The Theater of Gods Judgments, Book 2 · Chapter 17
CHAP. XVII. Of such, as without necessity, upon every light cause, move war.
AS in Surgery, so in a Common-wealth we must account war as a last refuge, and as it were a desperate medicine, which without very urgent necessity, when all other meanes of maintaining our estate against the assaults of the enemy fail, ought not to be taken in hand: and indeed the chief scope and marke that all those that Cic. Off. lib. 1.lawfully undertake war, ought to propound to themselves, should be nothing else, but the good and quiet of the Commonwealth, with the peace and repose of every member thereof. And therefore so ost as any reasonable offers and conditions of peace are propounded, they ought to be accepted, to the end to avoid the masse of evils (as ruines, bloudsheds, robberies) which alwayes accompany war as necessary attendants: for whosoever doth not so, but upon every light occasion runneth to Armes, and to trie the hazard of battell, they manifest their owne foolish and pernicious rashnesse, and their small conscience in shedding humane bloud.
Amongst the good Kings of Judah, Iosias for piety and zeal in the service of God, was most renowned: for he purged the Realme from all drosse of idolatry, repaired the decayed Temple, and restored it to the first glory; and yet for all this for committing this one crime, he lost his life: for as Necho King of Aegypt was passing with an Army toward the King of Babylon in Charcamis, beside Euphrates, to bid him battell, he would 2 Chron. 35.needs encounter him by the way, and interrupt his journey by unprovoked war; yea, though Necho had by embassage assured him not to meddle with him, but intreated onelyonly free passage at his hand: yet would not Iosias in any wise listen (so opinionative and selfe-willed was he) but gave him battell in the field, without any just cause, save his owne pleasure, which turned to his pain: for he caught so many wounds at that skirmish, that shortly after hee died of them, to the great griefe of the whole people, and the Prophet Ieremy also, that lamented his death.
King Iohn of France (for refusing reasonable conditions of peace at the English mens hands) was overthrowne by them two miles from Poytiers, Froiss. vol. 1. Nic. G…l. 2.with a great overthrow: for the Englishmen in regard of their owne small number, and the huge multitude of the French to encounter with them, timorously offered up a surrender of all that they had either conquered, taken, or spoiled, since their comming from Bourdeaux, and so to be sworne not to bear Armes against him for seven yeares, so that they might quietly depart. But the King, that crowed before the Conquest, affying too much in the multitude of his Forces, stopt his eares to all conditions, not willing to hear of any thing but war, war, even thinking to hew them in pieces, without one escaping: but it fell out otherwise, for the English men intrenching themselves in a place of advantage, and hard of accesse, inclosed with thicke hedges and brambles, disturbed and overthrew with their Archers, at the first onset, the French Horsemen, and wounded most of their men and horses with multitude of arrowes: it tarried not long ere the footmen also were put to flight on the other side, and the whole Army of threescore thousand men, by bare eight thousand English, discomfited: divers great Lords were found slain in the field, and divers others with the King himselfe carried Prisoners into England: which was a great shake to the whole Realme, and the occasion of many tumults and disorders that ensued afterwards.
Moreover, as it is a rash part to hazard the doubtfull event of battell indiscreetly, and without cause, so it is a point of no lesse folly to thrust ones selfe voluntarily into any action of war without charge, not being particularly called and bound thereunto, or having a body unsufficient and unfit for the same. And this was also one of the warlike points of Discipline which the antient Romans used; That none should presume to fight for his Countrey, before he had been admitted by some Captain by a solemne Oath.
Of all the Histories that I ever read, I know none more strange in matter of war, than this which I now go about to recite, of Henry of Luxenbourg, Froiss. vol. 1. cap▪ 130.Emperour of Germany, who when he heard that his son Charles King of Bohemia was in the French Army, and that Philip of Valois, King of France, was ready to give battell to the English, albeit he was blinde, and consequently unfit for war, yet would needs take part with the French: and therefore commanded his men at Armes to guide him into the place where the Field was to be fought, that he might strike one blow. They as foolish as himselfe, not willing to crosse his minde, and fearing to lose him in the prease, tied him faste to the raines of their bridles, being by this meanes so coupled together, as if they meant all to perish together if need were, as indeed they did, for they were overcome in battell, and the next day found all dead, horse and men faste bound together. This accident befell at Crecy neer Abrevile, in which journey the French King sustained an inestimable damage, for he lost fifteen of his chiefest Princes, fourscore Ensignes, twelve hundred Knights, and about thirty thousand men.
In the yeer 1455. the Hungarians without any just cause or pretence, Theatr. Histor.made war upon the Emperour Otto, onelyonly moved with a desire of bringing under their subjection the Germane powers; and the rather at this time, because they supposed the Emperours strength of war to be weakened, and his power of men lessened, by those continuall troubles and wars which he had been daily occupied in: notwithstanding Otto, as by his former deeds of Armes, he deserved the sirname of Great, so in this exploit especially, for he conscribed eight Legions of men out of Franconia, Bavaria, and Bohemia, and with that small valiant handfull, overturned and destroyed the huge unchristened multitude of his enemies: for albeit the Bohemians being placed in the Rereward, were as suddenly and unexpectedly assaulted by the enemy, that craftily passed over the River Lycus to set upon them behinde, as unhappily put to flight with the losse of the carriages and victuals, which they were set to protect; yet Otto with his other Legions renuing the battell, and encouraging his souldiers, gave the enemy such an encounter and repulse, that he put them to flight and slew them with a miserable slaughter: three of their Kings he took Prisoners, and few of that vaste Army escaped with their lives. On the Emperours side died many worthy men, among whom Conrade the Emperours son in law, and Burghard Duke of Suevia were two, beside many other. In this successive battell, it is to be noted above the rest, how religiously the Emperour both began and finished it: the day before the Fight he enjoyned a Faste in his Army, and directed his prayers to the Almighty, relying more upon the presence of Gods helpe, than his owne power: after the Conquest gotten, he caused solemne thankes to be given in all Churches to God, for the great deliverance. I would our moderne Generals and Captaines would learne by this example to follow his footsteps, and not to make their prayers quaffings, and their thanksgiving carousings, as they use to do, even as it were purposely to tempt the Lord, and to stir up his wrath against them.
Penda King of middle England, making war upon Anna King of East Angles, slew him in open field: with which victory being puffed up by Lanq. Chron.pride, he sent defiance to Osway King of Northumberland also: who hearing of his approach proffered him great gifts, and fair conditions of peace, which when Penda obstinately refused, he was slain in battell with thirty of his most noble Captaines, although he had thrice the number of people which Osway had. And thus the heathen and bloudy Pagan ended his cruelty, and paid dear for his too much forwardnesse in war.