ORIGINAL CAUSES OF THE WAR.

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them off from the emperor, and to treat them as enemies equally with the rest if they did not.

But the protestants convinced him soon after, that though they were tricked into the outward appearance of a league against him at Ratisbon, they had no such intentions; and by their ambassadors to him let him know, that they only wanted his powerful assistance to defend their councils, when they would soon convince him that they had a due sense of the emperor's designs, and would do their utmost for their liberty; and these I take to be the first invitations the King of Sweden had to undertake the protestant cause as such, and which entitled him to say he fought for the liberty and religion of the German nation.

I have had some particular opportunities to hear these things from the mouths of some of the very princes themselves, and therefore am the forwarder to relate them; and I place them here, because previous to the part I acted on this bloody scene, it is necessary to let the reader into some part of the story, and to show him in what manner and on what occasions this terrible war began.

The protestants, alarmed at the usage they had met with at the former diet, had secretly proposed among themselves to form a general union or confederacy, for preventing that ruin which they saw, unless some speedy remedies were applied, would be inevitable. The elector of Saxony, the head of the protestants, a vigorous and politic prince, was the first that moved it; and the landgrave of Hesse, a zealous and gallant prince, being consulted with, it rested a great while between those two, no method being found practicable to bring it to pass; the emperor being so powerful in all parts, that they foresaw the petty princes would not dare to negotiate an affair of such a nature, being surrounded with the imperial forces, who by their two generals Wallestein and Tilly, kept them in continual subjection and terror.

This dilemma had like to have stifled the thoughts of the union as a thing impracticable, when one Seigensius, a Lutheran minister, a person of great abilities, and one whom the elector of Saxony made great use of in matters of policy as well as religion, contrived for them this excellent expedient.

I had the honour to be acquainted with this gentleman while I was at Leipsic; it pleased him exceedingly to have

been the contriver of so fine a structure as the conclusions of Leipsic, and he was glad to be entertained on that subject. I had the relation from his own mouth, when, but very modestly, he told me he thought it was an inspiration darted on a sudden into his thoughts, when the Duke of Saxony calling him into his closet one morning with a face full of concern, shaking his head and looking very earnestly: What will become of us, doctor? said the duke, we shall all be undone at Frankfort-au-main. Why so, please your highness? says the doctor. Why, they will fight with the King of Sweden with our armies and our money, says the duke, and devour our friends and ourselves, by the help of our friends and ourselves. But what is become of the confederacy then, said the doctor, which your highness had so happily framed in your thoughts, and which the landgrave of Hesse was so pleased with? Become of it, says the duke, it is a good thought enough, but it is impossible to bring it to pass among so many members of the protestant princes as are to be consulted with, for we neither have time to treat, nor will half of them dare to negotiate the matter, the Imperialists being quartered in their very bowels. But may not some expedient be found out, says the doctor, to bring them all together to treat of it in a general meeting? It is well proposed, says the duke, but in what town or city shall they assemble, where the very deputies shall not be besieged by Tilly or Wallestein in fourteen days time, and sacrificed to the cruelty and fury of the emperor Ferdinand? Will your highness be the easier in it, replies the doctor, if a way may be found out to call such an assembly upon other causes, at which the emperor may have no umbrage, and perhaps give his assent? You know the diet at Frankfort is at hand; it is necessary the protestants should have an assembly of their own, to prepare matters for the general diet, and it may be no difficult matter to obtain it. The duke, surprised with joy at the motion, embraced the doctor with an extraordinary transport. Thou hast done it, doctor, said he, and immediately caused him to draw a form of a letter to the emperor, which he did with the utmost dexterity of style, in which he was a great master, representing to his imperial majesty, that in order to put an end to the troubles of Germany, his majesty would be pleased to permit the protestant princes of the empire to hold a diet to themselves, to consider of such

PROTESTANTS CONCLUSIONS FOR MUTUAL DEFENCE. 31

matters as they were to treat of at the general diet, in order to conform themselves to the will and pleasure of his imperial majesty, to drive out foreigners, and settle a lasting peace in the empire; he also insinuated something of their resolutions unanimously to give their suffrages in favour of the King of Hungary, at the election of a king of the Romans, a thing which he knew the emperor had in his thought, and would push at with all his might at the diet. This letter was sent, and the bait so neatly concealed, that the electors of Bavaria and Mentz, the King of Hungary, and several of the popish princes, not foreseeing that the ruin of them all lay in the bottom of it, foolishly advised the emperor to consent to it.

In consenting to this the emperor signed his own destruction, for here began the conjunction of the German protestants with the Swede, which was the fatalest blow to Ferdinand, and which he could never recover.

