The hopes raised among the people of Ger many by this and other separate peaces were far from being confirmed. Germany itself was almost unanimous in desiring peace, but the Swedes thought it to their interest to continue the war in order not to lose the advantages they had gained, and France now determined to take a more active part in the war, with the view of abasing the house of Hapsburg and ex tending the French frontier to the Rhine. Richelieu promised to the Swedes important aid in money and troops, and the war was renewed with greater vigor than had been shown since the death of Gustavus Adolphus. The Swedish general Baxter conquered and rendered desolate Saxony and Thuringia (1636) ; Bernhard von Weimar took Rheinfelden, Freiburg and Brei sach (1638), and formed the scheme of creating for himself an independent principality on both banks of the Rhine, but was stopped short in his career by death in July 1639. In the midst of these events the emperor had died (February 1637) and had been followed by nis son Ferdinand a man of milder and less energetic temper than his father, but as firmly attached to the Catholic faith, and equally in clined to force it on his subjects.
In the autumn of 1640 the new emperor assembled a diet at Ratisbon to deliberate over the best method of conducting the war, and while this council was sitting, Baner, who had for the last few years been constantly engaged in the east of Germany, conceived the audacious Plan of leaving his winter quarters and taking the whole council, along with the emperor, pris oners (January 1641). A sudden thaw pre vented the execution of this scheme by melting the ice on which he had hoped to cross the rivers. Ban& died during the retreat. He was succeeded in the command of the Swedish army by Torstenson, the ablest of the generals who proceeded from the school of Gustavus Adolphus: Although generally confined by the gout to a seda'n chair, he astonished the world by the rapidity of his movements. He quished the imperial armies near Leipzig (Breitenfeld 1642), advanced into Moravia with the intention ofnenetiating into Austria and tacking the -emperor in his capital, then sud denly appeared in Schleswig and Holstein and put to flight Christian IV of Denmark, who had lately allied himself with the emperor and brought an army into the field (1643). Later
(August 1645), Wrangel, another Swedish gen eral, forced Christian to accept a disadvan tageous peace. After his victory over Chris tian IV, Torstenson again turned south, and having destroyed two imperial armies, one under Gallas an,i1 the other under Hatzfeld and G8tz, in conjunction with Rakoczy, prince of Transylvania, once more threatened Vienna (1645). But tits emperor was again delivered from the danger. The withdrawal of Rakoczy obliged Torstenson to give up his design; and in the following year, worn out by disease, he resigned his command, which was taken up by „Wrangel. Meantime the French had been , operating on the Rhine and in the west of Ger many. After the death of Bernhard von ‘Veimar they had taken his army into their pay. At the head of this army Guebriant obtained several successes, but toward the close of 1643 suffered a severe defeat in which his army was in great part destroyed. He himself was mortally wounded soon after. In the following year neither of the French generals Enghien and Turenne was able to gain any considerable advantage; but on 3 Aug. 1645, the Austrian general Mercy was defeated at Allersheim, near Nordlingen, after which the junction of the French and Swedes was inevitable. Late in the summer of 1646 their united armies ad vanced through Swabia and Bavaria, and in the armistice of Ulm (March 1647) compelled Maximilian of Bavaria to fall away from the emperor. In the following year further suc cesses were gained and Wrangel was on the point of uniting his forces with those of the other Swedish general KOnigsmark who had penetrated into Bohemia, when the news reached the armies that the Peace of •est phalia, which had been negotiating for five years at Mimster and Osnabriick, was con cluded. By a singular coincidence it happened that the last blow of the war was struck at the place where the war originated, Prague. Konigsmark had taken one part of the town and was preparing to attack the other when he was stopped by the news of peace: See AUS