BOOKS.
CHAPMAN'S HISTORY OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.* THE historical greatness of " the Swede of Victory " rests upon his German campaigns of the Thirty-Years War. However dis- tinguished for merit or success might be his wars against Den- mark, Poland, or Russia, the events were too remote in them- selves and too limited in their results to have given Gustav-us Adolphus so great a fame as he has obtained. His campaigns in Germany, if not exactly "decisive battles of the world," were important as checking the power of the house of Haps- burg over Germany, and as enabling the Protestants to resist the Romanists with something like equal fortune. So far as speculation can venture to predicate respecting the unknown, Gustavus Adolphus preserved the liberties such as they were of Germany, and the Protestantism of the Germans, and very possi- bly the existence of Denmark as an independent kingdom. But the Thirty-Years War had more than this extent. It marked a considerable change in the conduct and policy of the world. It was the last of the great religious wars. It was the first war in which the balance of power was systematically re- garded as a leading political object apart from a monarch's mo- tives or immediate fears ; the whole of civilized Europe being more or less actively engaged in the conflict. It is not meant to affirm that religion was thecause of the commencement or continuance of the war ; or that, as it developed itself, and the ob- jects of Ferdinand the Emperor of Germany appeared to extend with success, other nations interposed themselves in the quarrel merely to regulate the balance of power. In complicated human affairs there can be no such thing as a sole but only a prominent motive. Religious bigot as he was, Ferdinand had other motives than religion in the outset ; although dread of his bigotry seems to have raised the Bohemian question which led to the invasion of the Palatinate. Gustavus himself, though a truly religious man, did not move solely from religious motives. He saw that if Protestantism were destroyed, Germany subdued, and Denmark reduced to dependency, Sweden would not long remain secure from attack, and the house of Austria might probably strive to add the whole of Scandinavia to her dominions. Neither was the great Gustavus altogether free from personal ambition. He pos- sibly aimed at the German empire by succeeding if not by super- seding Ferdinand He planned a sort of federal union of the Protestant electors and free cities with himself as protector. Denmark, Holland, Spain, and England, (feebly and foolishly,) interfered in the war from mixed motives, in which sometimes religious conviction or sentiment, sometimes interest or princely ambition, predominated ; while in England the chivalrous pug- nacity of the people drove the Government to do what it really did. Richelieu, a prince of the Church, had put down the Huguenots in France ; he helped the Protestants in Germany, lest the Emperor, becoming absolute over the different states or electors, and assisted by his kinsman on the throne of Spain, should place France between two powerful fires. Even the Pope, though profiting by the war, and the hopes it held out of bring- ing back to the fold Protestant Germany and perchance the North, had no particular wish to over-aggrandize the Emperor. Like many other bigoted people, Ferdinand practically drew some not very intelligible distinction between his creed and his church— was more religious when religion advanced his interests than when it opposed them. He complained of the intrigues of the priesthood ; he had to carry on war in Italy, of course against Catholics, and the Imperialist soldiers of that day were no nice respecters of persons. When the Imperial affairs began to look gloomy on the death of Tilly and the capture of Nuremberg and Prague, the allies and friends of the Emperor raised subscriptions of men or money, the King of Spain contributing 300,000 ducats. The Pope when applied to evaded contribution.
