512 The Hanse Twvns. [MAT, 



ficient to make a solid territorial power. In the last resort, the fertile 

 brain of this politician thought of obtaining the aid of our Henry the 

 8th, and even of Francis the first, by offering to them successively 

 the crown of Denmark. 



A fleet and army were raised, and the command given to the Count of 

 Oldenbourg, one of those roving German princes whose trade was war, 

 and who were ready to fight any quarrel for their pay. This powerful 

 armament fell irresistibly upon the naked coasts of the Baltic. The 

 principle of the war was Revolutionary. There is nothing new under 

 the sun ; and the French fraternity and equality of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury were anticipated by the proclamations of Lubeck in the sixteenth. 

 The Count of Oldenbourg every where declared that he came only to re- 

 store their rights to the people, to extinguish the tyranny of the nobles, 

 to teach the suffering nations the way to peace and freedom, and to 

 spread commerce and independence through the north. These pro- 

 mises were alike fulfilled in both cases. The Count's republican army 

 robbed, burned, and slaughtered with the vigour of the oldest abuses ; 

 roused the peasantry to reform their government by slaying their mas- 

 ters ; and by the double scourge of insurrection and invasion, covered 

 the unfortunate land with fire and blood. 



But this violence wrought its own extinction. The Danish nobles had 

 chiefly fled to Jutland, another La Vendee, where the tenantry were 

 yet unenlightened with the new doctrines of public prosperity. They 

 put at their head Christiern, Duke of Holstein, son of the late king 

 Frederic ; summoned their retainers, and learned in the war of adver- 

 sity and exile the lessons by which they were to reassert the rights of 

 their country. The young prince was fortunate in having for his con- 

 temporaries Henry the 4th of France and Gustavus Vasa, two of the 

 most extraordinary princes that Europe has seen ; and who, like him- 

 self, were forced to fight their way through rebellious subjects and 

 powerful invaders to the crown. Christiern is said to have resembled 

 Henry in his romantic valour, his brilliant resources, and peculiarly in 

 that animation and buoyancy of heart which never failed him in his lowest 

 depression ; and which to the leader of a popular army is of all qualities 

 the most invaluable. 



The aspect of the war now suddenly changed : Christiern, at the head of 

 his desultory levies, ranged the country, attacked the invaders unexpect- 

 edly, harassed their communications, and while every skirmish cheered 

 his rude soldiery with vengeance, or with the spoil of troops loaded with 

 the plunder of Denmark, he broke the spirit of the Lubeckers tired of 

 fighting in a wilderness, and longing to return and enjoy their plunder 

 at home. But the catastrophe was hurried by more than the sword of 

 the young king. While every courier brought details of triumph, the peo- 

 ple of Lubeck had sustained the war with national pride. But when the 

 news of defeats came, accompanied with urgent demands for troops and 

 money, the question of profit and loss fortunately awoke their sensi- 

 bility. The merchants angrily and despondingly compared the sums 

 which peaceable traffic would have brought in, while they were expend- 

 ing millions of florins for the empty honour of distributing kingdoms. 

 But higher considerations may have opened their eyes, for the spirit of 

 commerce is one of justice and goodwill to man. The opulent mer- 

 chant, in his luxurious mansion on the banks of the Trave, must have 

 thought of the " looped and windowed nakedness" of the unfortunate 



