Frenchburg capitulation

The Duchy of Pomerania became Protestant in 1534. In the Holy Roman Empire, it was part of the internally divided Upper Saxon District , which, after the start of the Thirty Years War, originally a conflict between Catholics and Protestants, declared its neutrality in 1620. In 1624, the Elector of Saxony went over to the side of the emperor, but Brandenburg and Pomerania remained neutral, but out of fear of the power of the Catholic League rejected the alliance proposed by Protestant Denmark .

In 1625, under the leadership of Albrecht von Wallenstein, the imperial army occupied Magdeburg and Halberstadt , the bishopric princes in Lower Saxony, occupying and plundering the Upper Saxon counties of Honstein and Wernigerode. This army supported the army of the Catholic League, commanded by Tilly .

As a countermeasure, Danish forces under the command of Ernst von Mansfeld in the same 1625 occupied the Brandenburg regions of Altmark and Prignitz south-west of Pomerania, but in 1626 were defeated by imperial troops in the battle of Dessau Bridge . With the exception of the elector of Saxony, who was considered by Wallenstein as a de facto member of the Catholic League, after the neutralization of Denmark, the states of the Upper Saxon region were occupied and devastated by imperial troops. Formally, the district remained neutral.

In November 1626, the Swedes began to recruit troops in Pomerania despite the Duke’s disagreement. In February 1627, Swedish troops crossed Pomerania to enter the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with which they fought . In July, imperial troops crossed the territory of the duchy in the area of Piritz . To avoid the expected occupation, Duke Bogislav XIV proposed 60 thousand thalers in October, and then the amount was raised to 200 thousand thalers, but Albrecht von Wallenstein instead ordered Hans-Georg von Arnim to occupy the ports of Pomerania and confiscate all ships.

The Empire had to occupy Pomerania for strategic reasons: it was necessary to secure the southern coast of the Baltic Sea from the Danish king Christian IV , whose empire in the Baltic could not be challenged by the empire.

Under the terms of the treaty, Pomerania had to take over the imperial troops (two dozen multinational regiments with 31,000 infantry and 7,540 cavalrymen). The troops were stationed in all towns and villages, with the exception of the domains of the Pomeranian House , the estates of knights, clergy houses, members of magistrates and scholars, as well as the ducal residences of Damm, Köslin , Stettin and Wolgast . The terms of surrender imposed restrictions on the army - it could not interfere in matters of trade, transport or handicrafts, engage in looting or violence, freely use weapons. The duchy was to pay weekly 407 reichstalers per company and an additional 2,580 reichstalers to the relevant personnel.

The cities of Anklam , Demmin , Greifswald and Kohlberg received the imperial garrisons, in other cities small subunits were deployed. The cavalry was stationed mainly in the villages, both due to the reduction of problems with the maintenance of horses, and due to the lower percentage of desertion compared with the infantry.

The deployment of troops followed the usual practice (though not surrendered in the text): the owners of housing and territory had to provide soldiers with bedding, vinegar and salt, and also provide them with a kitchen and a warm living room free of charge. For food, theoretically, one should pay; soldiers must either compensate for their expenses or buy their products in specially organized warehouses.

Wallenstein promised the Emperor Ferdinand II that he would contain the army himself. In practice, this meant that the army was fed and paid for by contributions or robbery of the occupied territories. Since senior officers often kept the share of indemnities that should have been transferred to lower ranks, the soldiers met their needs at the expense of the local population.

In addition to the inconvenience of surrendering conditions, the quartering of troops led to more frequent epidemics, a high amount of garbage and a decrease in the amount of natural resources. By May 7, 1628, Pomerania paid 466,981 reichstalker as indemnity, twice the annual income of the entire Upper Saxon region . The Saxon Elector Johann George I , who considered the Upper Saxon District to be his sphere of influence, sharply criticized Wallenstein's practice, but to no avail.

The only city that failed to repair the ducal order of surrender was Stralsund, who enjoyed independence for a long time as a Hanseatic city. He turned to Denmark and Sweden for help and received it from both. Wallenstein besieged the city , and in July 1628 he personally commanded several unsuccessful attacks. Realizing that Stralsund was his first serious failure, he lifted the siege and defeated Christian IV near Wolgast. Then Stralsund concluded an alliance with the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf , becoming his springboard on imperial territory and securing the entry of Sweden into the Thirty Years War.

In February 1629, Duke Bohuslav XIV asked to ease the conditions of the occupation, and although Emperor Ferdinand II encouraged the Duke, there was no change. Instead, a Restitution Edict came out in March proclaiming the re-Catholicisation of the Protestant states of the Empire. The Lübeck Peace concluded in May, which ended the hostilities between the emperor and the Danish king, also did not lead to relief or the end of the occupation.

After the Altmark truce between Sweden and the Commonwealth was negotiated with the mediation of France in September 1629, Sweden prepared for an invasion of the Holy Roman Empire. The invasion began with the landing of Gustav Adolf's troops on the island of Usedom in the spring of 1630, while a simultaneous attack on Rügen and the adjacent part of the mainland of the Stralsund garrison provided his flank. As a result, the Frenchburg capitulation was replaced by the Pomeranian-Swedish alliance, confirmed by the Stetta Treaty .

• S.V. Wedgwood “Thirty Years War” - Moscow: “AST”, 2012. ISBN 978-5-17-075923-1