The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648Gardiner, Samuel Rawson
History
The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648
Gardiner, Samuel Rawson
Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648
Maximilian of Bavaria viewed the question of peace from another point of
view. To him Alsace was nothing, and he warmly recommended Ferdinand to
surrender it for the sake of peace. If concessions were to be made at
all, he preferred making them to Catholic France rather than to the
Protestants in the Empire, and he was convinced that if Alsace remained
under French rule, the motive which had led France to support the
Protestants would lose its chief weight. But besides these general
considerations, Maximilian, like Ferdinand, had a special interest of
his own. He was resolved, come what might, to retain at least the Upper
Palatinate, and he trusted to be seconded in his resolve by the good
offices of France.
[Sidenote: § 6. The campaign of 1646.]
The position of Maximilian was thus something like that of John George
of Saxony in 1632. He and his chief ally were both ready for peace, but
his ally stood out for higher terms than he was prepared to demand. And
as in 1632 Wallenstein saw in the comparative moderation of the Elector
of Saxony only a reason for driving him by force to separate his cause
from that of Gustavus, so in 1646 the French government resolved to
fall upon Bavaria, and to force the elector to separate his cause from
that of Ferdinand.
[Sidenote: § 7. Turenne out-manoeuvres the Bavarians.]
The year before, the Elector of Saxony, crushed and ruined by the
Swedes, had consented to a separate truce, and now Turenne was
commissioned to do the same with Bavaria. In August he effected a
junction on the Lahn with Wrangel and the Swedes, and if Enghien had
been there, history would doubtless have had to tell of another butchery
as resultless as those of Freiburg and Nördlingen. But Enghien was far
away in Flanders, laying siege to Dunkirk, and Turenne, for the first
time at the head of a superior force, was about to teach the world a
lesson in the art of war. Whilst the enemy was preparing for the
expected attack by entrenching his position, the united French and
Swedish armies slipped past them and marched straight for the heart of
Bavaria, where an enemy had not been seen since Bernhard had been chased
out in 1634. That one day, as Turenne truly said, altered the whole face
of affairs. Everywhere the roads were open. Provisions were plentiful.
The population was in the enjoyment of the blessings of peace. Turenne
and Wrangel crossed the Danube without difficulty. Schorndorf, Würzburg,
Nördlingen, Donauwörth made no resistance to them. It was not till they
came to Augsburg that they met with opposition. The enemy had time to
come up. But there was no unanimity in the councils of the enemy. The
Bavarian generals wanted to defend Bavaria. The imperialist generals
wanted to defend the still remaining Austrian possessions in Swabia. The
invaders were allowed to accomplish their purpose. They arrived at the
gates of Munich before the citizens knew what had become of their
master's army.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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