Source:
Memoirs of Christina, Queen of Sweden, volume 1, pages 242 to 245, by Henry Woodhead, 1863; original at the University of Michigan
The account:
The peace of Westphalia was signed at Osnaburg and Münster, on the 6th of August and the 8th of September, 1648.
Its importance was not confined to releasing some of the finest parts of Europe from unparalleled sufferings. Its conditions formed the title-deeds of some States, restrained and defined the power of others, and proved to be the partisans of the rival religions that their strength was so nearly equal as to render it impossible for one to extirpate the other by force.
There has never since been a religious war in Europe. The Roman Church no longer sought to propagate its doctrines by the sword, but substituted the more suitable weapons of learning and argument.
Men began to perceive that thought and physical force were not commensurate, that gunpowder and steel could only coerce what was material, and that the mind could always elude their agency.
Christina was blamed that she did not make better terms for her country, and her envoys were accused of receiving bribes; yet the acquisitions of Sweden were not inconsiderable. She received Upper Pomerania, the islands of Rügen, Usedom, and Wollin, Stettin, Gartz, Golnau, and Damm; Wismar with its dependencies, Poel and Neukloster; the Archbishopric of Bremen with its dependency of Wilshausen, and certain rights over the Church and Prebends of Hamburg. The Bishopric of Verden was also ceded, but that of Osnabrück was redeemed by the payment of 80,000 rix-dollars to Sweden, with the stipulation that the Bishopric should be conferred alternately on a Protestant and a Catholic.
All these territories were lost to Sweden within fifty years, and if her acquisitions had been more numerous, they would probably have been lost sooner, for so many places, unconnected with each other, and spread over the whole North of Germany, could not fail to be sources of weakness when the intervening country was no longer held by a victorious army.
Sweden was also to receive a contribution of five million rix-dollars from Germany, but Christina had the generosity to remit the share of some districts which had suffered the most from the war.
Worms was exempted altogether, at the solicitation of the learned Freinshemius, who was a native of the place, and who was highly esteemed by Christina.
The Bishoprics of Halberstadt, Magdeburg, Minden, and Camin were given to the Elector of Brandenburg, in compensation for Upper Pomerania. The Duke of Mecklenburg received Schwerin and Ratzeburg in exchange for Wismar.
France took possession of Alsace, which, so far as it extended, gave her the much coveted boundary of the Rhine. The independence which Holland and Switzerland had already achieved, now first received the confirmation of a solemn treaty.
Above: Kristina.
Notes: Usedom is the German name for the Polish island of Uznam in the Baltic Sea. —
Wollin is the German name for the Polish island of Wolin in the Baltic Sea. —
Stettin is the German name for the town of Szczecin in what is now the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. —
Gartz is a town in the Uckermarck district of Brandenburg, Germany. —
Gollnow is the German name for the town of Goleniów in what is now the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. —
Damm is the German name for Dąbie, a municipal neighbourhood of Szczecin (Stettin) in what is now the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. —
Wildeshausen is now the capital of the Oldenburg district in the German state of Lower Saxony. —
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