BOOK Σ. 1552. Maurice to amuse time. He affected to be more solicitous than ever to find out some expedient for removing the difficulties with regard to the safe conduct for the Protestant divines appointed to attend the council, so that they might repair continues thither without any apprehension of danger. His am- the ene bassadors at Trent had frequent conferences concerning ror. this matter with the imperial ambassadors in that city, and laid open their sentiments to them with the appearance of the most unreserved confidence. He was willing, at last, to have it believed, that he thought all differences with respect to this preliminary article were on the point of being adjusted; and, in order to give credit to this opinion, he commanded Melancthon, together with his brethren, to set out on their journey to Trent. At the same time, he held a close correspondence with the imperial court at Inspruck, and renewed, on every occasion, his professions, not only of fidelity, but of attachment to the emperor. He talked continually of his intention of going to Inspruck in person; he gave orders to hire a house for him in that city, and to fit it up with the greatest dispatch for his reception o. ceives cerning his But, profoundly skilled as Maurice was in the arts of The empedeceit, and impenetrable as he thought the veil to be ror conunder which he concealed his designs, there were several some suspi things in his conduct which alarmed the emperor amidst cion con his security, and tempted him frequently to suspect that intentions. he was meditating something extraordinary. As these suspicions took their rise from circumstances inconsiderable in themselves, or of an ambiguous as well as uncer tain nature, they were more than counterbalanced by Maurice's address; and the emperor would not lightly give up his confidence in a man whom he had once trusted and loaded with favours. One particular alone seemed to be of such consequence, that he thought it necessary to demand an explanation with regard to it. The troops which George of Mecklenburg had taken into pay after the capitulation of Magdeburg, having fixed their quar • Arnoldi vita Maurit. ap. Menken. ii, 1229. X. 1552. BOOK ters in Thuringia, lived at discretion on the lands of the rich ecclesiastics in their neighbourhood; their licence and rapaciousness were intolerable. Such as felt or dreaded their exactions complained loudly to the emperor, and represented them as a body of men kept in readiness for some desperate enterprise. But Maurice, partly by extenuating the enormities of which they had been guilty, partly by representing the impossibility of disbanding these troops, or of keeping them to regular discipline, unless the arrears still due to them by the emperor were paid, either removed the apprehensions which this had occasioned, or, as Charles was not in a condition to satisfy the demands of these soldiers, obliged him to be silent with regard to the matter. Maurice prepares for action. Circum stances tributed to The time of action was now approaching. Maurice had privately dispatched Albert of Brandenburg to Paris, in order to confirm his league with Henry, and to hasten the march of the French army. He had taken measures to bring his own subjects together on the first summons; he had provided for the security of Saxony, while he should be absent with the army; and he held the troops in Thuringia, on which he chiefly depended, ready to advance on a moment's warning. All these complicated operations were carried on without being discovered by the court at Inspruck, and the emperor remained there in perfect tranquillity, busied entirely in counteracting the intrigues of the pope's legate at Trent, and in settling the conditions on which the Protestant divines should be admitted into the council, as if there had not been any transaction of greater moment in agitation. This credulous security in a prince, who, by his sagacity in observing the conduct of all around him, was which con- commonly led to an excess of distrust, may seem unacdeceive the countable, and has been imputed to infatuation. But, besides the exquisite address with which Maurice concealed his intentions, two circumstances contributed to f Sleid. 549. Thuan. 339. emperor BOOK X. 1552 the delusion. The gout had returned upon Charles soon after his arrival at Inspruck with an increase of violence; and his constitution being broken by such frequent attacks, he was seldom able to exert his natural vigour of mind, or to consider affairs with his usual vigilance and penetration; and Granvelle, bishop of Arras, his prime minister, though one of the most subtle statesmen of that, or perhaps of any age, was, on this occasion, the dupe of his own craft. He entertained such an high opinion of his own abilities, and held the political talents of the Germans in such contempt, that he despised all the intimations given him concerning Maurice's secret machina- and his tions, or the dangerous designs which he was carrying ministers. on. When the duke of Alva, whose dark suspicious mind harboured many doubts concerning the elector's sincerity, proposed calling him immediately to court to answer for his conduct, Granvelle replied, with great scorn, that these apprehensions were groundless, and that a drunken German head was too gross to form any scheme