End of the Line
1631
The work facing King Christian I is overwhelming: the Estates-General of Saxony and the Estates of Bohemia both present the new king with lengthy lists of requests, mostly focused on resettling peasants, clearing roads, rebuilding bridges and public buildings, and restoring commerce. Chancellor Grotius also pleads with the King to abolish serfdom in Bohemia and move to a system of rents. In addition, Christian I faces vital choices with respect to the disposition of lands: though many estates were distributed over the course of the war to deserving generals and other officers, as well as suppliers of military necessities and financiers of the war as compensation, the Catholic exodus from Bohemia, the seizure of ecclesiastical lands in northwestern Germany and the liquidation of Brandenburg all mean that vast estates have yet to be distributed. In doling out these lands, Christian has to maintain a delicate balance between rewarding those who in some cases have fought and sacrificed extensively during the conflict and using the sale of the new territories as a means of securing new wealth for his empty treasury. In addition, he faces the difficulties of a ruler who has spent a total of two years in the past twelve altogether in his capital: endless backlogged administrative tasks, family business and diplomatic contacts prove distracting and burdensome.
In the distribution of lands, Christian gives the former Archbishopric of Bremen to his general the Duke Christian of Lower Saxony, who is in fact disappointed not to have received far more. Eleonore, in recognition of her service, receives the former estates of the Electors of Brandenburg, and she is made the Duchess of Brandenburg. Count Thurn is made the Duke of Brno. In warm recognition of the labors and sacrifice of his uncle Albert the Duke of Saxony, Albert’s sons John, Frederick and Augustus are made the Dukes of Pilsen, Budovice and Most. Frederick, Christian’s brother, is made Duke of Munster in the far west. Much other land is sold, with all soldiers who served during the war receiving discounts from the Elector of ten percent per each year they were in the army, with some 900 men who served the entirety of the war getting entire abandoned farms for free.
Recognizing Spain is the largest combatant from the War to have not ratified the Treaty of Paris, Christian I senses an opportunity: if he can deal the Spanish a decisive defeat in the Netherlands, he can not only win freedom for his Dutch allies but remove the Spanish threat from his western frontier and possibly win additional territory. Chancellor Grotius counsels against provoking Spain and urges Christian to instead consolidate the gains of the previous twelve years. The Duchess Eleonore presents her own plan for the elimination of Spain from the Netherlands: first, Christian I offers to help the Dutch finally dispatch the Spanish on the condition that the Wettin kinsman and ally William the Bastard is made King of the Netherlands; second, Eleonore makes a second visit to France to enlist the French in the expulsion of the Spanish from the entirety of the Netherlands in exchange for the same partition of its territory she proposed eleven years prior, with Louis XIII taking the Catholic lands in the south; third, Christian I invades with the bulk of the Saxon army, leaving Frederick in Prague to guard against the Austrian Habsburgs and Christian of Lower Saxony in Brandenburg to guard against Poland or Sweden. Even though he is a Dutch patriot who desires to see the Spanish defeated, Grotius fears a reinvigorated war in the Netherlands will undo his work. Disgusted, he resigns in protest.
Though it will take months for all the provinces to respond individually to Christian I’s offer and ratify his proposal by electing William the Bastard King, the early answers are enthusiastic because of the Dutch belief that a sizeable Saxon army in addition to the English force fighting in the Netherlands will mean a speedy end to their long war for independence. Organizing the Army of Luther once more, Christian I leaves Wittenberg amid lavish celebrations, wearing a specially made suit of thinly wrought and purely decorative golden armor.
On a French ship, the Electress Eleonore (as she is still commonly known despite her new official title) departs. With her she takes, at the request of King Christian, Queen Elizabeth. Even though there is no love lost between Elizabeth and Eleonore, Eleonore’s lack of charm is somewhat famous, and famously served her poorly on her previous visit to the French court. By contrast, the beautiful and vivacious Elizabeth, perhaps the most voluminous and witty letter-writer in Europe, is on good terms with Louis XIII’s sister, Henriette Marie, who is married to her brother Henry the King of Scotland. Elizabeth has already parlayed that friendship into written correspondence with Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu in years past. Moreover, as a rare double queen, Elizabeth’s visit will be a grand event at the French court that will allow her to play the generosity of her hosts to Saxony’s advantage. On the negative side, Louis XIII’s queen is Anne of Austria, niece of the slain Emperor Ferdinand II, who has publicly referred to Elizabeth’s husband Christian as Ferdinand’s murderer.
Before the arrival of Christian I, William the Bastard defeats the Spanish at Maastricht and once again the Dutch take the city. It is there that Christian and the Saxon army of 17,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry meets the Dutch army led by William. Together, the two generals march on Ghent in an effort to force the Spanish from Flanders once and for all.
In Paris, Elizabeth’s wildly enthusiastic reception at the French court yields Eleonore the prize the two of them went there seeking: Cardinal Richelieu informs Eleonore that though he cannot act militarily against Spain in support of the Dutch rebels without alienating the Pope and making France into an outcast within Catholic Europe, he can provide a substantial allowance to Saxony to pursue its war in the Netherlands, with the understanding that at the end of the war France will receive all of the lands of the Union of Arras, as well as Luxemburg. Richelieu does not realize that because of a historical claim by the Hohenzollern dynasty of Brandenburg on Luxemburg last asserted by the Elector John George (the grandfather of her husband), Eleonore had pinned her hopes on her Hohenzollern children inheriting the Duchy following the expulsion of the Habsburgs. Richelieu also promises he will provide assistance in keeping closed the Valtellina, the sole route by which the Spanish Habsburgs can move men, supplies and currency from the Mediteranean to the Low Countries.
At Ghent, in a surprise night-time attack Spanish-paid soldiers sneak into the Saxon camp, overwhelm the guard and kill King Christian I in his tent. Under his brother Frederick, the army persists in its effort and defeats the Spanish after a six-week siege. Christian’s body is sent home to Saxony.
Word reaches Elizabeth in Paris of her husband’s fate. Immensely distraught, she returns to Saxony immediately.
Frederick Henry, the fifteen year old son of Christian, inherits the throne of Saxony. Plans begin for his coronation in Wittenberg and for the necessary elections in Prague and the other capitals of the elective principalities.
