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CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE NORTH AND EAST OF EUROPE
WE shall now
advert to the affairs of the Austrian dominions and of the eastern nations of
Europe.
The comparative
feebleness into which the Turkish Empire was sunk, as well as its war with
Venice, which had been going on since 1645, had for many years relieved Austria
from all apprehension of attack from that quarter; but in 1656 the appointment
of Mahomet Koprili as Grand Vizier infused more vigour into the counsels of the Porte. The youthful
Sultan, Mahomet IV, and the Sultana Valide,
allowed Koprili an almost unlimited power; and though
that remarkable man was more than seventy years old, and had not performed
during his long life any memorable action, yet he discharged his high office
during the five years which he held it with distinguished ability and success,
and at his death transmitted his power to his son. Under the administration of
Mahomet Koprili, the Turks began again to interfere
in the affairs of Transylvania (1658). The Voyvode,
George Ragotski II, their tributary, having
shown symptoms of insubordination, the Porte resolved to set up Barcsai, a creature of its own, in his place, and to
increase the yearly tribute from 15,000 ducats to 40,000. Ragotski, after resisting a year or two, was defeated by
the Turks in a battle near Klausenburg, in May,
1660, and received a wound of which he died. In the following August the Turks
captured Grosswardein, one of the strongest
fortresses on the borders of Hungary and Transylvania.
The Cabinet of
Vienna, though alarmed by the progress of the Turkish arms, was unwilling to
break with the Porte, and had even commanded the Hungarian Count Zrinyi to desist from the attempts at resistance which
he had made on his own account. But the progress of events at length compelled
the Emperor Leopold to take a direct part in the war. Peter Kemeni having been elected Voyvode of
Transylvania under the imperial auspices, and having murdered Barcsai, the Porte caused Michael Apafy to be elected in place of their nominee. The Viennese Cabinet, after some vain
attempts at negotiation, dispatched some forces under Montecuculi and Count Stahremberg into Hungary (1661), but with
strict orders not to attack the Turks; and all that Montecuculi effected was to supply Kemeni, who had shut
himself up in Klausenburg, with troops and
provisions. In the ensuing winter Kemeni made
an attempt to seize Apafy at Mediasch;
but the Turks having come to Apafy’s aid,
defeated Kemeni and killed him in his
flight.
Mahomet Koprili died November 1st, 1661, and was succeeded in his
high office by his son Achmet, then thirty years
of age. This transmission of power from father to son was a thing unheard of in
the Turkish annals, and seemed to recall the reign of the Mayors of the Palace
in France during the Merovingian dynasty. The administration of Mahomet Koprili had revived in a remarkable degree the strength of
the Ottoman Empire; he had firmly established his power in the Seraglio, and by
measures of great severity had reduced the rebellious Spahis and
Janissaries to order and obedience. From his first accession to office, Achmet Koprili was resolved
on a war with the Emperor; but in order to make the requisite preparations, he
encouraged the Imperial Cabinet to negotiate. Leopold refused to recognize Apafy as Voyvode of
Transylvania, who had abandoned great part of that province to the Turks, and
had promised to assist them against the Emperor; but at the same time the
Imperial Cabinet, in the vain hope of solving the question by diplomacy,
refused all active assistance to Kemeni’s brother
Peter. Even in the spring of 1663, when Achmet Koprili was pressing forward with a vast army to Buda, the
Imperial plenipotentiaries were seeking to arrest his march by new
negotiations; but the terms he proposed were too arrogant and insulting to be
entertained. He demanded an indemnity of 2,000,000 florins for the expense of
arming, the evacuation of several fortresses, the renewal of the ancient
tribute abolished by the Peace of Sitvatorok,
and free passage for the Turkish troops into Dalmatia and other places
belonging to the Venetians.
The Cabinet of
Vienna began at last to perceive the fatal error it had committed in not
providing the means of resistance. To the Turkish army of 200,000 men Montecuculi could oppose but a very small force. The
Hungarians themselves could not agree as to the means of defence.
The Protestant part of that people were even in favour of
the Turks, who treated them with politic consideration; while the Imperial
Court, under the influence of the Jesuits, displayed towards them nothing but
intolerance. Count Forgacz, commandant of Neuhausel, who had marched out to oppose the Turks, was
defeated by them at Parkany; and though he
contrived to defend Neuhausel for six weeks, he was
at length compelled to surrender it by capitulation (September 24th, 1663). The
fall of Neuhausel was followed by that of several
other fortresses, and it was the common opinion that in the following spring Koprili would appear before Vienna. In spite of all Montecuculi’s exertions, a body of 25,000 Turks and
Tartars crossed the Waag into Moravia,
threatened Nikolsburg, Brünn,
and Rabensburg, and penetrated almost to Olmütz, committing in their progress the most horrible
barbarities. It was even with some difficulty that Montecuculi succeeded in defending Pressburg. Meanwhile a
Diet had assembled at Ratisbon; and in December the Emperor went thither
in person, to reanimate their deliberations, and urge them to provide an
adequate defence against so urgent a danger. The Diet
voted on the part of the Empire an army of 42,000 foot and 14,000 horse, to be
commanded by the Margrav Leopolde William of Baden; which, added to the troops
of the Austrian hereditary dominions, constituted a force of more than 80,000
men. Louis XIV supplied from the army of Italy 6,000 men under Count Saligni, as the contingent for Alsace; and Sweden sent
3,500 men, besides the quota for the states it held in Germany. The Pope, and
the Italian princes and republics, also furnished the Emperor with liberal
contributions in money.
Montecuculi was thus enabled to take the field in 1664 with more prospect of success;
and though the first operations of the campaign were in favour of the Turks, he at length arrested their
progress by the memorable battle at St. Gotthardt (August
1st), a place on the Raab, near the borders of
Styria. Montecuculi having given the word “Death or
Victory”, the Christians, contrary to their usual practice, charged without
waiting to be attacked; the Turks were routed and thrown into a disorderly
flight, in which more than 10,000 of them were slain or drowned in the Raab. But instead of pursuing this advantage, which seemed
to open the road to the most extensive conquests, the Imperial Cabinet
surprised all Europe by seizing the occasion to make Treaty of peace with the
Porte. On August 10th, only a few days after the victory, a treaty was
concluded at Vasvar for a twenty years’
truce. The Emperor abandoned to the Turks all their conquests, which included
the fortresses of Grosswardein and Neuhausel; he withdrew his support from the party of Ragotski and Kemeni,
thus abandoning Transylvania to Apafy, the nominee of
the Porte; and he made the Sultan a present—in other words, paid him a
tribute—of 200,000 florins. This treaty caused universal dissatisfaction. The
Germans complained of the Turks being established a Neuhausel;
a place, they said, which might be seen from the walls of Vienna. The
Hungarians exclaimed that their privileges had been violated by the conclusion
of the treaty without their knowledge and participation. The Transylvanians
said that by the abandonment of Grosswardein,
the Turks would be enabled to overrun the whole of their country. Apafy alone was content, who remained in possession of
Transylvania on condition of paying the ancient tribute. Yet, disgraceful and
disadvantageous as this treaty undoubtedly was, Leopold seems to have had some
cogent reasons for concluding it. Montecuculi’s army
was still far inferior to that of the Turks; the Austrian exchequer was empty,
nor could the continuance of the services of the contingents voted by the Diet
be reckoned upon. Deep jealousies existed between the German and Hungarian
commanders, and the latter, who suspected the House of Austria of a project for
the entire subjection of Hungary, impeded rather than assisted the operations
against the Turks. It may be, too, that Leopold wished to rid himself of the
services of the French troops, who had awakened his jealousy by carrying off
much of the glory of the battle of St. Gotthardt.
