268 (The History of the Swedes)
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268

(1845) Author: Erik Gustaf Geijer Translator: John Hall Turner
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2G8
Pusillanimous conduct of
Saxony and Brandenburg.
HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Exigencies of the army.
Camp at Werben. [1C28—
always assured tliem of succour, and nut come up ;
more blame the elector of Brandenburg. The
greatest number cry shame on the elector of
Saxony, who neither hath allied himself with his
majesty, nor done any ^ood to the cause, but
rather during the .siege itself withheld from the
townsmen tlie ammunition they had ])urchased in
the electorate. However all this may be, his
majesty was certainly in these last days on his
way to help them, under God, with all his power,
which it would have been impossible sooner to
effect. First, in the winter Tilly stood in the
March, and his majesty could not then give aid
without a battle, and by such to hazard the whole
evangelical interest would have been utterly un-
reasonable. After this time his majesty was obliged
so to arrange the succour, that he might have his
rear on the Oder and Warta fi-ee. That matters
went forward so slowly is by no means the fault of
the kijig’s majesty. Even so the town might cer-
tainly have held out longer, if the burghers had
bestirred themselves more actively in the cause,
and not held themselves secure. At first they
admitted no soldiei-s into the town, but they must
needs live in the suburbs on the cash of his
majesty. At the end they took them into the
town, where they had their cellars and store-
houses full. Howbeit the soldiers must either
suffer hunger or buy every bite dearly, whereby
they were much harassed. Every where there ap-
peared secret correspondence with the enemy, who
first tendered the town an accord. But while
they believed themselves secure, and deliberated
upon the accord, the enemy fell upon them by
storm, and so cheated their security. Herein all
of the evangelical party that are faint-hearted
may see their lot mirrored, if they become not
speedily either colder or warmer."
The period from the destruction of Magdeburg
to the victory at Leipsic, that is to say, the sum-
mer of 1G31, is beyond doubt the most trying
which Gustavus Adolphus spent in Germany. That
which had come to pass was laid to his charge, and
he found himself obliged to vindicate his conduct
in a special manifesto. Saxony, as well as Bran-
denburg, so acted that he knew not whether they
were his friends or foes.
" We perceive,"— he
writes home,—" that the evangelical princes are
no farther WL’ll-afFectioned towards us, than that
they may with our help maintain themselves
against the emperor, in order after to drive us
hence ungratefully by force ^." The elector of
Branden))urg demanded back his fortresses, which
he had only delivered up for the Uberation of
Magdeburg. The king accordingly gave command
for the evacuation of Spandau, but appeared next
day with his army before Berlin, and pointed his
cannon against the town. Thus was concluded the
alliance of Brandenburg with Sweden. The king
1 To the Council of State, Jerichow, July 2, 1G31. Reg.
* " His majesty mostly directeth his counsels to this, how
the sea-coast may be secured, but keeps his largest army in
this quarter, to hold the enemy from the elector. If his ma-
jesty get Diimitz and Ilavellicrg (which was taken on the 9th
July), all iMecklenl>urg is occupied, so that the king may ex-
tend his forces to tlie Weser, and conjoin them with Hamil-
ton’s troops. Meanwhile he is fortifying Havelen strongly,
with Rathenau, Brandenburg, and Sjiandau. Horn, to
whom Cubtrin stands open, is powerful to def.>nd tlie Oder
and Warta. An army is raised in Mecklenburg, and has be-
garrisoned Spandau, and thereafter went to Pome-
rania, where he employed his troops, left inactive
after the surrender of Gripswald, in restoring the
expelled dukes of Mecklenburg to their domi-
nions, and himself with the main body kept an eye
upon Brandenburg, Saxony, and Tilly ’. The Swe-
dish army was weakened by division, and its in-
crease by recruitment uncertain. " The German
nation," writes the king ^,
" is now become so un-
steady, that the people seek one master one day,
another the next, so that we can hardly levy so
many as daily desert, especially since our men
have for a long time received no stipend." Almost
all the king’s letters during this time speak of his
want of money. Already in February he sharply
reproves the Swedish council that they paid him
with arguments, and never once called to mind
that the cattle-tax, on which he calculated,
was granted for one year more by the collective
estates.
"
Howbeit, tlte love of our country, and
those who dwell therein, is so strong in us," he adds,
" that we would rather want this subsidy, than give
occasion to perverse and impatient men to slander
us, and to unjust stewards to lard their pockets with
the sweat and blood of the people, and pay ourselves
and the army with disputations, as now daily occurs;
in this town we expect, under God’s providence,
other means for carrying on the war^" These
other means did not correspond to the require-
ments of the case. From the grain monopoly
Oxenstierna’s ability could never raise so much as
was expected, and it was therefore soon abolished.
" We have often enough given you to understand
our condition,"
—writes the king to the chancellor *,
—:"how with the greatest poverty, difficulty, and
disorder, we have made shift for ourselves and the
army through this time, inasnmch as we are de-
serted by all our servants, and must conduct the
war only ex rapto, to the harm and ruin of all our
neighbours ;
which continueth to this hour, so that
we have nothing wherewith to content the people,
except what themselves usurp with intolerable
plundering and robbery. We had placed our hope
in you before others. But even that is dashed from
us, and we must needs form a strong leaguer hei"e
against the approach of the enemy." This was in
the middle of July. The king had just sat down in
his famous encampment at Werben, in that so ad-
vantageous site at the continence of the Havel and
the Elbe^. A subsequent letter describes his con-
tiimed embarrassment, and mentions Tilly’s attack
on his camp.
"
Albeit, lord chancellor, ye have
promised us in your own projects certain sums
monthly, we have hitherto received no more of
them than about 100,000 rix-dollars, and we now
learn to our disappointment, by your letter from El-
bing of the 11th July, that against all expectation,
nothing more is in hand. The army has for sixteen
gun to blockade Rostock." The secretary Grubbe to the
Council of State, Jerichow, July 2, 1G31. Reg.
•>
To the Council of State, Jerichow, July 2, 1631. Reg.
7 To the Council of State, New Brandenburg, February 3,
1631.
><
Werben, July 18, 1631. Reg.
9 The camp, of which remains still exist, was on the
western side of the Elbe. Monro, who describes it minutely,
says of Gustavus Adolphus :
" When he was the weakest he
digged most in the ground ; and this he did not only to secure
his soldiers from the enemy, but also to keep them from idle-
ness." ii. 41.

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