would have reduced Thorn had it not been suddenly reenforced by a strong detachment of troops. Another and a more decisive battle was fought and won by Gustavus in person, at Stum, where the enemy, with a body of 7000 German auxiliaries under Arnheim, were routed with immense slaughter.

Peace was the happy consequence of the successes which in every quarter had crowned the military operations of the Swedish monarch. Sigismund, finding his ranks thinned by famine no less than by the sword of the enemy, consented to a truce of six years (1629), by which a glorious termination was put to the war with Muscovy and Poland. In negotiating this pacification, England, France, and Holland lent their willing aid, in order that Gustavus might be at liberty to turn his arms against the Emperor Ferdinand II., in support of the Protestant interests in Germany, where the Reformed faith was put in jeopardy by the grasping ambition of the house of Austria.

CHAPTER II.

From the Thirty Years' War to the Danish Revolution of 1660.

The Thirty Years' War.-Its Causes and Progress.-Christian IV. chosen Captain-general of the Protestant Army.-Victories of Wallenstein and Tilly.-Invasion of Denmark by the Catholic Troops.-Ambitious Views of Ferdinand II. and Wallenstein.-Peace between Austria and Denmark.-Gustavus Adolphus elected Commander of the combined Protestant Forces.-His Departure for Germany. - Successful Opening of the Campaign.-Defeat of Tilly at Leipsig.-Victories of the Swedes on the Rhine.-Passage of the Lech and Death of Tilly.-Restoration of Wallenstein.-Siege of Nuremberg-Battle of Lutzen and Death of Gustavus.-Prosecution of the War.-Peace of Westphalia.-War_between Sweden and Denmark.-Naval Engagements.- Peace of Bromsbro.-Death and Character of Christian IV.-His Ef forts to promote Trade and Navigation.-State of Affairs at the Accession of Frederic III.-Abdication of Christina of Sweden.-Her Pretensions to Literature.-Charles X. invades Poland.--Denmark embarks in the War.-Peace of Roskilde. -Final Cession of the Danish Provinces beyond the Sound. -Death of Charles X. and Peace of Oliva.-Treaty of Copenhagen.-Revolution of 1660.

Ir belongs not to the historian of the Northern kingdoms to enter upon a detail of those religious and political disputes in which the Continent of Europe had been involved for nearly a century, and which at this period broke out into the celebrated War of Thirty Years, whose destructive ravages spread from the interior of Bohemia to the banks of the Po on the one hand, and the shores of the Baltic on the other. A brief recapitulation of its causes, and of the events which connected it with the states of the North, is all that is essential for the purpose of Scandinavian history. The whole transactions of this memorable era are intimately associated with the Reformation, which, although finally established in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, still struggled in Germany with the ancient hierarchy for a doubtful and precarious existence.

The religious peace of the empire had been apparently secured by the treaty of Passau in 1552, confirmed by the recess of the diet of Augsburg in 1555. That compact guarantied the mutual toleration of the Catholic and Protestant doctrines in the different states, constituting the supreme civil power in each the sole competent judge to decide which form of worship should be the established faith, but securing to those who might refuse to conform liberty to remove with their effects into the territory where their own creed was publicly professed. The alienation of all ecclesiastical property, secularized prior to the treaty, was confirmed; with this stipulation, that if any of the clergy should thereafter abandon the Romish Church, his benefice should immediately be filled up with a Catholic successor, as if vacant by death or the translation of the incumbent. This provision, called the Ecclesiasticum Reservatum, by which the future progress of the Reformation was arrested in Germany, and the omission to protect those Protestant dissentients who had separated from the Confession of Augsburg, under Zuinglius and Calvin, became the fruitful sources of new contentions, whereby the ancient constitution of the empire was shaken to its foundation. The flames of war burst out in Bohemia, where the edict of toleration granted to the Lutherans by Rodolph II. was revoked. The Protestants were defeated at the White Mountain, near Prague (November 8, 1620); their leaders expiated on the scaffold the crime of defending their chartered liberties; and as the Emperor Ferdinand had declared he would have no subjects but Catholics, 200,000 of the inhabitants who refused to conform were obliged to sell their property and abandon their native land. The league was dissolved; and although Count Mansfeldt and Duke Christian of Bavaria defended the Reformed faith for a while with heroic valour, they were unable to resist the Imperialists, under the Bavarian general Tilly, who inundated Lower Saxony, ravaging the country, and sequestrating the possessions of the Church.