The war which they
had been waging so many years with Venice was, on the side of the Turks, a
motive for concluding the truce of Vasvar. The
siege of Candia, the capital of the island of that name, is, however, one of
the most remarkable in history, having lasted from May, 1667, till September,
1669. After an attempt to relieve it with a large French force, under the Duke
of Navailles, had failed, the garrison was
compelled to capitulate, September 6th, and was allowed to march out with all
the honors of war, followed by nearly the whole population, two priests, a
woman, and three Jews alone remaining behind. A peace was now concluded between
Venice and the Porte, and terminated a war in which the Venetians are said to
have lost 30,000 men, and the Turks upwards of 118,000.
Meanwhile, in
Hungary the discontent caused by the oppressive government and the religious
persecutions of the Austrian Cabinet had gone on increasing; but it was not
till 1678, when the young Count Emmerich Tekeli placed himself at the head of the malcontents, that these disturbances assumed
any formidable importance. Tekeli, who possessed much
military talent, and was an uncompromising enemy of the House of Austria,
having entered Upper Hungary with 12,000 men, defeated the imperial forces,
captured several towns, occupied the whole district of the Carpathian
mountains, and compelled the Austrian generals, Counts Wurmb and
Leslie, to accept the trace which he offered. The insurgents were encouraged by
the Porte, and after the conclusion of the Turkish and Russian war, in 1681,
Kara Mustapha, who was now Grand Vizier, determined to assist them openly. In
spite of the liberal offers made to Tekeli by the Emperor,
that leader entered into a formal treaty with the Porte, and, in conjunction
with the Turks, effected several conquests. Leopold now dispatched a splendid
embassy to Constantinople, in the hope of renewing the treaty of Vasvar, but without avail; the Turks only increased their
demands. In the spring of 1683 Sultan Mahomet marched forth from his capital
with a large army, which at Belgrade he transferred to the command of Kara
Mustapha. Tekeli formed a junction with the Turks
at Essek, and the united armies began their
march to Vienna. In vain did Ibrahim, the experienced Pasha of Buda, endeavor
to persuade Kara Mustapha first of all to subdue the surrounding country, and
to postpone till the following year the attack upon Vienna; his advice was scornfully
rejected, and, indeed, the audacity of the Grand Vizier seemed justified by the
little resistance he had met with.
At the approach of
the Turks the Viennese were seized with a terror amounting almost to despair.
Little preparation had been made for defence; 70,000
men was all the force that could be opposed to the Turkish army of 200,000, and
a great part even of that number was required to defend the frontier
fortresses. On July 7th, when news arrived of the defeat of the Austrian forces
at Petronell, Leopold and his court quitted
Vienna for Linz and Passau. His departure was the signal for an almost
universal flight; 60,000 persons are said to have hurried from Vienna in a
single day. Leopold entrusted the defence of his
capital, which he thus disgracefully abandoned, to Count Stahremberg,
in whom it found an able and valiant defender. It was fortunate for the
Emperor, who could get but little aid from the German States, that he had
concluded in the preceding March, with John Sobieski, King of Poland, an
offensive and defensive alliance against the Turks, with special reference to
their besieging either Cracow or Vienna. Under King Michael, who had been
elected to the Polish crown in 1669, after the death of John Casimir II, the
Poles had been reduced to become tributary to the Porte; but John Sobieski, who
occupied the post of general of that crown, defeated the Turks in a battle
near Choczim, and in 1673, after the decease of
Michael, he was elected King of Poland. Sobieski had not been able to remedy
the internal evils of that country arising from the Swedish war and the
defection of the Cossacks of the Ukraine, as well as from the vicious
constitution of the kingdom; but his personal qualities and warlike renown had
enhanced the reputation of Poland. The Emperor Leopold and Louis XIV contended
for his alliance. Sobieski persuaded the senate to choose the former, and the
treaty alluded to was concluded, March 31st, 1683. In the peace which he had
made with the Turks in 1676, Sobieski had been compelled to leave them in
possession of Podolia and a great part of the Ukraine, provinces
which he would willingly recover; nor could he behold without concern their
attempts upon Hungary and Austria. At one time Vienna seemed beyond the reach
of human aid. The Turks sat down before it on July 14th, and such were their
numbers that their encampment is said to have contained more than 100,000
tents. It was the middle of August (1683) before John Sobieski could leave
Cracow with 25,000 men, and by the end of that month the situation of Vienna
had become extremely critical. Provisions and ammunition began to fail; the
garrison had lost 6,000 men, and numbers died every day by pestilence or at the
hands of the enemy. It was not till September 9th that Sobieski and his Poles
formed a junction, on the plain of Tulln, with
the Austrian forces under the Duke of Lorraine, and the other German
contingents under the Electors John George of Saxony, Max Emanuel of Bavaria,
and the Prince of Waldeck, when the united army was found to amount to
upwards of 83,000 men, with 186 pieces of artillery. On September 11, the
allies reached the heights of Kahlenberg, within
sight of Vienna, and announced their arrival to the beleaguered citizens by
means of rockets. On the following day the Turks were attacked, and after a few
hours' resistance completely routed. Kara Mustapha, who in vain attempted to
rally them, was himself carried off in the stream of fugitives, whose
disorderly flight was only arrested by the Raab.
The Turkish camp, with vast treasures in money, jewels, horses, arms, and
ammunition, became the spoil of the victors.
Count Stahremberg received John Sobieski in the magnificent tent
of the Grand Vizier, and greeted him as a deliverer. The different commanders
then entered Vienna, and in St. Stephen’s Church, gave thanks for their
deliverance, when the preacher chose for his text, “There was a man sent by God
whose name was John”. The Emperor Leopold, who returned to Vienna on September
14th, instead of showing any gratitude to the commanders who had rescued his
capital, received them with the haughty coldness prescribed by the etiquette of
the Imperial Court. Sobieski nevertheless continued his services by pursuing
the retreating Turks. Worsted by them at Parkany on
October 7th, he inflicted on them on the 9th, with the aid of the Duke of
Lorraine, a signal defeat, in which 15,000 of them are said to have been
slaughtered or drowned; and he terminated the campaign with the capture of Gran
(October 27th), which place had been almost a century and a half in the hands
of the Turks. The Sultan, enraged at these misfortunes, caused Kara Mustapha to
be beheaded at Belgrade.
