The coming of the Friars in such an age produced a deep impression. Saint Francis is one of the most lovable men of all history. A young man who, during convalescence from a severe illness, learns in Dean Stanley's words that "the world looks very different when viewed from the horizontal," gets up from it, resolved that the fascination of trifles shall not obscure the good things of life. He proceeded to forget all about himself and his personal interests and found that all the world began to think of him. He got so close to the heart of nature that it is not surprising that we have legends that the birds and the fishes, and even the wolf of Gubbio harkened to him. He gathered around him a group of men forever famous for their absolute simplicity of life and for their refusal to let selfish motives rule them in any way. Such a life might seem too ideal to have any practical influence over mankind, and, above all, too mystical to make any appeal except to a mediæval world, yet literally dozens of lives of Saint Francis have been written in our very busy practical age. Probably never since his own time has there been so many people, and above all so many whose opinion is of value, ready to proclaim Saint Francis one of the most wonderful characters of humanity as in our era of crowded interests. The love for Lady Poverty of the "little poor man of God," as he loved to call himself, has appealed to all religious and poetic souls ever since. No wonder that Dante has made such a brave figure of him in the 'Divine Comedy,' and placed beside him as equal in influence and power the great founder of the Dominicans.

The development of hospitals in the 13th century has been the subject of much study in the modern time. Virchow particularly has shown that there was probably scarcely a town of 5,000 inhabitants or more in Germany which did not have a hospital. He attributes this great development, more marked even in other countries than in Germany, to Pope Innocent III who founded "the hospital of the Santo Spirito by the old bridge across the Tiber and blessed and dedicated it as the future centre of a universal humanitarian organization." Pope Innocent summoned Guy of Montpelier to Rome, having heard that he was in charge of the best organized hospital of the time, built Santo Spirito under his direction and then when bishops come to Rome, as they had at regular intervals, he commended the hospital of Santo Spirito to their study and recommended, where it was virtually a command, that there should be a hospital as far as possible like that, according to conditions in each locality, in every diocese in the world. Many of these hospitals were beautifully built. Municipalities structed them for their citizens and they were public buildings, part of the scheme of the city beautiful which so many mediæval cities cherished. In smaller places hospitals were often built by the nobility and Virchow has called attention to the number of them constructed under the patronage of the family to which Saint Elizabeth of Hungary belonged. Her hospital at Marburg not far from where the beautiful church erected in her honor a few years after her death now stands, was a model for others. The hospital in Siena, added to (14th century) in memory of Saint Cath

con

erine, was another centre of charitable influence. The sister of Saint Louis of France, Marguerite of Bourgogne, built a beautiful hospital at Tonnerre, which Viollet le Duc has figured in his 'Dictionary of Architecture.' This shows how well these hospitals solved the problems of hospital construction which we have realized again in the modern time. There was a fine organization of nursing in these hospitals under the care of religious orders of men and women, especially the Augustinians. How well their work was done can be best appreciated from the great development of surgery which took place at this time, for good surgery is impossible without good hospitals and good nursing. Portions of many of these hospitals remain as evidence for what they were.

