VIII.

$546.

which he had received, and mentioned the punishment BOOK with which he was threatened in case of disobedience; he. acquainted them that the confederates had refused to admit of his mediation, and that the emperor had given him the most satisfactory declarations with regard to religion; he pointed out his own interest in securing possession of the electoral dominions, as well as the danger of allowing strangers to obtain an establishment in Saxony; and, upon the whole, as the point under deliberation respected his subjects no less than himself, he desired to know their sentiments, how he should steer in that difficult and arduous conjuncture. The states, no less obsequious and complaisant than formerly, professing their own reliance on the emperor's promises as a perfect security for their religion, proposed that, before he had recourse to more violent methods, they would write to the elector, exhorting him, as the best means, not only of appeasing the emperor, but of preventing his dominions from being seized by foreign or hostile powers, to give his consent that Maurice should take possession of them quietly, and without opposition. Maurice himself seconded their arguments in a letter to the landgrave, his father-in-law. Such an extravagant proposition was rejected with the scorn and indignation which it deserved. The landgrave, in return to Maurice, taxed him with his treachery and ingratitude towards a kinsman to whom he was so deeply indebted; he treated with contempt his affectation of executing the imperial ban, which he could not but know to be altogether void, by the unconstitutional and arbitrary manner in which it had been issued; he besought him not to suffer himself to be so far blinded by ambition, as to forget the obligations of honour and friendship, or to betray the l'rotestant religion, the extirpation of which out of Germany, even by the acknowledgment of the pope himself, was the great object of the present war".

But Maurice had proceeded too far to be diverted from pursuing his plan by reproaches or arguments. Nothing

Sleid. 405, &c. Thuần. 85. Camerar. 484.

BOOK VIII. 1546.

tories of

November.

now remained, but to execute, with vigour, what he had hitherto carried on by artifice and dissimulation. Nor He invades was his boldness in action inferior to his subtilty in conthe terri trivance. Having assembled about twelve thousand men, the elector he suddenly invaded one part of the electoral provinces, of Saxony while Ferdinand, with an army composed of Bohemians and Hungarians, overran the other. Maurice, in two sharp encounters, defeated the troops which the elector had left to guard his country; and improving these advantages to the utmost, made himself master of all the electorate, except Wittemberg, Gotha, and Eisenach, which being places of considerable strength, and defended by sufficient garrisons, refused to open their gates. The news of these rapid conquests soon reached the imperial and confederate camps. In the former, satisfaction with an event which it was foreseen would be productive of the most important consequences, was expressed by every possible demonstration of joy; the latter was filled with astonishment and terror. The name of Maurice was mentioned with execration, as an apostate from religion, a betrayer of the German liberty, and a contemner of the most sacred and natural ties. Every thing that the rage or invention of the party could suggest, in order to blacken and render him odious; invectives, satires, and lampoons; the furious declamations of their preachers, together with the rude wit of their authors, were all employed against him; while he, confiding in the arts which he had so long practised, as if his actions could have admit'ted of any serious justification, published a manifesto, containing the same frivolous reasons for his conduct which he had formerly alledged in the meeting of his states and in his letter to the landgraveo.

The confc

make over

The elector, upon the first intelligence of Maurice's derates motions, proposed to return home with his troops for the Turcs of ac- defence of Saxony. But the deputies of the league astion to the sembled at Ulm, prevailed on him, at that time, to reemperor; main with the army, and to prefer the success of the come

commoda

Sleid. 409, 410.

VIII.

mon cause before the security of his own dominions. At BOOK length the sufferings and complaints of his subjects increased so much, that he discovered the utmost impatience 1546. to set out, in order to rescue them from the oppression of Maurice, and from the cruelty of the Hungarians, who, having been accustomed to that licentious and merciless species of war which was thought lawful against the Turks, committed, wherever they came, the wildest acts of rapine and violence. The desire of the elector was so natural, and so warmly urged, that the deputies at Ulm, though fully sensible of the unhappy consequences of dividing their army, durst not refuse their consent, how unwilling soever to grant it. In this perplexity, they repaired to the camp of the confederates at Giengen, on the Brenz, in order to consult their constituents. Nor were they less at a loss what to determine in this pressing emergence. But, after having considered seriously the open desertion of some of their allies, the scandalous lukewarmness of others, who hath hitherto contributed nothing towards the war, the intolerable load which had fallen, of consequence, upon such members as were most zealous for the cause, or most faithful to their engagements, the ill success of all their endeavours to obtain foreign aid, the unusual length of the campaign, the rigour of the season, together with the great number of soldiers, and even officers, who had quit ted the service on that account; they concluded that nothing could save them, but either the bringing the contest to the immediate decision of a battle, by attacking the imperial army, or an accommodation of all their differences with Charles by a treaty. Such was the despondency and dejection which now oppressed the party, that of these two they chose what was most feeble and unmanly, em powering a minister of the elector of Brandenburg to propound overtures of peace, in their rame, to the emperor.