The Holy League,
1684
In the following
Year, 1684, the King of Poland, having returned to his dominions, the war against
the Turks was pursued by the Duke of Lorraine, who, after capturing Wissegrad, Waitzen,
and Pesth, sat down before Buda, July 14th. This
place, however, was defended with the greatest obstinacy, and as the Imperial
army was decimated by disease, the Duke of Lorraine was desirous of raising the
siege at the beginning of October; but it was fruitlessly prolonged, by orders
from Vienna, till the 29th of that month. It had cost the assailants 23,000
men. It was this year that a league against the Turks, under the protection of
the Pope, and thence called the Holy League, was formed by the Emperor, the
King of Poland, and the Republic of Venice. The Venetians were induced to join
it by the hope of recovering their former possessions, and declared war against
the Sultan, Mahomet IV, July 15th. The war which ensued, called the Holy War,
lasted till the Peace of Carlowitz, in 1699.
Venice in this war put forth a strength little expected from that declining
State. Many thousand Germans were enrolled in her army, commanded by Morosini,
and by Count Konigsmark, a Swede.
The Austrians
pursued the campaign in Hungary with success, in 1685. The Ottoman army was
defeated at Gran, and Neuhausel was shortly after
recovered (August 19th), the northernmost place held by the Turks. In Upper
Hungary, Eperies, Tokay, Kaschau, and several other places were also retaken. The
Grand Vizier Ibrahim was so enraged at these reverses that he caused Tekeli, whom he regarded as the cause of them, to be
carried in chains to Adrianople. But Ibrahim being dismissed from office the
same year, Tekeli recovered his liberty.
The following year
(1686) was signalized by the taking of Buda by the Duke of Lorraine, which was
carried by assault, September 2nd, after a siege of more than three months.
Buda, the capital of Hungary, had been during 145 years in the hands of the
Turks. Another campaign sufficed to wrest almost all Hungary from the Porte.
The Austrians under the Duke of Lorraine having been joined by the Elector of
Bavaria with a large force from the German States, completely defeated the
Turks in the battle of Mohacs, the scene of the former triumph of the Ottoman
arms (August 12th). The Duke of Lorraine followed up this success by reducing
all Transylvania, while Sclavonia was
reconquered by General Dünewald, one of his
officers. The chief places in Upper Hungary, including Erlau and Munkacz, were also taken, and Tekeli’s wife
and her two children captured and sent prisoners to Vienna. Thus, before the
end of 1687, the whole of Hungary, except a few scattered places, was recovered
by Austria. Michael Apafy, however, was left in
possession of Transylvania, but on condition of admitting Austrian garrisons
into the principal towns, and paying a contribution of 700,000 florins. In
October, Leopold summoned an assembly of the Hungarian States at Pressburg, and proposed to them to incorporate in the
kingdom of Hungary all his recent conquests over the Turks, to confirm the
ancient privileges of the nation, and to grant to the Protestants the free
exercise of their religion, on the following conditions: 1. The abrogation of
the law passed in the reign of King Andrew II (1222), by which a clause was
inserted in the oath of fidelity taken to the King, enabling any nobleman to
take up arms against him, in case he should be of opinion that the King had
violated his coronation oath; 2. That as a reward for delivering Hungary from
the Turks, the crown should be made hereditary in the heirs male of the House
of Austria; 3. That imperial garrisons should be admitted into all the
fortresses of the kingdom. The Hungarian Diet having consented to these
conditions, which were in fact an abolition of their ancient constitution, the
Archduke Joseph, the Emperor's eldest son, was crowned King of Hungary by the
archbishop of Gran, December 9th, 1687.
Siege of Athens
While the war in
Hungary had been conducted by the Emperor with such eminent success, the King
of Poland had made only some fruitless attempts upon Moldavia. The Tsar of
Muscovy, Ivan Alexiowitsch, who, after settling
some disputes about boundaries with the King of Poland, had joined the Holy
League in 1686, did not fare much better. All the attempts of the Russians to
penetrate into the Crimea were frustrated by the Tartars. The Venetians, on the
other hand, had made some splendid conquests. St. Maura, Koron, the mountain tract of Maina, Navarino, Modon, Argos, Napoli di Romania, fell successively into
their hands. The year 1687 especially was almost as fatal to the Turks in their
war with Venice, as in that with Hungary. In this year the Venetians took Patras,
Lepanto, all the northern coast of the Morea, Corinth, and Athens. Athens had
been abandoned with the exception of the acropolis, or citadel; and it was in
this siege that one of the Venetian bombs fell into the Parthenon, which had
been converted by the Turks into a powder magazine, and destroyed the greater
part of that magnificent relic of classical antiquity. The acropolis
surrendered September 29th. The fall of Athens, added to the disastrous news
from Hungary, filled Constantinople with consternation. After the defeat of
Mohacs, the Turkish army had retired in a state of mutiny to Belgrade. The
Grand Vizier Solyman was unpopular with the
Janissaries and Spahis on account of the stricter discipline which he
had endeavored to introduce among that soldiery; and his disastrous defeat at
Mohacs afforded them a pretext to get rid of him. They elected in his
stead Siawusch Pasha, governor of Aleppo,
and sent envoys to Constantinople to demand the dismissal of Solyman, who had fled to that capital. The Sultan was weak
enough even to outstrip these demands, by sending to the mutineers the head of
the obnoxious Vizier, and the seal of the empire for Siawusch.
Not content, however, with these concessions, the army marched to Adrianople,
and demanded the deposition of the Sultan himself, in favour of
his brother, Solyman. Their demands were seconded by
a large party in the metropolis; the Ulema assembled in the mosque of
St. Sophia at Constantinople (November 8th, 1687), and having sanctioned the
demands of the troops, Solyman II was saluted
as Padischah in place of his brother.
Mahomet IV was thrown into prison, where he died disregarded five years
afterwards.
This revolution
had scarcely been completed, when Siawusch entered
Constantinople at the head of the rebellious troops. The Janissaries and Spahis now
became more turbulent than before. They demanded that the usual donation on the
accession of a new Sultan should be increased, and that all such ministers and
placemen as they disapproved of should be banished. Some of the viziers having
attempted to resist their demands, a riot ensued; the palaces of all the
ministers were stormed, plundered, and burnt; and even the Grand Vizier Siawusch himself fell by the hands of those who had
elected him. The Janissaries and Spahis were only at last controlled
by the people rising against them (February, 1688), and peace was gradually
restored. The aged Ismael Pasha was now intrusted with
the conduct of a war which seemed to threaten the Osmanli Empire in
Europe with destruction. For the campaign of 1688 was still more disastrous to
the Turks than the preceding one. The Imperialists, under the Elector of
Bavaria, took Belgrade, while another division under the Margrave Louis of
Baden overran great part of Bosnia.
