History of the Thirty Years' War ... Translated by A. Ten Broek. ... With an Introductory and a concluding chapter by the Translator

Front matter

GVSTAWS ADOLPHVS D.G. REX SVEC.GOm.' ET \AND. MAGNVS PRINCEPS F1NLANDLE DVXETC T..I. ?.--,.• Ms Ail.™ Dysl *.»xi f..j.,Wlj,*, HISTORY OF THE Thirty Years' War BY ANTON GINDELY PROFESSOR OF GERMAN HISTORY IN UNIVERSITY OF PRAGUE TRANSLATED BY ANDREW TEN BROOK FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF MENTAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN With an Introductory and a Concluding Chapter by the Translator COMPLETE IN TWO VOLUMES With Twenty-eight Illustrations and Two Maps VOL. I. NEW YORK G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 27 & 29 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET I884 Copyright 1883 By G. P. Putnam's Sons Press of G, P. Putnam' s Sons New York CONTENTS. PAGE Introductory Chapter 3

Chapter I. The Throwing From The Windows

I. The Principles which govern the Author's Account of the Thirty Years' War. — II. The Archduke Ferdinand and his Measures for securing the Succession after the Emperor's Death. — III. Thurn and the Bohemian Opposition : the "Acceptance" of Ferdinand as King of Bohemia. — IV. The Liberties of the Protestants abridged. — V. The First and Second Protestant Diets. — VI. The Throwing from the Windows, and the Establishment of the Government of the Directors 20-66

Chapter II. The Outbreak Of The War

I. Election of the King of Hungary. — II. Position of the Emperor Matthias and King Ferdinand relatively to the Bohemian Insurrection. Khlesl's Fall. — III. Efforts of the Emperor and the Bohemians to obtain Allies. — IV. The Elector of the Palatinate, the Duke of Savoy, and Count Mansfeld. — V. The Outbreak of the War, and Zerotin's (Dgeroteen) Mediation. — VI. The Emperor's Attempt to adjust amicably the Bohemian Contest, and the Manner in which the Insurgents received this 67-109 CONTENTS IV

Chapter III. The Imperial Election At Frankfort, And The Election Of

A KING IN BOHEMIA. I. Spread of the Insurrection over all the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, and Sympathy of the Austrians with it. — II. The Protestants of Lower Austria before Ferdinand. Thurn enters Vi enna. The War in Bohemia. — III. Ferdinand goes to the Imperial Election at Frankfort. Doncaster's Negotiations. — IV. The Deposition of Ferdinand at Prague, and Election of the Elector of the Palatinate as King of Bohemia. — V. The Elector's Acceptance of the offered Crown, notwithstanding the Lack of King James' Concurrence 1 10-162

Chapter IV. The Alliances Of The Emperor And The Elected King Of

BOHEMIA. I. Bethlen rises against Ferdinand II. — II. Retreat of Buquoi to Vienna, and Advance upon the City of the Allied Army of Bohemia and Hungary. The Negotiations in Presburg. — III. Ferdinand obtains Aid from the King of Spain, the League, the Pope, the King of Poland, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and a large Promise from Louis XIII., and the Alliance of the Electorate of Saxony. — IV. Alliances of the Elector of the Palatinate. — V. Bethlen's Election as King of Hungary, and Frederic's as Protector of Austria 163-213

Chapter V. The War In The Year

1620 TO THE BATTLE OF THE WHITE MOUNTAIN. I. The War in Austria and Bohemia in the first Months of the Year 1620. — II. The Treaty of Ulm, and the French and English Embassies in Vienna — III. March of the Army of the League into Austria, and its Junction with the Imperial Army. — IV. Maximilian and Buquoi advance into Bohemia 214-245 CONTENTS V

Chapter VI. The Battle Of The White Mountain And Its Con- Sequences

I. The Battle of the White Mountain, and the Flight of Frederic and his Adherents. — II. Use made of the Victory by the Victors. — III. Submission of Moravia, Lusatia, and Silesia. — IV. Criminal Proceedings in Bohemia, Moravia, and Austria, and the Beginning of Reactionary Measures of Reformation 246-299

