READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

A HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE : A.D. 1453-1900

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SMALKALDIC WAR

IN the year 1546 the religious differences which had so long agitated Germany seemed to be drawing to a crisis. Not, indeed, that the Council then sitting at Trent—although both parties had, in the early days of the Reformation, referred the points in dispute to such an assembly—could be expected to settle them. The Lutherans had long outgrown the notion of submitting to a tribunal whose verdict was sure to be adverse; and in a meeting at Frankfurt they had agreed formally to reject its jurisdiction, and to publish their reasons for taking such a course. Even the Catholics themselves displayed no great zeal for the Council; and all parties seemed to be aware that the questions between them must at no distant period be left to the arbitrament of the sword. The Conference held at Ratisbon towards the end of January, in pursuance of a decree of the Diet of Worms, had only further tended to demonstrate the hopelessness of expecting any settlement from discussion. The Emperor, whose object it seemed to be to break with the Lutherans, instead of appointing men of conciliating temper, like Contarini, had named some fierce bigots to manage the conference on the Popish side, and especially the Spaniard, Malvenda, a subtle scholastic disputant.

The Protestants were as violent on their side. A book of Luther’s entitled “Against the Popedom of Rome founded by the Devil” in which he outdid himself in scurrility, was published on the occasion. But these virulent passions were not vented only in writing. At the instigation of Malvenda, one John Diaz, also a Spaniard, was murdered by his own brother, who had become a convert to the new doctrines whilst a student at Paris, and had accompanied Bucer to Ratisbon. Nothing had vexed Malvenda more than to see a native of orthodox Spain in the ranks of the heretics; and after some vain attempts to bring Diaz back to the true faith, he notified John’s heresy to his brother Alfonso, who was an officer of the Roman Rota. Alfonso beheld in his brother’s heresy a scandal both to his family and country; and resolved to take his life rather than leave him among the German heretics. John Diaz was assassinated by Alfonso’s servant; both fled, but were apprehended at Innsbruck. The Pope, however, rescued them from the secular arm, on the ground that they were clerks; and many years afterwards Alfonso Diaz related his brother’s murder to the historian Sepulveda with a feeling of entire satisfaction.

The Diet held at Ratisbon a few months later brought matters to a crisis. Charles appeared in that city early in April, but the proceedings were not opened till June 5th. The assembly was thinly attended, as most of the Lutheran Princes kept away; and it was not till after a second pressing summons from the Emperor that there appeared Duke Maurice of Saxony, Duke Eric of Brunswick, the Margraves John of Cüstrin, brother of Joachim II of Brandenburg, and Albert of Culmbach. None of these Princes, however, except the first, was of much political importance. Business was opened with the customary forms; nay, the Emperor even asked, as usual, the advice of the States on the affairs of religion, though it could hardly be a secret that he was making the most vigorous preparations for war. Recruits were raising among the German lanceknights, and places were assigned for their mustering; all Italy, from Naples to Tyrol, rang with the note of war; while Count Buren was assembling a third army in the Netherlands. Yet the Lutherans fell into the trap. On June 13th they made their answer to the Emperor, with the same ingenuous confidence as before. They rejected the Council of Trent, and renewed the proposition for a National Council; meanwhile, they observed, it was only necessary to maintain the resolutions of 1544, and allow them the enjoyment of peace. The simplicity of this proposal overcame Charles’s customary gravity, and he was observed to smile. It was indeed somewhat ridiculous in the Lutherans to suppose that they should now obtain the same terms as when the Empire was in the greatest danger; they seemed to have forgotten that the Emperor, by his peace with France and the Turks, as well as by the divisions of the Protestants among themselves, was no longer subject to those embarrassments which had formerly proved of so much service to their cause. At length they bethought themselves of asking against whom these warlike preparations were directed? Charles answered that it was his intention to reconcile the States of the Empire; that they who assisted him should experience his gracious favor, but that they who refused to obey should feel all the weight of his authority. And when the Rhenish Palatine Frederick II asked who then were the disobedient Princes? Charles answered, they were those who practiced against him under pretense of religion; who rejected the jurisdiction of the Imperial Chamber, secularized Church property, and abused it according to their pleasure. The mask had now fallen. Nothing was left to the Protestant Princes but to arm in turn.

Lutheranism had recently gained some accessions in Germany. The Archbishop of Cologne, whose Electorate had been one of the strongholds of Popery, had gone over; for which he was excommunicated by the Pope, and deprived of his ecclesiastical dignity (April 16th). Early in January, Frederick, the Elector Palatine, who had long been inclined to the new doctrines, seeing that they had been embraced by the greater part of his subjects, had also openly proclaimed his adhesion to the Reformation, though he declined to join the League of Smalkald.

Charles’s treaty with Bavaria

Charles, on his side, had been some time endeavoring to strengthen himself by alliances, and he now succeeded in bringing several to a conclusion. He entered into a treaty with William, the reigning Duke of Bavaria, which house, at the accession of Frederick to the Palatinate, had renewed its pretensions to that Electorate; and the Emperor now promised, though loth to proceed against a kinsman, that if Frederick did not renounce his Lutheran principles, and submit himself to the Council, he would at once transfer the electoral dignity to Bavaria. The alliance was confirmed by a marriage between Albert, the Bavarian heir-apparent, and the Emperor’s niece, Anne, eldest daughter of King Ferdinand; with the express condition that, on failure of male heirs of Ferdinand, the house of Bavaria should succeed to the Bohemian throne. Thus Charles postponed even his own line in favor of this alliance. Yet the Bavarian Duke did not promise much. He engaged to provide a small sum of money, together with some artillery, ammunition, and provisions, but on condition of being compensated at the peace; and he insisted on the treaty being kept secret, that he might not be exposed to the revenge of the Lutheran Princes, with whom he was now in amicable relations, in case they should prove victorious. The Emperor was by no means averse to this stipulation, as a concealed enemy would be only the more dangerous to the allies of Smalkald. Charles further secured the Duke of Cleves by betrothing to him King Ferdinand’s second daughter, Mary. He also attempted to form alliances with some of the Protestant Princes. With the Landgrave of Hesse he was not successful. Under protection of a safe conduct, Philip had an interview with the Emperor at Spires, while the latter was on his way to Ratisbon; but though he wheedled the Landgrave into a belief of his pacific intentions, he failed in procuring him as an ally. Philip was simple enough to think, till his eyes were opened by the proceedings at Ratisbon, that the Emperor’s warlike preparations were only again intended against Algiers, or perhaps against Piedmont. Charles succeeded, however, in gaining over the Lutheran Princes whom we have already mentioned as attending the Diet. The Margrave John of Cüstrin formally renounced the League of Smalkald, of which he was a member; while Albert of Brandenburg-Baireuth had profited so little by his evangelical education as openly to declare that “he would take service under the Devil himself, provided he got good pay”. Eric of Brunswick also joined the Imperial party; while Charles could reckon at least on the neutrality of the Elector of Brandenburg and the Rhenish Palatine, who were by no means inclined to become martyrs in the Protestant cause.

Treaty with Duke Maurice.

But of all the evangelical Princes whose friendship he succeeded in securing, Duke Maurice of Saxony was by far the most important, not only from his power, but more particularly, in a war with the Smalkaldic League, from the situation of his dominions. The conduct of the Elector John Frederick towards his cousin had been impolitic; they had long been involved in trifling disputes, and the ambition of both was at present directed towards the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and the Bishopric of Halberstadt, vacant since the death of the Archbishop of Mainz. By a secret treaty concluded June 19th, the Emperor conferred upon Maurice the administration of those bishoprics; stipulating, however, that they should remain in the old religion, and that nobody disapproved of by the Emperor or King Ferdinand should be elected to them. Maurice, on his side, engaged not only to be a true and faithful subject of the Emperor, but also a devoted friend and adherent of the house of Austria; to subject himself, so far as other German Princes, to the Council of Trent, and before its decrees were published to allow in his dominions no further religious innovations. Duke Maurice quitted Ratisbon immediately this treaty was concluded, by which the Emperor had at least secured his neutrality. Besides these alliances with German Princes, the Emperor also concluded in June a treaty, long previously arranged, with the Pope, by which the latter engaged to furnish both men and money to reduce the refractory States, and bring them back to the bosom of Holy Church; while Charles was allowed to raise money by the sale of conventual estates in Spain, and by taxing the Spanish clergy.

