CHAPTER XXXII

AFFAIRS OF SPAIN, ITALY, AND FRANCE. PROGRESS OF THE WAR

 

IN the year 1624 the struggle in Germany assumed a new aspect, through the interference in it of Denmark and France. The return of Cardinal Richelieu to power gave an entirely new direction to French politics; and it will therefore be necessary briefly to resume the history of that country, as well as of Spain, which played an important part in all the events of this period.

In spite of the good understanding between the French and the Spanish Courts during the administration of Luynes, the policy of Spain in Italy almost produced a war between those countries. Ever since the Spaniards had become masters of the Milanese, they had not ceased to covet the Valtellina, which had been ceded to the Grison Leagues by the last of the Sforzas. It was not for its extent or fertility that they desired to possess that country, but because it would secure their communication with the Austrian dominions, as well as the command of the passes leading into the Venetian territories; for the Valtellina, a long narrow valley watered by the Adda, stretched from the Lake of Como to the S.W. frontier of Tyrol. After the breaking out of the Thirty Years' War, the possession of this valley became doubly important to facilitate the communication between Spain and Austria; and the religious grievances of the inhabitants seemed to the Spanish Court to offer a favorable opportunity for seizing it. The natives of the Valtellina, mostly Catholics, bore with impatience the sway of the Protestant Grisons, and stimulated by the Spanish Governor of Milan, they rose against their masters, seized the towns of Tirano, Teglio, and Sondrio, massacred all the Protestants they could lay hands on, and called in the Spaniards to defend them from the vengeance of the Grisons (July, 1620). The Spaniards now occupied all the strong places in the valley; and although the Grisons appealed to Bern and Zurich for help, yet they were unable to regain the revolted valley, as the Catholic Forest Cantons sided with the Valtellinese.

The French were already beginning to repent of their policy in Germany, and of the treaty of Ulm, which had enabled Maximilian to march into Bohemia, and Spinola into the Palatinate. When it was too late, Sully's brother, M. de Bethune, one of Louis XIII's envoys, represented to his Court the necessity for saving the Palatinate; and Louis was obliged to content himself with making some representations to Ferdinand II in favour of the Palatine, renewing the alliance with the Dutch provinces, and dispatching Bassompierre to Madrid to require the evacuation of the Valtellina. These negotiations were interrupted by the death of Philip II., March 31st, 1621, close on the age of forty-three.

The new King, Philip IV, who was close on sixteen years of age at his accession, began his reign by dismissing his father's minister, the Duke of Uzeda, and substituting for him Don Gaspar de Guzman, Count of Olivarez, who had previously been his favourite, and who continued to govern him, as Lerma had Philip III. The first measures of the new reign were peaceable. Spain, intent upon the English marriage, seemed inclined to join England in settling the affairs of the Palatinate, and to conciliate the French with regard to the Valtellina, the seizure of which had, indeed, been disapproved of by Philip III; and a treaty for the restitution of that valley, which, however, it does not appear to have been the intention of the Spanish Court to fulfil, was signed at Madrid, April 25th, 1621. This treaty had been mediated by the Pope, now Gregory XV. Paul V had died in the preceding January, and Gregory (Cardinal Ludovisio) was elected February 9th. He was a native of Bologna; a small man, of placid and phlegmatic temper, and a skilful negotiator, but was governed by a brilliant nephew, Ludovico Ludovisio, a zealot for the Church.

Louis XII was at this time meditating an expedition against La Rochelle, where the Huguenots, headed by Rohan, were in a state of revolt. Luynes, though utterly unversed in military affairs, was to conduct the enterprise, and at the moment of its commencement received the sword of Constable (April 3rd, 1621). The campaign was at first conducted with some success; but the Royal army was badly led and managed; it failed in the siege of Montauban; and the ultra-Catholic party loudly accused Luynes not only of incompetence, but even of treason. To efface this disaster, the Constable laid siege to Monheur, a little town on the Garonne, which he was sure of taking, and which surrendered December 12th; but two days after, while it was still being plundered and in flames, Luynes died of fever, regretted by nobody, not even by the King.

The war with the Huguenots was concluded by the peace of Montpellier, October 19th, 1622. The Huguenots suffered much by this ill-advised revolt; the only strong places which they succeeded in retaining were Montauban and La Rochelle. Rohan, besides other leaders, asked the King's pardon in his camp; but he received 200,000 livres down, besides large promises, and the governments of Nimes and Uzes. After the death of Luynes, the veteran commander Lesdiguières renounced the Calvinist faith for that of Rome, and was rewarded with the sword of Constable. In September Richelieu received from the King's own hands a Cardinal's hat, which had been procured for him through the influence of Mary de' Medici.

Cardinal Richelieu

The time was now approaching when that prelate, who still remained in the service of the Queen-Mother, was to assume the direction of the French counsels. The existing ministry had become exceedingly unpopular. In May, 1623, the Parliament of Paris sent a deputation to the King at Fontainebleau, to complain that mal-administration was the cause of all the misery of France. The Marquis de la Vieuville, sensible of his own incompetence, cast his eyes on Richelieu, with whose abilities he was well acquainted, and he imagined he might use them for his own service, without entrusting him with the whole direction of affairs. Louis XIII had a prejudice against the Cardinal, and La Vieuville thought it might be possible to make him the head of an extraordinary council for foreign affairs, without his enjoying the privilege of approaching the King's person. La Vieuville had made a wrong estimate of his tool. Richelieu had no objection to be minister, but he was resolved to be prime minister. He feigned the greatest reluctance to accept place, though it had been the object of his ambition through life; he raised all sorts of difficulties and objections; he pleaded ill-health; he made his acceptance of office a favour; and, seeing that he was indispensable, he prescribed his own terms. On the 4th of May, 1624, Richelieu, for the second time, took his seat at the council board, which he was henceforth to retain for life. He was now in his thirty-ninth year. His appearance and address were striking and imposing. His complexion was pale, his hair black and flowing; his eyes, though large, were lively and penetrating, and their effect was heightened by strongly marked brows. His forehead was high, his nose aquiline; his well-chiselled mouth was surmounted with a moustache, while a small pointed beard completed the oval of his countenance. His features wore an expression of severity; his discourse wonderfully lucid, though without much charm or attraction.

Richelieu lost no time in casting La Vieuville, his pseudo-patron, from the ministry, whose disgrace was effected in about three months. On the 12th of August La Vieuville was arrested at the breaking up of the Council, and committed to the Castle of Amboise, on a charge of malversation. No further steps were taken against him, and when it was thought that he was sufficiently harmless he was suffered to escape. Richelieu's reign—for he it was who governed the destinies of France—may now be said to have begun, although the Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld continued to be the nominal President of the Council.

Richelieu had formed a grand scheme of foreign policy, which may be briefly characterized as a revival of that of Henry IV and Sully. His Spanish policy had probably never been sincere; and he is said, when quite a youth, to have drawn up a very able and elaborate plan for the abasement of the House of Austria. After his accession to the ministry, hatred and fear of Spain were visible in all his actions. The suspicion that Spain was aiming at a universal monarchy had been increased after Philip III's death by the addition to the Spanish arms of a globe surmounted with a cross. With these views, Richelieu naturally sided with the enemies of the House of Austria, and courted the Protestants of Germany, England, and Holland, although he persecuted those of France; a contradiction more glaring in the Cardinal, a high churchman, than in Henry IV and his Huguenot minister.