As a postscript to the year’s crises, Hermann Gross, the Elector’s handpicked Head of the Lutheran Church, dies after over thirty years of undistinguished service in the position. Gross has presided over the decline of Lutheranism before the advance of Calvinistic, Servetian, Flacist, Unitarian, Utraquist and other churches in Germany, and had maintained an absolutely servile relationship to the Electors of Saxony that had helped guarantee his power. With other players in Wittenberg focused on handling external crises, Grotius secures the Elector’s nomination of Karl Pichtel, a professor of theology and law at Wittenberg who has expressed sympathy for Grotius’s written works. Partly on the strength of Grotius’s prestige and the fervor of his recommendation, the Lutheran Church elects Pichtel as its Head. Though Grotius is himself not Lutheran, he is renowned among Saxons as “The Father of Peace.”
Dorothea Maria of Anhalt, the widow of King Christian I’s father Duke John of Saxony and since the previous year the Queen Mother of Saxony, dies within weeks after learning of her son’s death, adding to Saxony’s intense grief.
1632
King Frederick I of Saxony and Bohemia (1631-1676)
Frederick Henry is crowned King Frederick I of Saxony. Owing to the immense tragedy by which the young prince has come to the throne, Frederick I faces no challenge to his election as the King of Bohemia. The Bohemian estates somberly elect him unanimously. This is followed by elections of the estates in Breslau, Brno and finally Bautzen, in Lusatia. Everywhere the young king goes in the elective principalities he is met by well-wishers and demonstrations of public grief, especially by the Protestants who served under Christian I.
After the lengthy series of elections, coronations, blessings and other appearances are finally completed, the Wettins gather in the Alexandrine Palace at Elster to decide the matter of government. The will of King Christian somewhat shockingly specifies that Elizabeth—not Grotius or Eleonore— is to be regent for Frederick. The matter is somewhat complicated by the request by the Estates General—believed unseemly by the Wettins—that Grotius be regent, in recognition of the rationality and steadiness he brought to the Electorate under his prior chancellorships. Elizabeth responds by asking Grotius to be co-regent and chancellor, which he accepts. Finally, sensing that the Duchess of Brandenburg’s hostility to the new order could be its undoing, Elizabeth asks Eleonore also to join in what will be known as the Third Triumvirate, ruling Saxony and Greater Bohemia until Frederick reaches his majority in 1636.
The news of Christian I’s death after a rule of barely fifteen months has barely sunk in when word arrives in Wittenberg that the aged Sigismund III Vasa of Poland has died. Originally helped to the throne by the Elector Alexander to prevent the Habsburgs from adding Poland to their lands, Sigismund III Vasa had steadily become an obstacle to Saxon aims until he invaded at the behest of the Habsburgs to defeat Saxony once and for all, only to be himself defeated and forced to concede the ethnically German and religiously Lutheran duchies of Prussia and Courland and Semigallia.
Eleonore now begins a frantic effort modeled after those of her father to place a Wettin ally on the Polish throne. For this purpose she turns to the Wettins’ closest Catholic ally, her great nephew Frederick Adam the Duke of Teschen. Frederick is of the Piast dynasty that ruled Poland from its founding to the fourteenth century. Frederick is also the grandson of Alexander’s ill-fated choice to rule Poland, the Lutheran Wenceslaus III Adam.
Frederick Adam’s first act is to journey from Teschen to Gniezno to pay his respects to St. Adalbert, the Catholic patron saint of Poland. This display of simultaneous patriotism and Catholic piety, celebrated by pamphleteers in the pay of the Wettins, galvanizes his support. Frederick Adam’s rival for the kingship is Prince Wladyslaw, son of Sigismund III Vasa. Wladyslaw’s candidacy is hurt by the perception of the Polish nobility—Catholic and Protestant alike—that Sigismund III Vasa’s kingship has been an unmitigated disaster that has brought the country close to ruin by involving it in a fruitless lingering conflict over the throne of Sweden, disrupted trade with Germany and left the country surrounded by enemies. In a letter to the Sejm, the young Frederick I promises continued peace with Poland if Frederick Adam becomes king, implicitly promising as well that Saxony’s ally Sweden will end its war against Poland if Frederick Adam is elected. In contrast the Habsburgs, who did so much to support prior candidates for the Polish throne favorable to their interests, now barely muster any effort at all to assist Prince Wladyslaw, disappointed as they were by Poland’s early withdrawal from the war and distracted as they are now by their own internal disarray.
Even as the Sejm prepares to decide the question of the Polish kingship, Gustavus II Augustus launches a new campaign with the goal of completely overrunning Lithuania, this time laying siege to Vilna.
In the Netherlands, Frederick continues to wage the war begun by Christian I: he defeats the Spanish army at Bruges, while William the Bastard mounts a simultaneous siege at Brussels, which the Spanish had lost in 1597 and then retaken in the chaos early in the First General War. Attempting to draw off the Saxons, a Spanish army makes as if it’s about to attack Julich and lays siege to the fortress there, only to instead attack Berg, which is unprepared for the Spanish attack. The Spanish successfully occupy the area.
Elisabeth Wende publishes a cycle of poems on the war, describing the scenes she witnessed fleeing from Halberstadt just ahead of the Polish invasion, and the aftermath when she returned to find her family’s estate burned and their servants killed. Its publication is a milestone in the evolution of German realism.
1633
Frederick Adam the Duke of Teschen is elected King Frederick I Adam of Poland by the Sejm. No sooner is this accomplished and he crowned at Krakow, but the Polish and Saxon ambassadors in Warsaw conclude a treaty of alliance in which Poland and Saxony-Bohemia guarantee each other’s security against all foes, and in which each grandiosely claims to put the other before all other allies. This provision, insisted upon by the Poles, is a direct reference to Gustavus II Adolphus.
Chancellor Grotius then personally travels to Riga, where he meets Gustavus II Adolphus. There he is pleased to find that Gustavus II Adolphus is an enthusiastic admirer of his written works and his accomplishments as chancellor. Grotius then informs Gustavus II Adolphus of the treaty and asks him to end his war against Poland in order to secure peace between Sweden, Poland and Saxony-Bohemia. He even holds out the promise of Saxon assistance in a Swedish-Polish alliance against Russia that he hopes will divert Gustavus’ energies eastward. Not only does Gustavus II Adolphus refuse, he takes insult that Saxony has apparently abrogated its prior alliance with him by courting the enemy, Poland, that he had saved Saxony from.
