Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/740

 710 THIKTY YEARS' WAR sians, and by Mansfeld with 4,000 men raised by the union. Matthias was forsaken by the empire, and the troops of Spain sent to his aid, under Buequoy and Dampierre, wore un- able to check the insurrection, which spread into Upper Austria and Moravia. In the midst of this crisis Matthias died (March, 1619), and Ferdinand, abandoned by his subjects, was soon shut up in Vienna by the victorious Thurn. His firmness and timely succor from Dampierre saved his sinking throne. Thurn withdrew, and Ferdinand, hastening to Frankfort, was elected emperor (August, 1619). The Bohe- mians, who had declared their throne vacant, offered it to the young elector palatine Fred- erick V., son-in-law of James I. of England, and he was crowned in Prague. Bethlen Gabor overran Hungary, and Vienna was again threat- ened, but again saved. The emperor now pre- pared to conquer Frederick by means of the duke of Bavaria, who was to bo indemnified for his services. Maximilian assembled the forces of the league, awed the union into in- action, and quickly subdued Upper Austria. John George, the elector of Saxony, though a Protestant, took up arms against Frederick, and overran Lusatia, and the Spanish general Spinola invaded the Lower Palatinate, while Maximilian joined Buequoy in Bohemia. The battle of the White mountain, before the walls of Prague, Nov. 8, 1 620, drove Frederick from his throne, and left Bohemia to the vengeance of the emperor. Executions and confiscations followed. The Protestant worship was abol- ished, the kingdom given over to the Jesuits, and the Majestdtsbrief cut into pieces. The electoral dignity, forfeited by Frederick, and the Upper Palatinate, were eventually trans- ferred to Maximilian. The battle of Prague was followed by the dissolution of the Protestant union, but the intrepid Mansfeld, who had not shared in the defeat, determined to retain his army. He marched from Bohemia to Alsace, and struggled with Tilly, the general of Maxi- milian and the league. George Frederick, margrave of Baden-Durlach, and Christian of Brunswick, a lawless adventurer like Mans- feld, who made war support war, took up arms for Frederick. Tilly crushed the mar- grave at Wimpfen on the Neckar, and routed Christian at Hochst (1622). Christian and Mansfeld passed into the Netherlands, but soon renewed the contest with Tilly, who finally drove them from the field. Bethlen Gabor, who had broken the peace of Nikolsburg and penetrated into Moravia, made a truce with the emperor in 1624. The Catholic party was triumphant, but the persecutions and the ex- cesses which now ensued rekindled the flames of war. The states of Lower Saxony rose in 1625, and united with Christian IV. of Denmark, who took the lead in the struggle. England sent subsidies, Holland aided with troops, and Christian of Brunswick and Mans- feld reappeared in the field. Hitherto it was not with the forces of Austria but with those of the league and Spain that Ferdinand had carried on the contest. Wallenstein now came forward with his remarkable offer, and with his own resources raised a vast and indepen- dent army for the emperor. In April, 1626, he nearly annihilated the army of Mansfeld at Dessau, and pursued him into Hungary, while Tilly in August overwhelmed the king of Den- mark at Lutter. Wallenstein returning drove back the Danes into Jutland and their islands, occupied Mecklenburg and Pomerania, and ex- tended his designs to the Baltic, when the walls of Stralsund arrested his career (1628). Peace was made with Christian IV. at Liibeck, May, 1629. The Protestants were everywhere sub- dued. Ferdinand had proceeded to consum- mate the work of the Catholic reaction. He issued the edict of restitution, dated March 6 (N. S.), 1629, ordering the surrender by the Protestants of all mediatized church property secularized since 1552, and the transfer to Cath- olic prelates of all immediate sees held by Prot- estants against the ecclesiastical reservation, in- cluding two archbishoprics and many important bishoprics. This impolitic measure inflamed afresh the Protestant states. Magdeburg firmly resisted its execution. But the power of Aus- tria and the league was suddenly repressed by a new attack from the north. Ferdinand was combating France in the contest for Mantua. Richelieu, eager to involve him in a foreign war, mediated a truce between Gustavus Adol- phus and Poland, and the Swedish hero came forward to the rescue of German Protestantism. At the very moment of this new danger, the league, exasperated by the conduct of Wallen- stein, compelled Ferdinand to dismiss him, and Tilly received the chief command. In June, 1630, Gustavus landed in Pomerania and en- tered into a treaty with the aged and overawed duke Bogislas XIV., and in January, 1631, concluded a subsidiary alliance with France. John George of Saxony, George William, elec- tor of Brandenburg, and other Protestant princes met at Leipsic in February, 1631, and formed a league of neutrality. William V. of Hesse-Cassel became the bold ally of Sweden. Gustavus forced the imperialists from Pome- rania and advanced through Brandenburg, but was unable to prevent the terrible fate of Magdeburg, which on May 10 (N. S., 20) was stormed by Tilly and Pappenheim. Ho now compelled the elector of Brandenburg to enter into a treaty, avoided an engagement with Tilly, and restored Mecklenburg to its dispos- sessed dukes. Tilly, who had received orders to break up the Leipsic union, attacked Sax- ony, and drove the mean-spirited elector into an alliance with Sweden. Gustavus marched against him, and on Sept. 7 (N. S., 17), 1631, Tilly sustained a crushing defeat at Breiten- feld near Leipsic. The Catholic power lay prostrate. AVhile the Saxon general Arnheim invaded Bohemia and occupied Prague, Gus- tavus carried his victorious arms to the Rhine and into Swabia, forced the passage of the Lech,