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In our previous video we covered the Danish portion of the Thirty Years’ War. In his
capacity as the Duke of Holstein, Christian IV of Denmark
had intervened on behalf of the protestant cause,
but was defeated. However, Albrecht von Wallenstein had failed in his attempt to construct an
Imperial fleet in the Baltic Sea, and to capture the city of Stralsund, which Sweden had then
garrisoned. In this episode, the conflict will intensify even further into a full-scale
European war with the invasion of King Gustavus Adolphus
of Sweden. Denmark’s rising neighbor - Sweden, had
become increasingly concerned by the Empire’s situation during the 1620s. Indeed, Sweden
had already undertaken a small intervention in the
defence of Stralsund in the summer of 1628. Denmark’s defeat at Wallenstein’s hands,
and Spain’s continuing Dutch War, had raised
the specter of a joint Catholic campaign of economic
warfare in the Baltics. The Swedes feared that Ferdinand would ally with the Polish–Lithuanian
Commonwealth, whose ruler, Sigismund III, had a claim to the Swedish throne.
The king of Sweden, Gustavus II Adolphus, had been in constant conflict with the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ever since he took the throne in 1611, and was largely
successful, especially in the war of 1626-1629. The Truce of Altmark between the two sides
was signed in 1629. It, being negotiated by French
diplomats, stipulated that the Swedes would receive the right to ⅔ of all shipping tolls
at Polish-Lithuanian ports until 1635, which helped
finance Sweden’s war effort substantially. Though the armies fighting for Holy Roman
Emperor Ferdinand II had won victories at Lutter
and Wolgast, the pressures and costs of maintaining such a large army were beginning to mount.
The Emperor had chosen to rule by decree, which didn’t help his popularity with the
princes of the Empire. So, in summer 1630, the Diet of
Regensburg was convened in an attempt to placate the regional princes. Notably, the rulers
of Brandenburg and Saxony did not attend in protest of
the Edict of Restitution. This diet only made the situation worse, as
the electors who hated Albrecht von Wallenstein forced Ferdinand to dismiss him, and he retired
to his Bohemian estates. The Imperial army was
also massively downsized in order to reduce costs, with the Count of Tilly being reinstated
as Supreme Commander of the Imperial Army, as
well as the Catholic League army. It created a
massive power vacuum, along with alienating the protestant princes further. The emperor
sacrificed Wallenstein and became weaker domestically to retain the Edict of Restitution, but this
encouraged external powers to join the conflict. In early June of 1630, Gustavus Adolphus published
a Manifesto, detailing the advance of Imperial forces to the Baltic, the treatment
of Swedish delegates, and Imperial aggression against
the Swedish Stralsund garrison as reasons for the intervention. On June 26th he started
his campaign against Ferdinand by landing on the
island of Usedom, off the Pomeranian coast, with
a modest force of 14,000 soldiers. After disembarking his army, Adolphus marched
to Stettin and told the duke of Pomerania, Bogislav XIV, who was childless, that Pomerania
was his by right of conquest. On August 25th, the beset duke accepted the Treaty of Stettin,
which allowed Sweden to effectively annex the
region. However, the new territory was too small and poor to sustain a large army, and
the invaders struggled to break out of the Imperial
cordon.
Throughout the rest of 1630, repeated unsuccessful attempts to punch through the Imperial
troops commanded by Torquato Conti were made, at Mecklenburg in the west, and along the
Oder in the east. This lackluster start from the Swedes would inspire a false confidence
in Ferdinand II that was soon to be tested.
Another problem was soon to arise for Ferdinand: France, a fellow Catholic nation, under its
first minister Cardinal Richelieu. The French were
concerned about the growing power of their old
Habsburg rivals, and sought to deplete their strength by any means necessary. The treaty
of Barwalde in January of 1631 obliged Sweden
to maintain an army of at least 36,000 troops in the
German conflict, while France paid 400,000 Thalers per year in subsidies to Sweden to
assist in its upkeep.
Still the leading Lutheran German princes - the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg - would
not form an alliance with the Swedes, who were
initially viewed as an unwelcome, foreign presence.