" He was reminded by the Cardinal Passman that the Goths again threat- ened Rome. Cardinal Borgia, who had been recently elevated to the Arch- bishopric of Seville, complained loudly of the desertion of the house of Aus- tria by the Holy See. The Pope replied, that the Emperor had brought upon his own head all that he was suffering; that the money and armies employed in ravaging Italy, in sacking Mantua, in menacing the Holy See, in abusing the poor Catholics, would have been sufficient to arrest the Goths at their outset and oppose a barrier to their conquests. But the remon- strances of his legatee and nuncios had been eluded, Germany neglected, the Swedes despised, Italy invaded, and the Holy See compelled for its own security to expend its treasures for the preservation of the patrimony of the Church. The ravages of the Goths was an old story. The last age fur- nished histories, of a fresher date, of the desolation of Italy, of the sack of Rome, and of the unworthy treatment of the Conclave and the Holy Father. The processions of Charles V. for his liberation, while all the time he held him fast by the throat, were only adding insult to injury, and showed that ambition has no bounds, and that the Goths were not the only enemies of the Church. It was easier to calumniate his government than to blame it justly. The efforts which he had made and was resolved to continue were sufficient to exculpate him, and to prove his care for the Holy See. Though he could not employ the treasures of the Church,—for the war with Mantua had exhausted them,—he would not fail to employ such measures as he deemed expedient for the due discharge of his office, the destruction of heresy, and the support and protection of the Catholics. After all,' he added, ' I know very well that the violence of the (modem) Goths amid all these military disorders offends neither against consciences nor altars ; that the conquered were left free to exercise their religion, the churches in pos- session of their ornaments, the ecclesiastics of their benefices, the colleges • The History of Gustavus Adolphus and of the Thirty-Years War up to the King's Death: with some Account of its Conclusion by the Peace of Westphalia, acne 1648. By B. Chapman, M.A., Vicar of Leatherhead. Published by Long- man and Co. and convents of their property, and one and all have less to complain of than they bad during the -Mantuan war.'
" Such is the speech attributed to Pope Urban VIII. ; a speech which, if not absolutely genuine, is at least after his manner, and expressive of the sentiments which he entertained. Urban loved to argue and harangue."
It may be observed that the last words of the Pope pointed to another peculiarity of the conflict, so far as Gustavus was con- cerned. Modern tactics he did not invent, though he advanced them greatly by improvements in arms and martial discipline. Moral discipline he may be said to have originated, and he carried it to a point which has never yet been equalled except perhaps in the British army. His necessities compelled him to adopt the system of requisitions and contributions, but they were regularly levied : the soldier even in the sack was controlled.
Although Gustav-as Adolphus and the war he was engaged in were as influential upon modern history as the age of Charles the Fifth, it has not the same directness, extent, or unity. The dis- covery of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope and the Spanish conquests in America brought both the Indies into the histpry of Charles ; his relations to Henry the Eighth, Francis the First, and the Italian and Ottoman wars, connected the Emperor with the whole of the then civilized world: the Thirty-Years War, at least as regards Gustavus, was limited to Germany. The Em- peror Charles was himself a great centre to which the general transactions of the world tended; so that his life from the time he acceded to government united the history of the changes that were then taking place. Gustavus Adolphus appears but episodically in the great drama which was enacting ; and, though largely, in- fluential on the action and denouement, he was not present either at the beginning or the end. His previous life, though strongly marked in its personal characteristics, and not devoid of interest from his struggles with his early difficulties, his subsequent suc- cess, and his preparation for the German war, are all so inferior to his closing action that they pale before its lustre. It may be doubted whether they might not all have been more closely, con- nected together than has been done by Mr. Chapman. Had the idea of the future champion and liberator been constantly.present, so that the reader should as it were perceive the exercise and training of the hero for his great field, more of unity or at least of continuity would have been preserved. Mr. Chapman, indeed, has seen the importance of the Thirty- Years War to European history, and he has not altogether over- looked the influence of the career in forming the oharaeter of Gustavus Adolphus ; but his ken is rather superficial than large or profound. His industry has been great, both contemporary authorities and later writers having been carefully examined. He exhibits a calm and moderate disposition, capable of seeing both sides of things ; and his judgments are usually fair and just. The composition is also entitled to praise. The matter is well- arranged, the narrative clear ; and the pith of the original de- scriptions well extracted and preserved. It is in short a pains- taking and scholarly production, altogether superior to Harte, and forming the best story of a great man and an eventful period accessible to the English reader. It is not a philosophical work comprehending the spirit and influences of the epoch. Neither is it entitled to the praise of a picturesque narrative : the author seizes what his authorities tell, but he does not see what they only indicate, so as to bring out the startling life of the age, in the camp, the country, and the city. One feature of the war Mr. Chapman sees distinctly : he ob- serves the number of remarkable men who were engaged in it,— Tilly, Wallenstein, Pappenheim, and a number of great generals in both camps, whose fame was in a measure eclipsed by superior genius and a subordinate position. Possibly their exp.loits are described in a way which has the effect of digression in a life ; but their' characters form one of the most striking points of the book. Here is the most remarkable of the whole band—more re- markable, indeed, than Gustavus himself, when lineage and ori- gmal position are considered ; and though the fortune of the King drove the star of Wallenstein from the field of Lutzen, it was at the expense of his life.
