BOOK X. 5551. He is assassinated by his endanger his own authority in Hungary, in proportion as he knew it to be precarious and ill-established. These suspicions Castaldo confirmed and strengthened, by the intelligence which he transmitted continually to his confidents at Vienna. By misrepresenting what was innocent, and putting the worst construction on what seemed dubious, in Martinuzzi's conduct; by imputing to him designs which he never formed, and charging him with actions of which he was not guilty; he at last convinced Ferdinand, that, in order to preserve his Hungarian crown, he must cut off that ambitious prelate. But Ferdinand, foreseeing that it would be dangerous to proceed in the regular course of law against a subject of such exorbitant power as might enable him to set his sovereign at defiance, determined to employ violence in order to obtain that satisfaction which the laws were too feeble to afford him. He issued his orders accordingly to Castaldo, who willingly undertook that infamous service. Having commucommand. nicated the design to some Italian and Spanish officers whom he could trust, and concerted with them the plan of Dec. 18. executing it, they entered Martinuzzi's apartment, early one morning, under pretence of presenting to him some dispatches which were to be sent off immediately to Vienna; and while he perused a paper with attention, one of their number struck him with his poniard in the throat. The blow was not mortal. Martinuzzi started up with the intrepidity natural to him, and grappling the assassin, threw him to the ground. But the other conspirators rushing in, an old man, unarmed and alone, was unable long to sustain such an unequal conflict, and sunk under the wounds which he received from so many hands. The Transylvanians were restrained, by dread of the foreign troops stationed in their country, from rising in arms, in order to take vengeance on the murderers of a prelate who had long been the object of their love as well as veneration. The effect They spoke of the deed, however, with horror and exeof that vio cration, and exclaimed against Ferdinand, whom neither gratitude for recent and important services, nor reverence lent action. for a character considered as sacred and inviolable among Christians, could restrain from shedding the blood of a man whose only crime was attachment to his native country. The nobles, detesting the jealous as well as cruel policy of a court, which, upon uncertain and improbable surmises, had given up a person, no less conspicuous for his merit than his rank, to be butchered by assassins, either retired to their own estates, or, if they continued with the Austrian army, grew cold to the service. The Turks, encouraged by the death of an enemy whose abilities they knew and dreaded, prepared to renew hostilities early in the spring; and, instead of the security which Ferdinand had expected from the removal of Martinuzzi, it was evident that his territories in Hungary were about to be attacked with greater vigour, and defended with less zeal than ever. BOOK X. 1551. protection French By this time, Maurice having almost finished his in-Maurice trigues and preparations, was on the point of declaring his corts the intentions openly, and of taking the field against the em-of the peror. His first care, after he came to this resolution, was king. to disclaim that narrow and bigoted maxim of the confe derates of Smalkalde, which had led them to shun all connection with foreigners. He had observed how fatal this bad been to their cause; and, instructed by their error, he was as eager to court the protection of Henry II. as they had been solicitous to prevent the interposition of Francis I. Happily for him, he found Henry in a disposition to listen to the first overture on his part, and in a situation which enabled him to bring the whole force of the French monarchy into action. Henry had long observed the progress of the emperor's arms with jealousy, and wished to distinguish himself by entering the lists against the same enemy whom it had been the glory of his father's reign to oppose. He had laid hold on the first opportunity in his power of thwarting the emperor's designs, by taking the duke of Parma under his protection; and hostilities Sleid. 585. Thuan. lib. ix, 309, &c. Istuanhaff Hist. Regn. Hun garici, lib. xvi, 189, &c. Mem. de Ribier, ii, 871. Natalis Comitis Historia, lib. iv, 81, &c, BOOK X. 1551. His treaty with hial were already begun, not only in that duchy, but in Piedmont. Having terminated the war with England by a peace, no less advantageous to himself than honourable for his allies the Scots, the restless and enterprising courage of his nobles was impatient to display itself on some theatre of action more conspicuous than the petty operations in Parma or Piedmont afforded them. John de Fienne, bishop of Bayonne, whom Henry had sent into Germany, under pretence of hiring troops to be employed in Italy, was empowered to conclude a treaty in form with Mauricé and his associates. As it would have been very indecent in a king of France to have undertaken the defence of the Protestant church, the interests of religion, how much soever they might be affected by the treaty, were not once mentioned in any of the articles. Religious concerns they pretended to commit