The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648Gardiner, Samuel Rawson
History
The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648
Gardiner, Samuel Rawson
Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648
Like Naseby, too, Breitenfeld had in it something of more universal
import. Naseby was the victory of disciplined intelligence over
disorderly bravery. Breitenfeld was the victory of disciplined
intelligence over the stiff routine of the Spanish tactics. Those
tactics were, after all, but the military expression of the religious
and political system in defence of which they were used. Those solid
columns just defeated were the types of what human nature was to become
under the Jesuit organization. The individual was swallowed up in the
mass. As Tilly had borne down by the sheer weight of his veterans
adventurers like Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick, so the renewed
Catholic discipline had borne down the wrangling theologians who had
stepped into the places of Luther and Melanchthon. But now an army had
arisen to prove that order and obedience were weak unless they were
supported by individual intelligence. The success of the principle upon
which its operations were based could not be confined to mere fighting.
It would make its way in morals and politics, in literature and science.
[Sidenote: § 4. Wallenstein's intrigues with Gustavus.]
Great was the joy in Protestant Germany when the news was told. The
cities of the south prepared once more to resist their oppressors. All
that was noblest in France hailed the tidings with acclamation. English
Eliot, writing from his prison in the Tower, could speak of Gustavus as
that person whom fortune and virtue had reserved for the wonder of the
world! Even Wallenstein, from his Bohemian retreat, uttered a cry of
satisfaction. For Wallenstein was already in communication with
Gustavus, who, Protestant as he was, was avenging him upon the League
which had assailed him and the Emperor who had abandoned him. He had
offered to do great things, if he could be trusted with a Swedish force
of 12,000 men. He was well pleased to hear of Tilly's defeat. "If such a
thing had happened to me," he said to an emissary of Gustavus, "I would
kill myself. But it is a good thing for us." If only the King of Sweden
would trust him with men, he would soon bring together the officers of
his old army. He would divide the goods of the Jesuits and their
followers amongst the soldiers. The greatest folly the Bohemians had
committed, he said, had been to throw Martinitz and Slawata out of
window instead of thrusting a sword through their bodies. If his plan
were accepted he would chase the Emperor and the House of Austria over
the Alps. But he hoped Gustavus would not allow himself to be entangled
too far in the French alliances.
[Sidenote: § 5. His designs.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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