Accordingly the diet was held at Leipsic, February 8th, 1630; where the protestants agreed on several heads for their mutual defence, which were the grounds of the following war; these were the famous conclusions of Leipsic, which so alarmed the emperor and the whole empire, that to crush it in the beginning, the emperor commanded Count Tilly immediately to fall upon the Landgrave of Hesse, and the Duke of Saxony, as the principal heads of the union; but it was too late.

The conclusions were digested into ten heads:

1. That since their sins had brought God's judgments upon the whole protestant church, they should command public prayers to be made to Almighty God for the diverting the calamities that attended them.

2. That a treaty of peace might be set on foot, in order to come to a right understanding with the catholic princes.

3. That a time for such a treaty being obtained, they should appoint an assembly of delegates, to meet preparatory to the treaty.

4. That all their complaints should be humbly represented to his imperial majesty, and the catholic electors, in order to a peaceable accommodation.

5. That they claim the protection of the emperor, according to the laws of the empire, and the present emperor's solemn oath and promise.

6. That they would appoint deputies who should meet at

certain times to consult of their common interest, and who should be always empowered to conclude of what should be thought needful for their safety.

7. That they will raise a competent force to maintain and defend their liberties, rights, and religion.

8. That it is agreeable to the constitution of the empire, concluded in the diet at Augsburg, to do so.

9. That the arming for their necessary defence shall by no means hinder their obedience to his imperial majesty, but that they will still continue their loyalty to him.

10. They agree to proportion their forces which in all amounted to seventy thousand men.

The emperor, exceedingly startled at the conclusions, issued out a severe proclamation, or ban against them, which imported much the same thing as a declaration of war, and commanded Tilly to begin, and immediately to fall on the duke of Saxony, with all the fury imaginable, as I have already observed.

Here began the flame to break out; for upon the emperor's ban, the protestants send away to the king of Sweden for

succour.

His Swedish majesty had already conquered Mecklenburgh, and part of Pomerania, and was advancing with his victorious troops, increased by the addition of some regiments raised in those parts, in order to carry on the war against the emperor, having designed to follow up the Oder into Silesia, and so to push the war home to the emperor's hereditary countries of Austria and Bohemia, when the first messengers came to him in this case; but this changed his measures, and brought him to the frontiers of Brandenburgh, resolved to answer the desires of the protestants. But here the duke of Brandenburgh began to halt, making some difficulties and demanding terms which drove the king to use some extremities with him, and stopt the Swedes for a while, who had otherwise been on the banks of the Elbe, as soon as Tilly the imperial general had entered Saxony, which if they had done, the miserable destruction of Magdeburgh had been prevented, as I observed before.

The king had been invited into the union, and when he first came back from the banks of the Oder, he had accepted it, and was preparing to back it with all his power. The duke of Saxony had already a good army, which he

had with infinite diligence recruited, and mustered them under the cannon at Leipsic. The king of Sweden having, by his ambassador at Leipsic, entered into the union of the protestants, was advancing victoriously to their aid, just as Count Tilly had entered the duke of Saxony's dominions. The fame of the Swedish conquests, and of the hero who commanded them, shook my resolution of travelling into Turkey, being resolved to see the conjunction of the protestant armies, and before the fire was broke out too far, to take the advantage of seeing both sides.

While I remained at Vienna, uncertain which way I should proceed, I remember I observed they talked of the king of Sweden as a prince of no consideration, one that they might let go on and tire himself in Mecklenburgh, and thereabout, till they could find leisure to deal with him, and then might be crushed as they pleased; but 'tis never safe to despise an enemy, so this was not an enemy to be despised, as they afterwards found.

As to the conclusions of Leipsic, indeed at first they gave the imperial court some uneasiness, but when they found the imperial armies began to fright the members out of the union, and that the several branches had no considerable forces on foot, it was the general discourse at Vienna, that the union at Leipsic only gave the emperor an opportunity to crush absolutely the dukes of Saxony, Brandenburgh, and the landgrave of Hesse, and they looked upon it as a thing certain.

I never saw any real concern in their faces at Vienna, till news came to court that the king of Sweden had entered into the union; but as this made them very uneasy, they began to move the powerfulest methods possible to divert this storm; and upon this news Tilly was hastened to fall into Saxony before this union could proceed to a conjunction of forces. This was certainly a very good resolution, and no measure could have been more exactly concerted had not the diligence of the Saxons prevented it.

The gathering of this storm, which from a cloud began to spread over the empire, and from the little duchy of Mecklenburgh, began to threaten all Germany, absolutely determined me, as I noted before, as to travelling; and laying aside the thoughts of Hungary, I resolved, if possible, to see the king of Sweden's army.

I parted from Vienna the middle of May, and took post for

VOL. II.

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