Chapter VII. The Palsgrave Subjected To The Ban, And The Elec- Toral

DIGNITY TRANSFERRED TO MAXIMILIAN OF BAVARIA. I. The Palsgrave placed under the Ban. The Dissolution of the Union. — II. The Negotiations at Hainburg on the Danube. — III. Renewed Attempt of King James at Mediation. — IV. The War in the Upper and Lower Palatinate. — V. The War in Hungary to the Peace of Nikolsburg. The Diet of Oedenburg. — VI. Christian of Halberstadt and the Margrave of Baden-Durlach. The War in the Lower Palatinate in the Year 1622. — VII. Negotiations relating to the Transfer of the Electorate. — VIII. The Transfer of the Electorate at the Regensburg Diet 300-360

Chapter VIII. The Lower Saxon, The Danish, And The Two Hun- Garian

WARS. I. The War in the Lower Saxon Circle. Battle of Stadtlohn. War with Bethlen. — II. Negotiations for the Formation of a great Protestant Alliance, the Lead of which was finally assumed by Christian IV. Richelieu. — III. Negotiations for a Counter- Alliance of the Catholics. Waldstein. — IV. The Election of Ferdinand III. as King of Hungary. The Brunswick Negotia- CONTENTS VI tions.— V. The Battle of the Dessau Bridge. Mansfeld and Waldstein in Hungary.— VI. The Battle at Lutter.— VII. Insurrection of the Peasants in Upper Austria. — VIII. New Regulations for the Land 361-413

Chapter IX. The Peace Of Lubeck And The Edict Of Res- Titution

I. The Differences between France and England. — II. The War in the Year 1627. — III. The Complaints against Waldstein. — IV. The Peace of Liibeck.— V. The Edict of Restitution.— VI. Magdeburg 414-456 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Gustavus Adolphus ........ Frontispiece Map of Germany Illustrating the Period from the Reformation to the End of the Thirty Years' War ...... vi Vienna in the First Half of the XVII. Century .... 74 Pilsen at the Time of the Siege by Mansfeld in 1618 ... 96 Frederic V., Elector of the Palatinate, and Elected King of Bohemia 158 Gabriel Bethlen, Prince of Transylvania ..... 166 Battle of the White Mountain, near Prague, November 8, 1620 . 246 The City of Bautzen at the Time of its Capture by the Elector of Saxony in September, 1620 ...... 264 Heidelberg at the Time of the Siege by Tilly in 1622 . . 322 The Battle at Wimpfen in the Year 1622 338 The Battle at Hoechst in 1622 • 340 Albert von Waldstein, Duke of Friedland aud Mecklenburg 382 Stralsund O. P. PUTMAN'S SONS.

NEW YORK A T the request of my intimate friend, the publisher, I have decided to put the results of my many years' study of the Thirty Years' War into a work suited to the wants of a large circle of readers. In obeying this wish, I can also discharge to others an obligation which I have long felt. I therefore join my labors with those of the contributors to the series, entitled " The Knowl edge of the Present Time,"* the purpose of which is to present to the cultured classes, in a popular and attractive style, the results of those recent investigations which would otherwise have remained more or less unavailable in the scientific forms in which specialists have stated them. My work is divided into three parts. The first describes those events which gave immediate occasion to the out break of the Thirty Years' War, and proceeds thence to relate the history of the Bohemian insurrection, the judi cial proceedings and confiscations which followed, and the consequent reactionary measures of religious reforma tion.

In this I have closely followed the course of the four volumes which I have written on the history of the Thirty Years' War. My statement in regard to the part which Father Dominicus took in the council of the officers of the League and the Emperor before the battle of the * Das Wissen der Gegenwart. THE A UTHOR'S

Preface

VIII White Mountain, I have repeated, but do not support it by the authorities which I then used. The full credibility of this statement was indeed justly questioned, because it did not originate with eye-witnesses. I now, however, authenticate it by the report which Dr. Angelini, one of the attendants of Father Dominicus, has made in his account of the campaign in Bohemia. According to his report, this father, by his words of exhortation, moved Count Buquoi and several of the army officers to relin quish their original opposition to hazarding a battle. Angelini must have received this information either from Father Dominicus himself, or from one who was actually present at the council. Only the report of Angelini was known to me when this volume was completed. It was not until a few days later that a second and still higher tes timony came to my knowledge, to which I now refer : it is that of the Duke of Bavaria.