Richelieu's first measures were, the renewal of the Dutch alliance; the conclusion of a treaty with England, fortified by a marriage between Charles, Prince of Wales, and Henrietta, youngest sister of Louis XIII; and a vigorous interposition in the affair of the Valtellina. Scarcely was Richelieu seated in the ministry when a special embassy arrived from the Dutch Provinces to request help against the House of Austria; and the Cardinal, in spite of the opposition of his colleagues, concluded at Compiegne a treaty with that Republic, June 20th, 1624, by which some commercial and other advantages were secured to France. The negotiations for the English marriage had begun before Richelieu's accession to office. The journey of the Prince of Wales and Buckingham to Spain early in 1623; the insolence of Buckingham; and the final breaking off of the Spanish match, if, indeed, it had ever been seriously contemplated by the Court of Spain, are well known. In the negotiations with France La Vieuville had led the English ambassadors, Lords Carlisle and Holland, to expect that no difficulty would be experienced on the score of religion; and they were therefore much surprised to find that on this head more rigid conditions were insisted on than had been required by the bigoted Court of Spain; the number of ecclesiastics who were to attend Henrietta into England was increased; and, while by the Spanish contract the children of the marriage were to be educated by their mother in the Catholic faith only till the age of ten, Richelieu prolonged the term till their thirteenth year. The marriage contracts were completed in November, 1624. Richelieu brought the Pope to grant a dispensation for the union, partly by threats and partly by the inducement of a secret engagement in favour of the English Catholics. But though Richelieu warmly advocated this marriage, and entertained the same views as the English Cabinet with regard to Germany, he was not yet prepared for open interference in the affairs of that country, but had resolved to confine himself to granting secret subsidies, and conniving at French subjects entering the service of German Protestant Princes. His policy at this moment embraced four principal objects: to incite the English to recover the Palatinate for Frederick; to help the Dutch in defending Breda against Spinola; to make an attack upon Genoa, the faithful ally of Spain; and to liberate the Valtellina, now held by the Pope in favour of the Spanish Court. By this last stroke, and by the capture of Genoa, he intended to cut off the communication between Spain and Austria; by the restoration of the Palatine he would disturb the communications between Austria and the Spanish Netherlands; and by assisting the defence of Breda he would find employment for Spinola’s arms. But, what was the most difficult part of his policy, he wished to effect all these things without provoking a declaration of war on the part of Spain, and without absolutely renouncing the engagements which France had entered into with the Duke of Bavaria.

With regard to the Palatinate, it had been agreed with the English ministers that Count Mansfeld should be employed; he was to raise an army in England, and France was to advance six months' pay. Buckingham seems also to have received a promise that Mansfeld should be permitted to march through France with his army. Christian IV of Denmark, who was now beginning to take a part in the affairs of Germany, was also to be subsidized. Mansfeld, when on his way into England, was received at Paris with the most marked distinction, but, when, in the winter of 1624, he appeared before Calais with a fleet containing 12,000 English troops, he was refused permission to land. The Marquis of Effiat, the French ambassador, and Brienne, then employed in England about the marriage, struck with surprise at this breach of faith on the part of their government, repaired to Buckingham to explain and apologize; and the English minister, who had been completely outwitted, having no formal agreement to appeal to, was forced to content himself with a few excuses, and some vague promises of future help. The English fleet, after some weeks had been wasted in fruitless negotiations for permission to land the troops, sailed off to Zealand, where it met with no better success; and two-thirds of the army were carried off by a contagious disorder arising from the detention.

Richelieu's Italian policy was more open and decisive, but yet coloured with such plausible pretences as might prevent Spain from having any casus belli. In October, 1622, the Archduke Leopold had repressed a rising of the Grisons against the treaty imposed on them, and had subdued the greater part of one of the Three Leagues. Venice and the Duke of Savoy were even more vitally interested than France in this state of things; and in February, 1623, an alliance had been concluded between these three powers in order to take the Valtellina from the House of Austria. To avert the blow, Spain had proposed to place the fortresses of the valley in the hands of the Pope, who was in fact acting in concert with that Power, till the question should be decided; and in May the Valtellina was occupied by 2,000 Pontifical troops. At the same time, however, the Austrians continued to keep their hold upon the Orisons; and La Vieuville, who then directed the councils of France, had tamely submitted to this temporizing policy.

Shortly after this transaction Pope Gregory XV died, July 8th, 1623; and was succeeded by Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, a Florentine, who assumed the title of Urban VIII. Barberini, then aged fifty-five, was a vain man, with a high opinion of his own abilities; hence he seldom convened a Consistory; and when an argument was once advanced against him from the old Papal constitutions, he replied that the opinion of a living Pope was worth more than the maxims of a hundred dead ones. He wished to be regarded as a temporal Prince; he studied fortification, read the newest poems; nay, professed to be himself a disciple of the Muses, and turned some of the Psalms into Horatian metre! It was this Pope who made Cività Vecchia a free port; and the consequence was that the Barbary corsairs sold there the plunder of the Christians.

Such was the man with whom Richelieu had to deal respecting the Valtellina. He determined to call on Venice and Savoy to act on the treaty of 1623 and on the Papacy to evacuate the Valtellina, and lest the ambassador, the Archbishop of Lyons, who was aspiring to the cardinalate, should play false, M. de Bethune, a Calvinist, was sent to supersede him. For the attack on Genoa, which would not only engage the attention of the Spanish troops in the Milanese, but also stop the supplies of money furnished to Spain by that Republic, France pleaded that she was bound to assist her ancient ally, the Duke of Savoy, in his quarrel with Genoa respecting the fief of Zucarello; but though Richelieu asserted, and pretends in his Memoirs, that this was a lawful cause of war, Girolamo Priuli, the Venetian ambassador, at a conference at Susa, rejected the scheme with indignation, as both unjust and impolitic. Richelieu, however, steadily pursued the plans he had formed for the liberation of the Valtellina, in justification of which the alliance with the Grisons was also appealed to; and it was alleged that France, in helping them against their rebellious subjects, afforded neither Spain nor any other power a reasonable cause of offence. An attack upon the Papal troops did not inspire the Cardinal with any scruples: it was as often his method to plead the reason of state with the Pontiff, as to weigh the respect and forbearance due to the Holy See. Already in June, 1624, the Marquis of Coeuvres had been sent into Switzerland, and succeeded in arming the Calvinist Cantons in favour of the Grisons. The ambassadorial functions of Coeuvres were suddenly converted into those of a general; 4,000 Swiss and Grisons were joined by 3,000 French infantry and 500 horse; in November he received from M. de Bethune at Rome the concerted signal, entered the Valtellina, and soon drove out the Papal troops; whose captured standards were returned with marks of great respect to the Pontiff. Loud was the outcry, not only at Rome and Madrid, but even amongst the ultra-Catholics in France, against the "State Cardinal". The Pope, however, who feared Richelieu as much as he hated him, was less noisy than his partisans; and, instead of the censures with which the Cardinal had been threatened, it was precisely at this time that the dispensation arrived for the English marriage.

