The History of the Thirty Years' WarSchiller, Friedrich
History
The History of the Thirty Years' War
Schiller, Friedrich
Europe -- History -- 1517-1648; Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648
So long as was possible, he had delayed to move to the rescue of
Bavaria, and on every pretext evaded the commands of the Emperor. He
had, indeed, after reiterated remonstrances, despatched from Bohemia a
reinforcement of some regiments to Count Altringer, who was defending
the Lech and the Danube against Horn and Bernard, but under the express
condition of his acting merely on the defensive. He referred the Emperor
and the Elector, whenever they applied to him for aid, to Altringer,
who, as he publicly gave out, had received unlimited powers; secretly,
however, he tied up his hands by the strictest injunctions, and even
threatened him with death, if he exceeded his orders. When Duke Bernard
had appeared before Ratisbon, and the Emperor as well as the Elector
repeated still more urgently their demand for succour, he pretended he
was about to despatch General Gallas with a considerable army to the
Danube; but this movement also was delayed, and Ratisbon, Straubing, and
Cham, as well as the bishopric of Eichstaedt, fell into the hands of the
Swedes. When at last he could no longer neglect the orders of the Court,
he marched slowly toward the Bavarian frontier, where he invested the
town of Cham, which had been taken by the Swedes. But no sooner did
he learn that on the Swedish side a diversion was contemplated, by
an inroad of the Saxons into Bohemia, than he availed himself of the
report, as a pretext for immediately retreating into that kingdom.
Every consideration, he urged, must be postponed to the defence and
preservation of the hereditary dominions of the Emperor; and on this
plea, he remained firmly fixed in Bohemia, which he guarded as if it had
been his own property. And when the Emperor laid upon him his commands
to move towards the Danube, and prevent the Duke of Weimar from
establishing himself in so dangerous a position on the frontiers of
Austria, Wallenstein thought proper to conclude the campaign a second
time, and quartered his troops for the winter in this exhausted kingdom.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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