which he could not easily penetrate and baffle. Nor did he assume this peremptory tone merely from confidence in his own discernment; he had bribed two of Maurice's ministers, and received from them frequent and minute information concerning all their master's motions. But through this very channel, by which he expected to gain access to all Maurice's councils, and even to his thoughts, such intelligence was conveyed to him as completed his deception. Maurice fortunately discovered the correspondence of the two traitors with Granvelle; but, instead of punishing them for their crime, he dexterously availed himself of their fraud, and turned his own arts against the bishop. He affected to treat these ministers with greater confidence than ever; he admitted them to his consultations; he seemed to lay open his heart to them; and taking care all the while to let them be acquainted with nothing but what it was his interest should be known, they transmitted to Inspruck such accounts as possessed Granvelle with a firm belief of his sincerity as X. 1552. BOCK well as good intentions. The emperor himself, in the fulness of security, was so little moved by a memorial, in name of the ecclesiastical electors, admonishing him to be on his guard against Maurice, that he made light of this intelligence; and his answer to them abounds with declarations of his entire and confident reliance on the fidelity as well as attachment of that prince". Maurice takes the field At last Maurice's preparations were completed, and he had the satisfaction to find that his intrigues and designs against the were still unknown. But, though now ready to take the emperor. field, he did not lay aside the arts which he had hitherto employed; and by one piece of craft more, he deceived his enemies a few days longer. He gave out, that he was about to begin that journey to Inspruck of which he had so often talked, and he took one of the ministers whom Granvelle had bribed to attend him thither. After travelling post a few stages, he pretended to be indisposed by the fatigue of the journey; and dispatching the suspected minister to make his apology to the emperor for this delay, and to assure him that he would be at Inspruck within a few days, he mounted on horseback, as March. 18, soon as this spy on his actions was gone, rode full speed towards Thuringia, joined his army, which amounted to twenty thousand foot, and five thousand horse, and put it immediately in motion1. Publishes At the same time, he published a manifesto containing a manifesto his reasons for taking arms. These were three in num justifying ber; that he might secure the Protestant religion, which duct, was threatened with immediate destruction; that he might his con maintain the constitution and laws of the empire, and save Germany from being subjected to the dominion of an absolute monarch; that he might deliver the land 1 Meiv. Mem. p. 13. These circumstances concerning the Saxon ministers whom Granvelle had bribed, are not mentioned by the German historians; but as Sir James Melvil received his information from the elector palatine, and as they are perfectly agreeable to the rest of Maurice's conduct, they may be considered as authentle. X. 15546 grave of Hesse from the miseries of a long and unjust BOOK imprisonment. By the first, he roused all the favourers of the reformation, a party formidable by their zeal as well as numbers, and rendered desperate by oppression. By the second, he interested all the friends of liberty, Catholics no less than Protestants, and made it their interest to unite with him in asserting the rights and privileges common to both. The third, besides the glory which he acquired by his zeal to fulfil his engagements to the unhappy prisoner, was become a cause of general concern, not only from the compassion which the landgrave's sufferings excited, but from indignation at the injustice and rigour of the emperor's proceedings against him. Together with Maurice's manifesto, another appeared in the name of Albert marquis of Brandenburg Culmbach, who had joined him with a body of adventurers whom he had drawn together. The same grievances which Maurice had pointed out are mentioned in it, but with an excess of virulence and animosity suitable to the character of the prince in whose name it was published. king. The king of France added to these a manifesto in his He is pow own name; in which, after taking notice of the ancient eruily supported by alliance between the French and German nations, both the French descended from the same ancestors; and after mentioning" the applications which, in consequence of this, some of the most illustrious among the German princes had made to him for his protection; he declared, that he now took arms to re-establish the ancient constitution of the empire, to deliver some of its princes from captivity, and to secure the privileges and independence of all the members of the Germanic body. In this manifesto, Henry assumed the extraordinary title of Protector of the liberties of Germany and of its captive princes; and there was engraved on it a cap, the ancient symbol of freedom, placed between two daggers, in order to intimate to the Germans, that this blessing was to be acquired and secured by force of arms*. * Sleid. 549. Thuan. lib. v, 339. Mem. de fibier, ii, 371. VOL. VI. |
