at the beginning of the Spring he came to Stralsund and found all things worse former hostilities not onely not layd aside but daily increased with new ones Stralsund oftimes since assaulted all the Ports ready provided to rob the Sweden Sea and that which is most detestable a compleate Armie without any denouncing of warre sent a second time into Prusia and that under the conduct of Arnhembius the Emperours Marshall of the field This sudden change as t was fit stopt his farther proceedings Yet that he would not altogether neglect his instructions hee wrote to the Duke of Fridland for what cause hee was dispatcht protested against the injurie of the Armie and required both it and other hostilities might bee stopt if the answere of the Commissioners of Lubecke should goe for honest But the Duke of Fridland was so far from recalling his Armie or shewing any readinesse to treat that for greater scorne hee made it good that the answers of his under-commissioners were but plaine mockings contending that hee could not call backe his Armie chiefly because the Emperour had so many soldiers that he was faine to disburthen himselfe by this Armie of Arnhembius therefore sent him not without cause to his friend the King of Poland against Swedeland Neyther beside this would hee answer any thing more to the purpose to the iterated demands of the Embassadour But made the said Armie hasten their journey who fought so eagerly all the last Summer in Prusia against his Majestie and kingdome of Sweden that except God the just avenger of all villany had turnd their wicked designes on their owne heads his Majestie and kingdome of Swedeland with all their friends had beene in no small danger Can yet any man doubt whether his Majestie had cause enough to lay aside all thoughts of peace and take up Armes and prepare himselfe for battle in his owne and his confederates defence There is one thing yet which might seeme a little to hinder the hastening of this warre and that was the expecting an answer from the Colledge of Electors to the Kings letters also the mediation of the King of Denmarke upon his Majesties intimation who had already begun assoone as Winter was past to presse this matter for a treaty For as long as by treating their could be any satisfaction made for injuries past or caution had for the future safegard of the neighbouring territories his Majestie was never so thirstie after revenge but that out of his zeale to the common good and publike peace hee would willingly suffer the cause to bee ended by Treatie rather than by Armes But seeing from the beginning of April 1630. what time a day was appointed at Dantz in Prusia even to this moneth of June there has beene no signification of a treatie made by the party injuring to the Commissioner of the party injured who was there present sent his readinesse commission to treat as far as Dantz by letters how truly the publike peace is desired may hence undoubtedly bee gathered Specially since the affronts of former times these which they have offered since the sending of their Commissioners to Dantz by possessing the strongest places and passages in Germany and more fiercely providing themselves to warre than afore times doe plainly tell us with what safetie such a treatie is to be trusted As for the Colledge of Electors it might have done verie much in this cause his Majestie is perswaded it would have done had the ancient libertie of the States of the Empire been preserved and the power of some Male-contents not taken so deepe root that it seemes willing to refuse all remedy at home It commended indeed in their late answer which was intimated at Stockholm this last April the peaceable designes of his Majestie of Swedeland and his offring a dispatch of the cause and they for their part offered the like friendship But when they did not so much as in a word touch at the remedies of those injuries which his Majesties Letters specially required did they not leave a necessitie on his Majesty to provide fit remedies for himselfe Wherefore since so many and so great indignities have beene really offered his Majestie his packets intercepted broke open his Subjects Ministers soldiers spoyled and taken captive common naturall commerce interdicted the Pole his enemy so oft disswaded from peace a full Armie conducted into Prusia for his Majesties overthrow On the other side No passage granted his Majestie though hee did no hurt nay his friends his neighbours and Allies for his sake have beene oppressed turnd out of their Dominions only not quite rooted out his Embassadours for peace have more than barbarously been scornefully rejected and lastly a furious Armie twice sent against him and that without the least cause or colour Are not all these nay any of them by the consent of Nations by the rule of reason and instinct of Nature sufficient enough to take just revenge except full satisfaction bee made Since in contempt of all the Baltique ports yea and sea it selfe so many threats such stirres such preparations are yet on foot whereby all counsailes actions designes both by sea and land seeme to have been wholly layd for his ruine Doe they not force men though unwilling to a just defence at least that by the law of Armes and all Nations hee should in some measure provide for his owne safetie Since after so much triall of faire meanes there is now no