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GOVERNMENT OF SWEDEN. [CHAP. XXXIV. progress in Aragon. But Philip's army recaptured Monçon, and compelled the French to retire into Catalonia (November, 1643. At sea the French retained their superiority; and on the whole, chequered with some reverses, the Spanish campaign went this year in favour of the French.

The German campaign of 1643 presents little worth detailing. In the south, Guébriant was driven back into Alsace; but having been reinforced with some of Enghien's troops in October, he re-entered Suabia, and laid siege to Rothweil, which surrendered November 19th. Guébriant died a few days after entering the town, of a wound received during the siege. The confusion which ensued in his army upon his death enabled the Imperialists under the Duke of Lorraine, John of Werth, and other generals, to recover the place, and to scatter the Franco-Weimarian army. In the north, Torstenson had been able to do little more than maintain his former conquests. But a new enemy had now entered the field. Christian IV. of Denmark had reconciled himself with the Emperor, and was intent on playing the part of mediator in the negotiations that were to ensue for a general peace. Such a policy was viewed with jealousy and suspicion by Sweden; Oxenstiern sought a pretext for declaring war against Denmark; and, towards the close of 1643, Torstenson received secret instructions to invade the Danish territories. But the relations between these two countries will require a few words of explanation.

After the death of Gustavus Adolphus, the Swedish States had recognized his daughter, Christina, then six years of age, as "Queen Elect," and an oligarchical government had been established, from which the Queen- Dowager, as well as the late King's brother-in-law, the Palsgrave John Casimir of Kleeburg, were entirely excluded. By direction of Gustavus before he left Sweden, the regency was in the hands of a Great Council, consisting of five Colleges, viz.: the Aulic Court, War Council, Admiralty, Chancery, and Treasury; comprising altogether twenty-five persons; and the heads of these Colleges, who were severally the Constable, Marshal, Admiral, Chancellor, and Treasurer, formed the executive government. As the Chancellor Oxenstiern had procured the appointment of two of his kinsmen to the offices of Constable and Treasurer, he was enabled to conduct the govern ment with almost absolute power. He controlled completely the education of the young Queen, and, though he procured for her the best instruction in art, science, and literature, the course pursued was calculated to extinguish all feminine qualities. The

CHAP. XXXIV.]

TORSTENSON INVADES DENMARK.

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Queen-Dowager was not unnaturally hurt at seeing herself excluded from all power and influence, and by the scanty allowance made her by the regency while the members of it were themselves in the enjoyment of enormous salaries and lucrative appointments. Hence she was weak enough to open communications with Christian of Denmark, holding out to him as a bait the hand of Christina for his eldest son; and Christian, though he perceived what a foolish and ruinous course she was entering on, did not hesitate to encourage her by his protection. In 1640 a Danish man-ofwar was sent to Nyköping to bring her away, and she fled into Denmark, accompanied only by one lady and a Dane sent for the purpose. After some stay in Denmark, Mary Eleanor proceeded into Brandenburg, and did not return to Sweden till 1648.

This occurrence produced a coldness between Sweden and Denmark, which was further increased by Christian's subservient policy to the Emperor. An angry correspondence ensued between the two governments; nothing was wanting but a pretext to declare war; and this was afforded by a quarrel respecting the Sound dues. Sweden, by treaties with Denmark, was exempt from this toll, and she made use of the privilege to cover with her flag the goods of foreign merchants. The Danes retaliated by seizing three Swedish vessels, and Torstenson received in consequence the order already mentioned to enter Danish territory. He conducted the invasion in a manner remarkable both for boldness of design and finish of execution. His intention was kept entirely secret, and meanwhile his operations were calculated to avert all suspicion of his real design. He caused reports of his movements to be circulated which alarmed Bavaria; he threw bridges over the Elbe at points where he had no idea of crossing; and it was not till he reached Havelberg, December 6th, that he declared to his officers his intention of taking up his winterquarters in Holstein, Sleswick, and Jutland.

The peculiar constitution of Denmark rendered that Kingdom an easy prey to so enterprising an enemy. The King being tied down by rigorous capitulations, all the real power in the State lay with the nobles, who held Crown lands on condition of paying a fifth to the King, and maintaining the fortresses in an efficient state of repair; but this duty had been shamefully neglected. The Council, composed of seven members chosen by the nobles, would neither grant the King any extraordinary supply in this emergency, nor even suffer his German mercenaries to remain in the country. It is not surprising, therefore, that Torstenson,

256

CAMPAIGN OF 1644.

[CHAP. XXXIV. who entered Holstein January 16th, 1644, when war was firs: declared, found it an easy task to overrun the Danish territory. Krempe and Glückstadt, in Holstein, alone defended themselves; the whole of the Danish peninsula was speedily overrun; but Torstenson's attempts to pass over to the islands were unsuccessful. At the same time Gustavus Horn and Lars Kagg entered the Danish province of Schonen in Sweden, took Helsingborg (February 17th), and then Landskrona; but Malmö, which was defended by Christian in person, resisted all their efforts.