In the Papal bull the object of these preparations was openly avowed to be the extirpation of the new heresies, and indulgences were granted after the ancient fashion to those who took part in this new crusade; a proceeding which not only excited the indignation of the Germans, but was also very distasteful to the Emperor himself, who was yet neither completely prepared for a war, nor wished to see it placed in the light of a religious one. Charles endeavored to give the whole matter a political aspect. On the 16th of June he issued circular letters to the Imperial cities of Strasbourg, Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Ulm, as well as to Duke Ulrich of Würtemberg, and Hermann, Archbishop of Cologne, in which, keeping the religious question in the background, he complained of the insults offered to the Imperial authority, of the practices against him, and the expressed determination of taking up the sword. He announced his resolution to reduce to obedience the disturbers of the public peace, and strictly forbade the parties addressed to afford any succor to his adversaries.

The League of Smalkald seemed at this time to be on the point of dissolution: its term was expired, and no agreement had been come to respecting its renewal. But the hour of danger served to reanimate its more ardent members, who promised one another to venture purse and person in the cause of religion and freedom. The two principal leaders, the Elector John Frederick and the Landgrave Philip, met at Ichtershausen, in the territory of Gotha, where they resolved to march against the Emperor at whatever point he should make his attack, without any thought as to the security of their own dominions; and they agreed to refer any difference of opinion that might arise between them to a council of war. Their intention was to unite their forces, in the following July, near Meiningen or Fulda, on the borders of the Thuringian forest. Meanwhile, in Southern Germany, the States of Würtemberg, Augsburg, Constance, and Ulm had assembled in the last named city, to make preparations for the now inevitable contest. They dispatched envoys to Venice with the request that the Republic would not permit any troops to pass through its territories to the help of the Emperor; and they likewise sent agents into Switzerland with the same prayer, as well as to raise troops for the service of the League. The recruiting went on with alacrity, and in the course of a week the cities had 12,000 men in the field, under command of Sebastian Schärtlin of Burtenbach, a veteran captain who had served under the Emperor Maximilian, and had been present at the sack of Rome. The Duke of Würtemberg had also raised a considerable force, which he placed under command of Hans von Heideck. The Lutherans had thus the advantage of being first in the field. They could, however, with the exception of the Swiss recruits, hope for no assistance from without; while, among their natural allies, many had either deserted the League, or refused to join it. No help could be expected from the Rhenish Palatinate or Brandenburg, from the Kings of Sweden and Denmark, the Dukes of Pomerania and Mecklenburg, the Lutheran Dukes of Brunswick, the Princes of Anhalt, nor the wealthy burgesses of Nuremberg.

The Smalkaldic War was opened by Schartlin. At day­break on the 9th of July, 1546, that commander, with the troops of Ulm and Augsburg, appeared before Füssen on the Lech, in hope of surprising and dispersing some troops which the Marquis of Marignano was there collecting for the Imperial service; but on Schärtlin’s appearance they crossed the river and escaped. The town, however, fell into his hands, and he formed the scheme of surprising the Emperor at Ratisbon, where, in the midst of a fermenting Lutheran population, Charles had with him only about 400 men. But now appeared the advantage of his secret treaty with the Duke of Bavaria. That Prince, whom the Lutherans had hitherto reckoned upon as their good neighbor and friend, sent a message to Schärtlin that he would declare against them if he ventured to enter Bavarian territory. Thus foiled, Schärtlin formed the plan of penetrating into Tyrol, driving the assembled Fathers from Trent, and, by occupying the roads, preventing the Emperor’s Italian auxiliaries from marching into Germany; and with this view he surprised and seized the castle of Ehrenberg, which commanded the pass leading to Innsbruck. But this plan was defeated by the war council at Ulm, who, from an absurd doubt as to which side King Ferdinand would espouse, forbade Schärtlin to offend that Sovereign by invading Tyrol. Schärtlin therefore returned to Augsburg, and having joined the Würtembergers under Heideck, took the free town of Donauworth, where he awaited the arrival of John Frederick and Philip.

John Frederick and Philip banned.

These events enabled the Emperor to pursue his preparations unmolested. In the midst of the festivities for the marriage of his two nieces with the heir of Bavaria and the Duke of Cleves, Charles published at Ratisbon, July 20th, the ban of the Empire against the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse, without any previous process or judgment. This step, which was taken in consequence of certain manifestoes published by those Princes, was contrary to the capitulation agreed to by Charles at the time of his election, as well as to the constitution of the Empire, by which no Prince could be put under the Imperial ban without the sanction and authority of a Diet; nor could the Emperor assign any valid grounds for his act, as he was unwilling to appeal to those which concerned religion. Meanwhile he pressed on his warlike preparations, in which he was assisted by the neighborhood of the Austrian lands. Artillery, ammunition, and provisions were forwarded up the Danube from Vienna, and at the beginning of August he felt himself strong enough to leave Ratisbon, in order to form a junction with the troops that were arriving from Italy. The allied forces met at Landshut, August 12th, when Alessandro Farnese, in all the pride and pomp of Gonfalonier of the Church, presented himself before the Emperor, his father-in-law, who placed round his neck the Collar of the Golden Fleece. Charles’s forces now amounted to about 34,000 foot and 5,000 horse; and though by his capitulation he had agreed to introduce no foreign troops into Germany, nearly half his army was composed of them: namely, 10,000 Italians, mostly from the Papal dominions, and 8,000 Spaniards, part of which last had been withdrawn from service in Hungary. With this force he returned to Ratisbon, now threatened by the Lutheran allies, where he had left his artillery.

The Elector and the Landgrave had met at Meiningen, whence they proceeded to Donauworth, and joined the forces of Southern Germany, when the united army amounted to some 50,000 picked troops. But it was soon apparent that there were too many leaders. Plans were formed, discussed, abandoned, and the time that should have been employed in action was frittered away in fruitless consultations. It was necessary to secure the towns on the line of the Danube, and the Lutherans had made themselves masters of Neuburg and Rain. The most important of them was the Bavarian town of Ingolstadt, which had been strongly fortified a few years before; but the fear of disturbing the neutrality of Duke William, again led the Elector and Landgrave to reject Schärtlin’s proposal to storm that place; and, leaving it untouched, they proceeded down the left bank of the Danube towards Ratisbon.

The Emperor’s operations, conducted under himself by the Duke of Alva, were more decisive. He did not wait to be attacked, but leaving Ratisbon on the approach of the Allies, he marched up the Danube on the opposite bank, and crossing it (August 24th), took up nearly the same position near Ingolstadt which the Lutherans had quitted. As the communications of the latter with Swabia were thus threatened, they were obliged to hasten back; and they fortified themselves in an entrenched camp near the Castle of Nassenfels, over against the camp of the Emperor. Here Charles was exposed two days to a cannonade from the Landgrave Philip; but though it occasioned considerable damage, and though a ball fell in Charles’s tent while he was consulting the astronomer, Peter Apian, on the course of the planets, yet, as no assault was ventured, he did not think fit to change his position.