No sooner did Charles perceive this haughty confede- which he racy, which had so lately threatened to drive him out of rejects. Germany, condescending to make the first advances towards an agreement, than, concluding their spirit to be

5

BOOK gone, or their union to be broken, he immediately asVIII. sumed the tone of a conqueror; and, as if they had been 1546. already at his mercy, would not hear of a negociation,

but upon condition that the elector of Saxony should previously give up himself and his dominions absolutely to his disposal P. As nothing more intolerable or ignominious could have been prescribed, even in the worst situation of their affairs, it is no wonder that this proposition should be rejected by a party which was rather humbled and disconcerted than subdued. But though they refused to submit tamely to the emperor's will, they wanted spirit to pursue the only plan which could have preserved their independence; and, forgetting that it was the union of their troops in one body which had hitherto rendered the confederacy formidable, and had more than once obliged the imperialists to think of quitting the field, they inconsiderately abandoned this advantage, which, in spite of the diversion in Saxony, would still have kept the emperor in The troops awe; and, yielding to the elector's entreaties, consented to of the con- his proposal of dividing the army. Nine thousand men were left in the duchy of Wurtemberg, in order to protect that province, as well as the free cities of Upper Germany; a considerable body marched with the elector towards Saxony but the greater part returned, with their respective leaders, into their own countries, and were dispersed there 4.

federacy

separate.

The moment that the troops separated, the confederacy ceased to be the object of terror; and the members of it, who, while they composed part of a great body, had felt but little anxiety about their own security, began to tremble when they reflected that they now stood exposed singly to the whole weight of the emperor's vengeance. Charles did not allow them leisure to recover from their consternation, or to form any new schemes of union. As soon as the confederates began to retire, he put his army in motion, and though it was now the depth of winter, he resolved to keep the field, in order to make the most of

ΒΟΟΚ

VIII.

1540.

that favourable juncture for which he had waited so long. BOOK Some small towns, in which the Protestants had left garrisons, immediately opened their gates. Norlingen, Rotenberg, and Hall, imperial cities, submitted soon after. Though Charles could not prevent the elector from levying, as he retreated, large contributions upon the archbishop of Mentz, the abbot of Fulda, and other ecclesiastics', this was more than balanced by the submission of Ulm, one of the chief cities of Suabia, highly distinguished by its zeal for the Smalkaldic league. As soon as an example was set of deserting the common cause, the rest of the members became instantly impatient to follow it, and seemed afraid lest others, by getting the start of them in returning to their duty, should, on that account, obtain more favourable terms. The elector palatine, a weak prince, who, notwithstanding his professions of neutrality, had, very preposterously, sent to the confederates four hundred horse, a body so inconsiderable as to be scarcely any addition to their strength, but great enough to render him guilty in the eyes of the emperor, made his acknowledgments in the most abject manner. The inhabitants of Augsburg, shaken by so many instances of apostacy, expelled the brave Schertel out of their city, and accepted such conditions as the emperor was pleased to grant them.

The duke of Wurtemberg, though among the first who had offered to submit, was obliged to sue for pardon on his knees, and, even after this mortifying humiliation, obtained it with difficulty. Memmingen, and other free cities in the circle of Suabia, being now abandoned by all their former associates, found it necessary to provide for their own safety, by throwing themselves on the emperor's mercy. Strasburg and Frankfort on the Maine, cities far remote from the seat of danger, discovered no greater steadiness than those which lay more exposed. Thus a confederacy, lately so powerful as to shake the imperial throne, fell to pieces, and was dissolved in the space of a few weeks; hardly any member of that formidable combina

Thuan. 83.

VOL. VI.

Mem. de Ribier, tom. i. 589.

Ff

1547