The answer Grotius thus takes back with him to Wittenberg is a declaration of war by Gustavus II Adolphus against Saxony-Bohemia, one that moreover Gustavus II Adolphus had delivered citing as justification relevant passages—evidently memorized—from Grotius’ De jure belli ac pacis libri tres. Swedish forces begin attacking those of the Dukes of Prussia and Courland, seeking to occupy both countries outright.
No sooner does word spread of Sweden’s declaration of war against Saxony, but that Ferdinand orders Wallenstein to begin mobilizing the Austrian Habsburgs’ army for a renewed war to recover Bohemia, abrogating the 1630 Treaty of Paris.
Unprepared for a large siege and with many of its normal garrison in the Netherlands, Julich falls to the Spanish.
Moreover, a fourth menace presents itself when Duke Christian of Lower Saxony, always the wild adventurer, and now dissatisfied with what he thinks of as the meager payment for his services in conquering northwestern Germany for the Saxons, launches a rebellion in his homeland of Brunswick.
At Wittenberg, the Third Triumvirate find themselves ruling Saxony in its direst circumstances since the Polish invasion. The situation is made worse when England announces it will not intervene in a war between two Protestant states. Dividing their responsibilities to meet the crisis, Hugo Grotius is given the task of organizing the military and the Protestant German allies; Eleonore is made ambassador to Poland and essentially is given the portfolio for managing the ground war against Sweden; and Elizabeth, the granddaughter of a king of Denmark and niece of the current king, accepts the job of luring that nation into an alliance against Sweden.
Elizabeth gets the opportunity to do just that at the wedding of her son, the young Frederick I, to the Danish Princess Sophia in Wittenberg. With King Christian IV of Denmark in attendance, Grotius, Eleonore and Elizabeth engage him in negotiations. Despite Christian IV’s efforts to secure territorial concessions from Saxony, the three hold him to the notion that the benefits of the alliance to him include whatever he manages to win from Saxony. Thus, Saxony-Bohemia and Denmark sign the Treaty of Wittenberg.
Heinrich Legell, having served as an officer in the Saxon army since he marched with Christian I to be crowned in Prague, and having risen steadily through the ranks because of skill despite his low birth, and having been given a string of commands in the later stages of the Bohemian war technically “under” inexperienced members of the Wettin family but nonetheless possessing actual command authority and answerable only to the Elector, is now appointed by Grotius General of the Army of Luther, the most prestigious military assignment in the kingdom. His task is first to drive the Spanish from the west, while Frederick the Duke of Munster continues to fight in the Netherlands.
Second, Grotius appoints John, the young but talented eldest son of the deceased Duke Albert of Saxony, General of the Bohemian Army, now called the Army of Huss. Augustus is tasked with aiding the King of Poland and the Dukes of Prussia and Courland against Sweden.
The third appointment goes to Karl von Dieskau, a member of the low nobility who had first shown himself proficient in his heroic comportment in the battles of Dessau and Juterbog. He is tasked with defeating Christian of Lower Saxony.
All three generals receive only 12,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry, since the bulk of the Saxon army is still in the Netherlands.
In the north, Gustavus II Adolphus’s forces kill Duke William of Prussia in battle at Insterburg, laying siege to the last defenders of the Duchy at Konigsberg. In Courland and Semigallia, the results are similar, as the army in Courland is routed at Mitau. Pursued by the Swedes to the Baltic sea, the co-ruling Dukes William and Frederick Kettler make their last stand at Libau.
The death of Duke William of Prussia—who is without heirs—leaves his line extinct. Technically his closest relations would be either the Hohenzollerns or the Wettins, but the Swedish occupation for the time being renders a succession crisis moot.
In Poland, Prince Wladyslaw leads a revolt among the adherents of the Vasas, exploiting the belief that Frederick Adam is secretly a Protestant chosen to bring the Reformation to Poland.
Alexander, the youngest son Duke John and thus uncle to the current king, marries Anna, the youngest sister of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, whose marriage has long been delayed by the war and the deaths of previous suitors.
Frederick I of England dies.
1634
In Courland, Mitau falls to Gustavus II Adolphus, who loans the ducal brothers William and Jacob a ship with which to leave Courland with their families, supposedly never to return. By winter’s end, his conquest of Prussia and Courland and Semigallia is complete.
Frederick I Adam’s efforts to lead the relief of besieged Vilna fail, and the town falls to Gustavus II Adolphus. In a moment of extraordinary irony, Prince Wladyslaw’s army, which had marched north to intercept Frederick I Adam as he was campaigning against Gustavus II Adolphus, instead runs headlong into the army of Gustavus II Adolphus as Frederick I Adam retreats in another direction. Hence, Catholic rebel involuntarily collides with Lutheran invader. The defeat Gustavus II Adolphus metes out to Wladyslaw at Troki seriously diminishes the strength of the rebellion.
Duke Christian of Lower Saxony, now styling himself King Christian of Brunswick, defeats a Saxon garrison at Lauenburg, seizes Hamburg after threatening to kill every man, woman and child inside the city, and begins marching south toward Madgeburg and Wittenberg. He sends his demands forward to Wittenberg: he seeks the recognition of his independent rule of his family’s ancestral lands in Brunswick, along with the entirety of the ecclesiastical lands taken in the northwest during the war against the Catholics. He also demands the hand of the Queen Mother Elizabeth in marriage. Karl von Dieskau, General of the Army of Melanchthon, crushes Christian’s army at Stendal, capturing Christian. Stripped of his titles and lands, he is put to death after a perfunctory trial, as the substantial fortune accumulated by his grandfather and father is confiscated by the King. Thus the Welf line of Dukes in Brunswick and Lower Saxony is extinguished.
Frederick the Duke of Munster is killed by the Spanish in the Battle of the Scheldt, though the battle is won by the Dutch and Saxons, and the Spanish army in Flanders is almost liquidated in the day’s fighting. His death creates a dynastic bottleneck for the Wettins: of the five sons of Duke John, only one survives, Alexander the uncle to the King. Of the two sons of King Christian I, one is King Frederick I and the other is his brother Edward.
Several days later, William the Bastard takes the town of Limburg following a brief siege.