an

With a notable development of social service during the century and the opportunity afforded for feminine education, it is not surprising that the names of a series of women of this time are well known, indeed their prestige has been growing constantly in this last generation just in proportion as similar opportunities are afforded in this century. Saint Elizabeth of Hungary is probably the most famous and the beautiful cathedral erected in her honor at Marburg within a few years after her death, one of the handsomest monuments ever raised to a woman, is the testimony of her generation to their affectionate regard for the "dear Mrs. Saint Elizabeth" (Frau Heilige Elisabeth) as they quaintly called her because she was just a wife and the mother of four children who, though she died at 24, had found time to do great good work for the poor around her. Queen Blanche of Castile, the mother of Saint Louis of France, was another wonderful mother of the time. Her great son attributed all that he was to his mother's training. She was administrator of high ability who lifted France out of a period of threatened anarchy to preserve his kingdom for her boy, and yet declared that she would rather see him dead at her feet than know that he had committed a morta sin. The great women of the time came no only on thrones but also among the middle classes. Another mother of the time whose name is recalled in veneration was the wife of a London tradesman, Mabel Rich, whose son, Saint Edmund of Canterbury, one of the most sterling characters of the time, a scholarly churchman, made archbishop, went into exile rather than submit to a tyrant king. Edmund tells how the poor around his mother's home in London blessed her for her charity and was quite frank that he owed nearly everything in life to her. Another distinguished Englishwoman whose name has come down to us from this time is Isabella, the famous Countess of Arundel. She did not hesitate to admonish even the king himself, Henry III, when he was violating the liberties of England. Matthew Paris says that with a dignity which was more than that of woman she reminded the king that many times he had extorted money from his subjects and not kept his word and the rights of Englishmen were written down and he was violating them. With the revival o interest in Saint Francis there has come parallel rebirth of admiration for Saint Clar of Assisi who at the age of 17 left home to haye Saint Francis teach her how to live a lif

that would not be wasted in worldliness. Her mother and sister, who had opposed her vocation originally, joined her in the second order of Franciscans in a few years.

The military and political events of the century have a special significance because as a rule their influence still lives. The Crusades came to an end, the fourth under Boniface, Marquis of Montferrat (1222), the fifth led by King Andrew II (1228), the sixth (1248) and the seventh and last (1270), under Louis IX of France. The Children's Crusade (1212) was one of the sad interludes of an enthusiasm which went beyond reason. Most of the many thousands of children crusaders perished miserably or were sold into slavery by designing leaders. In 1230 the Teutonic Knights in a crusade against the pagan tribes of the Baltic region established themselves in Prussia and laid the foundation of what at the Reformation, through the ambition of a grand master, was to become a duchy, the beginning of modern Prussia. In 1282, Rudolph of Hapsburg, a Swiss noble, elected emperor in the first election held after the reform of the Imperial Electorate and the creation of seven electors, conferred on his sons the duchies of Austria and laid the foundation of the Hapsburg dynasty. All during the century the kings of Aragon were extending their sway over the Spanish Peninsula and the Balearic Islands (1230). After the Sicilian Vespers, a massacre of the French in Sicily by the Sicilians, so-called from its commencement at vespers on Easter Monday (1282), the kingdom of Sicily passed to them. Less than 20 years before (1265) the French under the House of Anjou had ascended the throne of the Two Sicilies. In 1235 the duchy of Brunswick was formed under the House of Guelph. Five centuries afterward, when reigning in Hanover, the Guelphs were to succeed to the throne of England (George I) where they still reign. The century saw the rise of Florence in importance, the decline of the republic of Pisa, the increase of Venice in power under an aristocracy which became hereditary toward the end of the period and the enfranchisement of the serfs at Bologna. The closing year of the century Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed the first jubilee and the crowds who flocked to Rome to celebrate it were so large that they could not cross the bridge to the Vatican until the rule of the road of keeping to the right was proclaimed, the first time in history there is mention of it.

Everywhere political events were occurring destined to far-reaching significance. Edward Ï of England to whom the contest between Robert Bruce and John Baliol for the crown of Scotland had been referred as umpire, conferred it upon Baliol on condition that he should receive it as a vassal of England. The Scotch refused to acknowledge any such dependence, for Scotland, to which Magnus of Norway (1266) had ceded the Hebrides, felt its nationality at stake. Baliol was dethroned and fled to Edward who attempted to enforce his rights. William Wallace, the famous hero of Scottish popular poetry, led an insurrection that was joined by Sir William Douglas and Robert Bruce who gathered round them most of the Scots. They were defeated by Edward at Falkirk (1299), but Robert Bruce was proclaimed king and suc

ceeded in maintaining himself until the defeat of Edward II at the great battle of Bannockburn (1306) settled him firmly on the throne.

