Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/428

Rh 41G CHARLES V. [EMPEROR composed almost entirely of Italians and Spaniards, where the Pope and the old party were absolutely predominant, and where, consequently, the Church of Germany had no chance of a fair representation or even of a fair hearing. The calling of the Council of Trent, therefore, had the sole effect of widening the chasm between the old and the new ; and the course its deliberations were to take had the same result in signalizing the contradiction between the Catholic and the Protestant point of view. Perceiving that milder methods were of no avail, Charles now made preparations to compel the submission of the Protestant princes. The dissensions among them greatly facilitated his plans. Maurice, duke of Saxony, always at feud with his kinsman the elector, was ready, with reasonable prospect of self- aggrandizement, to take the imperial side, and the elector of Brandenburg took no active part in the struggle, so that Electoral Saxony, Hesse, Wiirtemberg, and the imperial cities alone were to be reckoned with. The counsel of the great general Schartlin, who commanded the troops of the cities, to fall upon Charles at Ratisbon before his forces were assembled, and then to seize the passes of Tyrol, so as to break the communication between Italy and the imperial camp, was set aside by the hesitating and over scrupulous leaders of the Protestant party. Accordingly, Charles was allowed to concentrate his troops and take the offensive. Maurice thereupon declared himself, and, in vading the territories of Electoral Saxony, compelled the elector to withdraw from the Protestant camp, which con sequently soon broke up, leaving the emperor to have his own way in South Germany, and to suppress the Reforma tion in the province of Cologne. Thus, disastrously for the Protestants, ended the campaign of 1546, the result of their own indecision, as their forces were superior to those of the emperor. In the meantime, the Saxon elector had been chastising Maurice for his treacherous invasion of the electorate. In the spring of 1547 the emperor, hastening to assist his ally, concentrated his forces at Eger on the Bohemian frontier, overtook the electoral forces at Miihlberg on the Elbe, defeated them easily, and took the elector prisoner. He was obliged to submit to a humiliating arrangement, by which he resigned his territory and the electoral hat to his enemy Maurice. Shortly after, Philip of Hesse was like wise compelled to yield, and was detained a prisoner by the emperor, whose dishonourable conduct on this occasion excited the indignation of his Protestant allies, especially of Maurice, who was son in law to the landgrave. In a little time Protestantism seemed to be at the feet of the emperor. The city of Magdeburg was the only important seat of resistance remaining. But while the emperor had been beating down the enemies of the church on the field of battle, her representatives at Trent were proceeding in such a way as to render a permanent settle ment of the question impossible. The politic Charles was anxious to concede certain points to the Protestants, so as to secure peace while still maintaining the rights o* the church. The conclusions arrived at by the council did not admit of compromise ; and to make matters worse, the Pope, alarmed at the victorious attitude of Charles, removed it from Trent to Bologna. Elated by his victories to an extent that was not to be expected of an old and experienced statesman, the emperor now adopted some very doubtful measures. Under his auspices, the Augsburg Interim was framed an attempt to supply a common religious platform for all parties in the empire, and thus by his own imperial authority put an end to the schism. But it pleased neither party, for the Catholics rejected it, and the Protestants accorded it only a limited and enforced obedience. Another plan of the emperor, to induce the German electors to cancel the election of his brother Ferdinand as king of the Romans and to choose his own son Philip instead, also failed. Thus the ambitious dream of Charles to transmit all his own power to his son, and if possible make it hereditary in his family, could not be realized. Meanwhile, all unknown to himself, a plot was maturing by which he was to be hurled from a position of splendid triumph into the bitterest reverses of his life. The profound and skilful Maurice of Saxony, finding that he had got from the emperor all that was to be expected, and perceiving how deeply he had outraged the national and religious senti- mejit of Germany, resolved to seize the advantage given him by the high-handed and oppressive measures of his ally in order to retrieve his own lost credit. Accordingly a combination of princes was formed with the greatest secrecy, and an alliance concluded with Henry II. of France. &quot;While the French king, marching eastward as the &quot; Protector of the Liberties of Germany,&quot; seized Toul, Verdun, and Metz, and threatened Strasburg, and the Turks renewed the war on the Austrian frontiers, Maurice and his confederates advanced suddenly into South Germany, and surprised the emperor at Innsbruck, whence, saved from capture by a mutiny among the German lands- knechts, he fled, sick of gout, over the Tyrolese Alps into Carinthia. Weary of the religious divisions of Germany, Charles left to his brother Ferdinand the task of arranging a peace, first at Passau (1552), and finally at Augsburg (1555). But he was doomed ere long to sustain another severe reverse. While renouncing the task of arranging the internal affairs of Germany, he had chosen for himself the duty of chastising her foreign enemies, and winning back an important possession. At the head of a splendid army of 60,000 men, he besieged Metz from the end of October 1552 to the beginning of January; but all his efforts to retake the city availed nothing against the skill of Guise, and the bravery of the French nobles, who had thrown themselves into the city in great numbers. After suffering great losses he was obliged to retreat, and Metz was for three centuries lost to the German empire. Soon after, in a very different-quarter, the policy of Charles gained a great triumph, which likewise proved illusory. The frequent changes in the direction of English politics had always been a subject of deep interest to him, and had to some extent affected his own course, though only in a secondary way. Now, however, on the accession of Mary, there was real ground for the hope that England might be drawn into the closest connection with his policy, and most intimately interested in the great struggle against the new movement, which had gradually become the supreme ques tion in European politics. Mary had already been betrothed to Charles, and expressed her willingness to become his second empress ; but he transferred the state duty of marrying Mary to his son Philip, who accordingly did so in 1554. The presence of Philip in England con tributed greatly to the restoration of Catholicism in the country, and Mary was very glad to fall in W 7 ith the general policy of Charles. An heir only was wanting to the stability of the union, an heir, too, who was destined by the marriage treaty to rule over England and the posses sions of the house of Burgundy, and his birth was expected with many prayers in the Catholic world, and with great anxiety on the part of Charles. Happily for England, the hopes of Mary were not realized. The English alliance continued, but its insecurity was only too apparent. Long before the period at which w r e have arrived, Charles had entertained the idea of relinquishing the throne in order to devote the remainder of his life to quiet retirement and preparation for another world. With a feeling of this kind it had been purposed by him and his wife Isabella, who died in 1539, to withdraw, he into a monastery, she into some neighbouring nunnery, and there spend the