Leading the Saxon army west, the commoner general Heinrich Legell meets the Spanish army at Gelsenkirchen, which is also a decisive victory, as it becomes apparent the favored Spanish arrangement of battlefield forces, the Tercio, has now been superseded due to the use of more, and more efficient, firearms, as well as smaller and more maneuverable cannons.
John, Duke of Pilsen, leads the Army of Huss north into Poland, with his immediate goal the liberation of Prussia.
With the entirety of the Saxon military occupied elsewhere, Ferdinand III the Holy Roman Emperor invades Bohemia in an effort to quickly recover his father’s lost kingdom. Budovice falls quickly with the assistance of local Catholics, and it’s only due to a haphazard resistance organized by Duke Thurn and Duke Frederick that Prague does not fall to the Habsburgs, but holds firm as the Habsburg army led by Wallenstein commences a winter siege.
Karl von Dieskau, the one general appointed by Grotius to have completely dispatched his enemy, moves as quickly as possible to relieve Prague. Grotius orders the Army of Huss to continue on to Prussia to face the Swedes.
The success of Legell and von Dieskau leads Grotius to ponder the benefits of a meritocratic system of advancement in the military irrespective of nobility.
Prince Edward the younger brother of King Frederick I marries the Princess Elizabeth of Denmark.
Improbably, considering Anna’s age, she bears Alexander a son, whom they name Christian after King Christian I and her kinsman, Christian IV of Denmark.
1635
Bavaria informs Saxony that it will honor the Treaty of Paris and the prior Treaty of Passau and neither directly nor indirectly aid the Habsburgs in their effort to recover Bohemia, a decision which earns them a warm message of thanks from Chancellor Grotius.
Legell drives the Spanish army west across the Rhine, defeating it at Heimbach, and then cutting off its line of retreat to Luxemburg at Aachen. Wheeling north, he then expels the Spanish from the fortress of Julich, restoring the strategically crucial placements on the Rhine to Saxony.
The army formerly under the Duke of Munster, now under Johann von Quetz, marches to meet Legell’s forces at Aachen, with the goal of then proceeding to Luxemburg.
Von Dieskau recruits soldiers, many of them recently retired, as he travels south toward Prague. By the time he reaches the borders of Bohemia his army has swelled to more than 30,000.
In the meantime, Prague once again falls and the young Duke Frederick of Budovice is taken prisoner. Although Ferdinand and Wallenstein’s intent is to ransom him to the Saxons, his jailers remember the treatment of the Emperor Ferdinand II in similar conditions, and kill him by hanging him on the inside from the bars of his cell’s window, using a team of horses. Astonished by their cruelty, Ferdinand III orders them put to death, and sends an honor guard north to hand over the body to the Saxons with great courtesy.
Greatly affected by the news of the Duke of Budovice’s death, Von Dieskau arrives in Bohemia. He smashes Wallenstein’s smaller force at Neratovice and advances on Prague.
As devastating as the news is of the death of the King’s cousin the Duke of Budovice, the Saxon court is immeasurably cheered by the news of the Austrians’ defeat at Neratovice.
Gustavus II Adolphus sends word to Eleonore in Warsaw by means of a French diplomat that he is willing to consider a peace in which Saxony would recognize Swedish sovereignty over Prussia and Courland and Semigallia and cease its assistance of Poland. In return, Saxony could participate with Russia and Sweden in a partition of Poland and Lithuania. Eleonore’s response is to turn the correspondence over to King Frederick I Adam and the Sejm as evidence of Swedish duplicity and Saxony-Bohemia’s faithfulness to its allies. Offered the unusual privilege of addressing the Sejm on the occasion, she delivers a stirring address to the Sejm, and is vociferously applauded.
Prodded by Eleonore, King Frederick I orders the annexation of the free imperial city of Hamburg to prevent its seizure by enemy powers, ostensibly Sweden, but more likely Denmark. The city is taken without substantial violence.
Prague falls to von Dieskau, as the Austrian Habsburgs’ army mutinies in their own retreat against Wallenstein, as Ferdinand III runs out of money to pay soldiers.
Christopher Bathory, again with the assistance of a substantial allowance from Saxony, marches west toward Vienna, defeating the Habsburg defensive force left to guard against him at Sobron.
After delaying their entry into the war a good while, the Danes begin naval engagements with the Swedes in the Baltic that seriously damage the ability of the Swedes to prosecute their war on the other side of the sea. A Swedish counterattack in Scania is defeated at Malmo.
King Frederick I Adam of Poland corners and defeats Prince Wladyslaw at Sandomierz, capturing him and ending his revolt.
The first engagement of the Army of Huss and the Swedes in Poland ends in a draw at Plock.
Alexander and Anna have their second son, whom they name Charles after the King of England.
Finally, after the approval of the last province of the Dutch Republic, William the Bastard is crowned—not in a cathedral or a palace but in his camp surrounded by his soldiers, King William I of the Netherlands.
1636
Off the Danish island of Gotland, the Saxon, Dutch and Danish navies deal a crushing defeat to the Swedes that shifts the balance of power decisively in the Baltic.
The Triumvirate meets in Wittenberg before the start of marching season, with the tone of the various reports generally hopeful as to imminent victory. The one significant disruption comes when the young king in a visit to the Estates-General asks Grotius—coldly and in public--why he is forced to continue to be the vassal of his father’s enemies and killers, the Habsburgs. Grotius’s answer--given later in private--is that, matter-of-factly, Frederick’s father gave his word he would recognize the Habsburg emperor and that to renounce that agreement now would be dishonorable. This earns Grotius nothing more than a cold stare. Increasingly, as demonstrate in this and other incidents, Frederick I refuses to accept Chancellor Grotius’s course of conciliation. Apparently, considering the failure of the peace agreements to forestall the Swedish, Austrian or Spanish invasions, the opinion of the public now sides with him.
The former army of the Duke of Munster, now under Johann von Quetz and fighting alongside the forces of William the Bastard, inflicts bruising defeats on the Spanish at Cuesmes and Mechelen.
Simultaneously, Heinrich Legell lays siege to and after three months seizes the city of Liege, which had been a major base for the Spanish despite being nominally an ecclesiastical city. Outraged, ecclesiastical princes begin petitioning the imperial courts to determine if this counts as a violation of the terms of the Treaty of Paris, until it is realized by some of the bishops that as of now there is so little threat for them to call on against the Saxons that the end of the treaty would have the primary effect of allowing the Saxons and other Protestant states to simply annex them at will.
