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experience in the art of war, were equal to the great and B OOK complicated efforts which such an undertaking required. The French, though not far removed from their own frontier, began already to suffer from scarcity of provisions, and had no sufficient magazines collected to support them during a siege, which must necessarily have been of great length. At the same time, the Queen of Hungary, governess of the Low-Countries, had assembled a considerable body of troops, which, under the command of Martin de Rossem, laid waste Champagne, and threatened the adjacent provinces of France. These concurring circumstances obliged the King, though with reluctance, to abandon the enterprise. But being willing to acquire some merit with his allies, by this retreat which he could not avoid, he pretended to the Swiss that he had taken the resolution merely in compliance with their request P; and then, after giving orders that all the horses in his army should be led to drink in the Rhine, as a proof of his having pushed his conquest so far, he marched back towards Champagne.

The operations of Al

burg.

WHILE the French King and the main of the conarmy federates were thus employed, Albert of Brandenburg was bert of intrusted with the command of a separate body of eight Bandenthousand men, consisting chiefly of mercenaries who had resorted to his standard, rather from the hope of plunder, than the expectation of regular pay. That Prince, seeing himself at the head of such a number of desperate adventurers, ready to follow wherever he should lead them, soon began to disdain a state of subordination, and to form such extravagant schemes of aggrandizing himself, as seldom occur, even to ambitious minds, unless when civil war or violent factions rouse them to bold exertions, by alluring them with immediate hopes of success. Full of these aspiring thoughts, Albert made war in a manner very different from the other confederates. He endeavoured to spread the terror of his arms by the rapidity of his motions, as well as the extent and rigour of his devastations; he exacted contributions wherever he came, in order to amass such a sum of mo

o Thuan. 351, 352.

p Sleid. 557. Brantome, tom. vii. 39.

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BOOK ney, as would put it in his power to keep his army together; he laboured to get possession of Nuremburg, Ulm, or some other of the free cities in Upper Germany, in which, as a capital, he might fix the seat of his power. But, finding these cities on their guard, and in a condition to resist his attacks, he turned all his rage against the popish ecclesiastics, whose territories he plundered with such wanton and merciless barbarity, as gave them a very unfavourable impression of the spirit of that reformation in religion, with zeal for which he pretended to be animated. The bishops of Bambergh and Wurzburgh, by their situation, lay particularly exposed to his ravages; he obliged the former to transfer to him, in property, almost one half of his extensive diocese; and compelled the latter to advance a great sum of money, in order to save his territories from ruin and desolation. During all those wild sallies, Albert paid no regard either to Maurice's orders, whose commands as Generalissimo of the league he had engaged to obey, or to the remonstrances of the other confederates; and manifestly discovered, that he attended only to his own private emolument, without any solicitude about the common cause, or the general objects which had induced them to take arms 9.

The nego ciations of peace at Passau.

MAURICE having ordered his army to march back into Bavaria, and having published a proclamation enjoining the Lutheran clergy and instructors of youth, to resume the exercise of their functions in all the cities, schools, and universities from which they had been ejected, met Ferdinand at Passau on the twenty-sixth day of May. As matters of the greatest consequence to the future peace and independence of the Empire were to be settled in this congress, the eyes of all Germany were fixed upon it. Besides Ferdinand and the Imperial ambassadors, the Duke of Bavaria, the bishops of Saltzburgh and Aichstadt, the ministers of all the Electors, together with deputies from most of the considerable Princes and free cities, resorted to Passau. Maurice, in the name of his associates, and the King of the Romans as the Emperor's representative, opened the negociation. The

q Sleid. 561. Thuan. 357.

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Princes who were present, together with the deputies of B OOK such as were absent, acted as intercessors or mediators between them.

1552.

which

MAURICE, in a long discourse, explained the motives of The terms his own conduct. After having enumerated all the uncon- Maurice stitutional and oppressive acts of the Emperor's administra proposed. tion, he, agreeably to the manifesto which he had published when he took arms against him, limited his demands to three articles: That the Landgrave of Hesse should be immediately set at liberty; That the grievances in the civil government of the Empire should be redressed; and that the Protestants should be allowed the public exercise of their religion without molestation. Ferdinand and the Imperial ambassadors discovering their unwillingness to gratify him with regard to all these points, the mediators wrote a joint letter to the Emperor, beseeching him to deliver Germany from the calamities of a civil war, by giving such satisfaction to Maurice and his party as might induce them to lay down their arms; and at the same time they prevailed upon Maurice to grant a prolongation of the truce for a short time, during which they undertook to procure the Emperor's final answer to his demands.

