History of the Life of Gustavus Adolphus II., the Hero-General of the Reformation

by Harriet Earhart Monroe

This is a very abbreviated history of the first division of that great war which laid low the country of John Huss.

The second period may be said to extend from 1621 to 1624, and is usually spoken of as the war in the Palatinate. The war was now carried into that portion of Germany. It was in vain that each Protestant prince determined to defend his possessions against the oppressor. Tilly vanquished them one after another till Ferdinand's scepter was over every State. The Imperial soldiers ranged over the country, taking everything of value, also appropriating to Rome every Protestant church and school, so that the Protestants could readily see that their extermination had been determined. Ferdinand had taken a vow to the Virgin, both at Loretto and at Rome, to enforce her worship at the peril of his life, declaring that he preferred to rule over a wilderness rather than a nation of heretics. Now, strengthened by his many successes, it was plain to all Germany that he meant to soon fulfill that wicked vow. The executions and massacres of that time were without parallel since the Christian era.

Ferdinand not only revenged himself on all Protestants, but he deeply humbled the Catholic princes by the exercise of despotic power over their people. All European statesmen became alarmed at the aggrandizement, as they called it, of the Hapsburgs. Richelieu, the great cardinal of France, was glad enough to see Protestantism punished, as he had no idea of letting Austria overshadow France. Holland was afraid for Protestantism within her own borders, the slow nature of James I. of England began to arouse itself, and he planned to reinstate his son-in-law, Frederick, in the Palatinate, when broken and oppressed Germany turned to the princes of Scandinavia for succor.

Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, was busy with his wars in Poland. He would gladly have sent part of his well-disciplined army to the assistance of the German princes, but they preferred the king of Denmark, Christian IV., brother-in-law to the Elector Palatine.

He began the third period of the war by entering into an alliance with England and Holland, and declaring war against the empire, marched to the help of the Protestant princes, Dukes of Brunswick, Mansfield and others.

Christian IV. took the field in March, 1625, with sixty thousand troops, and entered Germany, determined to cover himself with glory and to reestablish Protestantism.

Tilly had been bad enough in ravaging conquered territory, but now Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland, appears on the scene. He had distinguished himself in the battle of White Mountain, and in the war against the Turks had received most valuable grants of land, and large revenues from the Emperor. Wallenstein was now put in command of the Imperial forces. He was a pervert from Protestantism to Rome, and such are always the most bigoted and intolerant. He had expelled the Hungarian troops from Moravia, and had accepted as pay the confiscated estates of his unfortunate countrymen.

He agreed to raise and support his own army for the Emperor at his own expense. The banditti of all Europe came to him for the promised loot, and, with an army of over one hundred thousand men, he took the field against Protestantism, already a divided, cowed, broken body of people. Not since the Crusades had there been such a war of devastation.

In five years Wallenstein and Tilly, who hated each other, but both under command of the Emperor, had routed the troops of Mansfield, the strongest of the auxiliaries of the king of Denmark, and had subdued Silesia, Lower Saxony and Holstein. As early as August, 1626, Christian IV. was defeated in the battle of Lutter, and was forced back to his own country for its defence. He was obliged to abandon his allies to the vengeance of their enemies. By the end of the five years Mansfield and Brunswick, the leading Protestant princes, were dead, and their troops destroyed or scattered. Everywhere the Imperialists laid the country waste.

Wallenstein took possession of Pomerania, and the Imperial forces, without opposition, marched into Holstein, Schleswig and Jutland, occupying all Denmark, except the islands. The neutral Protestant princes had their territories destroyed. This they fully deserved.