The armies of William and Legell march to Namur from the west and the north where they merge and attempt to cross the Meuse together. The Spanish muster the remainder of their forces for a final counterattack, and defeat the combined army, preventing it from passing to the east and prosecuting the promised offensive against Luxemburg.
Cardinal Richelieu writes to Pope Urban VIII and proposes he has negotiated a compromise with the Dutch by which the people of the southern Netherlands can stay under Catholic rule, but it requires the Pope to convince the Spanish to lay down their arms in the Netherlands and trade their territories there to France. Urban VIII is skeptical at such a plan, and the Spanish Habsburgs when they discover it and realize the depth to which Richelieu has been conspiring with the Saxons and Dutch, are livid.
The Evangelical League finally mobilizes after its own extended inactivity at the start of this second phase of the war, and under the young Elector Frederick VI of the Palatinate it begins gatherings its own army in Heidelberg to attack Luxemburg from the east.
The Army of Huss under Duke John of Pilsen invades Prussia, suffering a narrow defeat by the Swedes at Johannisburg.
Frederick I Adam manages to inflict a substantial defeat on the Swedes at Kaunas, their first since they invaded Poland.
Von Dieskau, having repulsed the Austrian Habsburgs from Bohemia, is given the brief punishing the Habsburgs one final time by helping Christopher Bathory secure the Hungarian throne before returning north to fend off Sweden. Christopher himself defeats the Habsburgs at Trnava, which frees him to march on Vienna.
1637
With Grotius’s direction Kings Frederick I of Saxony, Frederick I Adam of Poland and Christian IV of Denmark issue a joint statement to the effect that they are willing to make peace with Sweden recognizing the country’s borders as of its 1626 invasion of Poland. The idea is laughed at by Gustavus II Adolphus.
Yet another crisis erupts in the Baltic when Duke Bogislaw XIV of Pomerania dies. He has willed his lands to his wife the Duchess Dorothea, eldest daughter of Duke Albert of Saxony. However, Gustavus II Adolphus has designs on the duchy, and begins organizing forces to both seize it by sea and to attack overland from Prussia.
Von Dieskau defeats Wallenstein at Stockerau, opening Vienna to attack from the north. Simultaneously, Christopher Bathory defeats the Habsburg army in the east at Eisenstadt. Ferdinand III, understanding that he does not have the resources to withstand a siege at Vienna, or the expectation of the arrival of fresh allies, sues for peace.
The terms von Dieskau and Bathory impose include nothing less than the recognition of the independence of a united Kingdom of Hungary stretching from the Austrian border through Transylvania.
Satisfied that the Habsburgs no longer have the ability to launch another invasion of Bohemia, von Dieskau without even waiting for instructions from Wittenberg begins marching north toward Poland.
When the news of the Peace of Vienna reaches Rome, Pope Urban VIII realizes the extent to which the Habsburgs are in full-scale military eclipse across Europe at the hands of the Protestant armies. He thus reverses himself on Richelieu’s proposed Belgic Plan and takes the extraordinary step of writing the Kings of the Netherlands and Saxony-Bohemia directly, proposing a partition of the former Spanish Netherlands between the new Dutch Kingdom and France. The reversal enrages Spain, as Philip IV’s favorite Olivares accuses France of conspiring with heretics to enlarge itself at the expense of fellow Catholics, a charge which is of course true.
The problem becomes in the discussions over the Netherlands the difficulty of finding a suitable boundary for the partition, which in the minds of the principals would include the division of the lands of the Archbishopric of Liege.
Finally the Spanish, by no means ready to recognize the independence of the new Kingdom of the Netherlands or to give up their remaining territories in the Low Countries, understand that without a truce Luxemburg will fall and their remaining foothold in the Netherlands will be lost for good. Therefore, they assent to the recommendations of Pope Urban and Cardinal Richelieu and agree to a peace conference to be held at Nancy, in Lorraine, the next year. It’s also hoped this truce will tie down General Legell and the Army of Luther for an extended period of time, until the tide of the war changes on the other fronts.
In Poland, Duke John of Pilsen manages to defeat a Swedish army at Chelmno, endangering Swedish-occupied Terun.
King Frederick I Adam turns back a Swedish attack on Vitebsk, as it begins to become apparent that for all their superior training and preparedness, the Swedish forces are being stretched thin and their resources exhausted.
The Princess Anna, oldest child of the deceased King Christian I of Saxony, is betrothed to Prince Henry, the second son of Frederick I and brother to the current king of England, Charles I.
Adolph von Loss, a natural philosopher who is serving as an officer in the Army of Luther, by careful application of Hartmann’s statistical method of medical research, discovers that cleaning wounds with water and washing hands before cleaning wounds results in better outcomes for the patients. His method is quickly adopted by other physicians in the Army of Luther, and eventually all the Saxon armies. He is rewarded with a lifetime stipend from the king.
1638
Sweden invades Pomerania by sea at Stralsund and by land by through Pomerelia, crossing the Vistula south of Danzig. The possibility of a Swedish invasion of Saxony itself spreads panic through the Kingdom.
This turn of events proves to be enough for England to come to the assistance of its ally Saxony, and King Charles I, a veteran of the war under Philip Sidney the Duke of Kent announces he will personally lead the English army being sent to Germany to provide assistance.
Unexpectedly, the Swedish army turns south into Mecklenberg-Schwerin, as the Swedish invasion reveals itself as an attempt to knock Saxony out of the war even more quickly than believed by attacking its heartland without even bothering to secure Pomerania. It’s thought that Gustavus II Adolphus may not have planned the strategy from the beginning but is moving more aggressively to secure a victory before the Saxons finish with the Spanish and shift the bulk of their army north to face him. Mecklenburg’s own army is defeated easily at Gustrow.
Grotius wins a diplomatic victory with respect to England when Charles I—before his departure for Hamburg with his soldiers—agrees to participate in the conference at Nancy by representative, and to include in a potential peace treaty an agreement ending the war between England and Spain. This would present a substantial inducement to Spain to make peace because of the losses its shipping has been suffering at the hands of the English.
