Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

X.

1551.

trusting others, destitute of friends, and surrounded by Cas- BOOK taldo's and Martinuzzi's troops, subscribed these hard conditions, though with a reluctant hand. Upon this, she surrendered such places of strength as were still in her possession, she gave up all the ensigns of royalty, particularly a crown of gold, which, as the Hungarians believed, had descended from heaven, and conferred on him who wore it an undoubted right to the throne. As she could not bear to remain a private person, in a country where she had once enjoyed sovereign power, she instantly set out with her son for Silesia, in order to take possession of the principalities of Oppelen and Ratibor, the investiture of which Ferdinand had engaged to grant her son, and likewise to bestow one of his daughters upon him in marriage.

of that part

governor

of Hungary which was subject

nand.

UPON the resignation of the young King, Martinuzzi, and Appointed after his example the rest of the Transylvanian grandees, swore allegiance to Ferdinand; who, in order to testify his grateful sense of the zeal as well as success with which that prelate had served him, affected to distinguish him by every to Ferdipossible mark of favour and confidence. He appointed him governor of Transylvania, with almost unlimited authority; he publicly ordered Castaldo to pay the greatest deference to his opinion and commands; he increased his revenues, which were already very great, by new appointments; he nominated him archbishop of Gran, and prevailed on the Pope to raise him to the dignity of a Cardinal. All this ostentation of good-will, however, was void of sincerity, and calculated to conceal sentiments the most perfectly its reverse. Ferdinand dreaded Martinuzzi's abilities; distrusted his fidelity; and foresaw, that as his extensive authority enabled him to check any attempt towards circumscribing or abolishing the extensive privileges which the Hungarian nobility possessed, he would stand forth, on every occasion, the guardian of the liberties of his country, rather than act the part of a viceroy devoted to the will of his sovereign.

begins to

For this reason he secretly gave it in charge to Castaldo Ferdinand to watch his motions, to guard against his designs, and to form dethwart his measures. But Martinuzzi, either because he signs against him.

X.

1551.

BOOK did not perceive that Castaldo was placed as a spy on his actions, or because he despised Ferdinand's insidious arts, assumed the direction of the war against the Turks with his usual tone of authority, and conducted it with great magnanimity, and no less success. He recovered some places of which the Infidels had taken possession; he rendered their attempts to reduce others abortive; and established Ferdinand's authority not only in Transylvania, but in the Bannat of Temeswar, and several of the countries adjacent. In carrying on these operations, he often differed in sentiments from Castaldo and his officers, and treated the Turkish prisoners with a degree not only of humanity, but even of generosity, which Castaldo loudly condemned. This was represented at Vienna as an artful method of courting the friendship of the Infidels, that, by securing their protection, he might shake off all dependance upon the sovereign whom he now acknowledged. Though Martinuzzi, in justification of his own conduct, contended that it was impolitic by unnecessary severities to exasperate an enemy prone to revenge, Castaldo's accusations gained credit with Ferdinand, prepossessed already against Martinuzzi, and jealous of every thing that could endanger his own authority in Hungary, in proportion as he knew it to be precarious and ill-established. These suspicions Castaldo confirmed and strengthened, by the intelligence which he transmitted continually to his confidants at Vienna. By misrepresenting what was innocent, and putting the worst construction on what seemed dubious in Martinuzzi's conduct; by imputing to him designs which he never formed, and charging him with actions of which he was not guilty; he at last convinced Ferdinand, that, in order to preserve his Hungarian crown, he must cut off that ambitious prelate. But Ferdinand, foreseeing that it would be dangerous to proceed in the regular course of law against a subject of such exorbitant power as might enable him to set his sovereign at defiance, determined to employ violence, in order to obtain that satisfaction which the laws were too feeble to afford him.

He is as

HẸ issued his orders accordingly to Castaldo, who wilsassinated lingly undertook that infamous service. Having communi

X.

mand.

Dec. 18.

cated the design of some Italian and Spanish officers whom B O O K he could trust, and concerted with them the plan of executing it, they entered Martinuzzi's apartment, early one morn- 1551. ing, under pretence of presenting to him some dispatches by his comwhich were to be sent off immediately to Vienna; and while he perused a paper with attention, one of their number struck him with his poignard in the throat. The blow was not mortal. Martinuzzi started up with the intrepidity. natural to him, and grappling the assassin, threw him to the ground. But the other conspirators rushing in, an old man, unarmed, and alone, was unable long to sustain such an unequal conflict, and sunk under the wounds which he received from so many hands. The Transylvanians were restrained by dread of the foreign troops stationed in their country, from rising in arms, in order to take vengeance on the murderers of a prelate who had long been the object of their love as well as veneration. They spoke of the deed, how- The effect ever, with horror and execration; and exclaimed against of that vioFerdinand, whom neither gratitude for recent and important services, nor reverence for a character considered as sacred and inviolable among Christians, could restrain from shedding the blood of a man, whose only crime was attachment to his native country. The nobles, detesting the jealous as well as cruel policy of a court, which, upon uncertain and improbable surmises, had given up a person, no less conspicuous for his merit than his rank, to be butchered by assassins, either retired to their own estates, or if they continued with the Austrian army, grew cold to the service. The Turks, encouraged by the death of an enemy, whose abilities they knew and dreaded, prepared to renew hostilities early in the spring; and instead of the security which Ferdinand had expected from the removal of Martinuzzi, it was evident that his territories in Hungary were about to be attacked with greater vigour, and defended with less zeal than ever a.