Immediately after the death of Father Dominicus, when facts were being collected looking to his canonization, and the Emperor Fer dinand and his wife, as also Duke Maximilian, were called upon to state what they knew of his acts and say ings, Maximilian made his statement in the following words: "When the armies of the League and the Em peror had united for the purpose of attacking, with all possible force, the enemy, and the latter had arrived be fore the walls of Prague, some of the highest officers were averse to the hazard of a battle. . . . When the Father observed this, he came up and humbly and mod estly requested that it might be permitted him to say a few words, although he had not been called to the council. When permission was given him, he exhorted the leaders with a fiery zeal that they put their trust in God and the righteousness of their cause ; they should firmly trust that the grace of God would not be withheld, and that their hopes would be rewarded with victory.

These words moved those who opposed the battle to yield, and with united forces to close upon the foe." I shall, in the course of this year or the next, publish the evidence of both Angelini and Maximilian. In the first part I have followed closely in the track of my previous labors. In the second also, and a part of the third, I have made little use of the numerous publi cations upon the history of the Thirty Years' War, but have depended chiefly upon my investigations of the archives, which I have nearly completed as far as to the beginning of the year 1636, and in the French State archives have pursued to the year 1648. What I have to offer, therefore, of new matter, and especially in regard to Waldstein and his quarrels with the League and his removal at Regensburg, I shall in my future publications bring out in detail, as also the plan of Gustavus Adolphus, as gradually developed in his own mind, concerning a do minion in Germany.

Wittich, in his work, entitled " Magdeburg, Gustavus Adolphus, and Tilly," observes that he who should more thoroughly investigate and more clearly discriminate than has hitherto been done as to the degree in which the pretensions and demands of Gus tavus Adolphus rose after his victories, would perform a labor worthy of grateful remembrance. In the archives of Berlin, Munich, Dresden, and Paris, I have examined everything which pertains to this subject. Sweden only have I failed to visit ; and though I have not yet made use of this final authority, I have nevertheless found in the above-named archives matter of greatest importance, illus trating the gradual growth of the Swedish King's plans, which matter I have made use of, and shall hereafter pub- X lish. As to the cause of Gustavus Adolphus' death, I have set forth no new opinion, but have followed that of all impartial historians.

They all regard it as an occur rence of chance and a consequence of his spirited pushing forward into the battle-throng. I was, however, able to furnish decisive evidence from the Spanish archives that there was actual negotiation in regard to the assassina tion of Gustavus Adolphus. To the reports relating to this subject I here call attention. In the third volume I give an account of the Waldstein catastrophe. I write " Waldstein," and not " Wallen stein," and for reasons which ought to receive the con currence of my readers. He himself never, so far as is known to me, wrote his name otherwise than "Wald stein," and in this form alone was the name in earlier times used in Bohemia, and it is now so written and so pronounced. It is therefore proper that a historian should, even at this late day, bring this form into use. although a poet's genius has brought into general cur rency the form of " Wallenstein," which was employed by the French and Italians of the seventeenth century.

In relation to the treason against the Emperor, which was laid to his charge, the earlier historians were more or less convinced of his guilt, and even Schiller expresses this conviction, although he remarks at the close of his narrative that the evidence against Waldstein was not sufficiently decisive. Among the most recent authors, Fors ter has attempted an explanation of the facts favorable to the honor of the great marshal, by relegating to the domain of falsehood all the charges made against him. He only admits that, upon learning the plan for his removal in the year 1634, he meditated turning against the Emperor. His treason was, therefore, only the consequence of the injustice designed against himself, and was clearly forced upon him. This conviction is supported by a second prominent investigator of Waldstein's his tory, Dr. Hallwich.

