more kindly disposed towards themselves, but they were mistaken: he adopted all the measures of his father, and carried on the war with equal zeal and cruelty.
1638.
More than one army was sent to the relief of Breisach, but Duke Bernard defeated them all, and in December, 1638, the strong fortress surrendered to him. His compact with France stipulated that he should possess the greater part of Alsatia as his own independent principality, after conquering it, relinquishing to France the northern portion, bordering on Lorraine. But now Louis XIII. demanded Breisach, making its surrender to him the condition of further assistance. Bernard refused, gave up the French subsidy, and determined to carry on the war alone. His popularity was so great that his chance of success seemed good: he was a brave, devout and noble-minded man, whose strong personal ambition was always controlled by his conscience. The people had entire faith in him, and showed him the same reverence which they had manifested towards Gustavus Adolphus; yet their hope, as before, only preceded their loss. In the midst of his preparations Duke Bernard died suddenly, on the 18th of July, 1639, only thirty-six years old. It was generally believed that he had been poisoned by a secret agent of France, but there is no evidence that this was the case, except that a French army instantly marched into Alsatia and held the country.
Duke Bernard's successes, nevertheless, had drawn a part of the Imperialists from Northern Germany, and in 1638 Banner, having recruited his army, marched through Brandenburg and Saxony into the heart of Bohemia, burning and plundering as he went, with no less barbarity than Tilly or Wallenstein. Although repulsed in 1639, near Prague, by the Archduke Leopold (Ferdinand III.'s brother), he only retired as far as Thuringia, where he was again strengthened by Hessian and French troops. In this condition of affairs, Ferdinand III. called a Diet, which met at Ratisbon in the autumn of 1640. A majority of the Protestant members united with the Catholics in their enmity to Sweden and France, but they seemed incapable of taking any measures to put an end to the dreadful war: month after month went by and nothing was done.
Then Banner conceived the bold design of capturing the Emperor and the Diet. He made a winter march, with such skill and swiftness, that he appeared before the walls of Ratisbon at the same moment with the first news of his movement. Nothing but a sudden thaw, and the breaking up of the ice in the Danube, prevented him from being successful. In May, 1641, he died, his army broke up, and the Emperor began to recover some of the lost ground. Several of the Protestant princes showed signs of submission, and ambassadors from Austria, France and Sweden met at Hamburg to decide where and how a Peace Congress might be held.
1642. VICTORIES OF TORSTENSON.
In 1642 the Swedish army was reorganized under the command of Torstenson, one of the greatest of the many distinguished generals of the time. Although he was a constant sufferer from gout and had to be carried in a litter, he was no less rapid than daring and successful in all his military operations. His first campaign was through Silesia and Bohemia, almost to the gates of Vienna; then, returning through Saxony, towards the close of the year, he almost annihilated the army of Piccolomini before the walls of Leipzig. The Elector John George, fighting on the Catholic side, was forced to take refuge in Bohemia.
Denmark having declared war against Sweden, Torstenson made a campaign in Holstein and Jutland in 1643, in conjunction with a Swedish fleet on the coast, and soon brought Denmark to terms. The Imperialist general, Gallas, followed him, but was easily defeated, and then Torstenson, in turn, followed him back through Bohemia into Austria. In March, 1645, the Swedish army won such a splendid victory near Tabor, that Ferdinand III. had scarcely any troops left to oppose their march. Again Torstenson appeared before Vienna, and was about commencing the siege of the city, when a pestilence broke out among his troops and compelled him to retire, as before, through Saxony. Worn out with the fatigues of his marches, he died before the end of the year, and the command was given to General Wrangel.