The foundation of the Ottoman or Turkish Empire (1299) under Othman I in Bithynia led to the consolidation of Mohammedan power to the serious disturbance of Europe. The Turks are historically relatives of the Mongols who had already created the splendid empire of the Seljuks and who from the 11th to the 13th century governed the greater part of the caliphs' dominions in Asia and thus prepared the way for the Ottomans, their successors. The nucleus of their empire was formed in Asia Minor toward the end of the century under ErToghrul. Osman or Othman or Ottoman, his son, is looked upon as the founder of the empire.

The century saw the career of the best ruler of all time, Louis IX of France, or Saint Louis as he came to be called. It has been said of him, "Of all the rulers of men of whom we have record in history, he probably took his duties the most seriously with most regard for others and least for himself and his family." The watchword of his rule was justice, though he made it the aim of his life that men should have justice and education, and when for any misfortune they needed it-charity. For an unjust judge there was short shrift. The old tree at Versailles under which he used to hear the causes of the poor who appealed to him stood for many centuries the living reminder of Louis' efforts to make the dispensing of justice equal to all men. Voltaire, unsympathetic in so many ways, said of him, "Louis IX appeared to be a prince destined to reform Europe if she could have been reformed, to render France triumphant and civilized and to be in all things a pattern for men. A far-reaching policy was combined with strict justice and he is perhaps the only sovereign who is entitled to this praise; prudent and firm in counsel, intrepid without rashness in his wars, he was as compassionate as if he had always been unhappy. No man could have carried virtue further.". Guizot, the French statesman and historian, so little appealed to by the mediæval, said "The world has seen more profound politicians on the throne, greater generals, men of more mighty and brilliant intellect, princes that have exercised more powerful influence over later generations; but it has never seen such a king as this Saint Louis, never seen a man possessing sovereign power and yet not contracting the vices and passions which attend it, displaying upon the throne in such a high degree every human virtue, purified and ennobled by Christian faith. He was an ideal man, king and Christian, an isolated figure without any peer among his successors or contemporaries." His reign is the history of France for nearly 50 years (1226-70). He influenced not alone France but the other peoples of his time deeply. He was chosen as the umpire in disputes in foreign countries.

Louis' instructions to his son, so emphatic of justice as the great law among men, his deep interest in education, his foundation of the Sorbonne, his beneficence to the University of Paris, his encouragement of art and architecture, La Sainte Chapelle is his monument, as well as his scholarly patronage of men of letters in friendly intercourse, all stamp him as one of the most broad-minded of men.

Two great Spanish monarchs deserve to be mentioned beside Saint Louis. They are Ferdinand (1200-52), the Saint, king of Castile and Leon, whose mother, Berengaria, was the sister of Blanche of Castile, the mother of Saint Louis. To him is due the collection of translations in the vernacular of the Forum Judicum or Code of Visigothic laws, which is one of the oldest specimens of Castillian prose extant and the foundation of Spanish jurisprudence. His son, Alfonso X (1221-84) the Wise, is also known as the astronomer because of the Alfonsine tables, a series of astronomical observations compiled by his direction, but better known as the author of the code Las Siete Partidas, the basis of modern Spanish law. Ticknor ("History of Spanish Literature') declared that Alfonso "first made Castilian a national language by causing the Bible to be translated into it and by requiring it to be used in all legal proceedings. Under these two great monarchs, Spanish literature began its magnificent course, the ballads of the Cid and of Bernardo del Carpio becoming the common property of the people.