The Emperor directed Gallas to follow Torstenson into Denmark; a step which, after the annihilation of Guébriant's army, might be ventured on with the more confidence. But Gallas, at best no very brilliant commander, seemed to have lost with advancing years what little military talent he had formerly possessed, and to have fallen deeper into his errors of over much caution and dilatoriness. He did not leave his quarters till May, and then marched with such deliberation that it was July before he reached Holstein; where, after taking Kiel, he resorted to his old method of a fortified camp. Torstenson, though seriously unwell, assembled his army at Rendsburg in the first week of August, newly equipped at the expense of the Danes. Sickness had not deprived him of his adventurous daring. Leaving a small force in Sleswick and Jutland, he offered the Imperialists battle; and, as Gallas did not think fit to leave his camp, passed it contemptuously with his whole army, without the loss of a single baggage-waggon, and reached Ratzburg in safety. Gallas was now compelled to retreat on Bernburg and Magdeburg, during which operation he lost a great part of his army, and on the 23rd of November his cavalry was annihilated. He is said to have brought back only 2,000 men into Bohemia. At sea, meanwhile, the Swedish admiral, Klas Flemming, had appeared, in June, with a fleet of forty sail; the old King, Christian IV., went out to give him battle; an action ensued, in which Christian displayed conspicuous valour, and the victory at nightfall remained undecided. The Swedish admiral being killed a little after, Charles Gustavus Wrangel, the celebrated general, was appointed to succeed him, and was victorious at sea, as he had formerly been on land, defeating the Danish fleet between the islands of Femern and Laaland; but the summer of 1614 was unpropitious for naval operations, and little was done.

Early in 1645 Torstenson again penetrated into Bohemia, and in March, at Jankowitz, in the neighbourhood of Tabor, achieved

CHAP. XXXIV.] ACCESSION OF CHRISTINA IN Sweden.

257

over the Imperialists one of the most signal victories of the Thirty Years' War. Of the three Imperial generals, John of Werth alone escaped; Götz was slain, Hatzfeld taken prisoner; 7,000 of their men fell in the action, and 70 colours became the trophies of the victors. In the north, General Königsmark drove Prince Frederick, son of the Danish King, out of the Bishoprics of Bremen and Verden, which had been relinquished to him by the Emperor Ferdinand II.; but the Swedes could not maintain themselves in Jutland, Sleswick, and Holstein, though at sea they captured the island of Bornholm. The Dutch and French had now begun to interfere in the quarrel in the interest of their commerce with regard to the Sound dues; they had pressed their mediation on the belligerents, and a congress had been opened at Brömsebro, while hostilities continued. Christina now reigned in Sweden, having assumed the reins of government on her eighteenth birthday, December 8th, 1644. The memory of her great father procured for her extraordinary respect and influence, and she fortunately reposed her confidence in Salvius, the advocate of peace. Oxenstiern and the Council were opposed to any accommodation; but after six months of negotiation she made the Chancellor lower his terms, and on the 14th of August, 1645, the peace of Brömsebro was concluded. The terms were still hard for Denmark. Swedish vessels were exempted from all tolls in the Sound and Belts; Denmark ceded Jämtland, Hejeadalen, and Oesel, for ever, Halland for thirty years-the same thing under a different name; Christian's son Frederick renounced Bremen and Verden. The further operations of Torstenson against the Emperor, after his victory at Jankowitz, were remotely supported by the Turks. The declining power of that people, whose history we have brought down to the accession of Amurath IV. in 1623,' now caused them to play only a subordinate part in the affairs of Europe, and for a long period there has been no occasion to advert to their proceedings; though, had they possessed their former might, the Thirty Years' War would. hardly have been neglected as an opportunity of extending their dominions at the expense of the Empire. Yet they still commanded the means of annoyance, as they continued to occupy Buda and a considerable portion of Hungary on the left bank of the Danube.

The insubordination of the Janissaries had continued after the accession of Amurath, but at length, by their own moderation and submission, they restored peace to the distracted Empire. See above, p. 139.

258

RETROSPECT OF TURKISH HISTORY. [CHAP. XXXIV. Its affairs had altered so much for the better, that Sir Thomas Roe, in a letter to Sir Isaac Wake, April 6th, 1628, observes: "My last judgment is that this Empire may stand, but never rise again." In 1632 the Janissaries attempted another abortive revolt, and after this period Amurath IV. displayed a cruelty and bloodthirstiness which had not before been observed in his character. From that year to 1637, he is said to have put to death 25,000 men, and a considerable number of them with his own hand. The attention of Amurath was diverted from the affairs of Europe by his wars with Persia and the Druses. In 1638 he captured Bagdad, which had been fifteen years in the hands of the Persians; when he caused several thousand prisoners to be slaughtered before him as he sat upon a throne. In June, 1639, he entered Constantinople in triumph. But his constitu tion was already broken through fatigue, excitement, and debauchery; and being seized with a violent fever, the consequence of a carouse, he died February 9th, 1640, at the age of thirty.

Amurath was succeeded by his brother Ibrahim, whom, in the dilirium of his mortal fever, he had ordered to be put to death. Ibrahim, now in his twenty-fifth year, was already completely unnerved by the dissolute pleasures of the harem, in which he had been kept secluded; he would willingly have declined the diadem; and he could not be persuaded that his brother was dead, till, swooning with fear of being strangled, he was dragged into the chamber where lay the corpse of Amurath. The change of rule, however, was tranquilly effected; and with the hope of enjoying better times under the new Sultan, even the Janissaries and Spahis were tranquil. Ibrahim, though not altogether destitute of talent and mother-wit, soon betrayed a total want of princely dignity, and passed his days in the inmost recesses of the harem, with women, jugglers, and musicians.

At the commencement of the new reign peace was renewed with the Christian Powers, many of which, as England, France. Venice, and Holland, now maintained resident ambassadors at the Porte. The only relations which seemed to threaten hostility were those with the Emperor; but in March, 1642, the peace between the two Powers was renewed at Szöny. The only op war waged during the reign of Ibrahim was that with Venice. In spite of many disputes between the Venetians and the Porte, th. peace between these Powers had remained unbroken since 1578.

Négociations, &c., p. 809.

2 Relatione di Constantin, ap. Zinkeisen, Gesch. des osm. Reiches, B. iv. S. 25.