Humbled by these
reverses, the Porte, for the first time, began to make proposals for a peace, and
was disposed to make very ample concessions. The Duke of Lorraine, who was now
appointed to the command of the Imperial army against the French, pressed the
Cabinet of Vienna to listen to these offers, and to put an end to the war in
Hungary, in order to concentrate all the forces of the empire upon the Rhine.
The Margrave of Baden, on the contrary, who succeeded the Duke of Lorraine in
the command of the Austrian army in Hungary, pressed for the continuance of the
war against the Turks, and represented that all the advantages to be expected
from it would be enjoyed by the House of Austria, which, on the other hand, was
but little interested in the war with France. The advice of these two princes
was not, perhaps, uninfluenced by motives of self-interest. The Margrave was
gathering easy laurels in the Turkish war; and the Duke of Lorraine, in
pressing that with France, had probably a view to the recovery of his
patrimonial dominions. The Emperor himself, elated by his successes against the
Turks, was inclined to listen to the Margrave; he dreamt of nothing less than
putting an end to the Turkish empire in Europe, and effecting the union of the
Greek and Latin Churches. The war, therefore, went on, and the result of the
campaign of 1689 seemed to justify the advice of the Margrave Louis. That
commander, carrying the war from Bosnia into Servia, inflicted several
severe defeats upon the Turks, occupied the passes of the Balkan from the
borders of Roumelia to the Herzegovina, and
captured all the fortresses on the Danube from Widdin to Nicopolis, so that he was enabled to take up his winter
quarters in Wallachia. The Turks, however, after the rejection of their
proposals, prepared to recover their losses. Mustapha Koprili,
who had now been appointed Grand Vizier, infused more vigour into
the government; and with the assistance of Tekeli,
who, after the death of Michael Apafy in April, 1690,
had been made Prince of Transylvania, the Turks this year recovered almost all
that they had previously lost. Belgrade was retaken, to the great alarm of the
Viennese; and even in the winter time Turkish divisions pushed on to Temesvar, Grosswardein, and
even into Transylvania. But in 1691, the Margrave Louis, though he had only
about 45,000 men to oppose to more than double that number of Turks, completely
defeated them at Salankemen, August 19th; in
which battle Mustapha Koprili was slain. The victory,
however, had not the important consequences which might have been anticipated,
and the next four or five years are barren of great events. They were, however,
marked by a frequent change of Sultans. Solyman II
died in June, 1691, and was succeeded by his brother, Achmet II,
who in February, 1695, in turn gave place to Mustapha II. Mustapha was an
energetic prince, and having determined to put himself at the head of his
armies, he crossed the Danube, captured several places, and in 1696 defeated
the Imperialists at Bega.
The death of John
Sobieski, King of Poland, in that year had indirectly an important effect on
the war in Hungary. In order to withdraw Poland from Austrian influence, Louis
XIV strained every nerve to obtain the crown of that kingdom for his cousin,
the Prince of Conti. The Emperor Leopold, on the other hand, unwilling to have
a French prince for his neighbor, incited Augustus of Saxony, surnamed the
Strong, to become a candidate for the vacant dignity; and his cause was
espoused by the Pope, the Jesuits, the Tsar of Russia, and the Elector of
Brandenburg. The last-named prince, always subservient to Austrian policy, had
an additional motive in the promise of Augustus to recognize the royal title
which he contemplated assuming. As a candidate for the Polish crown, to which
none but a Roman Catholic was eligible, Augustus was obliged to change his
religion; with him, however, a matter of no great difficulty; for though the
hereditary head of the Lutheran Confession, Augustus had, in fact, little
religion of any kind. He made his confession of the Roman Catholic faith, and
purchased his election with his own money and that of the Emperor. The Prince
of Conti was indeed chosen by a majority at Warsaw, June 27th, 1697; but the
minority proclaimed Augustus, who, hastening into the kingdom with his Saxon
troops, was crowned at Cracow, September 15th.
The acceptance of
the Polish crown obliged Augustus to resign the command of the Imperial army,
which he had conducted without much ability or success. His retirement made
room for one of the greatest generals of the age. Prince Eugene of
Soissons-Savoy, descended from a younger branch of the House of Savoy, was by
his mother, Olympia Mancini, a great nephew of Cardinal Mazarin. Noted during
the early years of Louis XIV for her intriguing temper, Olympia had in 1680
become implicated in some suspicion of poisoning, and Louis, as an act of
grace, permitted her to leave France. Her disgrace fell upon her family.
Eugene, her youngest son, who from being first destined for the Church, was
called the Abbé of Savoy, having demanded a commission in the army,
was refused by the King. This refusal was afterwards to cost Louis dear. Eugene
offered his sword to the Emperor, and in the battle of Zenta on
the Theiss, September 11th, 1697, he inflicted
on the Turks a signal defeat. The Grand Vizier Elwas Mohammed
was slain in this battle. Eugene could not follow up his victory, except by a
short incursion into Bosnia; but it may be said to have been one of the
principal causes of the peace which soon afterwards ensued. To this, however,
the successes of the Venetians and Russians also contributed, to which we must
briefly advert.
Peace of Carlowitz, 1699
By the capture
of Malvasia in 1690, the Venetians completed the conquest of the
Morea. The Isle of Chios, taken in 1694, was again lost the following year; but
in Dalmatia and Albania the Venetian Republic made many permanent conquests,
from the mountains of Montenegro to the borders of Croatia and the banks of the
Unna. The operations of the Poles in the Turkish war were insignificant; but in
July, 1696, the Russians, under the Tsar Peter, after many long and fruitless
attempts, at length succeeded in taking Azov, at the mouth of the Don; a most
important conquest as securing for them the entry into the Black Sea. It was
the fall of this place, combined with the defeat at Zenta,
that chiefly induced the Porte to enter into negotiations for a peace; which
England and Holland had been long endeavoring to bring about, but which France,
on the other hand, did everything in her power to prevent. Conferences were at
length opened at Carlowitz, near Peterwardein, in October, 1698; and on January 26th, 1699,
treaties were signed between the Porte on one side and the Emperor, the King of
Poland, and the Republic of Venice on the other. By the treaty with the Emperor
the Porte ceded all Hungary (except the Banat of Temesvar),
Transylvania, the greater part of Slavonia, and Croatia as far as the Unna. The
armistice was to last twenty-five years—for the Turks never made what was
called a perpetual peace—subject to prolongation. Poland obtained by her
treaty, Kameniek, Podolia, and the Ukraine.