Surprisingly enough one phase of political history outside of Europe in the century is as important as anything in Europe. Genghis Khan founded the Mogul or Mongol Empire. He was a Tartar (Tatar) chieftain, by name, Temuchin, who on the death of his father succeeded to the Mongol throne at the age of 13 (1175). The chiefs who owed him allegiance were turbulent and restless, and had been restrained by the iron rule of his father. They refused to submit to a mere boy, but Temuchin's mother had the courage and vigor to repress many of them and keep them to their allegiance until Temuchin showed before long that he could rule them himself. He soon extended his sway over neighboring chiefs and in 1206 proclaimed himself emperor, invaded northern China and securing firm footing within the Great Wall soon conquered most of the country. He then turned westward, defeated the Mohammedans who had beheaded his envoys, overwhelming an immense army of nearly half a million, of whom 160,000 were left dead on the field. Pressing westward he besieged Bokhara, capturing it and Samarcand, and then Merv, all of which were sacked and burned. Astrakan was taken, the Russians defeated and Great Bulgaria ravaged. His troops conquered more of India and most of China, so that this onetime chief of a petty Mongol tribe "lived to see his armies victorious from the China Sea to the banks of the Dnieper; and though the empire which he created ultimately dwindled away in the hands of his degenerate descendants, leaving not a wrack behind, we have in the presence of the Turks in Europe a consequence of his rule, since it was the advance of his armies which drove their Osmanli ancestors from their original home in northern Asia and thus led to their invasion of Bithynia under Othman and finally their advance into Europe under Amurath I.»

Representative government developed during the century parallel with other achievements. Magna Charta was signed in 1215; the concluding sentence of chapter 1 runs: "We have also granted to all free men of our kingdom, for us and for our heirs forever; all the underwritten liberties to be had and held by them

and their heirs of us and our heirs forever." Whatever the original intention, this became eventually a grant to all free Englishmen. In 1257 the Provisions of Oxford under King Henry III established the stated recurrence of the great national council of Parliament. In 1265 the Knights of the Shire and the representatives of the townspeople who formed later the House of Commons were admitted to Parliament, while those personally summoned to attend by the king from the great nobles formed the House of Lords. Beginning with 1295, under Edward I, the attendance of the town members became regular, making Parliament really representative of the country. In the meantime, Bracton's Digest of the English Common Law' (1282) secured the legal rights of Englishmen of all classes, and forms the basis of law down to our own time in all English-speaking countries.

Nothing of all the accomplishment of the century probably possesses livelier interest for our commercial age than their organization of business in spite of what must have seemed insuperable difficulties to less enterprising times. Trade combinations and municipal affiliations as well as commerce facilities among distant, different peoples were rendered possible and even easy. Some even of the most modern developments of international intercourse were anticipated. Miss Zimmern (The Hanseatic League, Stories of the Nations Series) said: "There is scarcely a more remarkable chapter in history than that which deals with the trading alliance or association known as the Hanseatic League. The league has long since passed away, having served its time and fulfilled its purpose. The needs and circumstances of mankind have changed and new methods and new instruments have been devised for carrying on the commerce of the world. Yet, if the league has disappeared, the beneficial results of its action survive to Europe, though they have be come so completely a part of our daily life that we accept them as matters of course, and do not stop to inquire into their origin."

The condition of the great mass of people as the result of the growth of genuine democracy in this period is particularly interesting for our time. Good authorities have declared it the happiest century of human existence. More men and women than probably at any other time enjoyed the blessedness of having found their work and that work eminently satisfying, because it represented an interest of the mind or soul rather than the body. Artistic power and the art impulse were never so widespread, and triumphs of arts and crafts work were made even in very small towns. As for those without special talent the manual workers, Thorold Rogers, in his 'Economic Interpretation of History,' says: "On the whole there were none of those extremes of poverty and wealth which have excited the astonishment of philanthropists and the indignation of working The age, it is true, had its discontents but of poverty that perishes unheeded, of willingness to do honest work and a lack of opportunity, there was little or none.»

men.