Meanwhile, Count Buren had crossed the Rhine without opposition, and was hastening to the Emperor’s assistance with 10,000 foot and 7,000 horse. The Lutherans marched out to intercept him; but the Count, having intelligence of their movements, avoided them by taking a circuitous route towards Wurzburg, and without encountering any material obstruction, succeeded in forming a junction with the Emperor (September 17th). Thus reinforced, Charles felt himself strong enough to be in turn the assailant; and, after taking Neuburg, he prepared to carry the war into Swabia. With this view, after much marching and countermarching, he proceeded towards Nördlingen, the Landgrave following in the same direction in order to support the town; when, a fog suddenly clearing away, the two armies unexpectedly found themselves in presence. Fortunately for the Lutherans, they were on the higher ground; and they took up so strong a position that the Imperialists hesitated to attack them, although it was St. Francis’s Day (October 4th), on which, it had been prophesied, the Emperor should become master of Germany. As the allies would not quit their position, although Donauworth and other places in the neighborhood had been taken, the Emperor marched towards Ulm. The Elector, however, had anticipated him, and, by throwing in some troops, prevented the capture of that important place.

November was now come, yet little had been done; and the effects of the climate and bad weather began to make great havoc among the Italians in the Imperial army, and still more so among the Spaniards. The Lutherans observing the Emperor’s somewhat distressed condition, made proposals for peace; but Charles answered that he would hold no communication with them till they submitted unconditionally to his grace and mercy. His firmness sprang from a policy of which the Lutherans were unaware, and which was now beginning to develop its effects.

For some time after his departure from Ratisbon, Maurice had retained the mask of neutrality; and he appeared at first to listen to the applications of his cousin’s family for help against King Ferdinand, who was assembling troops on the Bohemian frontier with the view of invading Saxon territory. Had Maurice made an attack upon Bohemia, there can be no doubt that he might have decided the war in favor of his brother Lutherans, and he might, perhaps, also, seeing the great numbers of the Bohemian Utraquists, have procured for himself the Crown of that country. But his views lay in another direction. Charles had sent him instructions to carry the ban against the Elector into execution, and even warned him that his neglecting to do so would make him an accessory to his kinsman’s crimes, a proceeding intended, doubtless, only to give an excuse and color to Maurice’s contemplated usurpation. He did not, however, venture to take any open step till he had secured the consent of his clergy and States. At a Diet held in October, at Freiberg, at that time the residence of the Dukes of Saxony, he produced an engagement from the Emperor, that the Saxons should not be molested in their religion, which appeased all scruples on that head. Still great reluctance was manifested to attack the dominions of a neighboring and friendly Prince: the Diet was a stormy one, yet Maurice at length succeeded in his purpose, by representing how dangerous it would prove, if the execution of the ban against the Elector should be entrusted to any other Prince, and especially to King Ferdinand. Maurice, having thus secured the consent of the Diet, immediately hastened to Prague, where he concluded with Ferdinand a treaty, which settled the conditions on which they should jointly occupy the Elector’s territories. Thus, while John Frederick was employed in defending Swabia and Würtemberg against the advancing Emperor, his own dominions were about to be seized by that very kinsman on whom he had counted for their defence. Charles signed an instrument (October 27th), deposing the Elector, and transferring his dignity and dominions to Maurice. Ferdinand’s army now entered the Saxon lands; his hussars, trained to war in many a bloody skirmish with the Turks, easily overthrew, on the heights of Adorf, the hastily-collected peasantry of the Voigtland and Thuringia; and Maurice, who had joined the Bohemian and Hungarian troops, received, in rapid succession, by promising to protect their religion, the submission of several towns of the Electorate.

Lutheran cause seemed hopeless.

The news of these events reached the Imperial camp at Giengen, November 6th, and was received with salvos of artillery. Charles’s whole policy now stood revealed, and Duke Maurice had signified, in a letter to John Frederick, his intention of taking possession of the Saxon Electorate. The cause of the Lutherans seemed nearly hopeless. The same evils which had afflicted the Imperial army had not been without effect on that of the Allies; in addition to which their money was exhausted, and the lance-knights, who had received no pay for two or three months, were deserting in numbers. The Lutherans were now forced to resolve on a separation, though they had long foreseen that such a step would prove fatal, and on the 23rd November they were in full retreat. Thus the Imperialists suddenly found themselves raised from the depths of despair to the exultation of victory; a consequence which must be chiefly attributed to the firmness and fortitude displayed by Charles in the course of this short campaign.

Being thus master of Southern Germany, the Emperor proceeded to reduce and punish the refractory cities and principalities. In December the citizens of Ulm made their submission. They were amerced in a fine of 100,000 florins, part of which was paid in artillery and ammunition, and compelled to abandon the League; but they were secured in the exercise of their religion. Proportionate fines were imposed on other towns. At Heilbronn Charles dictated terms to Duke Ulrich of Würtemberg, for whom the Elector Palatine acted as mediator. The Duke was sentenced humbly to entreat the Emperor’s mercy; to pay a fine of 300,000 florins, half within a fortnight, the remainder in twenty-five days; to surrender to the Imperial troops, for an indefinite term, his castles of Hohenasperg, Schorndorf, and Kirchheim, and to answer any claims which might be made upon him by King Ferdinand. The Emperor subsequently received the personal submission of Ulrich at Ulm (March 4th, 1547). Augsburg was also obliged to submit. Although Schärtlin engaged to defend it for a year, the Fuggers and other merchants deprecated resistance; and the city was sentenced to pay 150,000 florins, to deliver twelve pieces of artillery, and to receive an Imperial garrison. Frankfurt, trembling for the safety of its fairs, had disgracefully surrendered to the troops of Count Buren (December 29th), although they were in miserable plight, and unprovided with siege artillery; and on January 21st, 1547, the citizens took a fresh oath of allegiance to the Emperor. At the same time the affair of Cologne was brought to a conclusion. The Archbishop, Hermann of Wied, had been in communication with the Lutherans during the campaign, nor had the Emperor, till assured of success, attempted to enforce the Papal sentence against him. In June the States of the Electorate were assembled in the cathedral of Cologne; Hermann was solemnly deposed, and the coad­jutor, Adolf of Schaumburg, installed in his place. The Popish worship was now restored, but not without some violence. The rest of the cities of Southern Germany, with the exception of Constance, were also reconciled with the Emperor. Strasbourg had to pay 300,000 florins, but its religious privileges were respected.

Meanwhile, the two chief captains of the League, on the breaking up of their camp, had departed for their respective homes, unpursued by the Imperial forces; the Landgrave by the nearest way, while the Elector took a circuitous road by Heilbronn, Mainz, Aschaffenburg, and Fulda; on which places he levied heavy contributions. About the middle of December, 1546, he arrived in his Thuringian territory with 200,000 men, and not only dispersed without much difficulty the small bodies of troops which Duke Maurice had stationed there, but also took a number of small towns and fortresses on the frontiers of Maurice’s own dominions. Early in 1547, John Frederick arrived at Halle, which he entered in great state, surrounded by his nobility. The antique statue of Roland was placed out before the Red Tower, and the Elector rode round it, according to an ancient custom betokening the authority of the Burggrave. At Halle he received homage from the feudatories of the bishoprics of Magdeburg and Halberstadt, and sanctioned the introduction of Lutheran worship into the cathedral of the former place. He then directed his arms against the dominions of Maurice, the greater part of which he speedily overran; being assisted in this enterprise by the favor borne him by the inhabitants, which was so marked that Maurice durst not levy troops among them, lest they should join his enemies. The Elector, however, received a check at Leipzig, which he could not reduce, though he lay before it three weeks. But most of the towns in North Germany declared in his favor. Bohemia was the scene of a movement still more marked and threatening, occasioned by King Ferdinand’s attempt to convert that country into an hereditary monarchy, in open contempt of the acknowledgment he had made of the right of the States to elect their King. The citizens of Prague refused to serve against the Elector; at Leitmeritz, where Ferdinand had ordered his vassals to muster for the invasion of Saxony, he was joined only by the Catholic nobles; while, on the other hand, the Utraquists assembled in great numbers at Prague; patriotic and religious songs and hymns were sung; a Diet was formed, and an army raised to prevent the invasion of the “foreign and unchristian Spaniards”. Instead of entering Saxony, Ferdinand found that he had scarcely more troops than were necessary for his own defence, and he could dispatch only a few to Maurice, who had taken up a strong position at Chemnitz. John