Instead, on April 12th 1631 they issued The Leipzig Manifesto, and this agreement became
a protestant defensive alliance against any
who might endanger them, Sweden or the Emperor. 40,000 troops would be raised for the cause,
an action sanctioned by many of the moderate Catholics who understood the desire for safety.
In Pomerania, the swelling army of Gustavus Adolphus now numbered 30,000 men. The
protestant princes who had met at Leipzig now had no interest in an alliance with Sweden,
so the king had to undertake a forceful approach
to woo them. To this end, the newly reinforced Swedish army advanced south into Brandenburg
in April 1631, capturing and sacking the towns of Kustrin and Frankfurt an der Oder, which
were defended by Imperial garrisons. Though he had begun to make slow progress,
it was far too little and far too late for the only
significant Swedish ally thus far, the city of Magdeburg, which had declared for Sweden
in mid- 1630. Reinforcements brought to the city’s
siege by the Count of Tilly eventually managed to
enter the city on the 20th of May 1631. What followed was the single most horrific
massacre of the entire Thirty Years’ War. The flames
claimed many lives, but more notorious was the conduct of the mercenary soldiers. Despite
Tilly’s orders to stop, the mercenaries who weren’t paid on time enacted brutal
violence on the unfortunate inhabitants of Magdeburg. A census
taken the next year showed that out of the roughly 25,000 inhabitants before the sack,
only 449 remained. Magdeburg had been utterly annihilated, and the news circulated all over
Germany and Europe, shocking and outraging Protestants.
To the east, Gustavus Adolphus massed a 26,000 strong force outside the Electoral Palace
in Berlin, and forced George William of Brandenburg
to ally with him. The Catholic butchery at Magdeburg, as well as a desire to keep pressure
on Ferdinand, also convinced John George I, Elector of Saxony to join Sweden’s cause,
bringing 18,000 troops with him. With his new allies
and new forces, the Swedish king was now eager to push for a decisive blow, convinced a
victory would make other German protestants join him.
Meanwhile, Tilly was also eager to pursue the offensive, and his masters believed that
only a clear victory would deter others from joining
the invader. The first great battle of the Swedish
intervention was about to take place.
Tilly’s army, which was advancing to meet the Swedes, dispatched smaller parties which
engaged in skirmishes with them, and the Swedes apparently got the better of these encounters.
Gustavus crossed the Elbe at Wittenberg and moved south to join with his German allies.
Finally, the two sides converged on a broad plain near the village of Breitenfeld in September
of 1631.
Now we must take a moment to discuss the army and state which engaged at Breitenfeld on
that day in 1631, and its illustrious leader.
Since 1397, the three ancient Nordic kingdoms had been ruled by Denmark, but Sweden broke
away in 1523 and elected Gustav Vasa as their king, beginning the Vasa dynasty. After a
dynastic crisis, Charles IX became king, dying in 1611 and being succeeded by his son Gustav
II Adolf, otherwise known as Gustavus Adolphus.
When this happened, the coffers were almost empty, the population was on the verge of
rebellion and the army was lax. The military failures
of Sweden at this time were exemplified in the battle of Kircholm during 1605, when its
army was annihilated by a Polish-Lithuanian force ⅓
its size. Conscription had taken place in Sweden for
decades, but it was poorly administered. Gustavus Adolphus established and enforced guidelines
for recruitment, whilst the realm was divided up
into eight military districts, from which a permanently established army would be raised.
Intensive training and drill routines made this system greatly successful, and foreigners
marveled at how ‘mere farmers’ lads’ could be turned into disciplined soldiers.
Increased firepower was a key priority for Gustavus Adolphus, who realised that it was
the key to victory, and required to compensate for
the inferiority of Swedish cavalry. Infantry squadrons
maintained the central pike block flanked by musketeers, but with a higher proportion
of muskets compared to pikes. Formations were also shallower
and broader, bringing more firepower to bear on the enemy.
