The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) 1 53King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in battle.
barely a million inhabitants, was more than Gustavus, w ith an adventurer’s
disposition, could resist.
Gustavus, the “Lion of the North,” who survived a shipwreck at the age
of five, had been tutored in the art of war by mercenary soldiers. He also
played the flute, composed poetry, and conversed in ten languages. Gus
tavus retained, as did a disproportionate number of rulers in his century, a
violent temper. Once, coming upon two stolen cows outside an officer’s
tent, he dragged the thief by the ear to the executioner. His courage was
legendary—he barely paused as cannonballs exploded nearby and as his
horses were shot out from under him or fell through the ice.
Gustavus, influenced by an appreciation of Roman military tactics,
formed his battle lines thinner—about six men deep—than those of rival
commanders. This allowed his lines to be more widely spread out. Gus
tavus organized his army into brigades of four squadrons with nine cannon
to protect them, sending the unit into battle in an arrow-shaped formation.
Superior artillery served his cause well, hurling larger shot farther and
more accurately than the cannon of his enemies.
The dashing young Swedish king subdued Catholic Poland with his army
of about 70,000 men. Swedish intervention and the continuing woes of
Spain, now at war in the Alps, Italy, and the Netherlands, gave Protestants
reason for hope. After defeating a combined Polish and Habsburg army in
1629, Swedish troops occupied Pomerania along the Baltic Sea.
In 1630, sure of a Catholic majority, Emperor Ferdinand convoked the
imperial electors to recognize his son as his heir. He also wanted them to
support his promise to aid Spain against the Dutch in exchange for Spanish