Huguenot Insurrection

The expedition against Genoa was interrupted by a Huguenot Insurrection. The French government had not faithfully fulfilled the treaty of Montpellier. Fort Louis, near La Rochelle, instead of being demolished had been strengthened; Rohan, yielding to the impulse of the inhabitants, made advances to the Spanish ambassador, and a monstrous agreement was effected, by which the Huguenots received the money of Spain, just as France helped the Dutch. In January, 1625, Rohan's brother, Soubise, seized the Isle of Re, and, surprising the French fleet in the roads of Blavet in Brittany, carried off four vessels. The revolt gradually spread into Upper Languedoc, Querci, and the Cevennes. Nevertheless the old Constable Lesdiguières, and Duke Charles Emmanuel, invaded Liguria in March with 28,000 men, and most of the places in it were captured. Lesdiguières, however, declined to attempt Genoa itself without the assistance of a fleet; the ships furnished according to treaty by the Dutch being required against the French rebels. It is probable that the Constable acted according to secret instructions from Richelieu, who wished not to see Genoa fall into the hands of the Duke of Savoy, and was only intent on diverting the Spaniards from the Valtellina. An Austrian army passing through the Swiss Catholic Cantons and over the St. Gothard, compelled the French and Piedmontese to evacuate Liguria, and even assumed the offensive against Piedmont and the Valtellina; which, however, with the exception of Riva, the French succeeded in retaining.

It was in the midst of these affairs that the marriage Charles and Henrietta was completed. The unexpected death of James I after a short illness, March 27th, 1625, compelled the royal bridegroom to celebrate his nuptials by proxy; which were solemnized, May 11th, by the Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, on a scaffold erected before the western portal of Notre-Dame, with the same ceremonies as had been observed at the marriage of Henry IV and Margaret of Valois. The English King was represented by the Duke of Chevreuse. Buckingham afterwards arrived in Paris for the purpose of escorting Queen Henrietta-Maria into England; when that vain favourite inspired many with astonishment and admiration at his magnificence, a few with disgust and aversion at his conduct.

The English alliance was useful to France in the Huguenot rebellion. The Cardinal, relying on the warmth of a new connection, succeeded in obtaining the loan of some English vessels, but without their crews; for the English sailors, almost to a man, refused to serve against the Huguenots, and it was not deemed expedient to treat them like the Dutch, on board of each of whose vessels the Cardinal insisted on putting a hundred French soldiers, in order to prevent any treachery on the part of the sailors. Soubise was now attacked in the Isle of Ré; and on the 15th of September, 1625, he was completely defeated; on shore by Toiras, at sea by Montmorency. Soubise succeeded in escaping to England with two or three ships which he had saved; and his cause was so popular in that country that the government could not refuse him shelter. Here he employed himself in making interest with the parliamentary leaders; and Buckingham, to whom the loan of the English vessels was imputed as a crime, found himself compelled to demand them back.

The misunderstanding between the two Courts had been increased by complaints of ill treatment made by Queen Henrietta and her attendants; whose grievances had begun before they landed on the shores of England. As a mark of respect, some of the largest vessels in the English navy had been sent to Boulogne to convey the Queen and her suite to Dover; and the French officers complained that they had been compelled to embark and disembark in boats! When the Queen had landed at Dover, June 24th, 1625, she was lodged in the Castle, which was said to be badly furnished; and when Charles visited her on the following day, he came ill attended, and without a shadow of the grandeur which distinguished the King of France. The priests were put under arrest on the evening of their arrival, and were released only at the Queen's earnest entreaty. On the journey to London Henrietta was separated from her ladies; and could at last obtain a place for one of them in her carriage only through the intercession of the French ambassador. The reception in London was equally disagreeable. That many of these grievances were imaginary and exaggerated appears from the testimony of Brienne, who accompanied Henrietta to England. Dover Castle, he says, had been fitted up with the royal furniture, and a magnificent supper was given there. He makes no mention of the imprisonment of the Catholic priests; and though he relates that some English ladies were put into the Queen's carriage, he is silent about her tears. This, indeed, was only a usual practice at all Courts, and the French themselves had pursued the same course with Anne of Austria. If Henrietta was received with less than usual state at London, it was because the plague had broken out in that capital.

Some more tangible grievances threatened to produce an open rupture between the French and English Courts. Buckingham, to conciliate the Parliament, then sitting at Oxford, neglected to observe the engagements he had secretly entered into with the French cabinet in favour of the English Catholics; and he offered to dismiss all the Queen's French attendants. But the Parliament was of opinion that the promises made to the French King should be observed; and that the authors of them should be punished if they contained anything contrary to the laws. Blainville, who had come to London on an extraordinary embassy respecting these matters, was treated with studied indignity. Buckingham, besides refusing to restore the ships which Soubise had carried into Portsmouth, and which Richelieu charged him with having stolen, went to the Hague, and, without consulting the French ambassador, concluded a treaty with the Dutch and with Denmark. While in Holland he expressed a wish to go into France; but the French ambassador having refused him a passport till he should have given Louis XIII some satisfaction, Buckingham, out of revenge, induced the Dutch to recall their ships. The English fleet, returning from an unsuccessful expedition to Cadiz, fell in with and captured several French vessels, on the ground of their having Spanish goods on board; and the ships were carried into English ports and sold under the very eyes of Blainville. Reprisals were in consequence made on English ships in French harbours. Richelieu, however, had no wish to break with England; he rightly attributed the conduct of the English Court to Buckingham's caprices; to his desire to make the Queen renounce her faith, in order that he might acquire with the Parliament the reputation of a zealous Protestant; as well as to his wish to foment an ill understanding between Henrietta and Charles, and thus prevent her acquiring too much influence over her husband. Richelieu therefore determined to conciliate the capricious, but all-powerful Buckingham. Bautrec, a man of wit and talent, was dispatched into England; the Duke was assured that he would be very well received in France; the refusal of his passports in Holland was explained to be a mistake; above all it was represented that the Duchess of Chevreuse, with whom and her husband he had kept up a correspondence, which Richelieu denounced to Louis as traitorous, would be obliged to quit the Court if matters did not mend. Bautrec completely succeeded in his mission, and brought back with him to Paris, as extraordinary ambassadors, Lord Holland and Sir Dudley Carlton. This turn of affairs very much helped the Cardinal in making a peace with the Huguenots; which, though reprobated by the high Catholic party in France, and by the Pope's Nuncio Cardinal Spada, was necessary to Richelieu's foreign policy. To Spada he observed : "I know that I am regarded as a heretic at Rome; but ere long the Pope will canonize me as a saint". Richelieu had already conceived the plan of destroying La Rochelle, but it was not yet ripe for execution; and with that extraordinary talent he possessed for making everybody serve his purposes, he effected a peace with the Huguenots chiefly by means of the English ambassadors. A treaty was signed at Paris February 5th, 1626, under the tacit guarantee of England, by which the Huguenots were left in much the same condition as at the beginning of the war.

English Expedition of Cadiz. Treaty of Monzon

The English expedition against Cadiz, was undertaken in consequence of the breach with Spain in regard to the marriage treaty. In 1625, a fleet and army were dispatched, under Viscount Wimbledon, to take Cadiz; but Wimbledon lost so much time in fortifying Puntal, that the Spaniards found an opportunity to throw reinforcements into Cadiz. The quarrels of Charles I with his Parliament, and the difficulty he experienced in obtaining supplies, were not calculated to render him a very formidable opponent in any foreign war; and he, in common with the other allies of France, was, soon after this expedition, astonished and discouraged by an unexpected peace between that country and Spain.