legall remedie left nay nothing but hostilitie offered Does not nature it selfe require to trie it out by the Sword Since therefore there is no other way for his Majestie to provide for his owne safetie but in Gods name to capitulate his owne and his Allies securitie by Armes hee would hereby leave it to the whole Christian world to judge into what streights hee is brought both without desert and unwillingly That which is objected chiefly by covetous and ambitious men is the protecting of the Towne of Stralsund Our defence whereof yet they themselves caused by so many former hostile incursions which afterward both in point of Honour for many other reasons his Majestie was perswaded would bee much for the common peace of Germany and the good of the Empire also as has beene said Had indeed his Majestie any way ayded eyther the Emperours or the Empires enemies had hee made any truce with their foes without just respect to them or had hee put in execution any designe tending to ther prejudice no man could have wondred at their suspition if happily it should have occasioned the retaliation of any such revenge But now seeing his Majestie has beene alwayes so constant to his intentions of Peace that not onely during the warres in Germany he has inviolably kept friendship and stood Neutrall but neither before not since has given any just colour of offence no not in the least matters he cannot but with griefe complaine to the whole world of so great indignities Wherefore seeing his Majestie protests he enters not upon this warre for any prejudice of the Empire betweene whom and his Majestie there is no enmitie but onely for the maintayning of his owne and his Allies and the common libertie untill such time as his friends and neighbouring confederates shal be in the same state wherein before this war they peaceably and of along time flourished and that the Citie of Stralsund the Baltique Sea and Kingdome of Swedeland may for hereafter promise themselves more security So he doubts not but the indifferent Reader nay the safety onely of these Nations will abhorre and detest the unjust proceedings of the adverse party as they truely deserve and is confident that the more indifferent of the German Nation yea all Christendome will favour his upright just way of proceeding by Armes directed onely for a faire suppressing of so unjust a persecution FINIS
THE CAVSES FOR VVHICH The most high and mighty Prince and Lo LORD GVSTAVUS ADOLPHUS Of the Swedes Gothes and Vandals King Great Prince of Finland Duke of Esthonia and Carelia and Lord of Ingria Is at length constrained to move with an Armie into Germany Translated out of the Latine Copy LONDON Printed for Nath. Butter and Nicholas Bourne 1631. The Causes for which the most high and mighty Prince and Lord LORD GVSTAVUS ADOLPHUS Of the Swedes Gothes and Vandals King Great Prince of Finland Duke of Esthonia and Carelia and Lord of Ingria Is at length constrained to move with an Armie into Germany T Is an old saying No man has peace longer than he please his enemy How true it is his Majesty of Swedeland these late yeers hath had experience and yet daily has to his great damage For although since his raigne he has not been more carefull of any thing than to conserve love amity with all his neighbours and specially the States of Germany whereby peace and tranquility might flourish every where commerce and other Trades in time of peace be put in use for the benefit of each Nation yet could he not obtaine any thing but that greater treacheries were plotted against him yeare by yeare by those disturbers of the common Peace which had with fire and sword wasted almost all Germany His Majesty indeed was long since advised and that not by a few of the States of Germany that he should looke to himselfe betimes while the fire was yet burning in high Germany and should not expect they would be ere a whit more friendly to him if they came neerer but that he should presently take armes come into Germany and by a joint power help to quench the flame being assured his owne house was in danger if his neighbours were on fire Neither did his Majesty want then either a good occasion the imitation of the inhabitants the instigation of forraigners or a just cause his friends and confederates oppressed who so earnestly required his ayd and succour Yet because he alwaies hoped they would at length be more moderate than so madly to insult on his poore harmlesse neighbourhood measuring their actions by his owne disposition he chose rather to commend his owne welfare awhile to Gods goodnesse and the uprightnesse of his owne conscience than to doe any thing rashly or unadvisedly But when Anno 1626. in those warres between him and the King and Kingdome of Polonia he went into Prusia a province of that Kingdome and beganne more neerely to observe what he might promise himselfe of those Incendiaries of Germany he then found the advice of his friends was true and the neerer his enemies came to the provinces bordering on the Baltique Sea the more and greater every day occasions of quarrell were still pickt against him For first the same yeere against the law of Nations they intercepted and broke open his Majesties packet to the Prince of Transylvania put the Messenger in prison and to get his Majesties ill will publisht his Letters in a forged translation Then when there was