To Venice were ceded the Morea, the Isles of St. Maura and Egina, and several fortresses in Dalmatia. Count Tekeli was totally disregarded in these treaties. He had
lived since 1695 in a remote quarter of Constantinople on a small pension
allowed him by the Sultan. He was afterwards banished to Nicomedia, where he
died in 1704. The negotiations between Russia and the Porte were long
protracted, as the latter was very loth to part with Azov. A Russian ship of
war of thirty-six guns, built at that port and commanded by a Dutch captain,
which arrived at Constantinople in the summer of 1699, opened the eyes of the
Turks to the consequences of their loss, and made them fear a less civil visit
if hostilities should again break out. Nevertheless, in July, 1702, a treaty
was at length concluded, by which Azov, with about eighty miles of territory,
was ceded to the Tsar, who converted it into a most formidable fortress.
Such was the end
of the Holy War. We now pass on to the affairs of Sweden and the North, after
mentioning the Electorate, only occurrence of any moment at this period in the
affairs of Germany as a confederate body. This was the erection by the Emperor
of a ninth electorate, that of Hanover in 1692, in favour of
Duke Ernest Augustus of Hanover. The terms, however, on which it was granted
were such as made the new Elector a mere satellite of the Imperial House. In
return for the electoral hat and the office of archbanneret of
the Holy Roman Empire, the new elector was to place 6,000 men, over and above
his ordinary contingent, at the service of the Emperor so long as the war in
Hungary and Germany should last, and to pay during the same time a subsidy of
500,000 crowns; if the King of Spain should die without issue, he was to employ
all his forces to procure the throne of that kingdom for an Austrian archduke;
he was to use all his credit and influence to re-establish the King of Bohemia
in the exercise of all the rights, privileges, and prerogatives enjoyed by the
other electors (The Kings of Bohemia had lost, by disuse, their electoral
privileges, especially those of sitting in the assemblies of the Electoral
College, and of assenting to the imperial capitulations drawn up in the
electoral diets. This had arisen either through their neglecting privileges
which seemed to fortify their dependence on the empire; or through their being
deprived of them by a wrongful interpretation of the letters patent of the
Emperor Frederick II, granting to the kings of Bohemia, as matter of grace
and favour, a dispensation from attending all
diets except those held at Bamberg or Nuremberg); he (the Hanover elector) was
to engage for himself, his heirs, and successors in perpetuity, that they
should never give their electoral suffrage in the election of future Emperors
and Kings of the Romans except in favour of
the eldest archdukes of the House of Austria; that he should act in concert
with the Imperial Court in all the assemblies of the Empire; and that he should
accord to the Catholics the public exercise of their religion in Hanover and
Zell. The new elector, however, did not obtain his title without great
opposition. The electors of Treves, Cologne, and the Palatine protested against
it, as well as many princes of the Duke of Hanover's own religious persuasion,
and among them his cousin, Anthony Ulrich, of Wolfenbüttel, the head of the
House of Brunswick, out of jealousy at seeing his kinsman thus preferred before
him. In the following year the Dukes of Saxe Gotha, Saxe Coburg,
Brunswick, Wolfenbüttel, and Mecklenburg, the King of Denmark as Duke of
Holstein-Glückstadt, the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel,
the Margraves of Brandenburg Culmbach (or Baireuth), and Baden Baden,
the Bishops of Münster, Bamberg, and Eichstadt,
formed a League at Ratisbon, under the name of the Correspondent Princes,
to oppose the designs of the Imperial Court, and declared the investiture of
the new Elector to be null and void. This did not prevent Duke Ernest from
making use of his new title, though the full and recognized possession of the
electoral dignity was only at length obtained by Ernest Augustus's son, George
Louis. The most important part of this transaction with regard to the general
affairs of Europe was, that it afforded Louis XIV an opportunity of again
intervening in the affairs of the empire, and forming a French-party in
Germany. The protesting princes required the diplomatic intervention of France,
as guarantee of the Treaty of Westphalia, of which they represented the
Emperor’s proceedings to be a breach; and Louis entered a protest against them
at the Diet of Ratisbon.
We now revert to
the history of the Scandinavian kingdoms since the peace of Copenhagen in 1660,
which we have recorded in Chapter XXXVI. The events of the war with Sweden, and
the exhausted state in which Denmark had been left by the struggle, showed the indispensable
necessity for some alteration in the Danish constitution. Her misfortunes might
be traced chiefly to the oligarchy of nobles, who administered the finances and
diverted them to their own purposes. The freedom of that order from taxes, and
the other privileges and immunities which they enjoyed, were also highly
detrimental to the State. The jealousy and hatred of this privileged class had
been enhanced by its conduct in the war. During the siege of Copenhagen the
nobles had displayed the greatest indifference, and had sheltered themselves
under their privileges from taking any part in its defence;
which the King had been obliged to conduct with the assistance of the citizens,
the students, and the mercenary troops. It was natural enough, therefore, at
the end of the war, to think of using this army in order to compel the nobles
to relinquish their pernicious immunities. Already in 1658, after the rupture
of the Peace of Roskild, Frederick had gained
the affections of the burgher class by granting them some extraordinary
privileges. Every citizen who distinguished himself by his courage was to be
ennobled; every serf who enrolled himself as a soldier was to earn the freedom
of himself and his children. The right of staple was conferred on Copenhagen;
it was made a free city and one of the States of the kingdom, with a voice in
public affairs; the citizens were empowered to buy the lands of nobles, and
were placed on a like footing with them with regard to tolls and taxes, the
quartering of troops, the accession to public offices, and the like.
The Queen of
Denmark, Sophia Amelia, a Hanoverian princess, who had distinguished herself by
her intrepidity during the war, and who was as enterprising and intriguing as
Frederick was mild and gentle, took a more active part than the King in
bringing about the revolution which was to overthrow the oligarchical party. It
was necessary that so fundamental a change should be effected by the body of
the nation; and in spite of the opposition of the Council and the nobles, a
general assembly of the States was opened at Copenhagen, September 10th, 1660.
It consisted of three Chambers: the first composed of the members of the
Council and landed proprietors of noble birth; the second of bishops and
delegates from the clergy; the third of deputies from the commercial towns. A
proposal for raising a tax to meet the debts and burdens of the nation was the
signal for contention. The nobles wished to preserve their ancient immunity
from taxation; but the two other Chambers declared that they would consent to
the tax proposed, only on condition that it should be paid by every Dane
without distinction. Conferences now followed between the Chambers, in which
the nobles, and especially the High Chamberlain, Otto Krag,
made matters worse by their pride and insolence. The clergy and citizens,
instead of appealing to the Council, as they had hitherto done, now applied
directly to the King, and made propositions wholly incompatible with the
existence of the nobility: and especially they required that the domains and
revenues of the crown, hitherto entirely at the disposal of that order, should
henceforth be leased to the highest bidders. The nobles denounced this
proposition as an attack upon their property, and a violation of the 46th article
of the Capitulation, signed by the King on his election, which secured to them
the exclusive possession of the royal fiefs. As the King naturally felt
reluctant to annul the Capitulation to which he had sworn, a plan was adopted
to obviate this difficulty. Suane, Bishop of
Zealand, Nansen, Burgomaster of Copenhagen, together with Marshal Schack,
the commandant of the city, Hannibal Sehestadt,
formerly Viceroy of Norway, and other creatures of the Queen, placed a guard at
the gates of the city, which nobody was permitted to leave without a passport
from the Burgomaster. The nobles thus shut up, and having no means of
resistance, found themselves compelled, after much delay and reluctance, to
agree to a resolution passed by the other two estates, declaring the crown
hereditary both in the King's male and female issue.