After the French successes in the Valtellina, Urban VIII dispatched his nephew, Cardinal Barberini, as Legate to Paris, where he arrived May 21st, 1625, and was received with the magnificence due to his quality. Barberini was authorized by the Spanish cabinet, as well as by the Pope, to treat for peace, and he made the following propositions: a suspension of arms; satisfaction to the Pope for what had occurred in the Valtellina; and security for the maintenance of the Catholic religion in that valley, by preventing its restoration to the Grisons. The negotiations failed, chiefly on the third condition; yet Richelieu, as we have already remarked, was very unwilling to embark in an open war with Spain. The more zealous French Catholics were scandalized at his policy in attacking the troops of the Pope, in marrying the King's sister to a Protestant King, in summoning the Swedes to restore a heretic Prince in the Palatinate; and this sentiment was so strong among the sovereign courts and municipal bodies, as to cause the Cardinal to fear that he might soon have to struggle with another Catholic League, as well as with the Huguenots. It was chiefly to relieve himself of his fears and responsibility, that, after the departure of the Legate Barberini, Richelieu advised the King to summon an Assembly of Notables at Fontainebleau. In this assembly Richelieu spoke in favour of peace, but of such a peace as might be concluded on honourable and advantageous conditions; and he was supported by a great majority, although the Cardinal de Sourdis was for an immediate suspension of arms. Spain appeared to have become more moderate; especially as in the winter Marshal Bassompierre succeeded in obtaining a fresh declaration of the Swiss Diet in favour of the Grisons; and after the departure of Barberini, the Spanish Court renewed the negotiations through the Marquis of Mirabel, their ambassador at Paris, and also made advances to Count du Fargis, the French ambassador at Madrid. Richelieu's instructions to Du Fargis had been purposely vague; and that minister, hearing that the Pope was about to send 6,000 men into the Valtellina, had somewhat precipitately signed a treaty with Spain, January 1st, 1626. Most of the conditions desired by France had been obtained; yet Richelieu disavowed the treaty, founding his objections chiefly on matters of form; though his real motive was probably his fear that the allies of France would get scent of it before his arrangements with the Huguenots were completed. At all events, soon after the peace with the insurgents, Du Fargis concluded a fresh treaty with Olivarez at Monzon, in Aragon, March 5th; which, in spite of Richelieu's pretended opposition, was, with a few amendments, ratified at Barcelona a month afterwards. The principal articles of the so-called treaty of Monzon were: that the affairs of the Grisons and the Valtellinese should be replaced in the same state as they were in at the beginning of 1617; that no other religion but the Roman Catholic should be tolerated in the valley; that the Valtellinese should have the right of electing their magistrates, subject, however, to the approval of the Grisons; that the forts in the Valtellina, as well as in the bailiwick of Bormio and district of Chiavenna, should be razed by the Pope; and, in consideration of the privileges granted to them, the Valtellinese were to pay to the Grisons such an annual sum as might be agreed on.

The news of this treaty was received with equal surprise and indignation at London, Venice, Turin, and among the Grisons. The allies of France had all been duped; and each found in it some particular cause of complaint. The rights and interests of the Grisons had been bartered away without their consent; the Swiss were offended at the part they had been made to play in the affair; the Venetians thought themselves wronged by the demolition of the forts, which they deemed necessary to secure their right of way; the Duke of Savoy saw all his hopes frustrated, and himself insulted to boot by a pretended commission to his son, the Prince of Piedmont, to be the Lieutenant-General of Louis in Italy at the very time of the conclusion of the treaty. The Dutch and the English, and especially the latter, had no less reason to complain. France had amused them with a pretended league, merely for the purpose of procuring better terms from the Huguenots and from Spain; and the English ambassadors had actually been made the tools for arranging a peace with the former.

Richelieu’s next task was to pacify his angry allies, in which he perfectly succeeded. The Duke of Savoy was flattered with the prospect of obtaining the title of King through the influence of France; the Grisons and Venetians were mollified with compliments and excuses; the English ambassadors were assured that France, whose hands were now free, would act with more vigor than ever in the affair of the Palatinate, and that a French army of 11,000 or 12,000 men should join the English forces on the Rhine. At the same time the Cardinal dropped all complaints about Queen Henrietta and the marriage treaty. Thus Richelieu gained his point, but at some cost to his reputation.

These events were followed by a conspiracy against Richelieu. The ostensible object of the plot was to prevent a marriage which had been arranged between Gaston, Duke of Anjou, the King's brother, commonly called Monsieur, and Mademoiselle de Montpensier; but it included the murder of Richelieu, and probably the deposition of Louis XIII, and a marriage between Gaston and Anne of Austria. The principal leaders of this conspiracy were the Marshal d'Ornano, who had been Gaston's governor, the Duke of Vendome and his brother the Grand-Prior, the Dukes of Longueville and Epernon, and several more of the malcontent nobles. Even Anne of Austria took part in it. The plot was frustrated by the coolness and vigilance of Richelieu; who succeeded in completely overawing Gaston, and compelling him to perform the marriage (August 6th, 1626); after which he assumed the title of Duke of Orleans, which had belonged to his elder brother, dead some years ago. The King also distinguished himself by the skill with which he personally effected the arrests of Ornano and Vendome, as he had formerly done in the case of Condé. Such an employment had something very captivating for the mind of Louis XIII. It had in it something analogous to his field sports, and afforded the same sort of excitement that he felt in capturing his game. Indeed, he had himself become a King as it were by stratagem. Nothing could exceed the cool and imperturbable dissimulation with which he watched for the favourable moment, and secured his unsuspecting victim.

Richelieu thus triumphed over his domestic enemies, as he had over the enemies, or rather the allies, of France. Yet even this consummate politician had his weak point. The strong-willed and sagacious minister was a believer in judicial astrology; and it is said that he did not decide upon Gaston's marriage till he had caused that Prince's horoscope to be drawn. Of the conspirators, one, the Count of Chalais, was beheaded, others were imprisoned, some were pardoned. Ornano died in confinement, September 2nd, and thus escaped a trial. Anne of Austria herself was summoned before her offended consort in full council, when, with a bitter smile, Louis reproached her with wanting another husband. Anne never forgot nor forgave this disagreeable scene, which she imputed entirely to the contrivance of Richelieu.

The most important result of this conspiracy was, that it enabled Richelieu to make some salutary reforms. During the investigations respecting it the Court had proceeded to Nantes, and while he was at that city Louis published two important edicts. By one of these the office of Admiral of Brittany, which had been held by the Duke of Vendome, as Governor of that province, was suppressed; by the other, it was ordered that all castles, fortresses, and strong places throughout the Kingdom, not on the frontiers, or otherwise necessary to its defence, should be razed (July 31st, 1626). This measure, part of Richelieu’s plan to weaken the nobility, was hailed with joy throughout France. It was the last blow dealt to anarchy and feudal tyranny. In carrying it out, all useless devastation was avoided. Everything capable of resisting cannon was demolished; but the old town walls of the middle ages, as well as the donjons of the nobles, were preserved. A little after, the two great offices of Constable and Admiral of France were suppressed; the Duke of Lesdiguières, the last Constable, having died in September, 1626, no fresh appointment was made. In the following month the Duke of Montmorency was bought out of the Admiralty; when Richelieu, without the title or office of Admiral, was appointed head and general superintendent of the French marine, navigation, and commerce. Buckingham laughed at the Cardinal's assumption of this post, and called him "a freshwater Admiral"; but Richelieu was soon to show his competence to direct the commercial, as well as the military duties involved. He endeavoured to direct the national genius of France to colonization and commerce, in emulation of Spain, England, and Holland; and he planned the creation of a formidable navy to protect the trade, which he intended to call into existence. The Company of Morbihan, to trade with the two Indies, was established, and it is no fault of Richelieu's if these projects did not meet with the success which he anticipated.