The success of Maurice’s ally, Margrave Albert of Culmbach, at Rochlitz, led them to form the plan of uniting their forces and marching against the Saxon Elector, who had pitched his camp near Altenburg. But John Frederick, who had obtained intelligence of this scheme, surprised Albert in Rochlitz (March 2nd), captured him, and compelled his men to take an oath not to bear arms for six months. Maurice was now obliged to shut himself up in Konigsberg, and the Elector, master of the whole district of the Elbe, opened communications with the Bohemian States. The situation called for decisive and vigorous action. John Frederick must now be all or nothing—an Emperor of the Lutheran principalities and cities, perhaps also King of Bohemia—or lose his own dominions. His foreign relations were favorable.

John Frederick and Bohemia

The peace concluded in the previous year between France and England had enabled those countries to devote more attention to the affairs of Germany; Francis had engaged to pay the Elector monthly a considerable sum, and the Council which had assumed the administration in England after the death of Henry VIII, had done the like. But John Frederick lacked the ability, rather than the ambition, required by the occasion. His military talent was small; and the Bohemian alliance proved the ignis fatuus which lured him to his destruction. Abandoning his first and safer plan of defending Wittenberg and Gotha, and retiring himself to Magdeburg, he took up a position near Meissen, where the Bohemians might the more readily join him; and in the full confidence of their aid, he weakened his army by dispatching to them some of his troops over the frontier mountains.

Meanwhile Charles, alarmed at the threatening aspect of affairs in Bohemia, had resolved, in spite of ill health and the remonstrances of his physicians, to take the field in person. On the 24th of March he arrived at Nuremberg, round which town his army had assembled; a few days after, he was joined at Eger by his brother Ferdinand and Duke Maurice, whence, directing his march upon Meissen by Plauen, Altenburg, and Kolditz, he not only came directly upon the Elector, but also cut him off from his Thuringian lands. John Frederick was thus caught in a very unfavorable position. He was at a considerable distance from his fortified towns; by supplying garrisons and sending out detachments his army had been reduced to about 6,000 men; while the Bohemians had abandoned the idea of giving him any succor. On the Emperor’s approach with a fine army of 17,000 foot and 10,000 horse, no alternative was left but to retreat. John Frederick accordingly crossed the Elbe at Meissen, and breaking the bridge after him, began to descend the right bank of that river towards Wittenberg. At Mühlberg he took up a strong position, in full confidence that the Emperor would also cross the river at Meissen. It was Sunday, April 24th, and the Elector, imagining that Charles was far in his rear, was led by his devotional feelings to attend the morning service and hear the sermon; after which he leisurely resumed his march towards Wittenberg. This act of piety cost him his Electorate. Charles resolved to cross the Elbe in his face. Early in the morning Maurice and the Duke of Alva had discovered a miller, who pointed out to them, nearly opposite to Mühlberg, a ford, which, with a little swimming, was practicable for cavalry. Over this passed 4,000 hussars and light horse, carrying with them on their cruppers 500 arquebusiers. At the same time some Spaniards swam across and seized, with small resistance, a bridge of boats which the Electoral forces were conveying down the stream with them. The bridge was soon put into order for the passage of the infantry and heavy cavalry; meanwhile Maurice and Alva pushed on with their hussars after the retreating enemy, with whom they soon came up. The Elector, who imagined that only the troops of his cousin Maurice were upon him, twice turned and repulsed them; but at length found it necessary to halt near Cossdorf. With his cavalry and light artillery he might easily have escaped, and would have arrived that evening at Wittenberg; but he could not endure the thought of abandoning his faithful infantry, and he therefore drew up his men on the verge of a forest, the infantry and some field-pieces in the middle, with some cavalry on both wings. Charles, who in the field seemed to have regained all his strength and vigor, immediately ordered an attack, and hastened forward with his chosen troops to be present at it himself. About four in the afternoon the engagement was begun by a charge of more than 2,000 of the Imperial cavalry, with cries of “Spain!” and “Empire!” uttered in various tongues. At the same time Charles’s whole army appeared in the distance, and it was now but too plain with whom the Elector had to deal. His cavalry broke and fled; that of the Imperialists got possession of the wood; and the Elector’s infantry, seeing themselves enveloped on all sides, threw down their arms, and sought safety in flight. Such was the battle, or rather the rout, of Mühlberg, for all was over in a few minutes. John Frederick, after receiving some wounds while bravely defending himself, at length surrendered to Thilo von Trotha, a nobleman of Maurice’s court, to whom he gave his ring. Bleeding, tired, and dejected, he was led towards the Emperor, mounted on the very horse which he had ridden at Spires in 1544, and which, associated as it was with so many disagreeable reminiscences, Charles immediately recognized. After an ungracious reception, the Elector, together with Duke Ernest of Brunswick and some other nobles who had been captured, was handed over to the Duke of Alva to be conveyed to the Imperial camp.

The Elector was now led with the Imperial forces before his own capital of Wittenberg. It was earnestly debated whether he should not be put to death for his double crime of rebellion and heresy; the Emperor’s confessor warmly pressed for his execution, and sentence of death was actually pronounced against him. During this trying period John Frederick showed the most imperturbable fortitude. His death-warrant, it is said, was delivered to him whilst he was playing at chess with Duke Ernest; when, reproving the latter for his emotion, he insisted on finishing the game. Wittenberg, however, was found to be strongly fortified and abundantly victualed; and the advice of the Duke of Alva and the Bishop of Arras, a son of Granvelle’s, ultimately prevailed, that the Elector’s life should be spared on condition of his surrendering Wittenberg and his other fortresses.

The Bishop of Arras, who was appointed to treat with the Elector, found him absolutely intractable in all matters of conscience; he would neither acknowledge the authority of the Council of Trent, nor submit to the Emperor’s ordinances respecting religion. In worldly matters he was more pliable, and agreed to subscribe to whatever might be arranged between the Emperor, King Ferdinand, and Duke Maurice. On May 19th he signed the capitulation of Wittenberg, by which he gave up all his princely rights to the Emperor, sur­rendered Wittenberg and Gotha, relinquished his pretensions to Magdeburg, Halberstadt, and Halle, and promised obedience to the Imperial Chamber. His possessions were to be divided between King Ferdinand and Duke Maurice, the latter undertaking to pay an annual pension of 50,000 florins to the Elector’s children; who were also to retain several towns, the chief of which were Eisenach, Weimar, and Jena; also Gotha, after the fortifications should have been razed, and the district of Saalfeld. There was no article about religion. John Frederick was to remain at the Court of the Emperor, or of his son the Prince of Spain.

The day after this capitulation was executed, John Frederick directed Wittenberg to surrender, an order which was obeyed with great reluctance by the commandant; and the town was immediately occupied by a garrison of German Imperialists. On the following day, Sibylle, John Frederick’s consort, visited the Imperial camp, to implore Charles’s mercy towards her husband, and to beg that he might be permitted to live with her in Saxony; but though the Emperor treated her with great respect and kindness, this request was refused. Next day Charles, surrounded by his guards, entered Wittenberg to return Sibylle’s visit. That town contains little to arrest the attention, except the memorials of Luther; yet Charles could not have passed its gates without emotion, when he reflected that he was now in the very citadel of Protestantism, whence the arch-reformer had shaken the Roman throne to its foundations, and for so many years rendered his own uneasy. After visiting the castle, Charles entered the castle church, and remained some time in earnest contemplation before the grave of Luther. When Alva and the Bishop of Arras suggested that the bones of the arch-heretic should be digged up and cast into the fire: “No”, said Charles, “let him lie; he has his Judge”; and he silenced their further importunities by observing, “I war with the living not with the dead”.