Because of the urgency of the attack on Saxony from Sweden, Legell and the Army of Luther departs for Wittenberg, leaving behind the rump of the former army of the Duke of Munster to assist the Dutch should the Spanish break the truce.
At Nancy, diplomatic representatives of Spain, England, France, Saxony, the Netherlands and the Papacy gather to discuss a peace agreement with respect to the Netherlands. Spain engages in delaying tactics and obfuscation, attempting to frustrate the conference while protracting the truce long enough for it to regroup or for Saxony to collapse before the invasion of Gustavus II Adolphus. France announces it will recognize the Netherlands in return for the lands of the League of Arras, Cambrai, and Namur. In a bit of a double-cross of his prior agreements with the Saxons and the Dutch, Richelieu announces he will support continued Spanish rule in Luxemburg and the undivided maintenance of the Archbishopric of Liege, which he thinks is necessary to keep the Spanish from rejecting a peace treaty completely. In this provision he is of course supported by the Spanish and the Papacy. It then falls to Grotius to accept this state of affairs, which would allow the Dutch to leave the war with Brabant and Flanders, provided that Spain accepts the independence of the Dutch and ceases all violence toward them. To this England adds the requirement that the Spanish recognize its overseas conquests at the expense of Spain since the war began. Grotius, there in person, exercises his influence to pull William the Bastard into agreement. The papacy, thinking this is the best solution to keeping as much of the Netherlands as possible within the Catholic Church, gives its assent. Only the Spanish delay, hoping for a Swedish victory in the north that will change the course of the war.
The Danes send an army from Schleswig-Holstein to help defend Pomerania and Mecklenburg. Its presence strengthens Schwerin and likely heads off a Swedish attack on that town. Instead, the Swedish face off against the remainder of the Mecklenburg army and a small Saxon defensive force at Ludwigslust, with the Swedes winning.
Von Dieskau stops the advance of the Swedish overland invasion of Pomerania at Stettin in a hard-fought and close victory.
Sweden invades Saxon-held Brandenburg at Eldenburg, defeating another small defensive force that is essentially trying to delay the Swedish advance for as long as possible before Legell arrives with the Army of Luther.
In the Battle of Havelberg, Legell meets the advance of the Swedish forces, out-numbering them two to one even despite his having left soldiers behind in the Netherlands. Gustavus II Adolphus’s nightmare, that the Saxons would defeat the Spanish in the Netherlands in time to attack his forces with all their might, has come to pass. The Swedish army is overwhelmingly defeated, and combined with the defeat at Stettin puts his whole war plan into jeopardy. Prince Edward, the second son of King Christian I of Saxony, dies in the battle.
The news reaches Nancy of the Battle of Havelberg, crushing Spanish hopes. Reluctantly, they agree to the humiliating peace treaty, by which they cede all of the Netherlands but for the Duchy of Luxemburg. France wins the territory of Namur and the Union of Arras, which gives it Lille, Tournai, Cambrai and Mons. The Archbishopric of Liege remains intact, and is intended to serve as a zone free of all foreign armies that will separate the French and Dutch lands in the Netherlands from Luxemburg, which the Spanish keep. Limburg goes to the Dutch, in addition to their acquisition of Flanders and Brabant. And finally, Aachen—with all its symbolic importance— goes to Saxony. The treaty purports not to decide the matters of any other conflict other than that of the Netherlands, and so expressly excludes questions of the politics of the Holy Roman Empire, the Swedish conflict, or Hungary.
With the treaty signed, Grotius returns to Saxony and presents it to King Frederick I, who has for two years technically been in his majority but who has declined to assert his rule because of the protestations of the triumvirate that the burdens of the current crisis are too much for an inexperienced young king. However, he now formally asserts his rule over Saxony-Bohemia and dismisses the regent-triumvirs, though all three intend to retain formidable influence at court. In the first official act of his sole rule, he ratifies the Treaty of Nancy. In his second, he ends the Holy Roman Empire.
Officially, in the Edict of Dissolution Frederick I secedes from the Empire, renounces his two votes in the election of Emperors, forswears Saxony-Bohemia’s representation in the Imperial Diet, and declares all measures passed by the Diet or decrees issued by any Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire to be a nullity within the lands he rules, either as King of Saxony or as King of Bohemia. Grotius had suppressed the King’s desire to issue such a decree for almost a full year prior, creating hard feelings between the King on one side and the regent-chancellor-triumvir on the other. Even Eleonore had counseled against the rashness of the decision, preferring instead to take control of the Empire following the death of Ferdinand III, whenever that happens. Only the Queen Mother Elizabeth had resolutely supported Frederick I in his desire to sunder the empire that he feels has killed his father and grandfather.
Once again, Grotius resigns, even on the heels of his greatest diplomatic triumph. Panic reigns in the Estates-General—over the fresh destabilization of German affairs, over the resignation of Grotius, and over fears that the new King is unready for the tasks before him—and neither the Electress Eleonore nor the Queen Mother can quiet the spreading sense of disorder.
From Vienna, the response of the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand III is surprisingly conciliatory. He admits his wrong in breaking the Treaty of Paris, promises complete religious freedom to the German princes, and even suggests he is open to compromise on the issue of the ecclesiastical lands, provided Saxony turns from its course and recognizes his rule and the imperial constitution. The perfunctory response he receives is addressed to him as the Archduke of Styria.
In letters to the nobility of Mecklenburg, Wurttemburg, Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Darmstadt, Hesse-Wurzburg, Baden, the Palatinate, Anhalt, Nassau, East Frisia, Mecklenburg, Oldenburg, Lippe, East Frisia, and all other Protestant German princes remaining, Frederick I invites them to a conference to be held at Wurzburg for the creation of a new Protestant German empire. Though the impulse to dissolve the old empire was Frederick’s, the plan to forge the new one is Eleonore’s, and the persuasive effort brought to bear in the letters to the German princes, Elizabeth’s.
Leading the English army against the retreating Swedes in Mecklenburg, Charles I suffers a surprise defeat at Dambeck. A month later, he dies of wounds received in the battle, becoming the last sovereign to die in battle in the First General European War.
Alexander and Anna have their third child, whom they name Elizabeth after the Queen Mother.