He builds upon the foundation of numerous recently discovered documents ; while a third inquirer, Dr. Schebeck, seeks wholly to acquit Waldstein of all guilt whatever. Ranke, in his biography of Wald stein, holds in general the view of the earlier writers, but finds a bright side to Waldstein's treason in the view that, in his transactions with Saxony, he sincerely labored for an adjustment between the religious parties. A final judgment upon this question will not be possible until all the original documents, for and against Waldstein, some of them still unknown to the public, and which lie at the foundation of my narrative, shall have been published. I shall of course early apply myself to the solution of this problem, until which time I shall claim only a provisional recognition of my judgment in the matter of this contest.

The original documents, which I have myself discovered, have impressed me with a conviction of Waldstein's guilt. The facts which I have brought forward and the con firmations which I have given of my view, as also the supporting proofs from single documents which have been indicated, may serve for the conviction of my readers also, who may, however, properly reserve their decisive conclusions until the future publication of the documentary proofs. Besides the Waldstein catastrophe, the transactions in regard to the peace of Prague form the most important subject of the narrative of the third volume, which both France and the Papal Court sought to thwart, but upon the conclusion of which the Emperor determined, notwithstanding his confessor's opposition and his own sacrifice of THE A UTHOR'S

PREFACE.

XII those religious interests, which but for the sake of peace, he would have prized so highly. As to the manner in which Urban VIII. sought to defeat the Hapsburgs' defence, and how he was met from the side of Spain, the papers of Simanca offer many a disclosure, some of the most im portant of which I have consulted and used. Whatever other reasons may have influenced the Pope in his hostile attitude, the decisive cause seems to me to have been the inherited opposition to the dominion of foreigners, which led Urban to oppose the Spanish, as his predecessors had opposed the Germans. In my narrative of the course of the war after the year 1636 and of the Westphalian peace negotiations, I have used almost exclusively the printed authorities. Thus I now send forth to the world this work, which, notwithstanding its modest compass, is the result of long years of preparatory study. The correctness of its conclu sions can, however, be finally decided only by evidence still to be published. The Author. TRANSLATOR'S

PREFACE.

. TN offering Professor Gindely's " History of the Thirty Years' War " to the public in an English dress, I desire to make the following observations : I. In regard to the work itself, the Author's own preface will inform the reader as to its origin. His great work will, perhaps, if ever completed, be too large to be called for much beyond the circle of those who can enjoy it in the original. But this smaller one rests upon the same studies, and will, I trust, commend itself to the entire reading public as the best which has appeared on the subject. Diplomacy is the point of most interest and importance in the history of a war. Battles are but incidents, and accounts of them are valuable chiefly for their bearing upon military science and art, and as indicating the pre ponderance of the one party or the other.

These are described with sufficient fulness. Further than this, descriptions of them are but sensational, like the details of crime in the columns of the daily press. But the diplomacy of a great struggle has another significance, and its points are seldom stated with more clearness and precision than in this work. The Author's pictures of prominent individuals also commend themselves, both by their vividness and by the evident care which has been taken in securing their accuracy. I mention, as examples, the accounts of Ferdinand II., Cardinal Khlesl, the Pals grave Frederic, Bethlen Gabor, Prince of Transylvania, TRANSLA TOR'S PREFA CE XIV Maximilian of Bavaria, Count Tilly, Prince Waldstein, Gustavus Adolphus, and Cardinal Richelieu. Prof. Gindely's portrayals of life, and especially of the formalities of intercourse in the period of which he writes, are quite remarkable, but are at the same time so unpre tending that they might be passed over without attract ing the attention which they deserve.

No narrative of travel could convey to the reader a picture so vivid, and few one so realistic, as the half-dozen pages describing the journey of the bride of the King of Hungary from Madrid to Vienna ; while a similar remark might be made of the progress of Frederic's court from Heidelberg to Prague and the coronation which followed. Etiquette is justly regarded as a trifle, and yet it is one of those trifles which, like the straws upon an apparently smooth surface of water, show whither the current tends. So the refer ences to etiquette which appear in the work, especially those to that which delayed the proper business of the Congress of Westphalia, yield to none in their significance as pictures of the time. The Author states in his own preface the extent to which he has made investigation into the archives.

As keeper of the state archives of Bohemia he was qualified for this work. He has been so modest in several places in his book in intimating that he has had access to original documents never before used by historical writers on this period, that the reader might overlook these intima tions altogether. II. As to the translation, I have but to observe how it arose and progressed. I was inquiring of a bookseller for so much of the Author's great work on the Thirty Years' War as might have appeared, in order to use this in writing a popular history of the same period, and TRANSLA TOR'S

PREFACE.

