BOOK rate joy at the success of their arms. with the affairs. Charles himself, acXI. customed to a long series of prosperity, felt the calamity most 1553. sensibly, and retired from Metz into the Low-Countries, affected much dejected with the cruel reverse of fortune which afstate of his fected him in his declining age, when the violence of the gout had increased to such a pitch, as entirely broke the vigour of his constitution, and rendered him peevish, difficult of access, and often incapable of applying to business. But whenever he enjoyed any interval of ease, all his thoughts were bent on revenge; and he deliberated, with the greatest solicitude, concerning the most proper means of annoying France, and of effacing the stain which had obscured the reputation and glory of his arms. All the schemes concerning Germany, which had engrossed him so long, being disconcerted by the peace of Passau, the affairs of the Empire became only secondary objects of attention; and enmity to France was the predominant passion which chiefly occupied his mind. The vio Brandenburg. THE turbulent ambition of Albert of Brandenburg excitlent proed violent commotions, which disturbed the Empire during ceedings of Albert of this year. That Prince's troops having shared in the calamities of the siege of Metz, were greatly reduced in number. But the Emperor, prompted by gratitude for his distinguished services on that occasion, or perhaps with a secret view of fomenting divisions among the Princes of the Empire, having paid up all the money due to him, he was enabled with that sum to hire so many of the soldiers dismissed from the Imperial army, that he was soon at the head of a body of men as numerous as ever. The bishops of Bamberg and Wurtzburg having solicited the Imperial chamber to annul, by its authority, the iniquitous conditions which Albert had compelled them to sign, that court unanimously found all their engagements with him to be void in their own nature, because they had been extorted by force; enjoined Albert to renounce all claim to the performance of them; and, if he should persist in such an unjust demand, exhorted all the Princes of the Empire to take arms against him as a disturber of the public tranquillity. To this decision, Albert opposed the confirmation of his transactions XI. 1553. with the two prelates, which the Emperor had granted him B OOK as the reward of his having joined the Imperial army at Metz; and in order to intimidate his antagonists, as well as to convince them of his resolution not to relinquish his pretensions, he put his troops in motion, that he might secure the territory in question. Various endeavours were employed, and many expedients proposed, in order to prevent the kindling a new war in Germany. But the same warmth of temper which rendered Albert turbulent and enterprising, inspiring him with the most sanguine hopes of success, even in his wildest undertakings, he disdainfully rejected all reasonable overtures of accommodation. UPON this, the Imperial chamber issued its decree against He is condemned by him, and required the Elector of Saxony, together with se- the Impeveral other Princes mentioned by name, to take arms in or- rial chamder to carry it into execution. Maurice, and those associ- ber. ated with him, were not unwilling to undertake this service. They were extremely solicitous to maintain public order by supporting the authority of the Imperial chamber, and saw the necessity of giving a timely check to the usurpations of an ambitious Prince, who had no principle of action but regard to his own interest, and no motive to direct him but the impulse of ungovernable passions. They had good reason to suspect, that the Emperor encouraged Albert in his extravagant and irregular proceedings, and secretly afforded him assistance, that, by raising him up to rival Maurice in power, he might, in any future broil, make use of his assistance to counterbalance and control the authority which the other had acquired in the Empire1. A confede THESE Considerations united the most powerful Princes April 2. in Germany in a league against Albert, of which Maurice racy formwas declared generalissimo. This formidable confederacy, ed against him, of however, wrought no change in Albert's sentiments; but as he knew that he could not resist so many princes, if he should Maurice allow them time to assemble their forces, he endeavoured, 1 Sleid. 