Rupture between England and France

While these things were going on in France, the aspect of affairs between the French and English Courts was daily growing more threatening. After the peace of Monzon, the English ambassadors quitted Paris; and upon their arrival in London, Blainville also departed for France. The misunderstanding between Charles I and his Queen, fomented by the intriguing priests by whom she was surrounded, as well as by Buckingham's ill humour with the French Court, grew daily worse, and, in spite of the Queen's tears and entreaties, not only were her priests, but even her French domestics, sent back into France. The meddling behaviour of the French priests and others who had accompanied Queen Henrietta, and especially of the Sieur de Berulle and the Bishop of Mende, is admitted by Richelieu himself, as well as by Bassompierre, who was sent as special ambassador to London on the occasion of this quarrel; and as France was not then in a condition to cope with England on the sea, the Cardinal was willing to compromise the matter. After some negotiation, it was arranged that the Queen should be allowed to have twelve priests, besides a bishop for her almoner; and to select some French officers for her service, as well as two French ladies and two French maids for her chamber. The Cardinal, however, was but ill content with this treaty, especially as the English continued to seize French vessels under the very nose of Bassompierre; and though Richelieu was not in a condition to declare open war, he secretly joined Spain in an enterprise which Philip IV and his ministers were contemplating against England. In the spring of 1627 a treaty was concluded between France and Spain, by which Richelieu agreed to contribute ten ships to be employed in any descent upon Great Britain which might be attempted before June, 1628. But this treaty had no result. England took the initiative by interdicting all commerce with France (April 28th, 1627); and during three months the English harbours resounded with the din of hostile preparation. The destination of the English fleet was not known, but was suspected to be La Rochelle. Soubise and a French abbe, a creature of the Duke of Orleans, were in England inciting the Court to succour and protect the Huguenots; an agent had been dispatched to the Duke of Rohan, to engage him to raise that party in the south of France; and Montague had been sent to the Duke of Lorraine and Duke of Savoy, whose discontent, it was thought, might incite them to take up arms against France.

Towards the end of June Buckingham left Portsmouth with a fleet of eighty vessels, ten of which belonged to the royal navy, having on board an army of 6,000 or 7,000 men; and on the 20th of July he cast anchor off the Isle of Ré, which lies at the mouth of the inlet, or channel, leading up to La Rochelle. On the following day he published a manifesto detailing the grounds for this invasion: the principal of which were, the neglect of the French government to raze the fort of St. Louis, which, by the treaty of Montpellier, they had agreed to do; and their having constructed new forts in the Isle of Ré to overawe the Rochellois in contravention of a treaty which England had guaranteed.

Richelieu's answer to this manifesto must be allowed, on the face of it, to be successful. He showed that the English Court, so far from having publicly manifested any sympathy for the Huguenots, had not even mentioned them in the marriage treaty, although France had stipulated for the relief of the English Catholics; and he triumphantly alluded to the fact, that Louis XIII had employed the vessels of England against the Huguenots with the entire consent of the English Court. He denied that England had intervened in the treaty which the King of France had compelled his rebellious subjects to accept: and it must be admitted that such intervention had not been recognized in any public manner; though it cannot be doubted that Sir D. Carlton and Lord Holland had been very instrumental in bringing about the peace, and had led the Rochellois to suppose that England was to guarantee it. This seems to have been the public impression even in France; though it would appear that the only foundation for the supposed guarantee was some words addressed by the French chancellor to the Huguenot deputies when they were suing for peace: the meaning assigned to which words Richelieu disavowed. It is certain that the name of England appears not in the treaty; and Richelieu even asserts, in his answer to Buckingham's manifesto, that, to prevent any pretence of interference on the part of England, the English ambassadors were repeatedly told that, though their good offices with the Huguenots would be accepted, their intervention could not be allowed. The other main prop of Buckingham's manifesto, the non-demolition of Fort Louis, also breaks down; for though its destruction had been agreed upon by the peace of Montpellier, yet its maintenance had been expressly stipulated by the subsequent treaty of 1626. The general charge of an ultimate intention to reduce La Rochelle, the Cardinal affected not to deny; and he met it with the allegation that the French King had a right to make himself master of one of his own towns; and that if he intended to attack La Rochelle, it was no business of the English.

Thus Buckingham was completely outwitted by the able Cardinal; though it cannot be denied that, at bottom, he had some very just grounds of complaint. To his failure as a diplomatist he was now to add an equally signal one as a general. No sooner had the fleet anchored than Buckingham dispatched Sir William Beecher, his secretary, accompanied by Soubise, to La Rochelle, to incite the inhabitants to arms; who replied, that they must first consult with the rest of their party. Buckingham, nevertheless, on the evening of the 22nd July, proceeded to land his troops at the Point of Samblanceau, which operation, being covered by the guns of the fleet at point-blank range, was effected without much loss. But he now committed some fatal mistakes. Instead of at once seizing the fort of St. Martin, he lost four days in reconnoitring the country; and when he at length marched against that place, which had meanwhile been provisioned, he left the fort of La Prée behind him, by means of which succours were thrown into the island. These Richelieu provided by extraordinary exertions, advancing large sums from his own funds, and even pledging his plate and jewels; and he personally hastened the march of his troops. After Buckingham had thrown away his advantages and his time, Marshal Schomberg succeeded in landing a large French force in Ré in the night of November 1st. Buckingham found himself compelled to raise the siege of St. Martin, November 5th, after a general assault, which was repulsed; and the English were followed in their retreat to the ships by the French, who inflicted on them considerable loss. Every horse in the English army was captured, including that of Buckingham; besides forty-six colours and arms for 3,000 men. The troops, however, were safely embarked, and, after waiting for a wind, the fleet sailed for England, November 17th.

Fall of La Rochelle

This unfortunate expedition was the immediate cause of the fall of La Rochelle. Richelieu had brought the King, with the French army, into Poitou; and no sooner had the English evacuated Ré, than he urged Louis vigorously to prosecute the siege of La Rochelle. The inhabitants of that place, as we have said, had not at first joined Buckingham, and on the 10th of August they even admitted into the town some of the royal troops, sent principally to ascertain the state of the fortifications. But on the 20th the Duke of Angouleme having begun to construct a fort within a quarter of a league of the city, the Rochellois opened fire on his troops, and followed up this step by a declaration of war. In October Louis took up his head-quarters at Estre, a village not far from La Rochelle. Little could be done while the English held possession of Ré; but no sooner were they gone than Richelieu resolved to execute that scheme for the reduction of the Huguenot stronghold which he had brooded over so many years. The dike across the inlet, by which all succour from the sea was cut off, and the Rochellois thus finally reduced through hunger, was planned by Richelieu, and built under his inspection. Indeed the whole glory of the enterprise belongs to the Cardinal; for Louis XIII, wearied with the tedium of a blockade, which afforded little excitement, left the army in February (1628) to hunt at Versailles, appointing Richelieu Lieutenant-General of all his forces in Poitou, Saintonge, Angoumois and Aunis; and Angouleme, Schomberg, Bassompierre and the other captains were enjoined to obey him as they would the King himself. Richelieu had all the qualities of a great general, and, had not his genius been diverted into another channel, it may be safely affirmed that he would have become a renowned commander instead of a consummate minister and statesman. The fall of La Rochelle, hermetically sealed both on the sea and land side, was of course only a question of time. The inhabitants held out to the last extremity, animated by the exhortations and example of Jean Guiton, their mayor; who, throwing a poignard on the table of the chamber in which the town-council assembled, obtained leave to thrust it into the bosom of the first man who talked of surrender. After an unaccountable delay, an English fleet, under command of the Earl of Denbigh, at length appeared, and attempted the relief of La Rochelle (May 11th); but on reconnoitring the dike, and finding it impregnable, Denbigh got a certificate to that effect from some captains belonging to La Rochelle, who were on board his fleet; and after cannonading at a distance the French vessels in the inlet, he sailed home. Still the town held out in expectation of fresh aid from England, and in spite of some insurrections of the starving citizens. The English succours were delayed by the assassination of Buckingham at Portsmouth (August 23rd). This event delivered Richelieu from an adversary whom he at once feared and despised.