XV incidentally came upon the first volume of this work. I determined at once to translate this, rather than write a new book, and began the work with but the first volume in hand. I had written the introductory chapter, and was half through with the first volume, when the other two were received. The printing and casting of the plates proceeded simultaneously with the progress of the translation, which may therefore be a little less perfect than if it had been first completed and then revised in the light gained from a survey of the whole field. I have endeavored to maintain a just medium between that freedom which would obliterate all traces of the genius and style of an original author and that repro duction of the idioms of a foreign language which justly offends an English taste. I may, however, have erred in thinking that the reader would prefer to have a few glimpses of the Author himself rather than have him quite concealed in the mask of his translation.

Willing as I am that the reader should regard himself as reading Prof. Gindely's book, not mine, I may have followed him too closely. But I prefer this error to the opposite. My treatment of the annoying subject of proper names demands an explanation. Such is the present variety of usage, that one might without offence pursue almost any system which should be consistent with itself. The system upon which I have acted is to choose at will between permissible forms. Sometimes I could give a reason for my choice, and again I could give none. The French " Cologne " is too well established to give way to the German " Koeln." Moreover, the former answers so well to the old Latin "Colonia," that for this reason alone I would not abandon it. It is otherwise with the TRANSLA TOR'S

PREFACE.

XVI French " Juliers" and the German " Jiilich;" neither has become so fully established as to possess the ground by right, and I have preferred the latter. With these hints the reader will be able to trace my course through the whole list of geographical names. As to personal names, where I regarded the usage as well established, I have followed it. I have, for instance, written " Charles " for the German " Karl," and yet "Carl" also is an English name; and I have written " Carl von Zerotin " simply because I did not like to translate the " von," and so transferred the whole name. It may be too that " Carl " has been unintentionally writ ten in other instances where it has not been deemed worth while to change it back in the plates. I have intentionally written both " Lewis " and " Louis " — the former for Germans, the latter for Frenchmen.

Those old names which used to be latinized so as to end in "aus," I have written after the analogy of " Nicholas," as " Ladis las " and "Wenceslas," although, if I could now revise these and others, I should introduce modifications ; I should write, for instance, simply the German " Wenzel." One thing more : I had at first planned to indicate in parentheses the correct pronunciation of a few names foreign alike to French, German, and English and of difficult pronunciation. This attempt, however, I soon aban doned as worse than useless, for two reasons : first, the dictionaries furnish all needed aid in this matter; and, secondly, I did not in the beginning intend to do more than indicate the pronunciations which varied most widely from that of our corresponding letters, as the Spanish " st," the Bohemian " e," " c," and " i," so that the reader would, after all, have been left imperfectly in structed.

In the meantime, however, these first indica- TRANSLA TOR'S PREFA CE XVII tions had found their way into the plates, and have remained, because it was not deemed worth while to correct them. For my introductory chapter I cannot claim any other importance than as laying before the readers some preliminary information which a certain class of them will need, while others will not. All this comes out, indeed, in the course of the Author's work ; but many a reader might have suffered misconceptions for want of these explanations. I cannot but hope that the concluding chapter which I have added will be found to have some distinctive value as an attempt to indicate the place which the Thirty Years' War occupies in the world's pro gressive course of education. It is proper to say that this American Edition has been prepared under arrangement with, and with the full sane tion of, the author and his German publishers.

The American publishers of the American Edition will be found, I think, in their part of the undertaking, to have maintained their well-earned reputation. I have no relations with any others in the matter, my obligations to critics being as yet future and uncertain ; and with these statements, therefore, submit the work to the judgment of candid readers, with the hope that it may meet a just and generous appreciation. The Translator. SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE. A NTON GINDELY was born in Prague in 1829. His father was a poor day-laborer, and was unable to aid his son ; the latter therefore earned by teaching a portion of the means needed in obtaining his education. Remarkable health — he never lost an hour during his entire course of study — persistence, and industry enabled him to surmount all obstacles, and he completed his gymnasium and university courses with highest honor.