Wages were very low, according to our standards and money values, but the necessaries of life were proportionately cheap, and the ratio between wages and prices is the all-important consideration. The social improvement which

marked the 13th century led to the fixing by statute in the time of Edward III in the early 14th century of the minimum wage of four pence a day and set maximum prices for necessaries of life. A pair of hand-made shoes was four pence, a fat goose two and one-half pence, a fat sheep a shilling and two pence, and a stallfed ox only 24 shillings. Needless to say this ratio between wages and prices secured the workman against want. An act of Parliament in the 14th century names "beef, pork, mutton and veal as the food of the poorer sort." Holidays were frequent. Besides the Sundays there were some 35 holy days during the year on which no work was done, and Saturday afternoon was free after the vesper hour, 2 P.M., as also the vigils of all first-class feasts. Standish O'Grady declared this abundance of leisure a source of the greatness of the time. Twice in the world's history, in the 5th century B.C. in Greece and the 13th century A.D., men have spent one-third of their time in leisure in preparation for and in celebration of religious mysteries. In both periods they had the time and the energy to create artistic and intellectual monuments which the world will never willingly let die.

PRINCIPAL EVENTS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 1202. The Fourth Crusade led by Boniface, Marquis of Montferrat.

1204. Conquest of Normandy. Constantinople is besieged and taken by the French and Venetians. Baldwin, Count of Flanders, elected emperor of the East. Seat of the Greek empire removed to Nicæa. 1206. Genghis Khan, the Mongol emperor, begins his career of conquest, extending his expeditions from China to Bulgaria.

1208. Pope Innocent III lays an interdict on England. The Albigensian Crusade.

1209. The Inquisition instituted at Avignon to check heresy. 1212. Defeat of the Saracens at Tolosa, Spain. Contests between Moors and Christians arouse the spirit of chivalry. Goths divide into three kingdoms, Castile, Aragon and Portugal. The ill-starred Children's Crusade.

1214. The liberties of Oxford University confirmed by papal authority. 1215. General revolt against the king of England. John I of England forced to sign Magna Charta. Rise of trade guilds and labor unions.

1220. Venice becomes independent. Golden period of commerce. Cities of Venice, Genoa and Pisa furnish ships for the Crusades. Architecture, fine arts and the industries flourish throughout western Europe.

1226. Louis IX, afterward known as Saint Louis, ascends the throne of France. Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan Order, dies.

1227. Death of Genghis Khan.

1228. The Fifth Crusade led by King Andrew II. 1230. Teutonic knights establish themselves in Prussia 1231. Saint Elizabeth of Hungary dies.

1236. Tatars invade Russia.

1245. Alexander of Hales, the "Irrefragable Doctor of

English theology, dies.

1248. Saint Louis IX of France leads the Sixth Crusade. 1252. Death of Ferdinand the Saint, king of Castile and Leon. 1253. The Jews are expelled from France.

1257. The Provisions of Oxford formulated.

1260. Michael Palæologus founds a family of distinguished Eastern emperors.

1261. Recovers Constantinople from Western domination. 1262. The Barons' War in England.

1263. Sir John de Baliol founds Baliol College, Oxford. 1264. Vincent of Beauvais, the encyclopedist of the Middle Ages, dies.

1265. Henry III of England reigns. Deputies of the Commons first summoned to Parliament. The kingdom of the Two Sicilies comes under French domination.

1268. The Mongol-Tatars invade China.

1270. The Seventh and last Crusade. Death of Saint Louis of France.

1271. Marco Polo's travels extend the knowledge of the world.

1272. Edward I crowned king of England.

1274. Saint Thomas of Aquinas, "Prince of Scholastics,"

dies.

1280. Albertus Magnus, the Doctor Universalis man philosophy, dies.

565

of Ger

1280. The Mongol-Tatars conquer China, overthrow the Southern Sung dynasty and establish the dynasty of Yuen. Under Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis, the grand canal of China is dug.

1282. The Sicilian Vespers. Massacre of the French in Sicily. Conquest of Wales by the English. 1284. Death of Alfonso X, the Wise, of Spain. 1285. Philip IV reigns in France.