a Sleid. 535. Thuan. lib. ix. 309, &c. Istuanhaffi Hist. Regn. Hungarici, lib. xvi. 189, &c. Mem. de Ribier, ii. 871. Natalis Comitis Historia, lib. iv. 84, &c.

lent action.

[blocks in formation]

BOOK

X.

1551. Maurice

courts the protection of the French King.

His treaty

with him.

By this time Maurice having almost finished his intrigues and preparations, was on the point of declaring his intentions openly, and of taking the field against the Emperor. His first care, after he came to this resolution, was to disclaim that narrow and bigotted maxim of the confederates of Smalkalde, which had led them to shun all connexion with foreigners. He had observed how fatal this had been to their cause; and, instructed by their error, he was as eager to court the protection of Henry II. as they had been solicitous to prevent the interposition of Francis I. Happily for him, he found Henry in a disposition to listen to the first overture on his part, and in a situation which enabled him to bring the whole force of the French monarchy into action. Hen-ry had long observed the progress of the Emperor's arms with jealousy, and wished to distinguish himself by entering the lists against the same enemy, whom it had been the glory of his father's reign to oppose. He had laid hold on the first opportunity in his power of thwarting the Emperor's designs, by taking the Duke of Parma under his protection; and hostilities were already begun, not only in that dutchy but in Piedmont. Having terminated the war with England by a peace, no less advantageous to himself than honourable for his allies the Scots, the restless and enterprising courage of his nobles was impatient to display itself on some theatre of action more conspicuous than the petty operations in Parma and Piedmont afforded them.

JOHN DE FIENNE, bishop of Bayonne, whom Henry had sent into Germany, under pretence of hiring troops to be employed in Italy, was empowered to conclude a treaty in form with Maurice and his associates. As it would have been very indecent in a King of France to have undertaken the defence of the Protestant church, the interests of religion, how much soever they might be affected by the treaty, were not once mentioned in any of the articles. Religious concerns they pretended to commit entirely to the disposition of Divine Providence; the only motives assigned for their present confederacy against Charles, were to procure the Landgrave liberty, and to prevent the subversion of the an cient constitution and laws of the German Empire.

In

order to accomplish these ends, it was agreed, that all the B O O K contracting parties should, at the same time, declare war

[ocr errors]

against the Emperor; that neither peace nor truce should be made but by common consent, nor without including each of the confederates; that, in order to guard against the inconveniences of anarchy, or of pretensions to joint command, Maurice should be acknowledged as head of the German confederates, with absolute authority in all military affairs; that Maurice and his associates should bring into the field seven thousand horse, with a proportional number of infantry; that, towards the subsistence of this army, during the three first months of the war, Henry should contribute two hundred and forty thousand crowns, and afterwards sixty thousand crowns a-month, as long as they continued in arms; that Henry should attack the Emperor on the side of Lorrain with a powerful army; that if it were found requisite to elect a new Emperor, such a person should be nominated as shall be agreeable to the King of France. This treaty was concluded on the fifth of October, some time before Magdeburg surrendered, and the preparatory negociations were conducted with such profound secrecy, that, of all the Princes who afterwards acceded to it, Maurice communicated what he was carrying on to two only, John Albert, the reigning Duke of Mecklenburg, and William of Hesse, the Landgrave's eldest son. The league itself was no less anxiously concealed, and with such fortunate care, that no rumour concerning it reached the ears of the Emperor or his ministers; nor do they seem to have conceived the most distant suspicion of such a transaction.

X.

1551.

ward VI. of England.

At the same time, with a solicitude which was careful to Solicits the draw some accession of strength from every quarter, Mau- aid of Edrice applied to Edward VI. of England, and requested a subsidy of four hundred thousand crowns for the support of a confederacy formed in defence of the Protestant religion. But the factions which prevailed in the English court during the minority of that Prince, and which deprived both the councils and arms of the nation of their wonted vigour, left the English ministers neither time nor inclination to attend

b Recueil des Traitez, tom. ii. 258. Thuan. lib. viii. 279.

« VorigeDoorgaan »