585. Mem. de Ribier, ii. 442. Arnoldi vita Maurit. ap. Menken. ii. 1242. which was head. XI. 1553. BOOK by his activity, to deprive them of all the advantages which they might derive from their united power and numbers; and for that reason marched directly against Maurice, the enemy whom he dreaded most. It was happy for the allies that the conduct of their affairs was commited to a Prince of such abilities. He, by his authority and example, had inspired them with vigour; and having carried on their preparations with a degree of rapidity of which confederate bodies are seldom capable, he was in condition to face Albert before he could make any considerable progress. He attacks Albert, THEIR armies, which were nearly equal in number, each consisting of twenty-four thousand men, met at Sieverhausen, in the dutchy of Lunenburg; and the violent animosity against each other, which possessed the two leaders, did not suffer them to continue long inactive. The troops, inflamed with the same hostile rage, marched fiercely to the combat; they fought with the greatest obstinacy; and as both generals were capable of availing themselves of every favourable occurrence, the battle remained long doubtful, each and defeats gaining ground upon the other alternately. At last victory army; declared for Maurice, who was superior in cavalry, and Al June 9. his but is killed in the battle. His cha racter. bert's army fled in confusion, leaving four thousand dead in Or all the personages who have appeared in the history of this active age, when great occurrences and sudden revo m Historia pugnæ infelicis inter Maurit. & Albert. Thom. Wintzero auctore apud Scard. ii. 559. Sleid. 583. Ruscelli epistres aux Princes, 154. Arnoldi vita Maurit. 1245. X I. 1553. lutions called forth extraordinary talents to view, and afford- BO O K ed them full opportunity to display themselves, Maurice may justly be considered as the most remarkable. If his exorbitant ambition, his profound dissimulation, and his unwarrantable usurpation of his kinsman's honours and dominions, exclude him from being praised as a virtuous man; his prudence in concerting his measures, his vigour in executing them, and the uniform success with which they were attended, entitle him to the appellation of a great Prince. At an age when impetuosity of spirit commonly predominates over political wisdom, when the highest effort even of a genius of the first order is to fix on a bold scheme, and to execute it with promptitude and courage, he formed and conducted an intricate plan of policy, which deceived the most artful Monarch in Europe. At the very juncture when the Emperor had attained to almost unlimited despotism, Maurice, with power seemingly inadequate to such an undertaking, compelled him to relinquish all his usurpations, and established not only the religious but civil liberties of Germany on such foundations as have hitherto remained unshaken. Although, at one period of his life, his conduct excited the jealousy of the Protestants, and at another drew on him the resentment of the Roman Catholics, such was his masterly address, that he was the only Prince of the age who, in any degree, possessed the confidence of both, and whom both lamented as the most able as well as faithful guardian of the constitution and laws of his country. tinues the THE consternation which Maurice's death occasioned Albert conamong his troops, prevented them from making the proper war. improvement of the victory which they had gained. Albert, whose active courage, and profuse liberality, rendered him the darling of such military adventurers as were little solicitous about the justice of his cause, soon re-assembled his broken forces, and made fresh levies with such success, that he was quickly at the head of fifteen thousand men, and renewed his depredations with additional fury. But Henry of Brunswick having taken the command of the allied troops, defeated him in a second battle, scarcely less bloody than the for- Sept. 12. Even then his courage did not sink, nor were his mer. XI. 1553. He is dri ven out of BOOK resources exhausted. He made several efforts, and some of them very vigorous, to retrieve his affairs: But being laid under the ban of the Empire by the Imperial chamber; being driven by degrees out of all his hereditary territories, as well as those which he had usurped; being forsaken by many of his officers, and overpowered by the number of his enemies, he fled for refuge into France. After having been, for a considerable time, the terror and Scourge of Germany, he lingered out some years in an indigent and dependent state of exile, the miseries of which his restless and arrogant Jan. 12, spirit endured with the most indignant impatience. Upon his death without issue, his territories, which had been seized by the Princes who took arms against him, were restored, by a decree of the Emperor, to his collateral heirs of the house of Brandenburgh ". Germany. 1557. Maurice's brother Augustus succeeds him in the electoral dignity. MAURICE having left only one daughter, who was after- n Sleid. 592. 594. 599. Struv. Corp. Hist. Germ. 1075. ་ |