Memoirs of a Cavalier

p. 34, l. 10. Gustavus Adolphus had been at war with Poland from 1617 to 1629.

p. 34, l. 30. This was not a treaty of active alliance. Both John George of Saxony and George William of Brandenburg were Protestant princes but they were at first anxious to maintain neutrality between Sweden and the Emperor. The impolitic action of Ferdinand drove them to join Gustavus Adolphus in 1631.

p. 34, l. 33. The German Diet was the meeting of the German princes to consult on imperial matters. Ratisbon is one of the chief towns of Bavaria.

p. 35, l. 17. The story of Magdeburg is told on p. 42.

p. 36, l. 1. Count Tilly was a Bavarian General of genius who had been put at the head of the forces of the Catholic League in 1609.

p. 36, l. 31. The Protestant Union formed in 1608 had been forced to dissolve itself in 1621.

p. 37, l. 5. Wallenstein is one of the greatest generals and the most interesting figure in seventeenth century history. A Bohemian by birth he fought for the Emperor with an army raised by himself.

p. 37, l. 16. The Conclusions of Leipsic are described on p. 39.

p. 38, l. 29. The King of Hungary was Ferdinand (afterwards Ferdinand III) son of Ferdinand II. The "King of the Romans" was a title bestowed on the person who was destined to become Emperor. (The Empire was elective but tended to become hereditary.)

p. 39, l. 39. The Peace of Augsburg, 1555, had been intended to settle the differences between the Lutherans and Catholics but it had left many problems unsolved.

p. 42, l. 21. The Protestant bishopric of Magdeburg had been forcibly restored to the Catholics in 1629. In 1631 the citizens of their own accord, relying on Swedish help, declared against the Emperor.

p. 47, l. 40. Torgau, a strongly fortified town in Saxony.

p. 57, l. 37. The Prince of Orange at this time was William II who married Mary, daughter of Charles I.

p. 59, l. 3. Except for the date, which should be 17th of September, and the numbers on both sides which he exaggerates, the Cavalier's account of the battle of Leipsic is fairly accurate.

p. 61, l. 39. Cuirassiers were heavy cavalry wearing helmet and cuirass (two plates fastened together for the protection of the breast and back).

p. 65, l. 10. Crabats is an old form of Croats the name of the inhabitants of Croatia.

p. 66, l. 38. Rix dollar is the English form of Reichsthaler or imperial dollar.

p. 67, l. 6. "Husband" is here used in the sense of "thrifty person."

p. 69, l. 18. A ducat was a gold coin generally worth about nine shillings.

p. 70, l. 29. This passage describes the conquest of the string of ecclesiastical territories known as the "Priest's Lane."

p. 71, l. 23. A partisan was a military weapon used by footmen in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and not unlike the halberd in form.

p. 73, l. 10. "Bastion" is the name given to certain projecting portions of a fortified building.

p. 78, l. 23. The Palatinate (divided into Upper and Lower) was a Protestant state whose elector, the son-in-law of James I, had been driven out by the Emperor in 1620.

p. 79, l. 11. Reformado: A military term borrowed from the Spanish, signifying an officer who, for some disgrace is deprived of his command but retains his rank. Defoe uses it to describe an officer not having a regular command.

p. 81, l. 15. Frederick, Elector Palatine, had been elected King by the Protestants of Bohemia in opposition to the Emperor Ferdinand. It was his acceptance of this position which led to the confiscation of his Palatinate together with his new kingdom.

p. 81, l. 24. James I had, after much hesitation, sent in 1625 an expedition to the aid of the Elector, but it had miscarried. Charles I was too much occupied at home to prosecute an active foreign policy.

p. 81, l. 35. The Elector died in the same year as Gustavus Adolphus. His son Charles Lewis was restored to the Lower Palatinate only, which was confirmed to him at the end of the war in 1648.

p. 82, l. 3. The battle of Nieuport, one of the great battles between Holland and Spain, was fought in 1600 near the Flemish town of that name. Prince Maurice won a brilliant victory under very difficult conditions.

p. 82, l. 30. A ravelin is an outwork of a fortified building.

p. 86, l. 16. It was the attempt in 1607 to force Catholicism on the Protestants of the free city of Donauwörth which led to the formation of the Protestant Union in 1608.

p. 87, l. 9. The Duringer Wald. – Thuringia Wald.

p. 97, l. 29. Camisado (fr. Latin Camisia=a shirt) is generally used to denote a night attack.

p. 98, l. 4. Note the inconsistency between this statement of the Cavaliers interest in the curiosities at Munich and his indifference in Italy where he had "no gust to antiquities."

p. 99, l. 7. Gustavus Adolphus had entered Nuremberg March 1631. Wallenstein was now bent on re-taking it.

p. 100, l. 29. The Cavalier's enthusiasm for Gustavus Adolphus leads to misrepresentation. The Swedish king has sometimes been blamed for failing to succour Magdeburg.

p. 101, l. 23. Redoubts are the most strongly fortified points in the temporary fortification of a large space.

p. 107, l. 13. The Cavalier glosses over the fact that Gustavus Adolphus really retreated from his camp at Nuremberg, being practically starved out, as Wallenstein refused to come to an engagement.

p. 110, l. 38. Though the honours of war in the battle of Lützen went to the Swedes it is probable that they lost more men than did the Imperialists.

p. 113, l. 37. The battle of Nördlingen was one of the decisive battles of the war. It restored to the Catholics the bishoprics of the South which Gustavus Adolphus had taken.

p. 114, l. 39. The title "Infant" or "Infante" belongs to all princes of the royal house in Spain. The Cardinal Infant really brought 15000 men to the help of the Emperor.

p. 116, l. 37. The King of Hungary had succeeded to the command of the imperial army after the murder of Wallenstein in 1634.

p. 119, l. 34. The treaty of Westphalia in 1648 ended the Thirty Years' War by a compromise. The Emperor recognised that he could have no real authority in matters of religion over the states governed by Protestant princes, North Germany remained Protestant, the South, Catholic.

p. 120, l. 11. This statement is an anachronism. Prince Maurice of Nassau the famous son of William the Silent died in 1625.

p. 120, l. 39. The Netherlands belonged to Spain in the seventeenth century but revolted. The Northern provinces which were Protestant won their independence, the Southern provinces which were Catholic (modern Belgium) submitted to Spain on conditions.

p. 121, l. 19. The siege of Ostend, then in the hands of the Dutch, was begun in July 1601 and came to an end in September 1604, when the garrison surrendered with the honours of war.

p. 122, l. 31. In 1637 Laud had tried to force a new liturgy on Scotland but this had been forcibly resisted. In 1638 the National Covenant against "papistry" was signed by all classes in Scotland. In the same year episcopacy was abolished there and Charles thereupon resolved to subdue the Scots by arms. This led to the first "Bishops' War" of 1639 which the Cavalier proceeds to describe.

p. 126, l. 4. Mercenaries (soldiers who fought in any army for the mere pay) were chiefly drawn from Switzerland in the seventeenth century.

p. 127, l. 38. By the Treaty of Berwick signed in June 1638 Charles consented to allow the Scotch to settle their own ecclesiastical affairs. When they again resolved to abolish episcopacy he broke his word and in 1640 the Second "Bishops' War" took place. It was the expenses of these wars which forced Charles to call parliament again.

p. 135, l. 34. It was the English Prayer Book with some slight changes that Laud had attempted to impose on the Scotch.

p. 137, l. 31. Charles had in fact called the "Short Parliament" to meet between these two expeditions but had quarrelled with it and dissolved it.