1639
Enraged at the lack of his own invitation to the Conference of German Protestant princes at Wurzburg, Christian IV complains to King Frederick I by letter. The response he receives is that it is the King’s intention to allow Denmark to rule its possessions that have heretofore been part of the Holy Roman Empire as a sovereign outright. This is explained to Christian as a reward, when in fact it is conceived by the Electress Eleonore as a way of paying him for his assistance without ceding Denmark more territory, and of depriving a foreign sovereign of influence in the new German state.
At Wurzburg in the castle of the former prince-bishops, the great princes of Protestant Germany meet in person. These include Frederick I, King of Saxony and Bohemia, the Elector Frederick VI of the Palatinate, Elector Eberhard III of Wurttemburg, Duke Adolf Frederick of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Duke Frederick III of Holstein-Gottorp, Landgrave William VI of Hesse-Kassel (still in his minority), Landgrave George II of Hesse-Darmstadt, Landgrave Frederick Arthur of Hesse-Wurzburg (the host), Prince Christian II of Anhalt-Bernburg, Prince John Casimir of Anhalt-Dessau, Prince Louis of Anhalt-Kothen, Prince Augustus of Anhalt-Plotzkau, Margrave William of Baden-Baden, Margrave Hermann Fortunatus of Baden-Rodemachern, Count Ulrich II of East Frisia, Count Otto of Lippe-Brake, Count Philipp of Lippe-Alverdissen, Count Simon-Philipp of Lippe-Detmold, the Counts of Nassau-Idstein, Nassau-Saarbrucken, and Nassau-Weilberg, and representatives of the imperial free city of Lubeck. Together, these princes represent the vast majority of Germany’s land and population.
Von Dieskau administers another bruising defeat to the Swedish army at Dramburg, in eastern Pomerania. His victory there is matched by Legell’s at Parchim. Fearing a rout will destroy his military, Gustavus II Adolphus appeals to the Allies of the North—Frederick I of Saxony and Bohemia, Frederick I Adam of Poland, Christian IV of Denmark and now Henry X of England—that they hold a peace conference. Once again, France is proposed as the best place to hold such a conference, but Cardinal Richelieu recommends France’s close ally Scotland be the host.
Frederick’s response is that any truce must be preceded by the withdrawal of Swedish forces from Mecklenburg and Pomerania and the abandonment of any Swedish claims to Pomerania.
In Wurzburg, the assembled princes as a preliminary matter settle the long-festering matter of Brandenburg, allowing Frederick William, the son of the deceased Elector George Frederick, to inherit the Hohenzollern lands in Ansbach as prince.
Frederick I the King of Saxony then presents a constitution to the German princes drafted for the large part by the Electress Eleonore. Drastically simplifying and modernizing the German state from elaborate structure of the Holy Roman Empire, it would permit a single Elector to Anhalt, Ansbach, Hesse, Mecklenburg, Palatinate, Wurttemburg, Baden, Holstein, and Nassau. The Elector of Saxony would receive votes for Saxony, Brandenburg, Brunswick, and Munster, North Rhineland, and the imperial cities of the north (Hamburg, Bremen, and Madgeburg) Thus, with six Saxon Electors and nine non-Saxon Electors, the non-Saxon princes of the Empire could unite and elect a non-Saxon emperor even if one defected. Where multiple states comprise the vote of one elector, such as Hesse, Anhalt, or Nassau, the states involved would caucus before electing an emperor to decide the collective vote by a simple majority. Where that is impossible, either because the votes are evenly divided or the disagreement too great, the individual component states of the Elector could then cast their Electors as fractions, so that for instance each Hessian Landgrave would receive one-third of the vote invested in the Hessian states. Finally, each Electorate would have a territorial boundary and thus would serve as the administrative division of choice of the empire, meaning that the empire would be effectively divided into fifteen electorates, replacing the old imperial circles.
More controversially, all the states too small to be invited to the Conference would be annexed into the larger units represented at Wurzburg, as would be the remaining Catholic ecclesiastical lands, a nod to the insistent desire of Frederick I’s dead father Christian. Somewhat controversially, this will result in the acquisition by Saxony of the various tiny Counties of Lippe (which are completely inscribed within its territory) and the County of East Frisia (which is deemed strategically important as the seacoast adjacent to the Netherlands). The individual nobles of the counties are to be permitted to keep their lands and titles as vassals of the King of Saxony. Bavaria and Austria are not invited to participate, and the electorate principalities ruled by the Saxon king are also outside, as a concession both to their own independence and constitutions and to the history of the Habsburgs’ manipulating internal German politics with their external lands.
Other matters such as an imperial Diet and a court system would be left for later. Hesse-Darmstadt, which had been neutral for much of the Great War and sympathized extensively with the plight of the Habsburg Emperor, casts a vote against forming the empire. However, Mecklenburg, Anhalt, the Palatinate, Wurttemburg, Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Wurzburg and Holstein vote to form the empire along the lines proposed by King Frederick I. Hesse-Darmstadt and Mecklenburg announce they would like to adjourn for a year to consider the matter of the choice for emperor and to allow the war in the north to die down, but once again they find themselves in effect shouted down: Anhalt, Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Wurzburg, Wurttemburg, Palatinate, Holstein and Nassau all vote with the Saxons to create Frederick I Emperor of the new German Empire.
The coronation of Frederick I as Emperor is set for the following year, in Wittenberg. His official title will then be “His Imperial Majesty Frederick I, always August, Emperor of the Germans, King by birth of Saxony, and by election King of Bohemia, Duke of the Upper and Lower Silesia, and of the Upper and Lower Lusatia, Margrave of Moravia, the Supreme Protector of the Church of Martin Luther, Knight of the White Rose, the Heart and the Holy Cross.”
Von Dieskau pursues the Swedish army into East Prussia, landing another blow to them at Marienburg.
The news of the Constitution of Wurzburg reaches Gustavus II Adolphus at Rostock, where he is building fortifications against an expected Saxon onslaught. Dispirited, and fearing he may now face the armies of a united Germany, he agrees to the prior preconditions set for truce terms: the evacuation of his army from Mecklenburg and Pomerania.
The truce however is only operant between Saxony-Bohemia and Sweden, as King Frederick I Adam of Poland lays siege to Vilna.
Anna, sister of King Frederick I, marries Henry X in London four months after his coronation as the King of England.
