Latest / History of the Thirty Years War / 007 - Part 7

Transcript

007 - Part 7 · History of the Thirty Years War

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Part seven of the History of the Thirty Years War,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Volume three by Friedrich Schuller, translated by Reverend A. J. W. Morrison.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Pappenheim died
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the next day of his wounds at Leipzig, an irreparable
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: loss to the Imperial army, which the brave warrior had
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: so often led on to victory. The Battle of Prague,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: where together with Wallenstein he was present as colonel, was
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the beginning of his heroic career. Dangerously wounded with a
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: few troops, he made an impetuous attack on a regiment
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: of the enemy and lay for several hours mixed with
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: a dead upon the field beneath the weight of his horse,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: till he was discovered by some of his own men.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: In plundering. With a small force, he defeated in three
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: different engagements the rebels in Upper Austria, though forty thousand strong.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: At the Battle of Leipzig, he for a long time
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: delayed the defeat of Tilly by his bravery, and led
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: the arms of the Emperor on the Elbe and the
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Vizir to victory. The wild impetuous fire of his temperament,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: which no danger however apparent could cool or impossibility's check
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: made him the most powerful man of the Imperial force,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: but unfitted him for acting at its head. The Battle
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: of Leipzic, if till he may be believed, was lost
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: through his rash ardor at the destruction of Magdeburg. His
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: hands were deeply steeped in blood, war rendered savage and ferocious,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: his disposition, which had been cultivated by youthful studies and
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: various travels. On his forehead two red streaks, like swords
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: were perceptible, with which nature had marked him at his
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: very birth. Even in his later years these became visible
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: as often as his blood was stirred by passion and
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: superstition easily persuaded itself that the future destiny of the
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: man was thus impressed upon the forehead of the child.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: As a faithful sir of the House of Austria, he
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: had the strongest claims on the gratitude of both its lines.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: But he did not survive to enjoy the most brilliant
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: proof of their regard. A messenger was already on its
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: way from Madrid, bearing to him the Order of the
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Golden Fleece when death overtook him at Leipzig, though todayeum
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: in all Spanish and Austrian lands was sung in honor
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: of a victory. Wallenstein himself, by the haste with which
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: he quitted Leipzig and soon after all Saxony, and by
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: renouncing his original design of fixing there his winter quarters,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: openly confessed his defeat. It is true he made one
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: more feeble attempt to dispute, even in its flight, the
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: honor of victory, by sending out his croats next morning
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: to the field. But the sight of the Swedish army,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: drawn up in order of battle, immediately dispersed these flying bands,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: and Duke Bernard, by keeping possession of the field, and
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: soon after by the capture of Leipzig, maintained indisputably his
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: claim to the title of victory. But it was a
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: dear conquest, a dearer triumph. It was not till the
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: fury of the contest was over that the full weight
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: of the loss sustained was felt, and the shout of
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: triumph died away into a silent gloom of despair. He
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: who had led them to the charge, returned not with them.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: There he lay upon the field which he had won,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: mingled with the dead bodies of the common crowd. After
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: a long and almost fruitless search, the corpse of the
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: king was discovered not far from the great Stone, which
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: for a hundred years before had stood between Lutzen and
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the canal, and which from the memorable disaster of that
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: day still bears the name of the Stone of the Swede,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: covered with blood and wounds so as scarcely to be recognized,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: trampled beneath the horse's hoofs stripped by the rude hands
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: of plunderers of its ornaments and clothes, his body was
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: drawn from beneath a heap of dead, conveyed to Vessenfels,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: and there delivered up the lamentations of his soldiers and
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: the last embraces of his queen. The first tribute had
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: been paid to revenge, and blood had atoned for the
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: blood of the monarch. But now affection assumes its rites,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: and tears of grief must flow for the man. The
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: universal sorrow absorbs all individual woes. The general, still stupefied
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: by the unexpected blow, stood speechless and motionless around his
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: bare and no one trusted himself enough to contemplate the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: full extent of their loss. The Emperor we are told
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: by Kevinuler showed symptoms of deep and apparently sincere feeling
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: at the side of the king's doublets, stained with blood
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: which had been stripped from him during the battle, and
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: carried to Vienna. Willingly said he what I have granted
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: to the unfortunate prince a longer life and a safe
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: return to his kingdom, had Germany been at peace. But
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: when a trait which is nothing more than a proof
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: of a yet lingering humanity, and which a mere regard
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: to appearances and even self love would have extorted from
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the most insensible, and the absence of which could exist
