Copy of the Resolution of the Elector of Saxony

His Electoral Serenity is also not at all aware that he has permitted the slightest thing to occur which could rightfully be presented to the aforementioned His Imperial Majesty as unpleasant or improper, or that could be interpreted as inadmissible according to Imperial laws and traditions, or that could have been reasonably taken ill by the most laudable Archducal House of Austria.

It cannot be denied, however, that His Electoral Serenity—after great tribulation occurred within the Holy Roman Empire due to the unheard-of hardships of war, the incessant, numberless, and measureless recruitments, original: "Marchen vnd Remarchen" marches and counter-marches, plundering, quartering of troops, violent and heavy contributionsCompulsory payments of money or supplies extorted from a population by occupying or passing military forces., and other innumerable enormities and excesses—has sent various most humble, obedient, and moving letters to His Imperial Majesty over several years. These hardships have desolated, devastated, and ruined one land and city after another. Furthermore, all respect for the Electors, Princes, and Estates has been entirely cast aside by the undisciplined soldieryThe "soldatesca," referring to the mercenary or regular troops whose behavior during the Thirty Years' War often lacked any legal or moral restraint., who have insulted and burdened them in manifold ways, despised the Imperial laws, destroyed all good order, and in short, behaved in the lands of the Electors and Estates as if these territories had already been reduced to servitude. In his letters, he set forth with considerable detail what misery, distress, lamentation, and damage could grow from such calamity—not only for the Holy Roman Empire but also for His Imperial Majesty’s own most glorious Archducal House—most humbly and faithfully Catchword: "trewlich" (faithfully). The sentence continues on the next page.