1290. The Jews are expelled from England.

1294. Roger Bacon, the "Doctor Admirabilis " of English science, dies.

1295. The English Parliament is organized.

1297. Edward I takes the coronation chair and the records of Scotland to London.

1299. Scotch defeat at Falkirk. The Ottoman or Turkish Empire founded.

JAMES J. WALSH, Author of The Thirteenth Greatest of Centuries.

THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES, The. See ARTICLES, THE THIRTY-NINE.

THIRTY TYRANTS, (1) a body of Athenian aristocrats, headed by Critias and Theramenes, who undertook to administer the affairs of Athens at the close of the Peloponnesian War, 404 B.C. They put to death their opponents, and set a Spartan garrison in the Acropolis. Later Thrasybulus led the exiled citizens against Athens, defeated the forces of the Thirty, and slew Critias. Democratic government was restored and soon afterward recognized by Sparta. (2) The Thirty Tyrants of Rome were a band of revolutionists who tried to secure the Imperial power during the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus (qq. v.).

THIRTY YEARS' WAR, so called because it lasted from 1618 to 1648, was at first a struggle between Protestants and Roman Catholics, north Germany supporting the former, and southern Germany, with Austria at its head, the latter cause. It gave the Swedes an opportunity to extend their dominion south of the Baltic, it reduced the resources and weakened the power of Austria, and it gained for the northern states of Germany the breathing space needed to develop independent existence. Few wars, however, have been more calamitous in their general effect on the mass of the people and the happiness and progress of mankind. Apart from the horrors which attended the capture of Magdeburg, and other barbarous scenes of the struggle, it reduced the peasantry and most of the townspeople to abject misery; it may be Isaid to have effaced for a time literature and art in Germany, and it magnified the system of petty principalities, since partly effaced as a result of the Napoleonic wars, but still a powerful obstacle in the way of complete German progress.

On the one side were Austria, nearly all the Roman Catholic princes of Germany, and Spain; on the other side were, at different times, the Protestant powers and France. The occasion of this war is to be found in the fact that Germany had been distracted ever since the Reformation by the mutual jealousy of Roman Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists, which led the Protestant princes to form the Evangelical Union in 1608, against which the Roman Catholic League was formed the following year. Certain concessions had been made to the Protestants of Bohemia by the Emperor Rudolph II (1609), but these were withdrawn by his successor Matthias in 1614, and four years afterward the Bohemian Protestants were in rebellion. Thus began the first part of the long

war, the part that is known as the Bohemian War. The Protestant Bohemians were led by the Count of Thurn, and the Union sent an auxiliary corps into Bohemia, under the command of the brave Ernest, count of Mansfeld. Their leaders drove the imperial troops from Bohemia, invaded the archduchy of Austria, and advanced to the gates of Vienna, but unfavorable weather and want of resources compelled the invaders to retreat. Soon after, Ferdinand, with the title of Ferdinand II, was chosen emperor (28 Aug. 1619). He had borne the title of king of Bohemia since the resignation of his cousin Matthias in 1617. The Bohemians, knowing his hostility to Protestantism, had already declared his title to the Bohemian crown void, and offered it to the elector palatine, Frederick V, the head of the Protestant Union, and husband of Elizabeth, daugh ter of James I of England. Frederick accepted the crown, but he was ill fitted to cope with the difficulties before him, and the great victory of the troops of the League (8 Nov. 1620), under Maximilian of Bavaria, on the Weissenberg (White Mountain), near Prague, which was followed by the flight of the new king, put an end to the Bohemian rebellion, and crushed the Protestant cause in that quarter. Frederick was put under the ban of the empire, his territory was taken from him and bestowed on Maximilian of Bavaria.

