X. BOOK Lutheran himself, invaded the territories of the Magdeburgers, hoping that, by the merit of this service, he 1551. might procure some part of their domains to be allotted to him as an establishment. The citizens, unaccustomed, as yet, to endure patiently the calamities of war, could not be restrained from sallying out, in order to save their lands from being laid waste. They attacked the duke of Mecklenburg with more resolution than conduct, and were repulsed with great slaughter. But, as they were animated with that unconquerable spirit which flows from zeal for religion co-operating with the love of civil liberty, far from being disheartened by their misfortune, they prepared to defend themselves with vigour. Many of the veteran soldiers who had served in the long wars between the emperor and king of France, crowding to their standards under able and experienced officers, the citizens acquired military skill by degrees, and added all the advantages of that to the efforts of undaunted courage. The duke of Mecklenburg, notwithstanding the severe blow which he had given the Magdeburgers, not daring to invest a town strongly fortified, and defended by such a garrison, continued to ravage the open country. Maurice takes the which car As the hopes of booty drew many adventurers to the command camp of this young prince, Maurice of Saxony began to of the army be jealous of the power which he possessed, by being at ried on the the head of such a numerous body, and marching towards siege. Magdeburg with his own troops, assumed the supreme command of the whole army; an honour to which his high rank and great abilities, as well as the nomination of the diet, gave him an indisputable title. With this united force he invested the town, and began the siege in form; claiming great merit with the emperor on that account, as, from his zeal to execute the imperial decree, he was exposing himself once more to the censures and maledictions of the party with which he agreed in religious sentiments. But the approaches to the town went on slowly; the garrison interrupted the besiegers by frequent sallies, in one of which George of Mecklenburg was taken X. 1551. prisoner, levelled part of their works, and cut off the sol- BOOK diers in their advanced posts. While the citizens of Magdeburg, animated by the discourses of their pastors, and the soldiers, encouraged by the example of their officers, endured all the hardships of a siege without murmuring, and defending themselves with the same ardour which they had at first discovered; the troops of the besiegers acted with extreme remissness, repining at every thing that they suffered in a service which they disliked. They broke out more than once, into open mutiny, demanding the arrears of their pay, which, as the members of the Germanic body sent in their contributions towards defraying the expences of the war sparingly, and with great reluctance, amounted to a considerable sumt. Maurice, too, had particular motives, though such as he durst not avow at that juncture, which induced him not to push the siege with vigour, and made him choose rather to continue at the head of an army exposed to all the imputations which his dilatory proceedings drew upon him, than to precipitate a conquest that might have brought him some accession of reputation, but would have rendered it necessary to disband his forces. to Maurice. Nov. 3 At last, the inhabitants of the town beginning to suffer The city distress from want of provisions, and Maurice finding it surrenders impossible to protract matters any longer, without filling the emperor with such suspicions as might have disconcerted all his measures, he concluded a treaty of capitulation with the city upon the following conditions. That they Magdeburgers should humbly implore pardon of the emperor; that they should not for the future take arms, or enter into any alliance against the house of Austria; that they should submit to the authority of the imperial chamber; that they should conform to the decree of the diet at Augsburg with respect to religion; that the new fortifications added to the town should be demolished; that they should pay a fine of fifty thousand crowns, deliver up twelve pieces of ordnance to the emperor, and set the * Thuan, 277. Sleid. 514, BOOK X. 1551. Maurice's Views at ture. duke of Mecklenburg, together with their other prisoners, at liberty, without ransom. Next day their garrison marched out, and Maurice took possession of the town with great military pomp. Before the terms of capitulation were settled, Maurice this junc had held many conferences with Albert count Mansfeldt, who had the chief command in Magdeburg. He consulted likewise with Count Heideck, an officer who had served with great reputation in the army of the league of Smal kalde, whom the emperor had proscribed, on account of his zeal for that cause, but whom Maurice had, notwithstanding, secretly engaged in his service, and admitted into the most intimate confidence. To them he communicated a scheme, which he had long revolved in his mind, for procuring liberty to his father-in-law the landgrave, for vindicating the privileges of the Germanic body, and setting bounds to the dangerous encroachments of the imperial power. Having deliberated with them concerning the measures which might be necessary for securing the success of such an arduous enterprise, he gave Mansfeldt secret assurances that the fortifications of Magdeburg should not be destroyed, and that the inhabitants should neither be disturbed in the exercise of their religion, nor be deprived of any of their ancient immunities. In order to engage Maurice more thoroughly from considerations of interest to fulfil these engagements, the senate of Magdeburg elected him their burgrave, a dignity which had formerly belonged to the electoral house of Saxony, and which entitled him to a very ample jurisdiction, not only in the city but in its dependencies ". 