Scandinavia by Ewan Butler

Author:Ewan Butler [Ewan Butler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History/Europe/Scandinavia - HIS044000
ISBN: 9781612309538
Publisher: New Word City, Inc.
Published: 2016-04-05T04:00:00+00:00

Gustavus Adolphus landed on the island of Rügen on June 24, 1630, and at once began to establish bases in Pomerania through which his lines of communication with Sweden could be maintained. The king was a David challenging the Catholic Goliath, for he embarked upon his campaign virtually without allies. Cardinal Richelieu of France, whose primary aim was to humble the Hapsburgs, had, indeed, offered Gustavus an alliance and a French subsidy, but the purposes behind the offer were so clearly in the interests of France rather than the Protestant cause that Gustavus refused. The refusal did not last long, for Richelieu continued to proffer money and Gustavus continued to need it. By the Treaty of Bärwalde, signed in January 1631 France undertook to pay Sweden a million livres a year, and in return, Gustavus promised to “fight for the liberty of the German princes oppressed by the emperor.”

By the spring of 1631, the Swedish army had cleared Mecklenburg of imperial troops, and Gustavus began his march southward along the Oder River. Fortunately for him, Wallenstein, the emperor’s chief officer, had quarreled with his master and was now sulking on his estates in Bohemia, but even without Wallenstein’s opposition, the task which lay before Gustavus was daunting enough, for the count of Tilly, who subsequently commanded the imperial forces, was also a highly skilled general.

Tilly’s army was besieging Magdeburg, and Gustavus tried to persuade the elector of Brandenburg to join him, but that potentate hesitated to take the plunge. His indecision was paid for by the fall of Magdeburg to Tilly’s forces, who burned and looted the city. Gustavus, feeling that this lesson would not be lost on other German princes, turned toward Saxony, whose elector had also been unable to make up his mind. Now the Saxons begged for Gustavus’s help. His army, bolstered by the forces of German Protestant rulers, numbered 40,000, with no more than half of them Swedes.

On September 7, 1631, the opposing armies faced one another near the village of Breitenfeld, north of Leipzig. Although the Saxons were routed in the first shock of battle, Gustavus’s modern weapons and the excellent discipline of his troops soon proved their value. The imperialists were utterly defeated, and the Protestant victory at Breitenfeld sent a shudder through Catholic Europe. It was, said good Catholics, “as though God Himself had turned Lutheran,” and they awaited anxiously the next move of the Swedish champion. Oxenstierna advised Gustavus to dictate peace terms after this great success. The king, he said, should march to Vienna and there, at the very heart of the empire, bring the emperor to heel. Gustavus, however, feared to leave Tilly at his rear. He sent the elector of Saxony into Bohemia while he led his forces toward the Rhine. The advance of Gustavus’s army was a triumphal progress. Almost every city along the line of march opened its gates to the Swedes and those that did not were sacked and looted. Marienburg-am-Main suffered this fate and Swedish soldiers, it was said, collected gold coins by the hatful.

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