"Many of the popular traditions concerning this remarkable person, who was born at Prague, of a noble and highly-connected family, on the 15th of September 1583, have been swept away by the ruthless exactitude of mo- dern German research. Thus the celebrated incident of his escape unhurt after falling from an upper chamber in the castle of Inspruck—an incident which was supposed to have caused his conversion to the Roman Catholic faith, and convinced him that he was reserved for future greatness—has vanished, with other tales of his youth of almost equal mark and likelihood. It needed no miracle, however, to instil into that capacious and ambitious mind an early presentiment of future distinction ; and his conversion be- comes a very natural event, when it is known that he was placed at a Roman Catholic school at Olmiitz, after the death of his parents, at twelve years old, and that his teachers were the able and zealous Jesuits. On quitting 01- miitz, he visited England, Holland, France, and Italy. At Padua he stu- died astrology and the art of war, which he practised first against the Turks in Hungary and Transylvania, under General Basta. When peace was con- cluded in 1606, he returned to Bohemia. A moderate paternal inheritance, divided between two brothers, three sisters, and himself, left little for his share. But the foundation of his future wealth and greatness was laid partly by the bequest of a rich uncle who bequeathed him fourteen estates in Bo- hemia and Moravia, and partly by his marriage with his first wife, a widow, to the whole of whose wealth he succeeded in 1614. By means of the ready money thus acquired he was enabled to purchase a considerable portion of the estates forfeited through the Bohemian rebellion, and sold, in the then unsettled state of affairs, at much less than their ordinary value. In 1617, having raised a troop of 200 Cuirassiers, he served under Dampierre at Friuli against Venice, distinguished himself greatly .by the relief of Gradiska, and rendered himself so popular by his open table and care for the comfort of his soldiers that his little troop soon increased into a complete regiment. For this service, and for his successful operations in the Bohemian war, in which
he constantly refused to side with the insurgents, he was created successively Count, Count-Palatine, Prince, and (in 1624) Duke of Friedland.
"The person, dress, and habits of Wallenstein have often been described. There is an engraved portrait of him in Khevenhiller, and a better one pre- fixed to his life, published some years ago by Colonel 3litchell. From these sources we have a vivid conception of his personal appbarance ; his tall, gaunt frame, enfeebled by the gout ; his high intellectual forehead ; his nose slightly arched, his swarthy eyebrows knit together, and the pair of small fiery eyes gleaming fiercely beneath them. We are familiar, too, with his field dress —the scarlet mantle, the grey hat with crimson plume, the red trousers and sash, the riding-coat of elk-leather, the order of the Golden Fleece thrown over it, and, when he walked, the Indian cane supporting the emaciated body. Nor do we forget to associate with these personal traits the magnifi- cence in which he lived, surpassing the splendour of many European courts, the train of nobles who felt honoured in serving him, his palaces—grand, but gloomy, silent, and jealously guarded—types of their mysterious master. "Indomitable pride seems to have been his ruling passion ; and this, if traced in all its workings, would probably go far to account for much that appears bizarre and contradictory in his character and conduct. But how- ever this may be, his inconsistencies are very striking. His cold reserve did not restrain him from outbreaks of the most extreme and fatal rashness. His faith, lukewarm in respect to revealed religion—the effect, according to Chemnitz, of having had his nativity in Mercury, in the ninth house—ex- ercised itself ardently in sidereal aspects and planetary conjunctions. His mercy and generosity, generally calculated and selfish, sometimes seemed to know no law but his caprice. A bold revolt against his sentence was a re- fuge from the hangman, where submission would have found no pity. Small gifts were requited with extravagant munificence, and great ones with a meanness expressive of contempt. In the most intimate social circle he still remained isolated. Amid the multitude of his comrades he had not probably one real friend—not one who shared his confidence enough to have been able to clear up what was doubtful in his sentiments, or questionable in his career. He was an enigma to his contemporaries ; he is still an enigma. We know not whether he was a Christian or an unbeliever, a traitor or a true man."
