The Lion of the North | Page 6

upon the fears of the Protestant princes, who,
frightened at the contest they had undertaken, agreed to a peace, by
which they bound themselves to offer no aid to Frederick V.
"The Imperial forces then marched to Bohemia and attacked Frederick's
army outside Prague, and in less than an hour completely defeated it.
Frederick escaped with his family to Holland. Ferdinand then took
steps to carry out his oath. The religious freedom granted by Mathias
was abolished. In Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Austria proper. Many
of the promoters of the rebellion were punished in life and property.
The year following all members of the Calvinistic sect were forced to
leave their country, a few months afterwards the Lutherans were also
expelled, and in 1627 the exercise of all religious forms except those of
the Catholic Church was forbidden; 200 of the noble, and 30,000 of the
wealthier and industrial classes, were driven into exile; and lands and
property to the amount of 5,000,000 or 6,000,000 pounds were
confiscated.
"The hereditary dominions of Frederick V were invaded, the
Protestants were defeated, the Palatinate entirely subdued, and the
electorate was conferred upon Maximilian of Bavaria; and the rigid
laws against the Protestants were carried into effect in the Palatinate
also. It had now become evident to all Europe that the Emperor of
Austria was determined to stamp out Protestantism throughout
Germany; and the Protestant princes, now thoroughly alarmed,
besought aid from the Protestant countries, England, Holland, and
Denmark. King James, who had seen unmoved the misfortunes which
had befallen his daughter and her husband, and who had been dead to

the general feeling of the country, could no longer resist, and England
agreed to supply an annual subsidy; Holland consented to supply troops;
and the King of Denmark joined the League, and was to take command
of the army.
"In Germany the Protestants of lower Saxony and Brunswick, and the
partisan leader Mansfeldt, were still in arms. The army under the king
of Denmark advanced into Brunswick, and was there confronted by that
of the league under Tilly, while an Austrian army, raised by
Wallenstein, also marched against it. Mansfeldt endeavoured to prevent
Wallenstein from joining Tilly, but was met and defeated by the former
general. Mansfeldt was, however, an enterprising leader, and falling
back into Brandenburg, recruited his army, joined the force under the
Duke of Saxe-Weimar, and started by forced marches to Silesia and
Moravia, to join Bethlem Gabor in Hungary. Wallenstein was therefore
obliged to abandon his campaign against the Danes and to follow him.
Mansfeldt joined the Hungarian army, but so rapid were his marches
that his force had dwindled away to a mere skeleton, and the assistance
which it would be to the Hungarians was so small that Bethlem Gabor
refused to cooperate with it against Austria.
"Mansfeldt disbanded his remaining soldiers, and two months
afterwards died. Wallenstein then marched north. In the meantime Tilly
had attacked King Christian at Lutter, and completely defeated him. I
will tell you about that battle some other time. When Wallenstein came
north it was decided that Tilly should carry the war into Holland, and
that Wallenstein should deal with the King of Denmark and the
Protestant princes. In the course of two years he drove the Danes from
Silesia, subdued Brandenburg and Mecklenburg, and, advancing into
Pomerania, besieged Stralsund.
"What a siege that was to be sure! Wallenstein had sworn to capture the
place, but he didn't reckon upon the Scots. After the siege had begun
Lieutenant General Sir Alexander Leslie, with 5000 Scots and Swedes,
fought his way into the town; and though Wallenstein raised fire upon
it, though we were half starved and ravaged by plague, we held out for
three months, repulsing every assault, till at last the Imperialists were
obliged to draw off; having lost 12,200 men.
"This, however, was the solitary success on our side, and a few months
since, Christian signed a peace, binding himself to interfere no more in

the affairs of Germany. When Ferdinand considered himself free to
carry out his plans, he issued an edict by which the Protestants
throughout Germany were required to restore to the Catholics all the
monasteries and land which had formerly belonged to the Catholic
Church. The Catholic service was alone to be performed, and the
Catholic princes of the empire were ordered to constrain their subjects,
by force if necessary, to conform to the Catholic faith; and it was
intimated to the Protestant princes that they would be equally forced to
carry the edict into effect. But this was too much. Even France
disapproved, not from any feeling of pity on the part of Richelieu for
the Protestants, but because it did not suit the interests of France that
Ferdinand should become the absolute monarch of all