Affairs of Lower Saxony

In Lower Saxony an Imperial army of 29,000 men, under Christopher of Wrisberg and Duke Eric of Brunswick-Calenberg, laid siege to Bremen. But that place, agreeably to the anticipations of John Frederick, made a vigorous defence; and in the beginning of April the towns of Magdeburg, Brunswick, Hamburg, and Bremen, having entered into a new alliance, Christopher of Oldenburg and Albert of Mansfeld, at the head of the army of the League, which had also been joined by the troops detached into Bohemia by John Frederick, marched to Bremen, compelled Duke Eric to raise the siege, and on the 23rd of May completely defeated him near Drackenburg. Next day, however, Wrisberg captured the military chest of the Allies; and the news of John Frederick’s capitulation arriving soon after, the troops of the Lower Saxon League dispersed themselves, and the leaders submitted one after another to the Emperor. The council and guilds of Magdeburg, where Lutheran worship had been recently introduced, alone resolved to stand on their defence. They had refused to obey a summons, sent them by Duke Maurice, April 29th, 1547, with the news of the Elector’s capture, as well as another from the Emperor himself from his camp before Wittenberg. Charles, however, finding that most of Lower Saxony had submitted, thought it not prudent to waste his time at Magdeburg, but rather to proceed to Upper Germany, whither he was called by more important events, and especially by his relations with the Pope. But Magdeburg remained a thorn in his side.

On his march southwards the Emperor entered Halle in great state, which town had submitted to Duke Maurice immediately after the battle of Mühlberg. In Charles’s train was the captive Elector, who only a few months before had himself entered Halle with almost Imperial pomp by the opposite gate. The citizens did not forget him in his adversity; but together with the presents which they made to the Emperor and his nobles, sent him three and a half casks of Rhenish wine and a barrel of Torgau beer. At Halle the Emperor declared null and void the transfer of the bishoprics of Magdeburg and Halberstadt to Electoral Saxony, and bestowed the administration of both on Frederick, second son of the Elector of Brandenburg, in reward for the latter’s faithful services. These bishoprics have since remained almost uninterruptedly under Princes of the House of Brandenburg, and are become at last part of their actual possessions.

It was at Halle that the Emperor received the submission of the Landgrave Philip. The manner in which it was brought about is not altogether plain, and has been the subject of some mistakes. Philip seems to have been the victim of the blundering but well intended mediation of the Elector of Brandenburg and of his own son-in-law Maurice. Their proposals to the Emperor show plainly that the two mediators were at first contented with a stipulation that the Landgrave should suffer neither corporal punishment nor perpetual imprisonment. This, however, they appear to have forgotten, and in their subsequent communications with the Landgrave, they assured him that he might come and go unmolested, and sent him the draft of a capitulation resembling that granted to the Duke of Würtemberg. Philip was to submit himself unconditionally to the Emperor; to beg pardon on his knees, and promise future obedience; to pay a fine of 150,000 florins; to demolish all his fortresses, except either Ziegenhain or Cassel; to deliver up his artillery, and to dismiss Duke Henry of Brunswick and his son, as well as the other prisoners whom he had taken. The Landgrave’s children, nobles, and subjects were to ratify these articles, which were guaranteed by his two sons-in-law, Maurice and Duke Wolfgang of Pfalz-Zweibrücken, and by the Elector of Brandenburg. Assuming that the Landgrave was to enjoy his freedom, the articles seemed moderate enough, especially as the integrity of his dominions was assured to him. Philip believed that he should not be detained more than five or six days at Halle. Maurice and the Elector of Brandenburg seem, however, to have had some misgivings. On setting out for Naumburg to meet the Landgrave and escort him to Halle, they inquired of the Emperor whether he had resolved not to molest Philip beyond the terms agreed upon? To which Charles answered that it was not his custom to depart from his word. It is evident, however, that he was aware of the unaccountable mistake into which the negotiators had fallen; for in a letter to his brother, on the 15th of June, he expressed his determination to hold the Landgrave prisoner; and as he adds, that the Electors Joachim and Maurice could not take it ill, since it broke no assurance which he had given to them, it is plain that he knew they did not expect such a proceeding.

Captivity of Philip.

Philip and the two Electors appeared before the Emperor, at the archiepiscopal palace at Halle, June 19th. Charles was seated on a splendid throne, covered with cloth of gold, and placed under a canopy; before it a large carpet was spread. The Landgrave had put on a doublet of black satin crossed with a red sash, the Austrian colors. He conversed cheerfully with his conductors, and as he knelt down on the floor before the carpet he was observed to smile; on which Charles is said to have exclaimed in Low Dutch, “Good! I’ll teach you to laugh!”. The Landgrave’s Chancellor, Günterrode, who knelt by his side, then read his master’s petition. It was answered by the Imperial Chancellor, whose words expressly intimated that the Landgrave should not be subjected to perpetual imprisonment; but amid the noise which prevailed in the apartment, the expression appears to have passed unnoticed. After Günterrode had returned thanks, the Landgrave, thinking that the matter was concluded, rose from his knees, although the Emperor had delayed to give the signal, and stretched out his hand to Charles, who refused to take it. This circumstance, however, seems to have excited no suspicion; and Philip and the two Electors accepted Alva’s invitation to sup with him in the palace. When the party was about to separate for the night, Alva, to the dismay and astonishment of the Landgrave and the Electors, intimated that Philip must remain in the palace. Remonstrance was in vain; it was too late to appeal to the Emperor, who had retired to rest; and all that the disconsolate Maurice could obtain by his entreaties was permission to remain with his father-in-law. Next day a stormy explanation ensued between the Electors and the Imperial councilors; the latter produced the articles by which they justified the step taken by the Emperor; the Electors were unable to dispute the authenticity of the document and Philip, like John Frederick, was compelled to follow the Imperial Court, a prisoner under Spanish guard.

In estimating the Emperor’s conduct on this occasion, it does not appear that he can be charged with any breach of literal obligation. In a declaration which the Electors themselves made at a Diet held at Augsburg a few months later, they attributed the matter to a misunderstanding in the negotiations with the Emperor’s councilors, arising from insufficient acquaintance with the language in which they were conducted; nor did Maurice impute deception to Charles in the manifesto which he published at the time of his subsequent revolt, although he adduced the treatment of the Landgrave as one of his motives. Yet it cannot be doubted that the Emperor acted against what he knew to be the real meaning and intention of the two Electors. Versed in all the subtleties of Spanish and Italian politics, he and his ministers were more than a match for the blunt honesty of the German Princes. He might have imagined, indeed, that the captivity of two Princes of the Empire would serve to overawe Germany by a display of his power; but it certainly rendered him unpopular among the Germans, who beheld in his conduct a violation of their constitutional rights. The two prisoners bore their misfortunes very differently. John Frederick never lost his equanimity for a moment, whilst the Landgrave could not conceal the indignant feelings excited in him by the Emperor’s tyranny. It should be remarked, however, that the former was treated by the Emperor with much more kindness and respect than he displayed towards the Landgrave; and while John Frederick was allowed a good deal of liberty, Philip, who was left behind at Donauworth during Charles’s march southwards, was treated rigorously as a prisoner. Nor, in reflecting on their behavior, should the circumstances attending their captures be omitted from our consideration. John Frederick was a lawful prisoner of war, and had even been condemned to death, while Philip had been seized through an artifice, if not by an absolute fraud.

