Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/468

 344 General History oj Europe the Bohemian and Danish Protestant armies to issue that same year an Edict of Restitution. In this he ordered the Protestants throughout Germany to give back all the Church possessions which they had seized since the religious Peace of Augsburg. Moreover, he decreed that only the Lutherans might hold re- ligious meetings; the other "sects," including the Calvinists, were to be broken up. As Wallenstein was preparing to execute this decree in his usual merciless fashion the war took a new turn, owing to the intervention of Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden. 586. The Kingdom of Sweden. We have had no occasion hith- erto to speak of the Scandinavian kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, which the northern German peoples had estab- lished about Charlemagne's time ; but from now on they begin to take part in the affairs of central Europe. The Union of Cal- mar (1397) had brought these three kingdoms, previously sep- arate, under a single ruler. About the time that the Protestant revolt began in Germany the union was broken by the withdrawal of Sweden, which became an independent kingdom. Gustavus Vasa, a Swedish noble, led the movement and was later chosen king of Sweden (1523). In the same year Protestantism was introduced. Vasa confiscated the Church lands, got the better of the nobles, who had formerly made the kings a great deal of trouble, and started Sweden on its way toward national greatness. 587. Gustavus Adolphus invades Germany. Gustavus Adol- phus undoubtedly hoped by invading Germany not only to free his fellow Protestants from the oppression of the emperor and of the Catholic League but to gain a strip of German territory for Swe- den. Near Leipzig he met and routed the army of the League. At this juncture Wallenstein collected a new army, over which he was given absolute command. After some delay Gustavus met Wallenstein on the field of Liitzen, in November, 1632, where, after a fierce struggle, the Swedes gained the victory. But they lost their leader and Protestantism its hero, for the Swedish king ventured too far into the lines of the enemy and was surrounded and killed.