In this desperate emergency, the assembled states of that circle turned their eyes for succour to the kingdoms of the North. According to the account of this affair given by Schiller, Christian IV. and Gustavus Adolphus both coveted the glory of saving the Protestant cause at this perilous

juncture. The fame which the Swedish monarch had acquired by his exploits in Poland and Muscovy had excited the envy of Christian, who burned with impatience to emulate the brilliant deeds of his rival. His peculiar position as a sovereign member of the Lower Saxony circle, with the contiguity of Jutland and the Danish isles, which secured him a retreat in case of disaster, gave him evident advantages in this competition, and induced the Protestant powers to urge his acceptance of the supreme command of the combined force about to be raised for protecting the liberties of Germany. It is, however, worthy of remark, that no allusion to this rivalry is to be found in the contemporary annalists, nor in the correspondence of the negotiators concerned in these transactions. If their testimony is to be credited, the defence of Protestantism was urged on Gustavus by his brother monarch; but the state of affairs in Poland rendering it impossible for him to comply, the latter was himself reluctantly persuaded to undertake the task, on the assurance of receiving support from every quarter of Christendom.*

Trusting to these promised supplies, the king attended a convocation of the Saxon states at Lauenburg (March, 1625), where he entered into a league with the free cities of the circle, and was chosen captain-general of the confederated army. With a body of 25,000 men, collected in Holstein, consisting of Danes, Germans, Scots, and English, he crossed the Elbe to Stade, and on reaching the Weser was joined by 7000 Saxons. Tilly, with the forces of the Catholic union, was on the opposite bank of the river, and carried on his operations with success; but the campaign was marked by no decisive action. As Christian was not vigorously supported by his allies, hostilities continued to languish until the appearance of the celebrated Wallenstein on the scene, whose imperishable fame still lives in history and poetry, in the eloquent pages of Schiller. He had already served the House of Austria with distinction against the Turks, Venetians, and Hungarians, and received the title of Prince of Friedland in reward for his

* Schiller, History of the Thirty Years' War (Moir's Translation), b. ii., p. 156. Heeren, Political System of Europe, vol. i., p. 142-146. Loccen., lib. viii. Puffend., tom. vi., lib. vi.

gallant achievements. His first exploit was the defeat of Count Mansfeldt at Dessau, where a corps of 10,000 Protestants was almost totally destroyed. The loss of this brave officer, who died of sickness and fatigue, was soon followed by the death of Duke Christian, and then the Danish monarch was left to contend alone with two of the ablest generals in the Imperial dominions. One town after another fell into their hands; and in a decisive battle, fought near the castle of Lutter, on the road from Gottingen to Brunswick (August 27, 1626), victory declared in favour of Tilly, after a sanguinary action, which cost the Protestants 4000 men, besides a vast number of prisoners.

This severe blow compelled the Danes to retreat to Stade, where Christian endeavoured to obtain from the states of Holstein a vote of fresh supplies. While his fortunes were thus under a cloud, the allied princes and free cities of Saxony gradually abandoned him, and submitted to the terms of peace dictated by the victorious foe. Still the gallant monarch kept the field, having augmented his army to 30,000 men, including 6000 English and Scottish troops under General Morgan, and a small body of French commanded by Count Montgomery. The advance of Wal→ lenstein from Silesia at length put an end to all hope of successful resistance, and threatened Christian with the invasion of his own territories. His newly-raised forces were scattered before the storm, pursued by the veteran bands of Tilly, who overran the duchies of Sleswig and Holstein, their natural ferocity being exasperated by religious fanaticism to inflict wanton cruelties upon a race of heretics. The king retreated to Kolding, whence he fled across the Little Belt into Fionia with the wreck of his army; while another remnant escaped to the northern promontory of Jutland, passed the Liim Fiord into the peninsula of Vendsyssel, where they were forced to lay down their arms; and thus the entire Cimbric Chersonese, from the Elbe to the Skager Rack, so long unvisited by the ravages of war, yielded to the detested yoke of a foreign conqueror. The strong fortress of Gluckstadt alone held out for Christian.

The ambitious views of Ferdinand and his aspiring lieutenant were now directed to more magnificent conquests; aiming at nothing less than the destruction of the