While these things were going on, Ferdinand succeeded in restoring order in Bohemia. The defeat of John Frederick at Mühlberg broke the spirits of the Utraquists, and the army under Caspar von Pflug for the most part dispersed itself after the capitulation of Wittenberg. Ferdinand marched into Bohemia with his cavalry, and a considerable train of field artillery; while Maurice’s brother, Duke Augustus of Saxony, brought him 1,000 horse, and twenty companies of foot, and all the neighboring Princes proffered their assistance. On the promise of pardon, more than 200 nobles who had sided with the States, as well as the deputies of some towns, repaired to Ferdinand’s standard at Leitmeritz. Prague itself, after an abortive attempt at resistance, surrendered on the 7th of June; and on the following day Ferdinand held his Court in the great hall of the Hradschin, before which were summoned the primates, burgomasters, and councilors of the three towns, along with 240 of the principal citizens. A paper arraigning their treasonable practices having been read to them, they fell on their knees, declaring that they did not come to justify themselves, but to crave the King’s mercy. The conditions imposed were rigorous enough. Prague was not only compelled to renounce all its alliances and deliver up its artillery, but also to relinquish its municipal privileges, its estates and tolls, and submit unconditionally to the Section of Ferdinand; who expressly added that he should punish capitally all who had taken any part in the insurrection. The other towns were subjected to a like sentence. At a Diet held in the following August, which was opened by some executions and corporal punishments, the States confirmed the proceedings of the King; and thus through this rebellion the House of Austria only obtained a firmer hold of power in Bohemia.

Meanwhile the Emperor had broken up from Halle and marched southwards (June 22nd). Charles arrived on the 23rd of July at Augsburg, where he had appointed a Diet to assemble on the 1st of September; but before relating the proceedings of that assembly, we must revert awhile to the general affairs of Europe, and especially to the state of the Emperor’s relations with the Pope.

Death of Henry VIII and Francis I

The war around Boulogne had gone on during the winter of 1545-46, but without any memorable result; and both Kings were desirous of peace. Francis, disappointed, through the death of the Duke of Orleans, of the hopes which he had conceived from the treaty of Crespy, was willing to renew hostilities with the Emperor, when relieved from the war with England; while Henry VIII, who felt his health declining, and whose exchequer was drained without any corresponding advantage, was unwilling to bequeath to his successor a war at once with Scotland and France. A treaty was concluded, June 7th, 1546, by which Henry engaged to restore Boulogne before Michaelmas, 1554, on receiving two million gold crowns for arrears of old debts, and as indemnity for fortifications constructed, as well as the annual pension of 100,000 crowns, payable under the treaty of Moore. Scotland was comprised in the pacification. Henry did not long survive this treaty. Oppressed by unwieldy corpulence, and tormented by an ulcer in the leg, the irritability of his latter days was vented in burning those who would not comply with his own peculiar form of religious faith, and in the legal persecution of his other subjects, and especially of his nobility. The Earl of Surrey had already lost his head on the scaffold, January 19th, 1547, and the execution of his father, the Duke of Norfolk, was to follow on the 29th, when it was fortunately prevented by the death of the tyrant himself on the previous night. As his son Edward VI was only in his tenth year, Henry had by his will appointed sixteen executors to carry on the government with the assistance of a council of twelve. One of the first acts of the executors and councilors was to appoint the Earl of Hertford, the King’s maternal uncle, Protector; and he was soon after created Duke of Somerset.

The life of Francis I, alternately the rival and the ally of Henry, was also drawing to a close. The latter days of the French King were not only embittered, like those of Henry, by bad health, the result of his profligate life, but also by the ill success which had attended all his enterprises, and by the factions with which his Court was rent. A terrible result of these factions was the murder, for such it must be called, of Francis’s favorite, the Count of Enghien, in the preceding February. At the Chateau of La Roche-Guyon, where the King was then staying, a mock battle with snow-balls had been got up by the young men of the Court, during which a box full of linen was thrown from a window on the head of the unfortunate Enghien, who died in a few days of the injuries which he received. There is but too much reason to believe that the act was committed by the Count of Aumale, afterwards the great Duke of Guise, by order of the Dauphin himself: but all inquiry into the matter was carefully hushed up. Already had arisen that rivality between the Guises and the Bourbons, which was for so long a time to distract France.

The closing period of the reign of Francis, was, like that of Declining Henry VIII, marked by religious persecutions, conducted under the advice of Cardinal de Tournon, who then possessed his confidence. Meaux, where, twenty years before, the principles of the Reformation had been introduced by the enlightened Bishop Briçonnet, and where a small congregation of Protestants continued to exist, was the chief scene of these persecutions. Their meetings were observed and denounced. The house of a citizen named Mangin was surprised by the police, September 8th, 1546, and a congregation of sixty persons apprehended, fourteen of whom were sentenced to the flames in the following month. These executions were the signal for a renewed persecution throughout France, and several persons were burnt at Paris, Sens, and Issoire.

The death of the English King inflicted a severe blow upon Francis, who had contemplated the promotion of his political views through a firm alliance with that Sovereign. The decease of a Prince of nearly his own age seemed, moreover, to presage the fate that would shortly overtake himself. Yet in the midst of this dejection, Francis displayed some symptoms of his former vigor and activity. In the beginning of 1547, he was, as we have seen, supporting the Lutheran Princes of Germany against the Emperor. With a like view he was negotiating in Italy and Denmark, as well as endeavoring to persuade Solyman to break his truce with the House of Austria and invade Naples and Hungary. In February, however, he was seized with a slow fever, which, though it did not at first prevent him from travelling about, or even enjoying the pleasures of the chase, yet went on increasing till it put an end to his life. He died at Rambouillet, March 31st, 1547, in the fifty-third year of his age, and on May 23rd his body, as well as those of his two sons, the first Dauphin and the Duke of Orleans, were deposited with great pomp in the Abbey of St. Denis.

Francis I, like Henry IV and Louis XIV, is one of the Sovereigns to whom the French look back with pride, and he must be allowed to present no unfavorable specimen of the national character. His manners were agreeable, his conversation often brilliant; he had a good memory, and could tell the chief characteristics of every country in Europe, its resources, products, roads, navigable rivers, etc. if not an able general, he was at least a gallant soldier, and his address was frank and open, whatever may be thought of some parts of his conduct. He must also be allowed the praise of having been a patron of literature; a merit accorded to him even by Protestant writers. His love and appreciation of art were shown by his patronage of Leonardo da Vinci. The terrible calamities which desolated France for half a century after his death were, doubtless, favorable to his memory, and caused men to look back to his reign with a feeling of regret. Yet on the whole he can hardly be considered equal to the stirring times in which he lived, and the great part which he was called upon to fill. His handing over the reins of power to his mother, during the earlier part of his reign, should perhaps rather be ascribed to idleness and luxury, than, with Gaillard, to filial piety; and his neglect of the most important affairs, in his later years, can certainly be attributed only to his profligacy and dissipation. His political conduct exhibits a tissue of contradictory motives and double-dealing, such as his burning of the Protestants at home, while he was supporting them abroad; his alliance with the Turks against the Christians; his perfidy with regard to the treaty of Madrid, and other circumstances of the same description.

Accession of Henry II.

