Weser

Both armies now moved into the exhausted territory of Hesse, where they formed entrenched camps near each other, till at last famine and the severity of the winter compelled them to both retire.

Piccolomini chose the fertile banks of the Weser for his winter quarters, but being outranked by Banner, he was obliged to give way to the Swedes and to impose on the Franconian seas the burden of maintaining his army.

at this period a diet was held in ratisbon where the complaints of the states were to be heard measures taken for securing the repose of the empire and the question of peace or war finally settled the presence of the emperor the majority of the roman catholic voices in the electoral college the great number of bishops and the withdrawal of several of the protestant votes gave the emperor a complete command of the deliberation of the assembly and rendered this diet anything but a fair representative of the opinions of the german empire the protestants with reason considered it as a mere combination of austria and its creatures against their party and it seemed to them a laudable effort to interrupt its deliberation and to dissolve the diet itself bano undertook this bold enterprise his military reputation had suffered by his last retreat from bohemia and it stood in need of some great exploit to restore its former lustre without communicating his designs to any one in the depths of winter of sixteen forty one as soon as the roads and rivers were frozen he broke off from his quarters in lunenburg accompanied by marshal who commanded the armies of france and weimar he took the route toward the danube through dringe and voigtland and appeared before ratisbon all the diet could be apprised of his approach the consternation of the assembly was indescribable and in the first alarm the deputies prepared for flight the emperor alone declared that he would not leave the town and encouraged the rest by his example unfortunately for the swedes a thaw came in which broke up the ice upon the danube so that it was no longer passable on foot while no boats could cross it on account of the quantities of ice which were swept down by the current in order to perform something and to humble the pride of the emperor banner discourteously fired five hundred cannon shots into the town which however did little mischief baffled in his designs he resolved to penetrate farther into bavaria and the defenceless province of moravia where a rich booty and comfortable quarters awaited his troops guibriang however began to fear that the purpose of the swedes was to draw the army of bernard away from the rhine and to cut off its communication with france till it should be either entirely won over or incapacitated from acting independently he therefore separated from the banner to return to the main and the latter was exposed to the whole force of the imperialists which had been secretly drawn together between ratisbon and ingolstadt and was on its march against him it was now time to think of a rapid retreat which having to be effected in the face of an army superior in cavalry and betwixt woods and rivers through a country entirely hostile appeared almost impracticable he hastily retired toward the forest intending to penetrate through bohemia into saxony but he was obliged to sacrifice three regiments at neuburg these with a truly spartan courage defended themselves for four days behind an old wall and gained time for banner to escape he retreated by igra to annaberg piccolomini took a shorter route in pursuit by schlackenwald and banner succeeded only by a single half-hour in clearing the pass of pritznitz and saving his whole army from the imperialists at zwickau he was again joined by guibriang and both generals directed their march towards halberstadt after in vain attempting to defend the saal and to prevent the passage of the imperialists banner at length terminated his career in halberstadt in may sixteen forty one a victim to vexation and disappointment he sustained with great renown though with varying success the reputation of the swedish arms in germany and by a train of victories showed himself worthy of his great master in the art of war he was fertile and expedient which he planned with secrecy and executed with boldness cautious in the midst of dangers greater in adversity than in prosperity and never more formidable than when upon the brink of destruction but the virtues of the hero were united with all the railings and vices which a military life creates or at least fosters as imperious in private life as he was at the head of his army rude as his profession and proud as a conqueror he oppressed the german princes no less by his haughtiness than their country by his contributions he consoled himself for the toils of war in voluptuousness and the pleasures of the table in which he indulged to excess and was thus brought to an early grave but though as much addicted to pleasure as alexander or mahomet the second he hurried from the arms of luxury into the hardest fatigues and placed himself in all vigour at the head of his army at the very moment his soldiers were murmuring at his luxurious excesses nearly eighty thousand men fell in the numerous battles which he fought and about six hundred hostile standards and colours which he sent to stockholm were the trophies of his victories the want of this great general was soon severely felt by the swedes who feared with justice that the loss would not readily be replaced

The spirit of rebellion and insubordination which had been overawed by the imperialist demeanor of this dreaded commander

Depend upon it for one thing, good reader, no age ever seemed the age of romance to itself.

Charlemagne, let the poets talk as they will, had his own provocations in the world; what with selling of his poultry and pot-herbs, what with wanton daughters carrying secretaries through the snow; and, for instance, that hanging of the Saxons over the Weser bridge—four thousand of them, they say, at one bout.

It seems to me that the great Charles had his temper ruffled at times.

Roland of Roncevaux, too, we see well in thinking of it, found rainy weather as well as sunny; knew what it was to have hose need darning; got tough beef to chew, or even went dinnerless; was saddle-sick, calumniated, constipated (as his madness too clearly indicates); and oftenest felt, I doubt not, that this was a very devil's world, and he, Roland himself, one of the sorriest caitiffs there.

And the reason why is because Northern Germany was key to his economic empire.

As you can see from, as the slide says, Most of Britain's commercial commerce entered Europe either through Portugal or by the five great rivers of North Germany, from west to east, the Ems, the Weser, the Elba, the Oder, and the Vistula.

So what Bonaparte had to do was to somehow... close these rivers down.

And this is where we get to the part that most historians won't acknowledge and most people really don't know about.