good hope of composing those long controversies betweene Sweden and Poland by friendly treaties Commissioners of each Kingdome meeting yeere by yeere yet those turbulent spirits so wrought by their Letters and Messengers againe and againe into Poland that there should be no peace with Swedeland till they had workt their owne ends in the Empire hoping that the Princes of Germany being brought in subjection the Pole would intreat their helpe for the subduing of Swedeland And that they might bee as good as their words and by all meanes possible weaken Swedeland and strengthen the Pole they did not onely hinder his Majesty of bringing men and munition out of Germany and yet gave way to the Pole for the same being his enemy but also when this seem'd too little for elsewhere and out of Germany it selfe in despight of them his Majesty had souldiers enow presently the next yeere 1627. they sent the Duke of Holsteyn with a great Army against him into Prusia and that not under his owne or the Poles but under the Emperours Standard Nor yet were they content with this hostitity but to deprive the Kingdome of Sweden of all commerce with men they not onely unjustly spoild his Majesties poore subjects comming on the German shoare to trade taking away their commodities and confiscating their Shippes but also did the same too by their agents at Lubeck and the other Hans-townes under colour indeed to reserve those commodities for them onely but indeed that they might take them from the subjects of the Kingdome of Swedeland and so by this meanes get a Navy together whereby they might belch out their venome upon the Baltique Sea as the next yeere following they more openly made knowne under those monstrous titles of Generall of the Seas and by possessing themselves as well of the inland places of strength as of the Sea coast and ports of all Mechleburg and Pomerania All which let a man that can thinke should have been put up and to avoid medling in other mens matters might have been past over as long as they kept themselves in the Continent but after that they made choise of the Soundt for harbor of their Pyracy and spread themselves upon the Sea by how much t was a greater prejudice to all States that any way traded in those parts by so much the lesse was it to be endured by the Kings of Swedeland specially since the guard of those Seas have anciently belonged to those Kings Now when his Majesty grew so much the warier aswell by the consideration of these injuries as the former advises of his friends and the next spring againe passed over into Prusia thinking of nothing more than to accommodate these inconveniences in a faire course It happened that there came Ambassadours to his Majesty into Prusia from the Towne of Stralsund who grievously complained that although their poore Towne had committed nothing either against the Emperour or Empire or any State of the Empire for which it was so farre from being ever cited or accused or convicted or condemned that it was declared innocent by the Imperiall decree and assured of the raising of the Army that lay before it notwithstanding such was the villany of the enemies army that in derision of its innocence in despight of the Imperiall constitutions and priviledges in contempt of Arnheimbius truce made with those of Pomerland in neglect of many other treaties of former times by all which they thought they were most safely provided for nor yet considering the unjust exaction and payment of so much money gifts and presents nor the breach of both religious and politick peace notwithstanding all these the said Armie principally wasted the Countrey adjoyning built forts about the Towne surprized the Iland Dehnholm lying over against the harbour without any denouncing of hostility and fortified it to their prejudice blockt up all the passages forward and
backward from the Continent into Rugia from the Towne into the continent deluded the Citizens with many mock-treaties commanded them Garrisons when they had been exhausted with huge payments required their harbour and Ships and Ordnance and when at length they were denyed all these by the free Citty they closely besieged the Towne and most unworthily persecuted it with fire and sword even to the last When as then the Emperours edicts tooke no place the Duke of Pomerland forsooke them and they were given for lost by the Hans-townes by the law of Nations by vertue of their liberties and after the example of their Ancestours they being forc't to entreat helpe from a forraigne power till this suddaine tempest was overpast they entertained and but a while the troopes of the King of Denmarke being ready at hand for the withstanding the furiousnesse of this first assault And lest this afterward might prove prejudiciall to them as if they had joyned with the Emperours enemies they had no other fairer or readier course than to put their liberties under protection of the King of Swedeland as an indifferent and confederate Prince His Maje therfore of Swedeland considering specially that his friends could not now promise any good to themselves from the vast projects of so hostile an Army with all observing that the request of this afflicted Towne was grounded both on God and mans Law and upon that bond of observance and neighbourhood of the same religion and liberty and free trade wherein they were alwaies