Henry II, who now ascended the throne of France, had just completed his twenty-eighth year. In person he was tall, robust, and somewhat corpulent; his complexion was dark, his hair and beard were black. He was a good horse­man, and fond of all bodily exercises, in which he excelled; his manners were graceful and affable; but he was wholly incapable of mental application, and it was evident that the reins of government would be abandoned to favorites and mistresses. Foreseeing this, Francis on his death-bed had cautioned his son against Montmorenci, the Guises, and St. Andre, and had recommended as his ministers the Admiral d’Annebaut and Cardinal de Tournon. The advice was thrown away. On the very day that his father expired, Henry hastened to St. Germain-en-Laye to meet the Constable Montmorenci, whom he immediately placed at the head of affairs. By the Constable’s advice the council of Francis was dismissed, and a new one appointed, consisting of the following members:—Henry d’Albret, King of Navarre; Antony of Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, first Prince of the blood; Cardinal John of Lorraine, and two of his nephews, viz., Francis, Count of Aumale, and Charles of Guise, Archbishop of Rheims; Montmorenci himself; St. Andre, the King’s favorite; and his father, the Chancellor Olivier; Robert de la Marck, Lord of Sedan, son of Fleuranges, and son-in-law of Diana of Poitiers, with a few others. Of all these, none had been in the service of Francis except Montmorenci and Olivier. A love of literature and the friendship of the Chancellor de L’Hôpital had procured for Olivier a reputation for talent and integrity which seems to have been hardly deserved.

In the interior of the palace a greater influence ruled, that of Diana, created in the following year Duchess of Valentinois, but now called “la Grande Senechale”, being the widow of Louis de Brezé, Grand Seneschal of Normandy, who had died in 1531. At the age of forty-eight Diana still supplanted the youthful Queen, Catharine de' Medici, in the King’s affections. Eleanor, the Queen-dowager and sister of the Em­peror, feeling herself a stranger at court, withdrew to Brussels to her sister, the Queen of Hungary, although she had a dowry assigned to her in Touraine and Poitou. The Duchess of Etampes, the former mistress of Francis, also made her escape. Among the ministers of Henry, the Constable, the Guises, and the St. Andres were predominant; the King of Navarre and the Duke of Vendôme were habitually absent in their lands. With Montmorenci we are already acquainted. It was sad that the destinies of France should be entrusted to such a man: greedy of money and authority; without elevation of mind or even integrity of character; destitute of talent, yet so proud and so jealous of his opinion that he piqued himself on never adopting that of others.

Origin of the Guises

The Guises sprang from Claude, first Duke of Guise, fifth son of René II, Duke of Lorraine, and this Claude, with his brother, Cardinal John of Lorraine, was at the head of the Guise house at the accession of Henry II. Properly, therefore, the family was a Lorraine one, a duchy at that time belonging to the Empire. Claude’s elder brother Antony had succeeded to the duchy of Lorraine on the death of their father; and being thus as it were neutralized between the Empire and France, Antony and his descendants fell into peaceful obscurity, whilst the younger branch obtained dignities and power in France. Claude, who had married Antoinette of Bourbon, daughter of Francis, Count of Vendôme, had (among others) five sons, who, like himself, played an important part in France : 1. Francis, Count of Aumale, surnamed le Balafré, from a dreadful face wound received at the siege of St. Dizier, who became Duke of Guise on the death of his father in 1550; 2. Charles, Archbishop of Rheims, afterwards Cardinal of Lorraine; 3. Claude, who became Duke of Aumale; 4. Louis, also a Cardinal; and 5. René, Marquis of Elbeuf. Duke Claude was the founder of the family greatness; first, by marrying his daughter, the widow of the Duke of Longueville, to James V of Scotland, through whose daughter, Mary Stuart, the Guises may be said to have subsequently reigned in Scotland; and secondly by obtaining the favor of Montmorenci and Diana of Poitiers, at the accession of Henry II. Francis, Count of Aumale, was the private friend of that King; while Claude, the third son, was married to Louise de Brezé, a daughter of Diana’s. The Guises pretended to represent the royal branch of Anjou, from which they were descended by Yolande, daughter of René d'Anjou. They claimed all the rights of that house in Provence, the Sicilies, and other places; and Francis in his marriage contract boldly styled himself François d'Anjou. With different qualities, all the Guises were clever, brilliant, ambitious. Francis, who at the time of Henry’s accession was twenty-eight years of age, possessed some great qualities; he was a good captain, magnanimous in success, but terrible and implacable in reverses. His next brother, Charles, partook more of the character of the Romish ecclesiastic: he was learned, subtle, witty, eloquent, but hypocritical; insolent in good fortune, abject and cowardly in adversity. One of the secrets of the family success was, that all had the same views. Without possessions in France, their aim was to combine the prerogatives of French Princes with the independence of foreigners, and above all to supplant the Princes of the blood.

The mediocrity of the Bourbons promised to render the latter object no difficult task. This house was now divided into two branches, those of Vendôme and Montpensier. Antony, Duke of Vendôme, the head of the former, who was at this time twenty-eight years of age, possessed indeed personal courage; but his character was feeble and undecided, nor had he a clear conception of his own interests. In October, 1548, he married Jeanne d'Albret, the heiress of Navarre, by whom he became the father of Henry IV. Antony had three brothers; the Cardinal of Bourbon, the Count of Soissons, and Louis Prince of Condé; the last, the only one of the family who possessed any ability, was now only seventeen years of age. The younger branch of the Bourbons, consisting of the Duke of Montpensier and his brother, the Prince de la Roche-sur-Ton, were altogether without credit or importance. There were thus four distinct parties in the Kingdom: Diana with her daughters- and sons-in-law; Montmorenci and his five sons; the family of the Guises, and the two St. Andres. One of the first acts of the King was to abandon to his mistress the fines due at the beginning of a new reign from corporations and the holders of purchased offices for a renewal of their privileges. Diana also obtained the power of appointing to ecclesiastical benefices, and by causing one of her confidants to be made treasurer of the Epargne, or royal treasury, she seized, as it were, the keys of the national coffers. The Count of Aumale was created a Duke and Peer in spite of the remonstrances of the Parliament of Paris; and both he and St. André, who was made Grand Chamberlain and a Marshal, received large gifts from the royal domains. To the third Guise, at the instance of his mother-in-law Diana, Henry abandoned all the vacant lands of the kingdom, authorizing him to reclaim them from all occupants who could not produce their title; a step which necessarily excited great and widespread discontent. For the Archbishop of Rheims the King procured from the Pope a Cardinal’s hat. In like manner Montmorenci obtained many posts of honor and emolument for his family.

Henry II was crowned at Rheims, July 27th, 1547. He summoned Charles V to appear and do homage as Count of Flanders; an impotent explosion of envy and hatred, to which Charles replied, that if he came it would be at the head of 50,000 men. Pope Paul III entered into a close alliance with Henry, and brought about a marriage between his grand­son Orazio Farnese and a natural daughter of the King’s. There was now much talk of a league between France, Venice, and the Pope against the Emperor; but Henry was too much occupied with the pleasures of his Court and the intrigues of his courtiers to devote much attention to the affairs of Germany, even if he had been in a situation to interfere with effect. Thus the death of Francis had occurred at a for­tunate moment for Charles, as it allowed him to prosecute, without molestation, the policy which he had adopted in Germany.

The Council of Trent

Such was the state of England and France. With the Pope the relations of the Emperor had been for some time on an unsatisfactory, or rather a hostile, footing. The main subject of their discord was the Council of Trent, to the meeting of which, in December, 1545, we have already adverted. The assembly was small, consisting of only twenty-five prelates, four generals of orders, and a few of the lower clergy, for the most part either Spaniards or Italians, with a large proportion of monks, especially Dominicans, and a few Jesuits. Not a single Lutheran appeared, and even among the Catholics the Council excited but little interest. The form of it, however, was legitimate and unexceptionable; and the Lutherans, by absenting themselves, incurred the reproach of renouncing the important right of assisting in the adjustment of the doctrines and constitution of the Church.

