1645.

Retreat of

De Werth:

loss of the Bavarians.

Turenne crosses the Rhine, and captures Treves: unsuccess

fully tries to effect a junction with the Swedes.

In the mean while Maréchal Turenne advanced steadily with the left column; and, in spite of the fire of the Bavarian artillery, mounted the Wineberg, where he routed the Imperial cavalry, and took its commander, General Glen, prisoner. D'Enghien was now therefore enabled to re-enter the village, where the gallant defenders in the church and bell-tower, finding themselves enveloped, surrendered at discretion: and John de Werth, on his return to his lines, found every thing in confusion, and had no alternative but a speedy retreat. This did not take effect until an hour after midnight; but, marching by the aid of the darkness, he was enabled to reach Donawert with the remains of his army by daybreak. All the German guns and many standards were captured, and a great many officers were taken prisoners. But the victors gained so bloody a triumph, that Maréchal Turenne relates they had 3000 or 4000 men "tués sur la place," so that they could not get together more than 1200 or 1500 infantry the following morning. M. le Prince was also so exhausted with his gallant exertions, that he was obliged to quit the army and return to Paris; and thus Turenne, who had most contributed to the victory of Allerheim, now resumed the chief command of the army. The enemy crossed the Danube, and the French advanced to Halle ; and thus the opposing forces continued not more than five or six leagues apart until the 17th October.

The Emperor having greatly reinforced the Bavarian army, the Maréchal determined to march away to the Rhine without loss of time; and so resolutely was this plan carried out, that, not finding the river fordable near Wimpfen, the whole army swam across it,-the horse carrying the foot on their cruppers. In the month of November the Maréchal marched his army to Treves, which city capitulated on the 20th November,

2 Turenne in his memoir of the battle says "n'en ayant pas plus de raison que celle du Roi, si ce n'est qu'ils avaient perdu leur Général."

where he re-established the Elector in his capital; and he then took up his winter quarters in the valley of the Moselle; after which he himself returned to the Court. He availed himself of this opportunity to urge on Cardinal Mazarin a more energetic pursuit of the war. He showed the impossibility of carrying the campaign into Germany unless the French and Swedish armies could be brought to act together, or, at all events, in concert; and accordingly the campaign of 1646 opened in April with the intention of combining Turenne's army with that of General Wrangel; but before the former could pass the Rhine the intrigues of the Elector of Bavaria had checked this plan of operations; and the Imperialists and Bavarians having again coalesced, the junction of the French and Swedes was rendered impossible, by the former holding all the passages of the Rhine.

1646.

of the

forces,

Turenne

The old soldier, finding his plans "jockied" by the To effect diplomatists, was determined to play out the game after a junction his own fashion. With inexhaustible resources, the French and Maréchal now employed them in seeking a way of Swedish uniting himself to Wrangel in the County of Hesse. Tur Accordingly he broke up from Philipsburg on the joins Wrangel, 1st July; and, leaving a sufficient garrison in Mayence, Aug. 10: he marched across the Moselle, and feeling his best is obliged chance of getting over the Rhine was to take advan- to raise the siege of tage of the Dutch assistance, he continued his march Augsburg: for fourteen days without stopping until he reached takes Wesel on the 15th, on which day he communicated to Wrangel his intention to be with him as soon as possible; and on the 10th August he effected the junction of the French and Swedish forces at Wetzlar and Giesser on the river Lohn. The confederated forces numbered 7000 foot and 10,000 horse, with 60 guns. The Imperialists and Bavarians under the Archduke Leopold, who had hemmed in Wrangel, without daring to attack him, had 10,000 foot and 14,000 horse. But as soon as these heard of Turenne's arrival they raised their camp,

Lands

berg.

The Elec

the Em

and moved away to Friedberg, where the Archduk took up a new post, and buried himself under accumu lated earthworks.