On the 28th of September the English fleet, under command of the Earl of Lindsey, was again descried from Ré. On the 3rd of October the English fleet made an attempt to force a passage, and delivered many broadsides against the dike, as close as they could come; but they were soon compelled to retire by the ebbing tide, which on those coasts falls a great many feet. On the following day the attempt was renewed with the same result; nor did some fire-ships, launched by the English, do any harm. The case seemed hopeless; the English vessels drew too much water to come sufficiently near to deliver an effective fire, and after another general attack on the 22nd of October, the enterprise was abandoned. On the following day a deputation of the starving inhabitants of La Rochelle repaired to the Cardinal to treat for a surrender, which they were obliged to accept on his terms; and on the 30th the royal forces took possession of the town. Rushworth states that out of a population of 15,000 persons, only 4,000 remained alive, so great had been the famine; but this account is probably exaggerated. Louis XIII, who had returned some months before to the siege, and who had pointed the cannon and exposed his life before the walls—for he inherited at least the courage of his father—entered the town on horseback and fully armed, November 1st. On the following Sunday a solemn Te Deum was sung. On the Saturday, the King, who was a great lover of sacred music, sat up till midnight, arranging and rehearsing the chanting and musical accompaniments; and he himself led off the melody.

The fall of La Rochelle, as consummating the subjection of the Huguenot party, and thus strengthening the hands of the French King, was an occurrence sufficiently important to rouse the hopes or fears of the various European States, according to their interest or politics. At Rome the event was celebrated by a Te Deum in the church of St. Louis, and gave occasion to Urban VIII to exercise his poetical skill by composing some odes in honour of the French King. Richelieu's brother, now Archbishop of Lyons, was made a Cardinal, contrary to the constitution of Julius III forbidding that dignity to be conferred on two brothers. But, in spite of the favour of the Holy See, Richelieu used his victory with moderation. In his answer to Buckingham's manifesto, he had declared with a liberality in advance of the age, and which was not observed in the next reign, that the time of religious martyrdom was past, and that Louis XIII waged war, not with liberty of conscience, but with political rebellion. These principles he adhered to after his success; and though, as an insurgent city, La Rochelle was deprived of its municipal privileges, the citizens were allowed the free exercise of their religion.

During the progress of the siege a Spanish fleet had appeared off La Rochelle; but it was sent only to amuse the French with a false show of friendship, as appears from a letter of Philip IV to his ambassador at Paris; and no sooner did news arrive that the English were preparing an expedition for the relief of La Rochelle than, in spite of the remonstrances of Richelieu, the Spaniards retired. The famous captain, Spinola, had also paid a visit to the French camp in the quality of ambassador; when Louis took him round the works, and flattered the Italian by remarking that he was imitating his example at Breda. Spinola had taken that town, after a two months' siege, in June, 1625. The Spanish Court had set its heart upon the capture, and Philip IV, with a mock sublime, had written to Spinola, in half a line, "Marquis, take Breda." Prince Maurice, after a four years' struggle with Spinola, had died 23rd April, 1625, not without the mortification of seeing that Breda must at length yield to the Spanish arms; but his brother and successor, Frederick Henry of Nassau, who was elected Captain-General of the United Provinces, assisted by Mansfeld, whose efforts Richelieu had diverted from the Palatinate, arrested the progress of the Spaniards in the Northern Netherlands. Frederick Henry, who shared not the political ambition and the religious prejudices of his brother, was also elected as their Stadholder by the three provinces of Holland, Zealand, and West Friesland. But the operations of the Dutch in Europe are not of much importance at this period, though it witnessed the growth of their possessions in the East Indies, and the establishment of their naval power at the expense of Spain.

Intervention of Denmark

The struggle in Germany had now assumed a new phase by the intervention of Denmark. Christian IV had from the first beheld the proceedings of the Emperor with alarm; as a Protestant Prince, he was disposed to support the unlucky Palatine Frederick; he had, at the instance of his brother-in-law, James I of England, advanced several large sums of money to Frederick; and so early as the beginning of 1621 had agreed upon an alliance between Denmark, England, and the Dutch Republic; negotiations, however, which had resulted only in some representations to the Emperor and a letter to Ambrose Spinola. Christian IV had also a personal, or rather a family, interest in the great question which agitated Germany. He had procured his son Frederick to be appointed coadjutor and eventual successor of the titular lay Archbishop of Bremen, and had also purchased for him the Bishopric of Verden; and thus, in common with the other Princes of the Circle of Lower Saxony, he feared to be deprived of the ecclesiastical principalities which he had obtained. The headship of Lower Saxony had been long in the hands of the ducal Welfic House; but its various lines, Lüneburg, Wolfenbüttel, Zelle, Harburg, and Dannenberg were now at variance with one another respecting the Principality of Grubenhagen; while Frederick Ulrich, head of what is called the middle line of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, was not only a weak man, but also without the means of supporting an army. The Princes of Lower Saxony had thus begun to look towards Christian IV for protection; who, by virtue of his Duchy of Holstein, was a member of the Empire and of their own Circle, and by his prosperous reign in Denmark enjoyed at that time a high reputation in Europe. Many volunteers among the Lower Saxons had in 1623 joined Duke Christian of Brunswick, whose defeat by Gonzales de Cordova and flight into Holland in 1622 has been already described. Christian was a very different man from his brother Duke Frederick Ulrich, into whose dominions he had returned with his old troops. He had begun his adventures with ten dollars in his pocket, nor would he abandon them after two defeats and the loss of an arm. Christian took the command of the forces levied by the Lower Saxon volunteers, in conjunction with those which he had raised himself; but Tilly hastened towards the north, compelled the Lower Saxon Circle to expel Christian, overtook that Prince as he was retreating into East Friesland to rejoin Count Mansfeld, and entirely defeated him near Stadtlohn, in Westphalia (August 9th, 1623). The Dutch now advised Mansfeld to disband his army, and the League troops and Spaniards established themselves on the Weser.

Duke Christian, after his defeat, had given the King of Denmark a still further interest in the German question by transferring to that monarch his Bishopric of Halberstadt; besides which, Christian IV had procured another see in Mecklenburg for his younger son. The menacing position taken up by the troops of the League in Westphalia rendered some decisive step necessary. Christian IV, who had assembled an army, was elected military chief of the Circle of Lower Saxony in May, 1625; and on the 18th of that month he addressed a letter to Ferdinand II, which may be regarded as a declaration of war. He announced to the Emperor his election as head of the Lower Saxon Circle; declared his determination to put an end to the quartering of troops and other burdens with which some of the Princes belonging to that Circle were oppressed, contrary to the Religious Peace and the laws of the Empire; and he reminded Ferdinand that he had neglected to fulfil his promises to himself and his ally, the King of Great Britain, with regard to the Elector Palatine. Ferdinand answered politely, postponing the consideration of the questions urged, though he went on increasing his forces; whilst Tilly, in the Emperor's name, summoned the King of Denmark to lay down the military headship of the Circle, on the ground that it could not be entrusted to a foreign Sovereign. Meanwhile Christian IV marched his army from the Elbe to the Weser. He had communicated to Gustavus Adolphus the steps which he intended to take, and intimated that his help would be welcome; but the Swedish King, at that time intent on an expedition into Livonia, though he received Christian's message in a friendly spirit, was not then in a position to afford him any succour. Gustavus’s campaign in Poland was, however, indirectly beneficial, by preventing the Poles from fulfilling their promise to the Emperor of supporting him by an irruption into Brandenburg.