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: only in the most inhuman heart, has by a Roman
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Catholic writer of modern times and acknowledged merit, been made
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the subject of the highest eulogium, and compared with the
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: magnanimous tears of Alexander for the fall of Darius. Our
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: distrust is excited of the other virtues of the writer's hero, and,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: what is worse, of his own ideas of moral dignity.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: But even such praise, whatever its amount, is much for
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: one whose memory his biographer has to clear from the
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: suspicion of being privy to the assassination of a king
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: it was scarcely to be expected that the strong leaning
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: of mankind to the marvelous would lead to the common
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: course of nature the glory of ending the career of
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: the Stavs at office. The death of so formidable a
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: rival was too important an event for the Emperor not
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: to excite in his bitter opponent a ready suspicion that
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: what was so much to his interests was also the
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: result of his instigation. For the execution, however, of this
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: dark deed, the Emperor would require the aid of a
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: foreign arm and this, it was generally believed, he had
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: found in Francis Albert, Duke of Saxe Lauenburg. The rank
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: of the latter permitted him a free access to the
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: King's person, while at the same time seemed to place
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: him above the suspicion of so foul a deed. The Prince, however,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: was in fact not incapable of this atrocity, and he
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: had moreover sufficient motives for its commission. Francis Albert, the
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: youngest of four sons of Francis, the second Duke of Lauenberg,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and related by the mother's side to the race of Vasa,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: had in his early years found a most friendly reception
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: at the Swedish court. Some offense which he had committed
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: against the Stavis Adolphus, was, it is said, repaid by
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: this fiery youth with a box on the ear, which,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: though immediately repented of and amply apologized for, laid the
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: foundation of an irreconcilable hate in the vindictive heart of
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: the Duke. Francis Albert subsequently entered the Imperial service, where
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: he rose to the command of a regiment and formed
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: a close intimacy with Wallenstein, and condescended to be the
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: instrument of a secret negotiation with the Saxon court, which
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: did little honor to his rank. Without any sufficient cause
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: being assigned, he suddenly quitted the Austrian service and appeared
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: in the King's camp at Nuremberg to offer his services
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: as a volunteer. By his show of zeal for the
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Protestant cause and prepossessing and flattering deportment, he gained the
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: heart of the King, who, warned in vain by Oxenstern,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: continued to lavish his favor and friendship on this suspicious newcomer.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: The Battle of Lutzen soon followed, in which Francis Albert,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: like an evil genius kept close to the king's side
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: and did not leave him till he fell. He owed,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: it was thought his own safety amidst the fire of
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the enemy, to a green sash which he wore, the
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: color of the imperialists. He was, at any rate the
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: first to convey to his friend Wallenstein the intelligence of
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: the king's death. After the battle he exchanged the Swedish
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: service for the Saxon, and after the murder of Wallenstein,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: being charged with being an accomplice of that general, he
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: only escaped the sword of justice by abjuring his faith.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: His last appearance in life was as commander of an
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: imperial army in Silesia, where he died of the wounds
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: he had received before schwinding it. It requires some effort
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: to believe in the innocence of a man who had
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: run through a career like this of the act charged
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: against him. But however great may be the moral and
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: physical possibility of his committing such a crime, it must
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: still be allowed that there are no certain grounds for
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: imputing it to him. Because Stavis Adolphus, it is well known,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: exposed himself to danger like the meanest soldier in his army,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: and where thousands fell, he too, might naturally meet his
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: death how it reached him, Romas indeed buried in mystery.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: But there, more than anywhere does the maximum ply that,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: where the ordinary course of things is fully sufficient to
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: account for the fact, the honor of human nature ought
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: not to be stained by any suspicion of moral atrocity.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: But by whatever hand he fell, his extraordinary destiny must
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: appear a great interposition of providence. History, too often confined
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: to the ungrateful task of analyzing the uniform play of
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: human passions, is occasionally rewarded by the appearance of events
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: which strike like a hand from heaven into the nicely
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: adjusted machinery of human plans, and carry the contemplative mind
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: to a higher order of things. Of this kind is
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: the sudden retirement of Gustavus Adolphus from the scene, stopping
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: for a time the whole movement of the political machine,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: and disappointing all the calculations of human prudence. Yesterday, the
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: very soul, the great and animating principle of his own creation,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: today struck unpitiably to the ground in the very midst
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: of his eagle flight, untimely torn from a whole world