By this change
from an elective into an hereditary monarchy, the Capitulation fell of itself
to the ground, and it therefore became necessary to found a new constitution; a
task which was entrusted to eight members of the Council and Upper Chamber, and
twelve members of the clergy and commons. It was agreed that the Capitulation
should be given back into the King's hands; and on the 18th October it was
solemnly destroyed with great pomp and ceremony, and on the same day an oath of
homage was taken to Frederick, containing only the usual general and empty
promises. On the following day the Council was dissolved; a new ministry was
installed, and the administration was entrusted to certain colleges, or bureaux, the members of which could be appointed or
dismissed at the King’s pleasure. The establishment of this autocracy, as
absolute as that of the Sultan, rested ostensibly on the consent of the people.
The new constitution was submitted for signature to the clergy, to all landed
proprietors and municipal magistrates, but its maintenance was secured by a
standing army of 24,000 men. The despotic power thus entrusted to the King was,
however, seldom abused, and proved much more advantageous to the kingdom than
the previous irresponsible oligarchy. The new constitution was embodied by
Peter Schuhmacher, a German jurist, in the
celebrated Konge-Lov (Lex Regia or
Royal Law); which established the unlimited power of the King, and the order of
succession to the crown. Schuhmacher also
made several changes regarding the nobles, which finally resulted in the
extinction of the ancient houses. He introduced the German distinction of a
higher and lower nobility, and created by royal letters patent Barons, Counts,
etc., titles never before heard of in Denmark.
In Sweden, on the
contrary, the consequences of the war increased the power of the nobles. By
calling a national assembly (1660) that order found means to overthrow the
Regency which Charles X had appointed by his will during the minority of his
son Charles XI, and to establish a government consisting of the Queen-Mother,
Peter Brahe, the Lord High Constable, Charles Gustavus Wrangel, High
Admiral, Count Magnus de la Gardie, High Chancellor, and Gustavus Bonde, Treasurer. As the Queen had no political influence,
this oligarchy, with their relatives and dependents, administered, or rather
abused for their own purposes, during the minority of Charles XI, the royal
domains and national revenues; a state of things, however, which ultimately
produced a counter-revolution in favour of
the kingly power.
For several years
after the peace of Copenhagen the annals of the Scandinavian kingdoms present
little worth relating. In the war which broke out between England and the
United Netherlands in 1665, Sweden concluded an alliance with England, but
afforded her no substantial assistance; whilst Denmark made a treaty with the
Dutch, and engaged to exclude British ships from the Baltic, so long as the war
should continue. During the War of Devolution, Sweden, as we have seen,
abandoned France, her ancient ally, and joined the Maritime Powers in the
Triple Alliance which produced the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. But this deviation
from her usual policy was only temporary, and in 1672 she entered into a treaty
with Louis XIV to support him in his war against the Dutch, as we have before
related. It was this treaty that disturbed the peace of Northern Europe by
lighting up a war between Sweden and the Elector of Brandenburg, in which
Denmark also ultimately took part.
The Elector of
Brandenburg, after forming in July, 1674, the alliance with the Emperor, the
Dutch States, and Spain, recorded in the preceding chapter, had proceeded in
October to join the Imperial army on the Rhine, then commanded by the Duke
of Bournonville. But the dilatory proceedings of
that commander awakened the same suspicions which Frederick William had before
conceived of the sincerity of Montecuculi. As these
suspicions were strengthened by Bournonville’s retreat
over the Rhine after his battle with Turenne at Türkheim (January
5th, 1675), in which the French had suffered more than the Germans, the Elector
separated from his allies, and took up his winter quarters in Franconia.
Meanwhile his own dominions had been invaded by the Swedes. After the treaty
of Vossem, Frederick William being still uneasy
respecting the intentions of Louis XIV, who had neglected to pay him the money
stipulated in the treaty, had endeavored to form with Sweden a third party, in
order to impose a peace upon the belligerents; and with this view he had
renewed for ten years his ancient alliance with that Power (December 1st,
1673). By a secret article it was agreed that if they should fail in
establishing a peace, either Power should be free to engage in the war, but not
without first informing the other of his intentions; yet the Elector had
entered into the alliance against France without giving notice to the Swedish
Government—a step, indeed, which he excused by pleading that, as war had been
declared by the Empire, he was bound ipso facto to take up arms, and had
provided for such a contingency in the treaty of Vossem;
nor would he arrest his march towards the Rhine in the autumn of 1674, although
the Swedes sent a special ambassador to persuade him to maintain a neutral
position, in conformity with the treaty between them. The French now declared
that they would pay the Swedes no more subsidies unless they compelled the
Elector to withdraw his troops from the allies. The young King Charles XI
having in vain endeavored to divert Frederick William from his purpose, the
Swedes, under Field-Marshal Charles Gustavus Wrangel, prepared to enter
the March of Brandenburg; and as even this step did not induce the Elector to
return, Wrangel gave notice that he should be obliged to take up his
winter quarters in the March, which was accordingly done. The Swedes behaved at
first in a quiet, orderly manner, but by degrees they began to levy
contributions, to raise troops, and to fortify themselves in defensive
positions. At length, incited by the French, they proceeded to acts of open
violence and hostility. They forcibly seized several small towns, and allowed
their troops every licence of plunder and
outrage. The Elector bore all this very quietly; nay, he probably rejoiced that
the conduct of the Swedes might offer him an opportunity to regain that part of
Pomerania which he had been formerly compelled to relinquish. Dissembling the
injury he had received, he sounded the disposition of his allies, but found
small hopes of succour. The Emperor and the
princes of the Empire, jealous of the Elector and of one another, stood aloof.
The King of Denmark, though by the Treaty of the Hague, July 10th, 1674, he had
engaged to employ an army of 16,000 men against those who should take part with
the enemies of the allies, yet, being desirous, it is said, of marrying his
sister to Charles XI, excused himself from not declaring openly against that
monarch. The States-General alone, after much persuasion, and when the
Elector’s troops were already in motion, declared war against Charles XI,
unless he evacuated the March.
Battle of Fehrbellin, 1675
Frederick William
was thus reduced to rely upon his own efforts. Early in June, 1675, he led his
army, increased by new levies to 15,000 men, through the Thuringian forest
towards Magdeburg, which he reached on the 21st. By a rapid march, the Swedes
encamped on the right bank of the Havel, carelessly secure and ignorant of the
approach of an enemy, were surprised and beaten at Rathenow (June
25th). A few days after (28th), the Elector gained a decisive victory at Fehrbellin over the main body of the Swedish army. The
Swedes were in consequence compelled hastily to evacuate the electoral
dominions.
