Treaty of Bärwalde

The Treaty of Bärwalde ( French Traité de Barwalde , Swedish Fördraget i Bärwalde ) was signed on January 23, 1631, more than 10 years after the beginning of the Thirty Years' War between France and Sweden . In the agreement it was agreed that the army of Protestant Sweden in the fight against the German emperor should be financed from the house of the Habsburgs through financial subsidies from Catholic France.

background

The intervention of Sweden in the Thirty Years War with the landing of the army on Usedom on June 24, 1630 saved the Protestant princes and cities in Germany from impending defeat. The time of the intervention of the Swedish King Gustav Adolf marks the transition from religious to hegemonic war . The fact that national political and religious driving forces overlap more and more is shown by the growing attention that France paid to the fighting in the Reich. The leader of French politics, Cardinal Richelieu , had no hesitation in supporting the Protestant cause in order to weaken the hegemony of the Habsburgs, by whom France found itself increasingly surrounded. Therefore, the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf was a welcome tool for Richelieu in the fight against the House of Habsburg . On the other hand, Gustav II Adolf felt himself to be an advocate of Protestantism and he was also in the fight against Emperor Ferdinand II , whom he assessed as a crusader. Gustav II Adolf always had the material strengthening of Sweden and control of the Baltic coast in mind. From the point of view of the down-to-earth, Lutheran Saxon Elector Johann Georg I - from 1631 in alliance with Sweden - Gustav Adolf was also a Swedish invader who wanted to destroy the integrity of the empire. Gustav Adolf was thus also an opponent for the Saxon elector and this tension led to the break of the alliance after 1635, which both sides did not trust from the start.

In Neumark Bärwalde (now Mieszkowice in West Pomerania , Poland ), southeast of Szczecin , joined the negotiators Gustaf Graf Horn for Sweden and Hercule de Charnacé for France the long pre-planned agreement in which France committed itself for 10 years, with a total of 400,000 Reichstalern to to share in the Swedish war costs. France itself did not want to intervene militarily in Germany with its own troops for the time being.

content

Sweden undertook to lead an army of 30,000 men and 6,000 riders into the territory of the Reich and to maintain these troops. France contributed to the costs with two annual payments to the Swedish Treasury of 20,000 Reichstalers each. The political goal was to restore the territorial status quo in the empire before the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War.

All states and princes should be admitted to the alliance. In order to isolate the German emperor further , friendship or at least neutrality should be maintained with the leader of the Catholic League , Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria . The religious freedom of the imperial estates was recognized. Neither of the allies could reach an agreement or make peace without the other.

When the contract was signed, it had already been shown that the actual maintenance costs of an army of this size, including the cost of materials and weapons, were more than five times the amount stated in the contract. This made it clear that the army also had to feed itself from the country.

The contract was initially limited to five years, but was renewed on April 9, 1633 in Heilbronn until the "establishment of a firm peace" .

Extract from the Bärwalde Treaty of January 23, 1631

“There should be a union between the [...] kings of Sweden and France for the defense of their mutual mutual friends, also for the security of the Baltic Sea and the ocean, the freedom of trade and the restoration of the oppressed classes of the Roman Empire and that the fortifications and bulwarks that are built in the ports and on the shores of both seas [...] will be destroyed and brought to the state in which they were last before this German war. "

"And since the spirit of the opposing party has been averse to a fair settlement [...] up to this day [...] the salvation of the mutual friends should be fought through with armed hands."

“For this purpose the King of Sweden is supposed to lead and hold 30,000 men on foot and 6,000 horsemen at his own expense to Germany. The King of France is supposed to unmistakably pay and deliver 400,000 Reichstaler annually [...]

“If it pleases God to grant the King of Sweden happy success, he will not conduct himself otherwise in matters of religion in occupied and ceded areas than according to the laws and regulations of the kingdom, and in the areas in which the practice of the Roman Catholic religion finds, it should remain untouched. "

literature

C. Hallendorff (Ed.): Sveriges Traktater med främmande magter jemde andra hit Höranda handlingar V.2 1632–1645. Stockholm 1909.

Individual evidence

↑ CV Wedgewood: The 30 Years War . Cormoran Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-517-09017-4 , pp. 242-245.
^ Christian Pantle: The Thirty Years' War. When Germany was on fire. About robbery, murder and looting and humanity in war. Propylaen Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-549-07443-5 , p. 57
↑ Hallendorff, C. (Ed.): Sveriges Traktater med främmande magter Jemde andra hit Höranda handlingar V.2 1632–1645. Stockholm 1909, Volume 5, pp. 438-440.

[1] CV Wedgewood: The 30 Years War . Cormoran Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-517-09017-4 , pp. 242-245.

[2] Christian Pantle: The Thirty Years' War. When Germany was on fire. About robbery, murder and looting and humanity in war. Propylaen Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-549-07443-5 , p. 57

[3] Hallendorff, C. (Ed.): Sveriges Traktater med främmande magter Jemde andra hit Höranda handlingar V.2 1632–1645. Stockholm 1909, Volume 5, pp. 438-440.