Wrangel had most courteously surrendered the su preme command to Turenne, who without any delay followed after the enemy until he saw him so hemmed in to his camp that he could scarcely get out, on which the Maréchal passed them by, and, directing his course along the Maine, established himself between Frankfort and Hanover, and opened the communication with Mayence. To the astonishment of all Europe, nothing could move the Archduke; and consequently the armies of France and Sweden entered Franconia and Suabia, and crossed the Danube to threaten Bavaria at Donawert, crossing the Lech on the 22nd September, and capturing Rain. But before he could tor of Ba- obtain possession of Augsburg the entreaties of the varia separates from Elector had moved the Emperor to order his General, with the Imperial army, to march to its succour ; and Turenne raised the siege. But the Archduke treaty with Leopold was so enamoured of intrenchments, that he the French forthwith set himself to establish his camp near Memmingen, about five leagues from Landsberg, where the March 14. great magazine was established. About the beginning of November, Turenne and Wrangel, finding their armies suffering from the severity of an early winter, reconnoitred the Imperial camp, but found it too strong for a coup de main; for not only was it fortified with skill, but it was in the midst of marshy ground, and only to be approached by long defiles. The Maréchal saw, however, at a glance the fault of the strategy of the position; and, rapidly turning back the confederated army, crossed the Lech by a bridge that the enemy had neglected to destroy or guard, and took Landsberg, with its great magazine, by escalade.

peror, and makes a

and Swedes

at Ulm,

3 Turenne says in his memoirs that there was in this place a garrison of 1200 or 1500 militia: "qu'on appelle chasseurs, parcequ'ils ont une casaque verte."

Ulm.

Here they not only provisioned themselves for six weeks, 1647. and levied contributions to the very gates of Munich, but constrained Leopold to separate from the Bavarians, and remove for the sustenance of the winter months into the Hereditary Estates. Indignant at the whole conduct of the Archduke Leopold, the Elector of Bavaria resolved to separate altogether from the party of the Empire, and to seek his advantage by a treaty with the Confederates. Accordingly M. de Turenne was applied to by the French plenipotentiary to fix a place Treaty of for the negotiations; and Ulm was fixed upon for the parties to meet, the combined army being brought round the place for their protection. Here, on the 14th March, 1647, a treaty was signed, by which the Elector promised to place Heilbronn in the hands of the French, and Memmingen in those of the Swedes, and to refuse any passage across his dominions to the troops of the Empire. The Emperor's army was thus reduced by the defalcation of that of Bavaria to 11,000 horse and foot, while the Confederates were augmented to 20,000 cavalry and 14,000 infantry, and these took up their winter quarters, 1647, on the banks of the Danube.

ordered to

and Condé

The Cardinal Minister had so many irons in the fire Turenne is at this juncture, that the military affairs of France the Newere greatly compromised by them. The army in the therlands, North of Spain under D'Harcourt had not been suc- April 15; cessful, and Mazarin therefore determined to employ the to Spain. young Prince, now become Prince de Condé, to take charge of the war in Catalonia. The accession of Innocent X. to the papacy had given a new enemy to France in Italy. Negotiations for the peace of Germany had been opened at Munster, while separate proposals had been opened for an alliance between Spain and the United Provinces. Diplomacy was in the throes of great events, which "le fourbe Cardinal" laboured incessantly to turn to the advantage of France. These anxieties were brought to bear upon our Viscount in a

1647.

. Refusal of

to march

with Turenne to

way that very much displeased him. Mazarin thought that Austria had been so crippled by the closing events of the last campaign that the military security of Germany might safely be left to the Swedish army under General Wrangel; and he notified to the Maréchal that he would be required to carry down to Flanders the whole of the French and Weymar troops under his command, and take the command in that portion of France vacated by the removal of Condé to Spain. Turenne vehemently opposed this proposition, and sent earnest representations to the Queen Regent of its impolicy. However, on the 15th April, he received his orders, with direction to take care to render all the places he had taken secure, and to appoint trustworthy Governors to them, and then to remove to the Netherlands. As he did not immediately act on this latter direction, he received a more imperative command to do so in the month of May.

The Maréchal had, amongst other reasons that he had Rosen and assigned against the removal of the army out of Gerthe Weymar army many, named his doubts as to the willingness of what was called the Weymar army to quit the Empire: these men, consisting of 5000 horse and 5000 foot, were old Flanders. soldiers from the many disbanded troops that had served in the course of the Thirty Years' War, and whom Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar had brought over to the service of France, and who had consented to serve under Turenne after that Prince's death. They were now under the immediate command of General de Rosen, who since the affair of Mariendahl, where he had lost the greater part of his reputation as well as his liberty, had entertained a personal grudge against the Maréchal. Accordingly he incited them to remonstrate against being moved out of Germany; and they had in consequence declared they would remain there, a separate army under Rosen himself. They at once preferred their claim to the Maréchal for five or six months' arrears of pay. This just claim upon his Government