devoted as to his predecessours the Kings and Kingdome of Swedeland so unto himselfe and lastly in what danger not onely himselfe and the Kingdome of Swedeland but all the neighbouring States be if any private mans ambition should set up a Rendevous for Pyrates in this harbour He could not by any meane refuse but send ayd to the oppressed that so earnestly desired his helping hand both for his friends and neighbours sake as also for his owne safeguard and the publike peace By which resolution of his though it came to passe that both Caesars edicts had their full authority and the Baltique Sea was yet safe for all Nations that had any commerce with it and the Towne of Stralsund by meanes of Majesties friendly mediation was freed from the Garrisons of the King of Denmarke at that time being enemies and was restored both to his owne liberty and the Roman Empire as those treaties with the Citie concerning this matter doe plainely manifest yet was it so farre from obtaining that these disturbers of the Peace would remit any thing of their hostile attempts and designes that they were the more afterward inraged set upon its utter ruine both by Sea and land For when they saw themselves put beside that harbour they set upon Wismar and other ports nor were they content with their owne but called a Navy from Dantz enemies of Swedeland to joyne with them and began so to rob on that Sea that his Majesty at last was forc't if hee would have his Sea and trading safe to blocke them up there with his owne Navy at his great cost and dammage untill that yeere were safely past And that his Majestie of Swedeland might not remit any of his care and study of the peace and quiet of these nations but trie all meanes to bring them to a friendly agreement as soone as he heard of a meeting appointed at Lubeck in the beginning of the yeare 1629. for treating a peace betweene the Emperour and the King of Denmarke he thought fit also to send his Embassadours thither who might both accommodate this businesse of the Towne of Stralsund and compose other jealousies hence arisen and withall what they could by their mediation bring the treatie it selfe to a good end For he thought with himselfe that since most of those jealousies grew by occasion of the warre betweene the Emperour the king of Denmarke there could bee no peace concluded with the King of Denmarke if Stralsund were excluded nor yet that Citie bound to any conditions if it selfe were not comprehended by reason of mutuall treaties with that towne of that matter But though the K. of Denmarke willingly admitted of this Ambassage and the other party was as friendly desired to doe the same yet was his Majesties faire carriage so requited that his solemne Ambassage was not onely received or vouchsafe any answere so much as by letters but withall had the repulse with a strange affront and was commanded upon peril of what might befall them to forbeare not onely Lubecke but the whole continent of Germany also Which one affront though it has ever beene esteemed by all nations worthy of the highest revenge and there was no cause but that the sharpest remedies should be used yet seeing the Emperours Commissioners in March after the King of Swedens were called home tooke notice of his Majesties letters of Embassage by other letters wherein by way of excuse they seemed to mollifie the harshnesse of their former sentence his Majestie also was willing to thinke it proceeded rather from some bad Counsellours than a publike resolution and would not yet thinke it sufficient though layd to the former to put two States in a combustion of warre Specially since the Commissioners withall signified that they had no commission to treate with any but the King of Denmarke although they certainely knew that if the matter might be referred to the Emperour or Duke of Fridland they should receive such an answere as would give satisfaction And now his Majestie thought it not fit to let his patience so many wayes wronged hee farther abus'd by such scornefull proceedings withall considered whether or no and how the partie injured might referre the businesse to the Emperour betweene whom the Emperour there was not formerly wont to be any such correspondence all the passages in the Empire being stopt and the meeting at Lubecke now drawing to an end Yet lest any labour might bee spared or difficultie hinder the publike good all considerations to the contrary layd aside his Majestie was at length so farre perswaded by the Parliament of Swedeland that presently in April he should not only write to the Colledge of Electors the maine pillar of the Romane Empire whom such proceedings with forreine Princes was thought much to displease and wish them to advise of some convenient remedies but should also consent that there should be one sent from the same Parliament to the Generall of the Armie to trie whether those controversies which were risen betweene the two Armies might not bee taken up by a meeting of both Presently there was dispatcht his Majesties Chamberlaine the Lord Steno Bielke Lord Baron in Krokenem with Commission that if hee found the adverse partie inclined to peace he should cause a cessation of Armes for the Citie of Stralsund untill further preparatives for a treaty being dispatcht more Commissioners should follow which should make a finall end of the whole matter But when