entirely to the disposition of Divine Providence. The only motives assigned for their present confederacy against Charles, were to procure the landgrave liberty, and to prevent the subversion of the ancient constitution and laws of the German empire. In order to accomplish these ends, it was agreed, that all the contracting parties should at the same time declare war against the emperor; that neither peace nor truce should be made but by common consent, nor without including each of the confederates; that, in order to guard against the inconveniencies of anarchy, or of pretensions to joint command, Maurice should be acknowledged as head of the German confederates, with absolute authority in all military affairs; that Maurice and his associates should bring into the field seven thousand horse, with a proportional number of infantry; that, towards the subsistence of this army, during the first three months of the war, Henry should contribute two hundred and forty thousand crowns, and afterwards sixty thousand crowns a-month, as long as they continued in arms; that Henry should attack the emperor on the side of Lorrain with a powerful army; that if it were found requisite to elect a new emperor, X. 1551 such a person should be nominated as shall be agreeable BOOK to the king of France. This treaty was concluded on the fifth of October, some time before Magdeburg surrendered, and the preparatory negociations were conducted with such profound secrecy, that, of all the princes who afterwards acceded to it, Maurice communicated what he was carrying on to two only, John Albert, the reigning duke of Mecklenburg, and William of Hesse, the landgrave's eldest son. The league itself was no less anxiously concealed, and with such fortunate care, that no rumour concerning it reached the ears of the emperor or his ministers; nor do they seem to have conceived the most distant suspicion of such a transaction. aid of Ed At the same time, with a solicitude which was careful Solicits the to draw some accession of strength from every quarter, ward VI. of Maurice applied to Edward VI. of England, and request-England. ed a subsidy of four hundred thousand crowns for the support of a confederacy formed in defence of the Protestant religion. But the factions which prevailed in the English court during the minority of that prince, and which deprived both the councils and arms of the nation of their wonted vigour, left the English ministers neither time nor inclination to attend to foreign affairs, and prevented Maurice's obtaining that aid which their zeal for the reformation would have prompted them to grant him. once more should be December. Maurice, however, having secured the protection of Demands such a powerful monarch as Henry II. proceeded with that the great confidence, but with equal caution, to execute andgrave his plan. As he judged it necessary to make one effort set at lis more, in order to obtain the emperor's consent that the herty. landgrave should be set at liberty, he sent a solemn embassy, in his own name, and in that of the elector of Brandenburg, to Inspruck. After resuming, at great length, all the facts and arguments upon which they founded their claim, and representing, in the strongest Recueil des Traitez, tom. ii, 258. Thuan. lib. viii, 279. X. 1551. BOOK terms, the peculiar engagements which bound them to be so assiduous in their solicitations, they renewed the request in behalf of the unfortunate prisoner, which they had so often preferred in vain. The elector palatine, the duke of Wurtemberg, the dukes of Mecklenburg, the duke of Deux-Ponts, the marquis of Brandenburg Bareith, and the marquis of Baden, by their ambassadors, concurred with them in their suit. Letters were likewise delivered to the same effect from the king of Denmark, the duke of Bavaria, and the dukes of Lunenburg. Even the king of the Romans joined in this application, being moved with compassion towards the landgrave in his wretched situation, or influenced, perhaps, by a secret jealousy of his brother's power and designs, which, since his attempt to alter the order of succession in the empire, he had come to view with other eyes than formerly, and dreaded to a great degree. 3552. But Charles, constant to his own system with regard to the landgrave, eluded a demand urged by such powerful intercessors; and having declared that he would communicate his resolution concerning the matter to Maurice as soon as he arrived at Inspruck, where he was every day expected, he did not deign to descend into any more particular explication of his intentions. This application, though of no benefit to the landgrave, was of great advantage to Maurice. It served to justify his subsequent proceedings, and to demonstrate the necessity of employing arms in order to extort that equitable concession which his mediation or entreaty could not obtain. It was of use, too, to confirm the emperor in his security, as both the solemnity of the application, and the solicitude with which so many princes were drawn in to enforce it, led him to conclude, that they placed all their hopes of restoring the landgrave to liberty in gaining his consent to dismiss him. Maurice employed artifices still more refined to conceal his machinations, to amuse the emperor, and to gain Sleid. 531. Thuan. lib. viii, 280. |