Lectures on Modern historyActon, John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, Baron
History
Lectures on Modern history
Acton, John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, Baron
History, Modern
Pappenheim's blood, in the Museum of the Austrian army. He rode into
battle at Lutzen with eight regiments of horse, seeking Gustavus.
They never met, for they were both killed, and as the king's charger
flew in terror along the line, the empty saddle told his soldiers of
their loss. It was an indecisive day, leaving the balance of forces
nearly as they remained, until Moltke, in one pitched battle,
succeeding where Gustavus, Turenne, Frederic, and even Napoleon
failed, overthrew for ever the military power of Austria.
Neither the Duke of Weimar nor Oxenstiern enjoyed the personal
ascendency of Gustavus Adolphus. The minister could not deal as he
did with German princes, nor the German prince with German territory.
The Swedish cause was very seriously weakened, and as the emperor gave
up the idea of restitution, which was hopeless, and which had done so
much to intensify animosities, and as Wallenstein commanded and Tilly
was dead, it became possible to discuss terms of peace with the
Saxons, who dreaded the moderated emperor less than the formidable
Swedes. That situation gives the basis of the tragedy that followed.
Wallenstein enjoyed undivided command. If the enemy accepted his
proposals, he thought himself strong enough to compel their acceptance
at Vienna. He opened two negotiations, one with the Saxons, to get
rid of the Swedes, the other with the Swedes themselves. The latter
was promoted by his friends, the Bohemian exiles; but Oxenstiern was
reluctant, and required that Wallenstein should declare against his
master. If he would do that, he should have the crown of Bohemia.
Wallenstein refused, and the matter was allowed to drop.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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