Hostilities were begun by Duke Christian of Brunswick and Count Mansfeld; who having reassembled an army of some 12,000 or 15,000 men, entered the Duchy of Cleves, encamped in the neighbourhood of Wesel, and thence proceeded into the territory of Cologne. Tilly dispatched against them the Count of Anhalt, and having been himself reinforced with some Spaniards, laid siege to Hoxter. Christian IV having received some subsidies from Charles I, now King of England, had also begun his march. James I had repented of neglecting his son-in-law, the Elector Palatine, and on his death-bed had exhorted Charles to use every endeavour to reinstate his sister and her children in their dominions. But Charles, who deemed it better to seek the Palatinate in Spain, fitted out an expedition against that country, the ill-success of which has been already related; so that he could afford but little aid to his brother-in-law. In July Christian IV had marched to Hameln, where his career was arrested by an unfortunate accident. In riding round the ramparts he fell into a vault twenty feet deep that had been negligently covered; his horse was killed on the spot, he himself lay three days insensible, and it was several weeks before he entirely recovered. The campaign went in favour of Tilly, who took Hameln and Minden, and defeated a large body of Danes near Hanover. He had appealed to the Emperor for assistance against the King of Denmark; and this was the occasion of bringing the renowned Wallenstein into the field.

Character of Wallenstein

Wallenstein, for the loyalty and valour he had displayed during the Bohemian revolt, had been rewarded by Ferdinand II with the lordship of Friedland and other confiscated domains of the insurgent Protestant nobles, and had been raised successively to the dignities of Count of the Empire, Prince, and, a little after, Duke of Friedland. The appearance and habits of this celebrated leader were calculated to render still more remarkable his military talents and his enormous power. In person he was tall and lank; the oval of his face was strongly delineated by his black hair, brushed up from his forehead and hanging down on each side in curly locks, and by his black beard and moustache; his complexion was sallow, his nose short, but aquiline, his fore­head high and commanding. His eyes were small and black, but penetrating and full of fire, and the awe they inspired was enhanced by dark eyebrows, on which hung a frown of threatening severity. The whole expression of his countenance was cold and repulsive; his demeanour haughty but dignified. With these traits his habits corresponded. Of few words and still fewer smiles, indefatigably employed in a retreat whose tranquillity was secured by sentinels planted to enjoin silence on all who approached—for even the clink of spurs was offensive to him—Wallenstein's whole appearance was calculated to throw around him a mysterious interest, increased by his known addiction to astrology.

At the time of Tilly's application for aid, Wallenstein, who had always been a warm supporter of the Emperor and of despotism, was a member of the Imperial Council of War; and he offered to raise at his own expense an army of 20,000 men for the Emperor, the troops to be supported by requisitions wherever they were cantoned. His offer having been accepted, a hundred patents of colonelcies were sold by Wallenstein to the greater nobles, on condition of their providing officers and men. These colonels in turn sold patents to their captains, the captains to their subalterns, without any reference to the Imperial Government; and thus was created an army, which, like those of the Italian condottieri, looked up to Wallenstein as their lord and proprietor. The troops were at first directed to be cantoned in Franconia and Swabia, in order that they might live at free quarters upon the inhabitants; and on marching through Nuremberg, Wallenstein compelled that town to contribute 100,000 gulden, although it had done nothing whatever to incur the displeasure of the Emperor.

Wallenstein, with an army that went on daily increasing, marched, in the autumn, into the Bishoprics of Halberstadt and Magdeburg; while Tilly, as already related, was taking place after place in Westphalia and Lower Saxony. It was fortunate for the Protestant cause that a mutual jealousy subsisted between Tilly and Wallenstein; hence, as neither would recognize the other as his superior, both armies acted without any concerted plan. At the instance of the Protestants a peace congress was held at Brunswick in the winter; but though Maximilian of Bavaria and his general were not indisposed to an accommodation, Wallenstein, who had formed the project of obtaining a principality for himself, rejected it with brutality. When the campaign opened in the spring of 1626, Wallenstein, instead of joining Tilly, marched eastward. The Protestants, however, committed errors on their side. Count Mansfeld, instead of forming a junction with Christian IV, who had now again taken the field, and thus opposing their united forces to Tilly, resolved to march into Bohemia, excite the inhabitants to rise, and call Bethlem Gabor again into the field; but after two abortive attempts on the bridge of Dessau, Mansfeld was forced to retreat before Wallenstein (April 25th), and his army was dispersed with the exception of about 5,000 men, with whom he entered the March of Brandenburg. By the aid of French subsidies, however, with which he levied men in Mecklenburg, and being joined by 1,000 Scots, 2,000 Danes, and 5,000 men under John Ernest of Saxe-Weimar, he increased his army to about 20,000 men, with whom he marched through Frankfurt-on-Oder, Crossen, Glogau, Breslau, Oppeln, Ratibor, to Jablunka, where Bethlem Gabor had promised to meet him. But the fickle Transvlvanian Prince again proved faithless, and made peace with the Emperor; Mansfeld, on the approach of Wallenstein, who had followed him through Lusatia into Silesia, was compelled to disband his army; part of his troops he assigned to John Ernest of Saxe-Weimar, and he himself proceeded into Dalmatia, intending by a secure, though circuitous way, to reach again the scene of action; but he fell sick and died in that country at the age of forty-five.

Mansfeld’s movement had, however, diverted Wallenstein and his troops from taking part against Christian IV, when the Danish King was on the point of fighting a decisive action with Tilly. Early in 1626, Christian had fixed his head­quarters at Wolfenbüttel, whence his forces were extended on one side into Brandenburg, while another portion was posted in the Bishoprics of Osnabruck and Münster. He unfortunately lost the services of Prince Christian of Brunswick, who died in May, just at the moment when his reckless valor might have been useful. Among the Danish army, however, appeared Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, who was afterwards to play so distinguished a part in the Thirty Years' War. Tilly was detained some months in besieging Münden, which he at last took after a murderous assault, and the loss of many men (June 9th), when the greater part of the garrison were massacred. Tilly next laid siege to Gottingen, which detained him till the 11th of August. He was soon after driven from that place as well as from Nordheim; but by forming a junction with the troops left by Wallenstein on the Elbe, he prevented the King of Denmark from penetrating into Thuringia, and joining the Saxon Dukes and the Landgrave Maurice of Hesse. Tilly had compelled Maurice, according to a decree of the Imperial Council, to cede the whole district of Marburg to Hesse-Darmstadt; to renounce all alliances with the Emperor's enemies; and to permit on all occasions the passage of the Imperial troops through his dominions. Christian had marched southward as far as the Eichsfeld, whence he now found himself compelled to retreat towards Wolfenbüttel; but on the march he fell in with Tilly and his army, and an action ensued near the little town of Lutter, August 27th. After a bloody battle, in which Christian, by Tilly's own account, displayed great activity and valour, the general of the League achieved a decisive victory. The Danish King nevertheless, though he had lost several thousand men, succeeded in holding Wolfenbüttel and Nordheim till the following spring, when the operations of Wallenstein gave a new turn to affairs. That commander, after the retreat of Mansfeld, had maintained and increased his army in reconquered Silesia at the expense of the unfortunate inhabitants. He himself spent the winter at Vienna; but in the spring of 1627 he returned into Silesia, and marched with his army towards the Baltic. Directing his Colonel Arnim to occupy the two Mecklenburg duchies, and to summon the towns of Rostock and Wismar to admit Imperial garrisons, he himself entered Domitz with another division of his forces. The approach of his army was announced by strange harbingers, which showed its irregular and lawless composition. Bands of gipsies of from ten to fifteen men, each provided with two long muskets, and bringing with them women on horseback with pistols at their saddle-bows, appeared simultaneously in many places; they boasted that they were in Wallenstein's pay, marched by byways and tracks, concealed themselves in the bushes and underwood, and plundered wherever they found an opportunity. It appears from Wallenstein's letters at this period, that he had formed the design of seizing the Mecklenburgs for himself; and the Emperor, regarding the two Dukes of Mecklenburg as rebellious vassals, abandoned their territories to that commander.