'The advǝntages he de Thus the citizens of Magdeburg, after enduring a siege. rived from of twelve months, and struggling for their liberties, relihis negoci-gious and civil, with an invincible fortitude, worthy of the cause in which it was exerted, had at last the good fortune to conclude a treaty, which left then in a better condition than the rest of their countrymen, whom their ations with the Magde burgers. Sleid. $28. Thuan. 276. Obsidionis Magdeburgici Desorptio per Sebast. Besselmeierum. ap. Scard. ii, 518. timidity or want of public spirit had betrayed into such mean submissions to the emperor. But while a great part of Germany applauded the gallant conduct of the Magdeburgers, and rejoiced in their having escaped the destruction with which they had been threatened, all admired Maurice's address in the conduct of his negociation with them, as well as the dexterity with which he converted every event to his own advantage. They saw, with amazement, that after having afflicted the Magdeburgers during many months with all the calamities of war, he was at last, by their voluntary election, advanced to the station of highest authority in that city which he had so lately besieged; that after having been so long the object of their satirical invectives, as an apostate and an enemy to the religion which he professed, they seemed row to place upbounded confidence in his zeal and good will. At the same time, the public articles in the treaty of capitulation were so perfectly conformable to those which the emperor had granted to the other Protestant cities, and Maurice took such care to magnify his merit in having reduced a place which had defended itself with so much obstinacy, that Charles, far from suspecting any thing fraudulent or collusive in the terms of accommodation, ratified them without hesitation, and absolved the Magdeburgers from the sentence of ban which had been denounced against them. BOCK X. 1551. The only point that now remained to embarrass Maurice His expe was how to keep together the veteran troops which had dient for keeping an served under him, as well as those which had been employ-army on ed in the defence of the town. For this, too, he found foot. an expedient with singular art and felicity. His schemes against the emperor were not yet so fully ripened, that be durst venture to disclose them, and proceed openly to carry them into execution. The winter was approaching, which made it impossible to take the field immediately. He was afraid that it would give a premature alarm to the emperor, if he should retain such a considerable body in his Arnoldi vita Maurit. apud Menken. ii, 1227. BOOK X. 1551 His address in conceal tentions from the emperor. pay until the season of action returned in the spring. As Soon then as Magdeburg opened its gates, he sent home his Saxon subjects, whom he could command to take arms and re-assemble on the shortest warning; and at the same time, paying part of the arrears due to the mercenary troops who had followed his standard, as well as to the soldiers who had served in the garrison, he absolved them from their respective oaths of fidelity, and disbanded them. But the moment he gave them their discharge, George of Mecklenburg, who was now set at liberty, offered to take them into his service, and to become surety for the payment of what was still owing to them. As such adventurers were accustomed often to change masters, they instantly accepted the offer. Thus these troops were kept united, and ready to march wherever Maurice should call them, while the emperor, deceived by this artifice, and imagining that George of Mecklenburg had hired them with an intention to assert his claim to a part of his brother's territories by force of arms, suffered this transaction. to pass without observation, as if it had been a matter of no consequence. Having ventured to take these steps, which were of so ing his in- much consequence towards the execution of his schemes, Maurice, that he might divert the emperor from observing their tendency too narrowly, and prevent the suspicions which that must have excited, saw the necessity of employing some new artifice in order to engage his attention, and to confirm him in his present security. As he knew that the chief object of the emperor's solicitude at this juncture, was how he might prevail with the Protestant states of Germany to recognise the authority of the council. of Trent, and to send thither ambassadors in their own name, as well as deputies from their respective churches, he took hold of this predominating passion in order to amuse and to deceive him. He affected a wonderful zeal to gratify Charles in what he desired with regard to this Thuan, 278. Struv. corp. Hist. Germ. 1064. Arnoldi vita Mauritii, apud Menken, ii, 1227. |