We suspect that " the traitor " is nearer the mark than " the true man," at least according to princely and military interpre- tations. He had also been guilty of an unpardonable crime, which can only be ascribed to that touch of madness which in some natures takes the form of pride. In the crises already al- luded to, the death of Tilly and the overrunning of Germany by Gustavus' Wallenstein had been applied to, and was got with difficulty to dictate these terms to the Emperor. " He was to be generalissimo, not only of the Emperor but of the Spanish Crown and of the whole house of Austria. The Emperor must not be pre- sent in the army, much less assume the command. After the reduction of Bohemia, the King must reside in Prague • and until the peace Don Bal- thazzar must occupy that country with 10,000 men. As an ordinary recom- pense for his service, Wallenstein was to receive an hereditary province in Austria ; as an extraordinary reward, the seignory of the states which he might conquer. Both in confiscations and pardon he was to be entirely free ; the Emperor's pardon not to be valid without his confirmation, and to extend only to life and honour, not to property. Moreover, the imperial pardon was to be granted only at the intercession of Wallenstein, and to be dealt out by him, seeing that the Emperor was too mild, and made it evi- dent that any one could obtain grace at the Imperial court ; and thus were the means cut off of rewarding the officers and keeping the men to their duty.' Lastly, all the Emperor's hereditary dominions were to be open to Wallenstein as a retreat, and he was to be furnished with war munitions and all things necessary for the prosecution of the war.
" The Bishop of Vienna, who brought the Imperial ratification, congra- tulated thereupon (he said) not so much Wallenstein as the Emperor, his family, his people, and the whole Catholic Church. " The Emperor himself professed to have subscribed the treaty with ,gra- titude. But he must have felt that its terms were humiliating, that they inverted the relative positions of himself and his subject, that they deprived him of functions which it was almost shameful to delegate, and of preroga- tives which were the choicest jewels of his crown. The Bishop of Vienna had indeed little reason to congratulate Wallenstein upon the conclusion of such a treaty. It bore upon ahuost every clause omens fatal to the man who in his imprudence, arrogance, and cupidity, had ventured to dictate its provisions."
In addition to many contemporary authorities more or less en- gaged in the actual affairs of the time, the German career of Gus- tavus is chronicled in the Swedish Intelligencer and similarpub- lications. Still, such is the difficulty of arriving at truth, that the particulars of the death of Gustavus are not clear. " When the King knew that the first battery was taken he uncovered his head and thanked God ; but soon after learning that the centre had been repulsed, ho put himself at the head of the Smaland cavalry, and charged the Imperial cuirassiers, the black lads,' with whom he had just before told Stalhanske to grapple. Piccolomini hastened to support the cuiras- siers; and the Swedes, being overmatched, retreated without .perceiving— the fog having again come over—that they had left the King in the midst of the enemy. A pistol-ball now broke his arm; and as the Duke of Saxe- Lauenburg was supporting him out of the battle an Imperial cuirassier came behind him and shot him in the back. He then fell from his horse ; and other cuirassiers coming up, one of them completed the work of death. " It is added on the testimony of a young gentleman named Leubelfing, the son of Colonel Leubelfing of Nuremberg and page to the Lord Marshall Craileham, that being near when the King fell, and seeing that his charger, wounded in the neck, had galloped away, he dismounted and offered him his own horse. Gustavus stretched out his hands to accept the offer ; and the page attempted to lift him from the ground, but was unable. In the mean time, some cuirassiers, attracted to the spot, demanded who the wounded man was. Leubelfing evaded the question or refused to answer ; but the King himself exclaimed, I am the King of Sweden !' when he re- ceived four gunshot wounds and two stabs, which quickly. released him from the agony of his broken arm, the bone of which had pierced the flesh and protruded. The Imperialist soldiers about the King, each anxious to possess some trophy, had stripped the body to the shirt, and were about to carry it off when a party of Swedish*valryi charging towards the spot, dispersed them. 4' Thus ended this day of mingled glory and sadness, the mists and con- fusion of which have in a great measure obscured its history. The numbers engaged, the order of battle on the side of the Imperialists, tEe number of the slain, the period of Pappenheim's arrival, what part of his forces were actually engaged, above all, the circumstances of the King's death, are per- plexed amid the contrariety of contemporary narrations, representing partly the imperfection of human testimony, and partly the different interests, jea- lousies, and suspicions of the times.'
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