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: of great designs, and from the ripening harvest of his expectations,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: he left his bereaved party disconsolate, and the proud edifice
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: of his past greatness sunk into ruins. The Protestant party
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: had identified its hopes with its invincible leader, and scarcely
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: can it now separate them from him. With him, they
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: now fear all good fortune is buried. But it was
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: no longer the benefactor of Germany who fell at Lutzen.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: The beneficent part of his career Gustavus Adolphus had already terminated,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: and now the greatest service which he could render to
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: the liberties of Germany was to die. The all engrossing
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: power of an individual was at an end, but many
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: came forward to assay their strength. The equivocal assistance of
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: an over powerful protector gave place to a more noble
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: self exertion on the part of the estates, and those
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: who were formerly the mere instruments of this aggrandizement now
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: began to work for themselves. They now looked to their
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: own exertions for the emancipation which could not be received
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: without danger from the hand of the mighty, and the
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Swedish power now incapable of striking into the oppressor was
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: henceforth restricted to the more modest part of an ally.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: The ambition of the Swedish monarch aspired unquestionably to establish
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: a power within Germany and to attain a firm footing
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: in the center of the Empire, which was inconsistent with
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: the liberties of the estates. His aim was the imperial crown,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: and this dignity, supported by his power and maintained by
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: his energy and activity, would in his hands be liable
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: to more abuse than it had ever been feared from
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: the House of Austria. Born in a foreign country, educated
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: in the maxims of arbitrary power, and by principles and enthusiasm,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: a determined enemy to popery, he was ill qualified to
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: maintain inviolate the constitution of the states or to respect
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: their liberties. The core civimage with Augsburg, with many other cities,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: was forced to pay to the Swedish crown, bespoke the
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: conqueror rather than the protector of the Empire, and this town,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: prouder of the title of a royal city than of
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: the higher dignity of the freedom of the Empire, flattered
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: itself with the anticipation of becoming the capital of his
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: future kingdom, his ill disguised attempts upon the Electorate of Mentz,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: which he first intended to bestow upon the Elector of
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Brandenburg as the dower of his daughter Christina, and afterwards
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: destined for his chancellor and friend Oxensteern. Evinced plainly what
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: liberties he was disposed to take with the constitution of
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: the Empire. His allies, the Protestant princes, had claims on
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: his gratitude which could be satisfied only at the expense
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: of their Roman Catholic neighbours, and particularly of the immediate
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: ecclesiastical chapters. And it seems probable a plan was early
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: four formed for dividing the conquered provinces after the precedent
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: of the Barbarian Hordes who overran the German Empire as
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: a common spoil among the German and Swedish confederates. In
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: his treatment of the Elector Palatine, he entirely belied the
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: magnanimity of a hero and forgot the sacred character of
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: a protector. The Palatinate was in his hands, and the
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: obligations both of justice and honor demanded its full and
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: immediate restoration to the legitimate sovereign, But by a subtlety
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: unworthy of a great mind and disgraceful to the honorable
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: title of protector of the oppressed, he eluded that obligation.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: He treated the Palatinate as a conquest wrested from the enemy,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: and thought that this circumstance gave him a right to
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: deal with it as he pleased. He surrendered it to
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: the Elector as a favor, not as a debt, and
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: that too as a Swedish fief, fettered by conditions which
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: diminished half its value and degraded this unfortunate prince into
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: a hump vassal of Sweden. One of these conditions obliged
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: the Elector, after the conclusion of the war, to furnish,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: along with the other princes, his contribution towards the maintenance
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: of the Swedish Army, a condition which plainly indicates the
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: fate which, in the event of the ultimate success of
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the king awaited Germany. His sudden disappearance secured the liberties
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: of Germany and saved his reputation, while it probably spared
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: him the mortification of seeing his own allies in arms
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: against him, and all the fruits of his victories torn
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: from him by a disadvantageous peace, Saxony was already disposed
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: to abandon him. Denmark viewed his success with alarm and jealousy,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: and even France, the firmest and most potent of his allies,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: terrified at the rapid growth of his power and the
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: imperious tone which he assumed, looked around at the very
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: moment he passed elect for foreign alliances in order to
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: check the progress of the Goths and restore to Europe
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: the balance of power. End of Part seven recording by
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Alan Wenterout audio dot boomcoach dot com. End of the
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: History of the Thirty Years War, Volume three by Friedrich Schiller,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: translated by Reverend A. J. W. Morrison,