The countermarch was also drilled into the soldiers, during which the front rank would
fire a volley and then march through gaps to the
rear to reload, followed by the second rank, and so
on. ‘Doubling the files’ was also a new tactic developed by the king, during which
the rear ranks would step into the gaps used for the countermarch
in order to deliver a devastating salvo. In addition to the infantry changes, batteries
of 4 light 3-pounder artillery pieces were attached
to Swedish regiments. They were maneuverable above all else in order to go where they were
needed on the battlefield, compared to the heavy cannons which had to stay where they
were. The Protestant army, led by Swedish king Gustavus
Adolphus consisted of around 42,000 troops. 24,000 Swedish veteran soldiers were
joined by 18,000 under the Elector of Saxony, but were kept separate. The Swedes were organised
into seven infantry brigades in two lines, commanded by Gustavus Adolphus himself.
They had 51 field artillery pieces, supported by a battery of four state-of-the-art
mobile bronze cast 3-pounder light guns attached to each infantry regiment.
Opposite them were the Imperials under Johann Tserclaes Graf von Tilly, who had 35,000
men under his command, of whom 7,000 had just completed an exhausting march from the
south. Their infantry was organised into 12 large tercios, grouped in threes, and with
two
further battalions on each flank to support the cavalry. The imperials had 27 field artillery
pieces, likely of a heavier caliber than those of the Swedes.
Around mid-day, the battle began with a thunderous two-hour long exchange of artillery
fire between the two sides. In addition to their numerical superiority in number of guns,
the Swedes demonstrated fantastic efficiency, firing three to five volleys for each imperial
volley. The deeper and more densely packed imperial tercios suffered especially badly
from this bombardment.
When the bombardment ceased, 4,000 Imperial Black Cuirassiers on Tilly’s left wing
charged without orders, commanded by Gottfried zu Pappenheim. Repeated attacks were
made on the position of Field Marshal Johan Baner’s Swedish cavalry, but to little effect.
The small musketeer companies between each squadron of horse fired at point blank range
as the Imperial cavalry charged, disrupting them, blunting the attack and allowing their
own cavalry to counter charge with an advantage. After the seventh attempt to break his
wing had failed, Baner sallied forward with his Finnish light cavalry and Swedish heavy
cavalry, smashing the depleted imperial horse and forcing it to flee the field.
During this action, the main infantry force under Tilly had remained stationary. However,
a subsequent cavalry charge on the imperial right wing by another 4,000 Catholic League
and Croat horse under von Furstenberg crashed into the Saxon cavalry guarding this area
of the battlefield. Seeing an opportunity, Tilly then ordered
his tercios to advance in an oblique order formation, diagonally and to the right. By
doing this, he sought to concentrate his assault on the untrained Saxon infantry on the protestant’s
left flank, refusing to engage the Swedes for now. This worked out, and the entire
Saxon force routed in front of them, leaving the Swedish flank exposed.
Marshal Gustav Horn, who commanded this threatened area of the Swedish line, quickly
and orderly pulled back before the unwieldy tercios could regroup and change direction,
as they were busy plundering the Saxon baggage
or pursuing fleeing soldiers. He then launched a counterattack with his reorganised
cavalry forces. During this counterattack, the engaged infantry regiments pivoted, and
concentrated their new high firepower tactics and their accompanying 3-pounder artillery
pieces on the tercios threatening their left, and
repelled the Imperial attack. At the same time, the victorious cavalry of
Baner, now commanded directly by their king Gustavus Adolphus, swept across the front
line and attacked the now lightly defended imperial left. This assault managed to achieve
its aim of capturing the stationary imperial cannon, which were then turned by the Swedes
and used to attack their owners. Marshal Lennart Torstensson, commanding the
Swedish field artillery, also maneuvered his lighter more flexible guns into position
and pummeled the imperials as well, hitting them from both sides. After a few hours of
this withering firepower, the imperial forces finally collapsed, and Pappenheim, as well
as Tilly himself, were both wounded. 7,600 imperial soldiers were killed and a further
6,000 were captured.
The Catholic army had been utterly annihilated by the Swedish and their Saxon allies, and
had to be completely rebuilt from scratch, while
the victory convinced many wavering protestant princes to join the victors, swelling their
army. After so many Catholic victories in the early
years of the war, it seemed as though the protestant cause was on the rise.
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