It is plain that, with the exception, perhaps, of the extreme section of the monkish, and especially the Dominican theologians, the Council represented nothing but the temporary union of the Pope and Emperor for their political purposes. But the views of the Pope and the Emperor were not in accordance. We have seen that at the outbreak of the Smalkaldic war the Emperor wished to represent it as undertaken merely for objects of State, while the Pope endeavored to place it in the light of a religious crusade. The same respective views had prevailed throughout. The Emperor was anxious not to exasperate the Lutherans, by the help, or through the neutrality, of a portion of whom he hoped to subdue the rest; and with this view he had endeavored to impress on the Pope the necessity that the Council should reform the abuses in the Church and in the Court of Rome before it proceeded to settle points of doctrine. The Council, however, over which presided a Papal Legate, and in which, as it voted per capita, and not by nations, the Pope’s party, through the preponderant number of Italian prelates, formed the majority, adopted the opposite course, and some of its first decisions, in April, 1546, were in condemnation of the tenets of Luther. It declared that the authority of tradition was equal to that of Scripture; that the Latin Vulgate must remain the standard of Scriptural text, otherwise, mere grammarians might set themselves up as teachers of bishops and theologians; that the books of either Testament were equally genuine; of which, to avoid mistakes, a list was made out, including the apocryphal books of the Old Testament. It forbade anyone to wrest the words of Scripture to his own meaning, reserving the right of interpretation to the Church alone; and made other decrees of a like nature.

In their subsequent sittings the Council proceeded to consider the doctrines of original sin and justification; and in order to show some deference to the wishes of the Emperor, they discussed the question respecting the residence of bishops in their dioceses. This led to an inquiry whether such residence depended on Scripture or on canon law, and ultimately to a still more difficult one, namely, whether bishops derived their office immediately from Christ, or whether they received it mediately from the Pope. The Spanish prelates, by defending the former opinion, awakened the jealousy and suspicion of the Papal Legates, who, on pretense of the danger to which Trent was exposed in the war then breaking out, besought the Pope to transfer the Council to some other place. This, however, Paul demurred to do without the consent of the Emperor, whom he was fearful of offending; and as Charles gave the project a most decided negative, the sittings were continued at Trent. The breach, however, between him and the Pope went on increasing. The Papal Nuncio was not consulted in the capitulations granted by Charles to the towns of Upper Germany, in which concessions were granted with respect to religion which could not but be displeasing to the Papal Court; and his ambassadors often threatened that when he had settled the affairs of Germany he would go to Trent to conduct the proceedings in person, and to carry out the resolutions respecting the reform of the Roman Curia. The Pope, to avoid such a consummation, hastened on the publication of the dogmatic decree, respecting the doctrine of justification, which separated the two Churches for ever (January 13th, 1547); and at the same time, as the six months of service agreed upon in the treaty with the Emperor were expired, he recalled his troops from the Imperial camp. Having thus decided on his policy, the Pope threw himself into the arms of France, and endeavored to do Charles all the injury in his power. Paul’s son, Pier Luigi Farnese, who was also exasperated by the Emperor’s refusal to invest him with Parma and Piacenza, took the same course; and the conspiracy which broke out at Genoa in January, 1547, must be attributed to the machinations of the house of Farnese as well as of the French Court.

Conspiracy of Fiesco, 1547

Andrea Doria, the head of the Genoese Republic, now in his eightieth year, was regarded by many citizens as the mere lieutenant of the Emperor, whom they considered as the real tyrant of the State. Among those who entertained such opinions was Gian Luigi Fiesco, Count of Lavagna, both by his birth and his possessions one of the principal nobles of Genoa. Fiesco was devoured with a secret jealousy of Doria’s greatness, and he readily listened to the instigations of Farnese, and of the agents of France, to which party his house had always belonged, to organize a conspiracy against the admiral, in which personal hatred and ambition might be disguised under the veil of patriotism. Fiesco’s position at Genoa, his handsome figure, his reputation for valor and generosity, and his affected zeal for the popular cause, all fitted him for an undertaking of this desperate nature; whilst on the other hand Andrea Doria, fast sinking into the de­crepitude of age, had destined for his successor his great-nephew, Giannettino Doria, whose haughty and overbearing temper had rendered him to the last degree unpopular. Fiesco concealed his hatred and his designs till his plot was ripe for execution, and continued till the last moment on terms of apparent friendship with the Dorias. A plot for the assassination of the admiral and his grand-nephew having failed, Fiesco, under pretext of fitting out a privateer against the Turks, introduced the boldest of his men, into the city; and on the night of the 2nd of January, 1547, he gave a great entertainment, to which were invited all those who from their youth and courage, as well as from their political sentiments, were likely to second his design. The guests were astonished to find the precincts and chambers of Fiesco’s palace filled with men armed to the teeth; but when he revealed to them his plot, and informed them at the same time that all was ready for its execution, the whole assembly came at once into his views. Bands were immediately formed, headed by Fiesco’s brothers and confidants; the harbour and the gates of the town were seized; Giannettino Doria was slain as he was hastening to appease the tumult; and the aged admiral himself was obliged to mount a horse and fly. But now, when the conspiracy had succeeded, the conspirators looked round in vain for their leader. During the tumult a revolt had broken out among the slaves in the capitan galley; Fiesco was in the act of boarding the vessel to restore order, when the plank on which he trod suddenly giving way, he fell into the water, and being encumbered with heavy armor, he sank to rise no more. Discouragement and alarm seized his adherents. Instead of vigorously pursuing their designs to a successful issue, they began to parley with the government, and an amnesty being granted to them, they retired from the city. But the capitulation was not respected: some of the leaders were besieged in Montoglio, captured, and put to death, while others succeeded in escaping into France.

The troubles which broke out at Naples in the following May, though occasioned by an attempt of the Viceroy, Don Pedro de Toledo, to introduce the Spanish Inquisition into that kingdom, were also fomented by the house of Farnese and by the French. The Neapolitans, inspired by a natural horror of such a tribunal, rose in arms; and though in no country in Europe was the separation between the nobility and the people so marked, or the mutual hatred greater, yet on this occasion all ranks united to repel the dreaded institution. At the sound of the alarm-bell they all assembled; each noble gave his hand to a burgess, and in this fashion, and with shouts of “Union!” walked in procession to the cathedral. The French engaged to help them with a fleet commanded by one of the Fieschi, the Genoese refugees; but this promise was not fulfilled; and as the Spanish troops were marching upon Naples, the malcontents found themselves compelled to submit. Don Pedro de Toledo, in order to keep alive the animosity between the two classes, would treat only with the burgesses, to whom he gave a written promise that the Inquisition should never more be heard of, and that all processes should be stopped. Some of the leaders of the revolt were executed; others, it is said, were taken off by poison; and the city was condemned to pay a heavy fine.

Meanwhile, in spite of the Emperor’s remonstrances, the Council had been transferred from Trent to Bologna. In the next sittings was to have been discussed the doctrine of the Eucharist; but before that subject came on, most of the Fathers, to whom the residence in Trent had long been irksome, left that town (March 12th), and either dispersed themselves or proceeded to Bologna. The motive for this step was assigned to the breaking out of a pestilential disorder, which however does not appear to have been severe enough to justify it; and a small minority, consisting of eighteen prelates of the Imperial party remained behind. Charles heard of this event at Nördlingen, while on his march into Saxony; and he immediately dispatched to Rome the messenger who brought the news, with the strictest commands to his ambassador there to effect the speedy return of the Council to Trent, and to prevent by all means the holding of it at Bologna. Paul in his answer pretended that he had no power to compel the Fathers to return to Trent; but he ordered those who had assembled at Bologna, and who held a sitting there on the 21st of April, to adjourn till September 6th. The Emperor, however, was persuaded that the Pope meant to deceive him; and this persuasion had considerable influence in inducing him to grant more favorable terms to the conquered Lutherans.

Such was the state of Charles’s foreign relations at the time of the Diet of Augsburg.

CHAPTER XIX

FAILURE OF CHARLES V