1640
In one final service to the Emperor, Grotius is the Saxon-Bohemian representative to the Peace Conference of the North, which is held in Edinburgh, Scotland, and mediated by King Henry I. It is attended by representatives of Denmark, Sweden, Saxony-Bohemia, Poland, Mecklenburg, and England. Poland’s demand that its boundaries as of 1618 be recognized by Sweden is rejected out of hand, as is Sweden’s inflammatory counter-demand that Gustavus II Adolphus be recognized as King of Poland (in return for which he offers to return Courland and Prussia to Saxony). These preliminaries over, Grotius proposes that Sweden keep Livonia including its long-held region of Inflanty Polskie. Courland’s return to Saxony then makes sense as a buffer between Polish and Swedish territory. Grotius’s efforts to put Saxony forward as a guarantor of the peace however run aground when Sweden announces that while it may negotiate over Prussia and the territory it has seized in Pomerelia and Lithuania, it has no intention of negotiating away Courland.
At this point Grotius writes to Frederick I for permission to agree to a treaty that would recognize Swedish control over Courland and Semigallia in order to retrieve Prussia. Several weeks later the answer arrives from Wittenberg: under no circumstances. Desperate to find a compromise to end the war, Grotius asks the Swedes for some additional concession: they agree to cede the lip of Polish territory including Marienburg that extends east from the Vistula, otherwise surrounded by Prussia, which is technically speaking actually a concession the Swedes are making on the part of Poland.
The Polish diplomats, needing a treaty even worse than the Saxons or the Swedes and happy to have recovered as much territory from the Swedes as it appears they will, are willing to ratify the concession to Saxony. The Danes for their trouble also get their ancestral lands of the County of Oldenburg, whose count will now be their vassal, as well as the right to build a naval base at Konigsberg. As a result, the Treaty of Edinburgh is signed: Sweden officially annexes Livonia, the Inflanty Polskie, Courland and Semigallia. Saxony recovers Prussia from Sweden, and takes Malborskie from Poland. Poland recovers the Swedish occupied territory in Pomerelia and Lithuania.
Despite what he considers the minor abrogation of the negotiating authority received by Frederick, Grotius returns home certain that the final settlement represented in the Treaty of Edinburgh will be more than satisfactory. He is in fact cheered on his reentry to Wittenberg and feted by the Estates-General as the “great peacemaker, most blessed among men.” However, Frederick I is shocked when he is shown the terms and sees that Courland has been sacrificed to Sweden. He threatens to imprison Grotius and re-start the war, but is only dissuaded from doing so by his mother and the Electress Eleonore, who see the necessity in ending the great cycle of wars that have lasted for over twenty years. Reluctantly, Frederick I signs the Treaty of Edinburgh, but not before commanding that Hugo Grotius never enter his presence or serve his government in any capacity again.
On the occasion of his retirement, Grotius at the insistence of Eleonore and Elizabeth, receives the prestigious title of Duke of Cleves, an estate there near the Netherlands, and a pension for the rest of his life. Additional honorifics are voted him by the Estates General, with whom he is still remarkably popular.
In the gigantic Melanchthonkirch in Elster, Frederick I is crowned Emperor of the Germans and his wife Queen Sophia is crowned Empress. The attendees include the kings Christian IV of Denmark, Frederick I Adam of Poland, William I of the Netherlands, all of the remaining Protestant princes of Germany, and even the aging Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, Saxony’s former blood enemy. All the attendees are honored with banquets and gifts. The overwhelming theme of the occasion is the dawn of a new era for Germany, and the insignia for the event shows the Biblical scene of a sword being beaten into a plowshare.
Emperor Frederick I of Germany (1640-1676)
Several weeks later the Second Conference at Wurzburg commences, with the daunting task of mapping a final territorial disposition for Germany. At Eleonore’s suggestion, Frederick proposes the trade of territories to help consolidate the lands of the German princes: he will take the lands of the former Duchy of Kalenberg from Hesse-Kassel, which will remove an impediment to east-west travel from the Saxon lands of northern Germany. In return, Hesse-Kassel will receive the Upper Palatinate, by Bohemia but close to the lands of Hesse-Wurzburg. And in return for the Upper Palatinate, the Palatinate will receive lands from the Archbishopric of Trier and the Duchy of Bar. These arrangements are quickly approved by the three principals (though not by the Archbishop of Trier). All other ecclesiastical lands are officially liquidated, and boundaries are drawn up generally favoring rule by the nearest Protestant prince.
As a wholly separate matter Frederick I proposes the annexation of Pomerania by Saxony and the incorporation of the Duchy of Prussia directly into Saxony without the investiture of a new Duke from a different German house. This, more than any other issue since the German Protestants began the horse-trading and negotiation with which they’ve built the new empire, unsettles the conferees. It means that Saxony—already the largest German state even without the elective principalities on its eastern frontier included—will grow even larger. It seems as if Frederick I will reap his first defeat at the Second Wurzburg Conference when the Prince of Anhalt proposes a compromise, by which the princes will accept Saxony’s expansion now on the condition Saxony forswears ever expanding further. This is unacceptable to Frederick on its face, but is quickly modified so that Saxony instead forswears ever expanding again at the expense of another German prince, and that all other annexations by Saxony henceforth must be approved unanimously by the Electors. The plan is agreed upon and carries.
Additionally, Frederick I proposes the adoption of the Elector Frederick Henry’s religious laws, essentially granting freedom of worship to all Christians and affirmatively banning local authorities from interfering with services, rituals, processions, and religious properties belonging to one of the accepted faiths. This last provision with respect to religious properties is in fact more liberal than the Saxon rule, where Catholic churches were seized and converted during Frederick Henry’s time with great relish. The idea is to remove the grounds for potential religious discord by erring on the side of leniency. Though there is some discussion in favor of the Augsburg rule of cuius regio, eius religio by which individual princes could have autonomy to choose, but his subjects must follow his choice, the consensus quickly becomes that if the new German state is to enjoy peace there must be a more stable and flexible religious settlement than under the old Holy Roman Empire.
Finally, the princes scuttle the idea of a large formal legislature and instead decide to meet annually at Frankfurt, which is to be the new capital of the German Empire because of its historical relationship to the imperial institution.
Saxony for its part takes the Archbishopric of Cologne and the Bishopric of Paderborn in the partition of the ecclesiastical lands, which are exempt from the compromise agreed upon at the Second Wurzburg Conference.