THIS request was presented to the Emperor in the name Powerfully of all the Princes of the Empire, Popish as well as Protest- supported by the prinant, in the name of such as had lent an helping hand to for- ces of the ward his ambitious schemes, as well as of those who had empire. viewed the progress of his power with jealousy and dread. The uncommon and cordial unanimity with which they concurred at this juncture in enforcing Maurice's demands, and in recommending peace, flowed from different causes. Such as were most attached to the Roman Catholic church could not help observing, that the Protestant confederates were at the head of a numerous army, while the Emperor was but just beginning to provide for his own defence. They foresaw that great efforts would be required of them, and would be necessary on their part, in order to cope with enemies, who had been allowed to get the start so far, and to attain such formidable power. Experience had taught them, that

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BOOK the fruit of all these efforts would be reaped by the Emperor alone, and the more complete any victory proved which they should gain, the faster would they bind their own fetters, and render them the more intolerable. These reflections made them cautious how they contributed a second time, by their indiscreet zeal, to put the Emperor in possession of power which would be fatal to the liberties of their country. Notwithstanding the intolerant spirit of bigotry in that age, they chose rather that the Protestants should acquire that security for their religion which they demanded, than by assisting Charles to oppress them, to give such additional force to the Imperial prerogative, as would overturn the constitution of the Empire. To all these considerations, the dread of seeing Germany laid waste by a civil war added new force. Many states of the Empire already felt the destructive rage of Albert's arms, others dreaded it, and all wished for an accommodation between the Emperor and Maurice, which they hoped would save them from that cruel scourge.

The mo

influenced

the empe

SUCH were the reasons that induced so many Princes, tives which notwithstanding the variety of their political interests, and the opposition in their religious sentiments, to unite in reror at this commending to the Emperor an accommodation with Maujuncture. rice, not only as a salutary, but as a necessary measure. The motives which prompted Charles to desire it, were not fewer or of less weight. He was perfectly sensible of the superiority which the confederates had acquired through his own negligence; and he now felt the insufficiency of his own resources to oppose them. His Spanish subjects, disgusted at his long absence, and weary of endless wars, which were of little benefit to their country, refused to furnish him any considerable supply either of men or money; and although by his address or importunity he might have hoped to draw from them at last more effectual aid; that, he knew, was too distant to be of any service in the present exigency of his affairs. His treasury was drained; his veteran forces were dispersed or disbanded, and he could not depend much either on the fidelity or courage of the new levied soldiers whom he was collecting. There was no hope of repeating with suc

1552

cess the same artifices which had weakened and ruined the BOOK X. Smalkaldic league. As the end at which he aimed was now known, he could no longer employ the specious pretexts which had formerly concealed his ambitious designs. Every Prince in Germany was alarmed and on his guard; and it was vain to think of blinding them a second time to such a degree, as to make one part of them instruments to enslave the other. The spirit of a confederacy, whereof Maurice was the head, experience had taught him to be very different from that of the league of Smalkalde; and from what he had already felt, he had no reason to flatter himself that its counsels would be as irresolute, or its efforts as timid and feeble. If he should resolve on continuing the war, he might be assured, that the most considerable states in Germany would take part in it against him; and a dubious neutrality was the utmost he could expect from the rest. While the confederates found full employment for his arms in one quarter, the King of France would seize the favourable opportunity, and push on his operations in another, with almost certain success. That monarch had already made conquests in the Empire, which Charles was no less eager to recover, than impatient to be revenged on him for aiding his malcontent subjects. Though Henry had now retired from the banks of the Rhine, he had only varied the scene of hostilities, having invaded the Low-Countries with all his forces. The Turks, roused by the solicitations of the French King, as well as stimulated by resentment against Ferdinand for having violated the truce in Hungary, had prepared a powerful fleet to ravage the coasts of Naples and Sicily, which he had left almost defenceless, by calling thence the greatest part of the regular troops to join the army which he was now assembling.

zealcus to

promote an

dation.

FERDINAND, who went in person to Villach, in order to Ferdinand lay before the Emperor the result of the conferences at Passau, had likewise reasons peculiar to himself for desir- accommoing an accommodation. These prompted him to second, with the greatest earnestness, the arguments which the Princes assembled there had employed in recommending it. He had observed, not without secret satisfaction, the fatal

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