Christian IV, threatened on one side by Wallenstein, on the other by Tilly, found himself compelled to retreat into his own dominions, whither he was pursued by the united forces of the Imperialists. Tilly, after some success in Holstein, proceeded to the Lower Weser, as it was reported that the Dutch were about to send a fleet into that river; while Wallenstein advanced through Sleswig into Jutland, and compelled the King of Denmark and his army to fly into the islands. During the winter of 1627-1628, Tilly maintained his troops at the expense of Bremen, Brunswick, and Lunenburg, while Wallenstein cantoned his army in Brandenburg, and treated the unfortunate Elector, George William, like a conquered enemy, although he was completely submissive to the Emperor's will. Brandenburg, as well as Mecklenburg and Pomerania, were forced to make large contributions for the support of Wallenstein's army. Gustavus Adolphus, then engaged in the war with Poland, would willingly have helped his brother-in-law; but George William dreaded the Swedes even more than the troops of Wallenstein. The character and talents of Gustavus, however, filled Wallenstein with awe; and he addressed to him, though with great misgivings, propositions to enter into an alliance with the Emperor against Denmark. A project had been formed to dethrone Christian IV, and to place the Emperor, or perhaps even Wallenstein himself, on the throne of Denmark; while Schonen and Norway were to have been allotted to Gustavus as the price of his aid. But these negotiations had no result. Among other schemes of Wallenstein at this time was one for obtaining the command of the Baltic. He dreamt of reviving the trade and power of the Hanse towns, which had been crushed by Denmark, and of giving them a monopoly of the Spanish trade. With these thoughts he procured the Emperor to appoint him "Admiral of the Ocean and of the Baltic Sea", and he made some preparations for the building of a fleet, which, however, he found not so easy an enterprise as the raising of an army. The same schemes also urged him to get possession of the Baltic ports.

The designs of Ferdinand II seemed now to be wafted onwards on a full tide of success. Not only were his arms everywhere victorious, but his civil policy also encountered no serious resistance. The tyranny and extortions of Wallenstein, who exercised an almost uncontrolled dictatorship, had indeed excited serious discontent in many of the Catholic as well as in the Protestant States; even Maximilian of Bavaria himself, when his ends had been accomplished by the transfer to him of the Upper Palatinate and the Electoral dignity, began to look with jealousy on Wallenstein's career, and to sympathize with the misery which his brutality created. An assembly of the Catholic States had been held at Wurzburg in 1627 to consider these evils, and the means for their redress; but the timidity of some, the jealousy of others, and the animosity of all against the Protestants, deprived their deliberations of any result. On the other hand, at a meeting of the Electoral College held soon after at Muhlhausen (October), the policy of the Emperor entirely prevailed. Ferdinand II was not naturally cruel, but he was bigoted to the last degree; he considered that there was no salvation out of the pale of the Roman Catholic Church; and, being led by the Jesuits, he thought that he was only acting for the welfare of his subjects in compelling them, by whatever means, to return to that faith. He had entirely abolished in his hereditary dominions the exercise of the Protestant religion, and he was now contemplating the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the Empire, and the restoring to it of those temporal principalities and other property of which it had been deprived by Protestant Princes since and against the Treaty of Passau. At Muhlhausen the fanatical party was predominant. In accordance with the views of Ferdinand and his confessor, the spiritual Electors, supported by the Nuncio Caraffa, determined on a complete Catholic reaction, to begin in South Germany, and thence to extend to the north; and orders for the restoration of Church property were accordingly issued to the Duke of Wurtemberg, the towns of Strassburg, Anspach, Nuremberg, Hall in Swabia, Ulm, and others. A majority of this assembly also confirmed the deposition of the Elector Palatine; and by a deed executed at Munich in February, 1628, Maximilian of Bavaria was now solemnly invested with the Electorate, as well as with the Upper Palatinate, and that part of the Lower, which lay on the right bank of the Rhine. These dominions were the pledge of 13,000,000 florins advanced by Maximilian for the war; who in return restored to the Emperor Upper Austria, which he held as security, but on the understanding that if he were driven out of the Palatinate, his former pledge was again to be put into his hands.

In April, 1628, the Emperor formally made over to Wallenstein, now created Prince of Sagan in Silesia, the dominions of the two rebellious Dukes of Mecklenburg in pledge, and the States of Mecklenburg were compelled to do homage to him. The plans of Wallenstein rendered the occupation of the Pomeranian town of Stralsund very desirable, while the Kings both of Sweden and Denmark were as much interested in preventing him from obtaining possession of that port. The town itself sent a message to the Emperor, professing loyalty and devotion, and offering money, but at the same time made the utmost exertions to defend itself against his general. Although Ferdinand returned a favourable answer to the citizens, Wallenstein ordered Colonel Arnim to bombard and storm the town, and is said to have sworn that he would have Stralsund were it fastened with chains to heaven. The enterprise, however, was not an easy one. Christian IV threw in provisions and reinforcements, among which was a Scottish corps under Monroe, and he subsequently appeared himself off the port with a fleet of six ships of war and 150 other vessels, which took up such a position as obliged Wallenstein for a time to withdraw his batteries. When Christian, who was then contemplating a peace, retired, the inhabitants of Stralsund entered into a treaty with Gustavus Adolphus, and, besides a large quantity of ammunition, he reinforced their garrison with 6,000 Swedes, under Fritz Rosladin, and subsequently with another corps under Alexander Leslie (Earl of Leven) and Nils Brahe. At length Wallenstein, after losing near half his army, found it necessary to raise the siege (August 3rd).

As the war with Denmark had, on the whole, been successful, and cost the Emperor nothing, he would have been inclined to continue it, had not the disputes which arose in Italy about the Mantuan succession rendered it desirable to dispatch some troops in that direction, which so weakened Tilly's army that Christian drove him with great loss out of Jutland, Sleswig, and Holstein. The advances of the King of Denmark were therefore entertained; conferences were opened at Lübeck, and on the 22nd May, 1629, was signed the Peace of Lübeck. By this treaty Christian IV, reinstated in all his hereditary possessions, engaged to interfere no further in the affairs of Lower Saxony, except in his quality of Duke of Holstein; and he renounced, in the name of both his sons, the German Bishoprics which he had procured for them. He shamefully abandoned the Dukes of Mecklenburg and all the German Princes his allies, nor could the representations of England, France, and Holland induce him to make the least stipulation in favour of the Elector Palatine; wherefore those Powers refused to accede to the treaty. Gustavus Adolphus had sent a plenipotentiary to the congress at Lübeck ; but Wallenstein refused to treat with him so long as a Swedish garrison remained in Stralsund.