The revolution in the condition of Austrian affairs in 1848, and especially the founding of numerous new insti tutions Of learning, had for young Gindely the good effect that, when but twenty-four years of age, he obtained a good position in % school of science in Prague, and but three months later was called to an Adjunct Professorship in the University of Olmutz. This gave him a fine oppor tunity for the study of the history of Bohemia, to the ecclesiastical branch of which he devoted himself. His attention was drawn to the Unitas Fratrum (United Brethren), founded in the fifteenth century. These ad hered in their doctrine in general to the opinions of John Huss, which they further developed. Their distinguishing trait was that they willingly submitted to persecution as the early Church had done.

Thus originated Gindely's first work, "The History of the Bohemian Brethren," in two volumes. He carried this down to 1609, the year in which the Bohemian Utraquists forced from the Emperor Rudolph II. the Royal Charter. Investigation of the SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE XX contemporary political history led him to extend his work ; he occupied himself with a thorough study of the entanglements of the Estates of all the provinces of Austria, which resulted in a work of two volumes, en titled " Rudolph II. and His Time," which offers a picture of the last twelve years of this Emperor's reign and its attendant complications. In the production of this second work, the most thorough study was necessary, not only of the Austrian, but of all the most important German archives, as also of the Belgian, French, and Spanish State papers.

His study was at the same time directed to the history of the Bohemian insurrection, which was the immediate occasion of the Thirty Years' War. His interest in the in vestigation soon led him to pass beyond this narrow limit, and embrace the whole war in all its directions, even ex tending his study to the archives of the Vatican at Rome. He was thus enabled to begin the publication of a work which, in the history of this war, is of standard impor tance. Four volumes have already appeared, which cover the period from 1612 to 1623. The English historian, Gardiner, author of " Prince Charles and the Spanish Marriage," and other works, has furthered this under taking by placing at Mr. Gindely's disposal his numerous copies of English and other State papers. Even before Professor Gindely took upon himself this comprehensive task, now nearly twenty years ago, he had promised some friends that he would prepare a brief his tory of the Thirty Years' War.

During the past year he has fulfilled this promise by the publication, in Leipsic, of the work now offered in translation in these volumes, basing this smaller work upon studies, the results of which are hereafter to be published. The present work SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE XXI was written with special reference to a cultured public, and its form and contents have met the largest approval, twenty thousand copies of the German edition having already been sold. It may be still further added in regard to Professor Gindely that, subsequently to the appointments referred to above, he became Professor of History in the Uni versity of Prague, and still holds that position. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. BY THE TRANSLATOR. A N inside view of Christianity, as it now exists, offers a spectacle which, in some of its aspects, is anything but edifying.

If we could suppose ourselves to survey its present state and take account of its elements, with well-developed intellects, indeed, and yet with but indifferent historic knowledge, or none at all, we might regard it as the scattered fragments of what had once been a system, but had become wholly disrupted. We might feel like joining with the infidel, who deems its sacred books a mixture of fact and fable, imposed upon the credulity of the race, or with the pessimist so far as he is another person from the infidel, whose whole utterance is a series of complaints that the world is out of joint and fast going to wreck. Indeed, the ablest, most ex emplary, and most cheerful Christian minds, with this fragmentary maze before them, sometimes utter pessi mistic sentiments. All Christendom, however, in a normal state of mind — though few may be fully conscious of this, and fewer still formulate their consciousness — regard Christianity as a historic unit.

Christendom, as a word, bears witness to this ; it has its moral code, its social life. Its parts hold together. This is recognized in international intercourse. Christian nations shape their consular and diplomatic acts according as they are to be applied to Christian, Mussul man, or pagan nations, not trusting their subjects to the laws, judiciary or executive, of the two latter. History, in those general surveys which our minds are ever taking of it, embraces chiefly the principles and events involved in the formation and growth of the fraternity of Christian nations. If there shall seem to be exceptions to this position, they are of such nature as but to yield it a firmer support. The Hebrew commonwealth is a part of this historic unit, because in it was the germ of Christianity, and the two can no more be parted in our conceptions than can the roots and branches in our ideas of a tree.