The Thirty Years War, book 2 | Page 2

in
defence of the Reformed or Calvinists; of injuring the common cause
by his suspicious friendship more seriously than the open enmity of its
avowed opponents. But it would have been well if his accusers had
imitated the wise policy of the Elector. If, despite of the prudent policy,
the Saxons, like all others, groaned at the cruelties which marked the
Emperor's progress; if all Germany was a witness how Ferdinand
deceived his confederates and trifled with his engagements; if even the
Elector himself at last perceived this--the more shame to the Emperor
who could so basely betray such implicit confidence.
If an excessive reliance on the Emperor, and the hope of enlarging his
territories, tied the hands of the Elector of Saxony, the weak George
William, Elector of Brandenburg, was still more shamefully fettered by
fear of Austria, and of the loss of his dominions. What was made a
reproach against these princes would have preserved to the Elector
Palatine his fame and his kingdom. A rash confidence in his untried
strength, the influence of French counsels, and the temptation of a
crown, had seduced that unfortunate prince into an enterprise for which
he had neither adequate genius nor political capacity. The partition of
his territories among discordant princes, enfeebled the Palatinate,
which, united, might have made a longer resistance.
This partition of territory was equally injurious to the House of Hesse,
in which, between Darmstadt and Cassel, religious dissensions had
occasioned a fatal division. The line of Darmstadt, adhering to the
Confession of Augsburg, had placed itself under the Emperor's
protection, who favoured it at the expense of the Calvinists of Cassel.
While his religious confederates were shedding their blood for their
faith and their liberties, the Landgrave of Darmstadt was won over by
the Emperor's gold. But William of Cassel, every way worthy of his
ancestor who, a century before, had defended the freedom of Germany
against the formidable Charles V., espoused the cause of danger and of
honour. Superior to that pusillanimity which made far more powerful
princes bow before Ferdinand's might, the Landgrave William was the
first to join the hero of Sweden, and to set an example to the princes of

Germany which all had hesitated to begin. The boldness of his resolve
was equalled by the steadfastness of his perseverance and the valour of
his exploits. He placed himself with unshrinking resolution before his
bleeding country, and boldly confronted the fearful enemy, whose
hands were still reeking from the carnage of Magdeburg.
The Landgrave William deserves to descend to immortality with the
heroic race of Ernest. Thy day of vengeance was long delayed,
unfortunate John Frederick! Noble! never-to-be-forgotten prince!
Slowly but brightly it broke. Thy times returned, and thy heroic spirit
descended on thy grandson. An intrepid race of princes issues from the
Thuringian forests, to shame, by immortal deeds, the unjust sentence
which robbed thee of the electoral crown--to avenge thy offended shade
by heaps of bloody sacrifice. The sentence of the conqueror could
deprive thee of thy territories, but not that spirit of patriotism which
staked them, nor that chivalrous courage which, a century afterwards,
was destined to shake the throne of his descendant. Thy vengeance and
that of Germany whetted the sacred sword, and one heroic hand after
the other wielded the irresistible steel. As men, they achieved what as
sovereigns they dared not undertake; they met in a glorious cause as the
valiant soldiers of liberty. Too weak in territory to attack the enemy
with their own forces, they directed foreign artillery against them, and
led foreign banners to victory.
The liberties of Germany, abandoned by the more powerful states, who,
however, enjoyed most of the prosperity accruing from them, were
defended by a few princes for whom they were almost without value.
The possession of territories and dignities deadened courage; the want
of both made heroes. While Saxony, Brandenburg, and the rest drew
back in terror, Anhalt, Mansfeld, the Prince of Weimar and others were
shedding their blood in the field. The Dukes of Pomerania,
Mecklenburg, Luneburg, and Wirtemberg, and the free cities of Upper
Germany, to whom the name of EMPEROR was of course a formidable
one, anxiously avoided a contest with such an opponent, and crouched
murmuring beneath his mighty arm.
Austria and Roman Catholic Germany possessed in Maximilian of
Bavaria a champion as prudent as he was powerful. Adhering
throughout the war to one fixed plan, never divided between his
religion and his political interests; not the slavish dependent of Austria,

who was labouring for HIS advancement, and trembled before her
powerful protector, Maximilian earned the territories and dignities that
rewarded his exertions. The other Roman Catholic states, which were
chiefly Ecclesiastical, too unwarlike to resist the multitudes whom the
prosperity of their territories allured, became the