The victory
of Fehrbellin induced the King of Denmark
to declare himself. Frederick III had died in 1670, and the throne was now
filled by his son Christian V. Christian, like his father, was at first guided
by the counsels of Schuhmacher, who had been
elevated to the new nobility which he had created, with the title of
Count Greifenfeld. The first act of the Danish
King was directed against his relative and neighbor, the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, who was suspected of having formed an alliance
with Charles XI. Questions respecting the division of the revenues of
Schleswig, the bishopric of Lübeck, and, more recently, the succession of the
last Count of Oldenburg, to whom both the Duke of Holstein and the King of
Denmark were related, supplied materials for dissension. If Christian should be
involved in a war with the Swedes, the Duke of Holstein, who was connected with
Charles XI both by treaties and kinship, might prove a very troublesome
neighbor, and Christian therefore resolved to secure him. This was effected in
the most treacherous manner. The Queen Dowager of Denmark enticed her daughter,
the Duchess of Holstein, to Copenhagen, while the King invited the Duke Christian
Albert to an interview at Rendsborg. Here he was
arrested, and, after five days' confinement, compelled to sign the Convention
of Rendsborg (July 10th, 1675), by which,
among other things, he consented to receive a Danish garrison at Gottorp, Tonningen,
and Stapelholm, to transfer the troops of
Holstein to the Danish service, to restore everything to the footing on which
it stood before the year 1658, and to renounce the sovereignty of Schleswig and
the Isle of Fehmern, with which he had been
invested by Frederick III. The Duke, after signing this convention, escaped to
Hamburg, where he signed a protest against its stipulations.
The King of
Denmark now put himself at the head of his army; and in September he had an
interview with the Elector of Brandenburg at Gadebusch,
which led to the secret Treaty of Dobran (October
5th). The contracting parties agreed to carry on the war against the King of
Sweden till he should be compelled either to pay its expenses or to restore to
Denmark Schonen, Halland,
and Blekingen, to renounce the freedom of the
Sound, and to abandon what he held in Pomerania to the Elector of Brandenburg;
who, on his side, engaged to give up Wismar and the Isle of Rügen to the Danish King. The war now began by land and water, on which latter
element the allies were supported by a small Dutch fleet. Frederick William,
entering Swedish Pomerania, surprised the Isle of Wollin and
took Wolgast by capitulation (November 9th); while the King of
Denmark occupied Rostock and Damgarten and
laid siege to Wismar, which surrendered December 15th. At the same time a
Danish corps joined the allied army, under the Bishop of Munster, in the Duchy
of Bremen, and the united forces occupied several places in that district which
had been assigned to Sweden at the Peace of Westphalia. The Bishop of Munster,
the Dukes of Lüneburg, Zell, and Wolfenbüttel, the
Elector of Brandenburg, and the King of Denmark had formed an alliance to eject
the Swedes from Bremen and Verden.
The war with
Sweden had been undertaken much against the will of the Queen Dowager of
Denmark, whose daughter, Ulrica Eleonora, had been united to Charles
XI in the summer of 1675. That young monarch, who was desirous of acquiring a
military reputation, for which, however, he had no great talent, placed himself
at the head of his army in 1676; and as he threatened to invade Zealand,
Christian V withdrew his troops from Pomerania and posted them in an intrenched camp
near Kronenborg. The Danish admiral, Niels Juel, in conjunction with the Dutch fleet, seized the
Island of Gothland; and Tromp, being named by
Christian V Admiral of Denmark, inflicted a terrible defeat on the Swedish
fleet near Entholm on the coast of Blekingen (June 11th). In the same month Christian, at
the head of 15,000 men, made a descent on Scania (or Schonen); but, being defeated at Halmstadt,
was prevented from penetrating further into Sweden. In December a bloody battle
was fought between the two kings near Lunden,
the ancient capital of Schonen. Both parties
claimed the victory, but the substantial success remained with the Swedes, as
the King of Denmark was for a long time disabled from attempting any further
enterprise. Meanwhile the Elector of Brandenburg had taken several places in
Pomerania, while in the Duchy of Bremen the allies had captured Stade, the
last place which held out for the Swedes. As the Bishop of Münster and the
Dukes of Lüneburg now manifested a desire to hold the
Duchy of Bremen for themselves, Christian V and Frederick William concluded a
new and still closer alliance, December 23rd, 1676. By secret articles, the
Elector guaranteed the Convention of Rendsborg,
and engaged that the King of Denmark should obtain at least a fifth part of the
territories of Bremen and Verden; while Christian, on
his side, undertook that the Elector should receive satisfaction in those
districts, in case he did not obtain it in Pomerania. Both pledged themselves
not to surrender at a general peace the conquests which they had wrested from
Sweden; and Christian promised to stand by the Elector in case he should be
precipitated into a war with Poland.
Campaign of 1677
In the campaign of
1677, the Swedes had on the whole the advantage on land, and especially in the
battle of Lanscrona (July 14th) Charles XI
inflicted a severe defeat on Christian V; but, on the other hand, the Danes
were victorious at sea. In June, Admiral Juel defeated
the Swedish fleet off Rostock; and in the following month he gained a still
more decisive victory over Admiral Horn in the Bay of Kiöge,
when he took or sunk eleven ships of the line. The King of Denmark concluded
the campaign by taking possession of the Island of Rügen,
which, however, was again lost and recovered. The chief exploit of the Elector
of Brandenburg was the capture, after a six months' siege, of Stettin (December
26th), the constant object of his ambition. The Swedes During the year 1678 the
marked superiority of the Danish Prussia. fleet compelled the Swedes to keep in
port, and consequently no actions took place at sea. In the autumn the Elector
took Stralsund and Greifswald (November). But while he was engaged in the siege
of the latter place, a body of 16,000 Swedes, under Field-Marshal Horn,
Governor of Livonia, suddenly invaded the Duchy of Prussia, and penetrated as
far as Insterburg. It was thought that the
despotism which Frederick William had exercised towards the Prussians would
have rendered them discontented, and anxious to throw off the yoke; and it was
as much from the apprehension of such an occurrence, as with a view to defend
the place against the Swedes, that the Elector dispatched in all haste
General Gorzke with 3,000 men to
Konigsberg. He himself, early in 1679 and during a severe frost, proceeded by
forced marches against the Swedes, with a chosen body of about 4,000 foot and
6,600 horse. The progress of the infantry was assisted with sledges, and
the Frische Haff and Kurische Haff, two large bays, or friths, in the neighborhood of Konigsberg, were
crossed on the ice; the army marching in this way ten or twelve leagues a day.
Frederick William overtook the Swedes, who had been already worsted near Tilsit by
his advanced guard, at the village of Splitter, which lies at a short distance
from that town, completely defeated them, and pursued them to Bauske, about forty miles from Riga. Marshal Horn was
captured, and of his 16,000 men not above 1,500 found their way back to Riga,
so great had been their suffering from cold and hunger as well as from the sword.
