The Swedish Period
ADOLPHUS GUSTAVUS
Adolphus Gustavus, also known as Gustavus II, was born on December 9th, 1594 in Stockholm to his parents Duke Charles of the Vasa dynasty and Christina of Holstein. When he was only sixteen years old in 1611, Gustavus inherited the throne to be the King of Sweden and immediately showed interested in reforming the army. He grew to be one of the greatest military commanders of all time and is known by his nicknames “The Golden King” and “The Lion of the North.” He led many battles, but sadly died in the Battle of Lutzen in 1632.
BATTLE OF BREITENFELD (1631)
On September 17th, 1631, the Protestant’s first victory occurred at the Battle of Breitenfeld. First in 1630, Gustavus invaded Germany and fought against the commander Johann Tserclaes (count von Tilly) who in return attacked the Protestant city, Magdeburg, and destroyed a majority of it, burning mot of the homes down. In 1632, Tilly invaded Saxony, worsening his chances of success by influencing John George of Saxony to take sides with Gustavus. They united together and took over, winning the Battle of Breitenfeld. Then in 1632, Tilly once again tried to defeat Gustavus and attempted to prevent the Swedes from crossing into Bavaria at Rain, on the Lech River. Here, he was wounded and died two weeks later.
BATTLE OF LUTZEN
Two days before the battle actually took place, Roman Catholic General Wallenstein had split up his forces and took his main headquarters back towards Leipzig. He was not expecting another attack from Gustavus's army, due to the harsh winter weather conditions. However, Gustavus's army took him by surprise on November 16th, 1632 during the Battle of Lutzen. As soon as Wallenstein had noticed the incoming attack, he sent for General Pappenheim who returned as soon as possible with more of his troops. Once Pappenheim had charged in with his 2,000-3,000 troops, he was wounded by a Swedish cannonball and died later that day. The strong leader Gustavus sadly also died during this battle, after being separated from his troops in the thick cloud of gun smoke and fog and was defeated with several shots.
WALLENSTEIN
Albert von Wallenstein was born on September 24th, 1583 in Bohemia to his parents Markéta and Wilhelm. He grew up to be a military leader, and after losing the Battle of Lutzen, he entered into secret negotiations with Sweden and France. As a result, he was assassinated a few days later. His determined army then defeated the Swedes at Nordlingen in southern Germany.
Tillie Kozlowski