ABSTRACT
Though the mists had parted at Lützen for long enough to permit the king's death to be avenged in victory, they were visibly thickening over Germany. In the south, indeed, princes and cities who feared the resurrection of Habsburg power and the implementation of the Edict of Restitution might still place their reliance on Swedish succour, and be willing to enter into a permanent confederation under Swedish leadership. But in the north, in those regions with which, after all, Sweden's interests were most directly concerned, how would it be with them? What hope was there of inducing the great Protestant electorates to sink their interests in a Swedish-dominated security system? What prospect of enlisting George William of Brandenburg, embittered by Swedish insistence on the retention of Pomerania; or John George, for whom the king's death had removed his most formidable rival for the leadership of German Protestantism; or Frederick V, thrust aside and humiliated in the name of military necessity? And the other allies - Adolf Frederick of Mecklenburg, William of Weimar, Frederick Ulric of Wolfenbüttel, and the rest — most of whom had at one time or another been made to smart under Gustavus's impatience or contempt - how long would they continue to fight, now that he was gone, if a tolerable settlement should appear to be within sight? They had, indeed, been near to drowning; but it had been necessary to stun some of them in order to effect their rescue, and even those who had escaped this drastic treatment were beginning to feel the lifebelts which Gustavus had thrown them as being unpleasantly restrictive of their freedom of movement.