The victories of
Frederick William and Christian V were, however, destined to be fruitless. They
were deserted by their allies, and Louis XIV, who now gave law to Europe, made
it a point of honor to secure the Swedes in the possession of those territories
which had been assigned to them by the Peace of Westphalia. Already in August,
1678, the Peace of Nimeguen had been
concluded between France and the United Netherlands; and in the following
February the Emperor Leopold, who viewed with a jealous eye the successes of
the Elector of Brandenburg, acceded to the treaty without waiting for the
consent of the States of the Empire. The conditions offered by Louis were not
indeed disadvantageous to the Empire; only he insisted that the northern allies
should restore to Sweden all their conquests; and Leopold, by a particular
treaty with Charles XI, engaged that this should be done, as well as that the
Duke of Holstein-Gottorp should be maintained in all
his rights of sovereignty against the Crown of Denmark. Nothing now remained
for the Elector of Brandenburg but to obtain the best terms he could from the
all-potent Louis, the patron of the beaten Swedes; especially as his allies,
the Dukes of Luneburg, had acceded to the general pacification shortly after the
Emperor, by the Treaty of Zell, February 5th, 1679, by which they engaged to
restore to Sweden all that portion of the Duchy of Bremen which they had
occupied, and to take no further part in the war. This example was soon after
followed by the Bishop of Munster. All Frederick William’s proposals to the
French Court for retaining Pomerania were treated with brutal contempt,
and Louvois even threatened that a French
army should march to Berlin. The great Elector condescended to address a humble
letter to the French Monarch, and offered to place the greater part of his
conquests in Louis's hands on condition of retaining the rest; but without
effect. The French division, under Marshal Crequi,
cantoned in the Duchy of Cleves, having entered Westphalia, and threatening an
invasion of Brandenburg, Frederick William found himself compelled to sign the
Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye (June
29th, 1679), by which he agreed to restore to the Swedes all his conquests,
retaining, however, the district which they had possessed beyond the Oder,
except the towns of Damm and Golnow; the latter to be redeemed by the Swedes for
50,000 rix-dollars. By a secret article, Louis XIV promised to give the
Elector 300,000 crowns, as compensation for the damage he had suffered from the
occupation of the French troops, if the Elector consented to renew their
ancient alliance.
Christian V,
relying on an article in the treaty between the Dukes of Lüneburg and France, by which the Dukes had stipulated that no troops were to march
through their dominions, had at first thought of continuing the war; but a
French division under the Duke of Joyeuse having, in spite of this
engagement, entered the Danish counties of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst, Christian
hastened to sign the Treaty of Fontainebleau, September 2nd, 1679. Christian
engaged to restore all his conquests to Sweden, and to reinstate the Duke of
Holstein-Gottorp in his sovereignty, according to the
Treaties of Roskild and Copenhagen. But an
obscurity in the wording of this last article subsequently gave occasion to new
disputes. This Peace was soon followed by that of Lunden,
between Denmark and Sweden (September 26th). Sweden recovered all that she had
lost; and, on the 7th of October, the two Powers signed a defensive alliance
for a term of ten years. Thus Sweden, through the aid of France, concluded,
without any loss of territory, a war which had threatened her with
dismemberment. Her losses, nevertheless, both moral and material, were very
considerable. Her military glory, acquired by the victories of Gustavus
Adolphus and Charles X, had been entirely eclipsed; her finances were
exhausted, her navy almost ruined; and it had been demonstrated that, without
the help of France, she was scarcely a match for the other Northern Powers.
The peace was
immediately followed by a revolution in the Swedish Government. The exhausted
state of the finances required a reform in the administration, which was loudly
demanded by all classes of the nation, the nobility alone excepted, who
enriched themselves out of the public revenue. Charles XI, moreover, was
desirous of relieving himself from dependence on French subsidies; and in these
views he was encouraged by Benedict Oxenstiern,
who had had some violent altercations with the French Minister, Colbert
de Croissy, and had conceived in consequence a
strong hatred of France. Charles now dismissed the Chancellor, Count Magnus de
la Gardie, the head of the French party, and gave his office to Oxenstiern. At the same time he removed other ministers
whom he suspected of being more devoted to the Council of State than to
himself. A Diet having been assembled in Stockholm (1680), the chamber of the
nobles was surrounded by soldiers, under pretence of
a guard of honor, and the three lower estates—the clergy, the peasants, and
the burgherclass—passed a resolution investing
the King with absolute power. It was declared that he was bound by no form of
government; that he was responsible to nobody for the measures he might adopt;
and he was even empowered to direct and regulate the constitution and form of
government by his Testament. As the army was entirely devoted to Charles, the nobles
found themselves compelled to accept this constitution. In another Diet
assembled in October, 1682, a decree was issued that all ministers of finance
during the King's minority should make good the losses which the kingdom had
suffered in that period. The five high offices of state were no longer filled
up; the Council of State was converted into a Royal Council, nominated by and
dependent on the King. A Commission was appointed to inquire into the
administration of the Crown lands since the year 1632; and all donations, as
well as all Crown leases, were revoked, the holders of the latter being
reimbursed the sums which they had actually paid. This measure was called the
"Reduction". The province of Livonia was the chief sufferer by it,
where nearly five-sixths of the whole landed estates of the province were
adjudged to the Crown. This unjust and violent measure, which deprived a great
number of families of their patrimony, was further aggravated by the imposition
of a tax amounting to a fourth part of the revenues of the nobles. A deputation
from Livonia having warmly protested at Stockholm against these proceedings,
and having resorted to steps offensive to the Court, was criminally indicted
and condemned to death as rebels (1694). This penalty was commuted as regards
three of the deputies, for perpetual imprisonment; the fourth, John
Reinhold Patkul, having escaped into Poland,
entered the service of Augustus II, and became the principal instigator of that
league against Sweden which we shall have to relate in a subsequent chapter.
During the latter
part of his reign, which lasted till 1697, Charles XI remained at peace, and
employed himself in restoring the army and navy, in improving the finances, and
accumulating a treasure; which enabled his son and successor, Charles XII,
again to assert for a short period the supremacy of the Swedish arms. Although
the measures of Charles XI were often tyrannical, they were designed for the
public good : he and his family lived in a simple manner, and the large sums
which he wrung from the people were applied for their benefit. The regulations
which he adopted concerning the army rendered it a national institution. Every
nobleman who had an income of from 500 to 580 marks, was bound to provide a
soldier; if his income was double that sum, two soldiers, and so on, in the
same ratio. The peasant, or several peasants together, were in like manner
bound to provide a man, whom they employed and kept, the King only finding his
horse. The soldiers thus provided were exercised twice a year; and in this
manner was formed, from the pith of the nation, the army which performed such
wonders under Charles XII.
Christian V of
Denmark reigned till 1699, when he was succeeded by his son, Frederick IV.
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