Ferdinand had now a favorable opportunity of concluding a peace on moderate terms. But his unsparing treatment of the conquered, and the reactionary proceedings against the Protestants generally, all of whom had been expelled from Bohemia, at last roused the determined opposition of the Protestant princes, who sought and obtained foreign assistance. Aided by supplies of money from England, and by a body of troops from Holland, Count Mansfeld, Christian of Brunswick, and the Margrave of Baden again took the field, and they were joined by Christian IV of Denmark. Mansfeld was defeated by the imperial general Wallenstein at Dessau (25 April 1626), and after a difficult march through Hungary to the lower Danube, died in Bosnia on 30 November in the same year. Meanwhile Christian of Brunswick had also died, and Christian of Denmark had been defeated by Tilly at Lutter am Barenberg (27 Aug. 1626) and compelled to withdraw to his own territory. The allies of Denmark, the dukes of Mecklenburg, were now obliged to flee from their territories, which were taken possession by Wallenstein with the consent of the emperor. Holstein, Schleswig and Jutland also soon fell into the hands of the imperial troops. Pomerania and Brandenburg had detachments forced upon them by Wallenstein. The power of the emperor extended to the Baltic, and to secure this power an attempt was made to seize all the important towns on the coast. Straslund alone made serious resistance, and during a ten-weeks' siege, which was carried on with furious energy (May to July 1628), it baffled all the attacks of Wallenstein, who was at last forced to retreat with great loss. This check thwarted the plans of Wallenstein, and led to a short interruption of the war. In the peace of Lübeck (12 May 1629) Christian of Denmark received back all the territories belonging to him that had been occupied and devastated by the imperial troops, on the condi

tion of promising to interfere no more in the affairs of Germany.

Austria was once more victorious; but the greater its victory the more complete was to be the triumph of the Roman Catholic Church. With this object the emperor issued the Edict of Restitution, in virtue of which all the ecclesiastical foundations and other church property that had been confiscated for the behoof of Protestants since the religious peace of Passau (1552) were to be restored to the Roman Church, and the Calvinists were to be excluded from the benefits of that peace. This ordinance, which threatened to take a large number of bishoprics, and almost all the abbeys and other ecclesiastical foundations of north Germany, out of the hands of those who then held them, filled all Protestant Germany with alarm and prolonged the war. Many princes and towns refused to obey it, and the emperor was obliged, in order to give effect to it, to keep his forces in the field. But these forces did not long remain under the command of Wallenstein. At a meeting of the Electoral College of the empire in August 1630, Ferdinand found it expedient to yield to the general demand for his deposition, and the supreme command of the imperial armies was given to Tilly, who thereupon marched against Magdeburg, which had refused to carry out the edict.

In the meantime a new belligerent appeared on the scene, one whose exploits form the most interesting episode of the whole war. This was Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, who landed on the coast of Pomerania on 24 June 1630. The inducements which led him to mix himself up with the struggle were the desire of protecting Protestantism in Germany, that of establishing the power of Sweden on the coast of the Baltic and that of checking the advance of the power of Austria in north Germany. For this last reason he had the secret support of the French minister Richelieu, who was jealous of the growing power of the house of Hapsburg. Gustavus Adolphus was generally hailed by the inhabitants of the Protestant states of Germany as their deliverer, but the Protestant princes did not extend to him so eager a welcome. Fearing the revenge of the emperor they for the most part refused his offered alliance, and at the diet of Leipzig resolved to maintain a neutral attitude. The old Duke of Pomerania, whose territory had been terribly devastated by the imperial troops, had at once opened his land to him, but the electors of Brandenburg and Saxony refused him a passage through their territories, and while the time was consumed in negotiations the town of Magdeburg, after repeated assaults, was taken and destroyed (20 May 1631). Tilly now threatened Saxony, and the elector, John George I, hastened to conclude, in his own defense, the alliance which he refused in the interests of the Protestant cause. On 17 September (O. S. 7 September) the forces of Tilly and Gustavus Adolphus met at Breitenfeld, close to Leipzig, when the former were completely defeated. Tilly retreated to the south while the Swedish king advanced to the Main and Rhine. Before the end of winter the latter had made himself master of the bishopric of Würzburg and the greater part of the Lower Palatinate, as well as of the towns on the Rhine. In the spring of 1632 he marched by way of Nuremberg to the