The battle of Leipzig

chapter three by F. Schiller translated by J.M. Rakotolahy

Chapter Three: The battle of Leipzig

 

The glorious battle of Gustav Adolph in Leipzig has provoked a great change in the whole subsequent behaviour of this monarch as well as in the manner of thinking of his friends and enemies. He has measured himself, now, with the greatest military leader of his time, he has applied the force of his tactic and the courage of his Swedes on the core of the Imperial troops, the most experienced of Europe, and has come out victorious from this ordeal.

 

From this moment on, he built a firm confidence in himself and confidence is the mother of all great acts. People remarked further that in all the warring enterprises of the Swedish King, a bolder and more confident move, a proven decisiveness also in the most disadvantageous situations, a prouder rhetoric towards his enemy, more self-confidence with his allies and even in his mercy, he showed more of the commander’s arrogance. To his natural courage came the rapt verve of his constitution into help; he very much exchanged his cause with the cause of heaven, saw in the defeat of Tilly a decisive judgment of God to the disadvantage of his enemy; but in himself, however, only a tool of the divine fury. His crown, his fatherland very far behind him, he penetrated now on the wings of victory in the inner of land of Germany, which has not seen for centuries any foreign conqueror.

 

The warring courage of its inhabitants, the vigilance of its numerous princes, the artificial cohesion of its states, the multitude of its fortified castles, the existence of many rivers have already since immemorial times put a halt to the territorial greed of its neighbours, and no matter how often they have attacked the borders of this broad stately body, hence, was his inner land remained protected from every foreign invasion. From early times, this Empire enjoyed the ambiguous privilege only to be its own enemy and to remain undefeated by foreign troops. Now, also it was only the disunion of its members and an impatient religious zeal that built for the Swedish conqueror the bridges to its most inner states. Dissolved was already for long the harmonious link among its authorities, through which alone the Empire was invincible and from Germany itself borrowed Gustav Adolph his forces with which he bent Germany.

 

With much more intelligence than courage, he used what the favour of the moment favoured him, and skilled in his cabinet as well as on the battlefield, he tore the malice of a deceitful statesmanship as he brought down the walls of the cities with the thunder of his canons. Unstoppably, he chased his victories from one border of Germany to the other, without losing the thread of Ariane which would lead him securely to his way back and on the shores of the Rhine as on the muzzle of the Lech, he never ceased to remain close to his hereditary lands. The dismay of the Emperor and of the Catholic League over the defeat of Tilly in Leipzig could hardly be greater than the astonishment and the embarrassment of the Swedish allies over the unexpected luck of the King. It was greater than people has accounted, greater than people have wished. Destroyed was at once the fearsome army which hindered his advances, put limits to his ambition, has made him dependent of its good will.

 

Alone, without any rival, without any of the people who became his opponent, he stood, now, there, in the middle of Germany; nothing could stop his march, nothing could limit his actions when the dizziness of luck should be tempting him into exaction. Should people have, in the beginning, trembled before the omnipotence of the Emperor, hence, now, a not lesser ground was existing for the Imperial constitution to fear everything from the upheaval of a foreign conqueror, for the Catholic church of Germany to fear everything from the religious zeal of a protestant King. The mistrust and the zeal of some of the allied powers, put into sleep through the greater fear of the Emperor for a long time, awoke soon, again, and hardly has Gustav Adolph through his courage and his luck justified their confidence, hence, would already be prepared from afar the demolition of his projects. In constant fight against the malice of the enemies and of the mistrust of his own allies, he had to fight through for his victories; however, his resolved courage, his deeply pressing intelligence went over all the obstacles on his ways.

 

While the lucky success of his weapons was of concern to his powerful allies, France and Saxony, he revived the courage of the weaker ones who, now, only have the nerve to put onto light their true dispositions and to take openly his party. They who could neither compete with Gustav Adolph’s greatness nor suffer his search for glory, expected even more about the generosity of this powerful friend who enriched them with the robbery of their enemies and took them under protection against the oppression of the powerful. His strength hid their powerlessness and insignificant in themselves, demanded they to have a weight through their union with the Swedish heroes. This was the case with most of the Imperial cities and mainly with the weaker Protestant authorities.

 

It was them who lead the King into the inner land of Germany and covered his back positions, cared for his army, took over his troops in their fortifications, gave their blood for him in his battles. His keen statesmanship for the preservation of the German pride, his merry behaviour, some glowing actions of justice, his consideration for laws, constituted as much chains which he put on the worried spirit of the German Protestants and the blatant barbarism of the Imperial troops, of the people of Spain and of Lothringia acted powerfully on him to use, in the most favourable light, of his and his troops’ restraint. If Gustav Adolph has mostly to thank his own genius, hence, people may not be recognizing that the luck and the situation of the circumstances favoured him not less. He had two great advantages on his side which created for him a decisive predominance over his enemy.

 

While he established the scene of war in the countries of the League, attracted a young team to himself, enriched themselves with the loot and watched over the incomes of the fleeing princes as over his own possession, he removed from the enemy any means to resist him with emphasis and made possible through that the maintenance of a costly war with little expense. If from a distance they were his opponent, the Princes of the League were divided among themselves, driven by totally different, often conflicting interest, without unanimity and precisely for that reason, acted without any effectiveness when full might was lacking to the military powers, obedience to their troops, cohesion to their scattered armies; when the quality of army leader was separated from that of the legislator and the statesman: hence, to the contrary, both aspects were just united in Gustav Adolph, he directed the unique source from which all authorities flew, the unique goal on which the acting warrior directed his eyes; he alone was the soul of his whole party, the creator of his war plan and at the same time, the executer of the same war plan. In him, hence, the cause of the Protestants received a unity and a harmony which throughout lacked the opposite party.

 

No wonder that Gustav Adolph was invincible, favoured by such advantages, at the head of such an army; gifted with such a genius to use it and inspired by such a political intelligence. On one hand the sword, on the other grace, people see him, now, go through Germany from one end to the other as conqueror, legislator and judge, not taking more time to ride than another person would have needed to do as a leisure trip; immediately the local landlord would bring him the keys of the cities and fortifications. No castle was unassailable to him; no stream hindered his victorious march, most often, he won already through his feared name. All along the stream of the Main, people saw his Swedish flags, lower Pfalz was free, the Spanish and the people from Lothringia retreated beyond the Rhine and the Mosel.

 

Over the little electorate Mainz territories of Würzburg and Bamberg have the Swedes and the people from Hessen poured down as a breaking flood; and three fleeing bishops would pay, away from their seats, for their unfortunate devotion against the Emperor. It was also the turn, finally, of the League’s leader, Maximilian, on his own soil to experience the misery which he has prepared for others. Neither the deterring destiny of his allies, nor the amicable request of Gustav who in the middle of his conquests offered his hand to peace, could have defeated the stubbornness of this Prince. Over the corpse of Tilly who settled himself like a watching angel before the entry of the same Bavarian countries, war rolls itself in the Bavarian countries.

Author's Note

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