Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 48. (2000)
LAVERY, Jason: Emperor Maximilian II. and the Danish-Swedish Struggle for Baltic Hegemony 1563–1576
Jason Lavery cake“ (silberkuchen), pieces of which would be doled out to those willing to help Sweden’s war effort.17 The war threatened to encourage unrest by rebellious personages inside of the Empire who wished to reverse the Augsburg order. An advisor to the emperor, Paulus Prisman, in a tour of German states in the fall of 1563, reported to Emperor Ferdinand that After I have visited many eminent electors, princes, and counts, that the same because of several great and important matters, entered into a wide-ranging discussion with me, not only because of the Danish and Swedish war, which is creating even greater difficulties, and has created all types of opportunities for unrest and rebellion in the Holy Empire, and could easily create more.'8 One such potential rebel was the Imperial Knight Wilhelm von Grumbach. Ele had been declared an Imperial outlaw after plotting the assassination of the Bishop of Würzburg 1558. Grumbach’s actions were part of, according to Howard Louthan, ”a European-wide phenomenon - the revolt of the discontented lower nobility against the growing power of the territorial state.“19 On another level, Grumbach threatened the Empire’s order by placing himself in 1557 in the service of Duke Johann Friedrich of Saxony, head of the Ernestine line of the Saxon ducal house of Wettin.20 During the Schmalkaldic War, Johann Friedrich’s father had lost the Imperial dignity, the right to elect the emperor, to the Albertine line, which since 1553 had been headed by Elector August. Johann Friedrich sought to regain the electoral dignity. Thus, Grumbach found a patron who was similarly discontented with the Empire’s internal order. There was concern in the Empire that Grumbach might seek foreign patrons as well. According to Prisman, the fear of a potential conspiracy between Grumbach and Sweden grew after Grumbach’s se17 Säch. HStA, Geheimes Archiv Loc. 8521/2, Dr. Mordeisens schrifften an Churfurst Augustum 11 1563, 64 fol. 39r-40\ ina., 18 July 1563 Ulrich Mordeisen to August (ndr) (or). 18 HHStA, Dänemark 1, Konv. 1560-1563, fols. 5r-8\ Prague, 8 Nov. 1563, Prisman to Ferdinand (rec. ina. 14 Nov. 1563) (or). „Nachdem ich mich underwegens bey vielen ansehenlichen chur, fürsten, und graffen aufgehalten, das diselbe etlicher grosser und hochächtligen Sachen halben, mit mihr inn fast weit lauffiige reden gewachsen, nit allein das dennemerkischen und schwedischen kriegshalben, welcher nunmehr zu grosser schedlicher weitterung gelanget, und allerhand gelegenheit zu anderer und mehrer unruhe und entporunge im Heiligen Reich erweckt geben hat dieselb auch leicht ferner geben khondte.“ 19 Louthan: The Quest for Compromise, p. 49. 20 Ritter, Moriz: Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Gegenreformation und des Dreißigjährigen Krieges (1555-1648). Stuttgart, 1889, vol. 1, pp. 98-101. The relationship between Grumbach and Johann Friedrich as well as the power struggle between the two Saxon lines is described in detailed and exhausting fashion in Ortloff, Friedrich: Geschichte der grumbachischen Händel. 4 Vols. Jena 1868-1870. Another work on Grumbach is Press, Volker: Wilhelm von Grumbach und die deutsche Adelskrise der 1560er Jahre. In: Blätter für deutsche Landesgeschichte 113 (1977), pp. 396-431. 202
