Gustavus Adolphus - Breitenfeld 1631 - 30 YEARS' WAR DOCUMENTARY

[Music] shoutout to Squarespace for sponsoring today's video learn more about Squarespace and their offer at the end of the video in our previous video we covered the Danish portion of the 30 Years War in his capacity as the Juke of Holstein Christian the 4th of Denmark had intervened on behalf of the Protestant cause but was defeated however Albrecht von Valentine had failed in his attempts to construct an imperial fleet in the Baltic Sea and to capture the city of stralsund which Sweden had then garrison in this episode the conflict will intensify 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 situation during the 1620s indeed Sweden had already undertaken a small intervention in the defence of Strauss and in the summer of 1628 Denmark's defeat at Valentines hands and sprains 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 the third had a claim to the Swedish throne the king of Sweden established the second and office has 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 to 1629 the truce of alt mark between the two sides were signed in 1629 it being negotiated by French diplomats stipulated that the Swedes would receive the right to two thirds of all shipping tolls at polish-lithuanian ports until 1635 which helped finance Sweden's war effort substantially though the Army's fighting for holy roman emperor ferdinand ii had won victories at looter and focused 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 of 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 Obrecht font Valentine 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 teal 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 Prince's further the Emperor sacrificed Valentine 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 Straus and Garrison as reasons for the intervention On June 26th he started his campaign against Ferdinand by landing on the island of OSA dome off the Pomeranian coast with a modest force of fourteen thousand soldiers after disembarking his army Adolphus marched to Stetten and tolls the Duke of pomerania boguslav xiv who was childless that Pomerania was his by right of conquest on August 25th the percent duke accepted the Treaty of Stetten 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 bavander in January of 1631 obliged Sweden to maintain an army of at least 36 thousand troops in the German conflict while France paid $400,000 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 12 16 31 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 [Music] in Pomerania the swelling army of gustavus adolphus now numbered 30,000 men the Protestant Prince's 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 coup strain and Frankfurt on to order which were defended by Imperial Garrison's though he had begun to make slowed 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 siege by the count of tiel eventually managed to enter the city on the 20th of May 16:31 what followed was the single most horrific massacre of the entire 30 years war the flames claimed many lives but more notorious was the conduct of the mercenary soldiers despite Till's orders to stop the mercenaries who weren't paid on time enacted brutal violence on the unfortunate inhabitants of Magdeburg a sense has 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 an outrage in Protestants to the east gustavus adolphus maste 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 the first 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 teal 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 teyla'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 Brighton felled in September of 1630 one now we must take a moment to discuss the army and state which engaged at Brighton failed 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 the ninth 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 lacks the military failures of Sweden at this time were exemplified in the Battle of Kirk home during 1605 when its army was annihilated by a Polish Lithuanian force one-third its size conscription had taken place in Sweden for decades but it was poorly administered Gustavus Adolphus established and enforced guidelines for recruitment while 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 [Music] increased firepower was a key priority for gustavus adolphus who realized that it was the key to victory and was 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 Pike's formations were also shallower and broader bringing more firepower to bear on the enemy the counter march was also drilled into the soldiers during which the front rank would fire a volley and then marched through the 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 counter march in order to deliver a devastating salvo in addition to the infantry changes batteries of four light three 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 camped separate the Swedes were organized into seven infantry brigades in two lions commanded by caste Abbess Adolphus himself they had 51 field artillery pieces supported by a battery of four state-of-the-art mobile bronze cast three pounder light guns attached to each infantry regiment opposite them were the Imperials under your hand sir classgraph von tiehl who had 35,000 men under his command of whom 7000 had just completed an exhausting march from the south their infantry was organized into 12 large tokyo's grouped in threes and with to further battalions on each flank to support the cavalry the imperials has 27 field artillery pieces likely of a heavier caliber than those of the Swedes around midday 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 Tokyo's suffered especially badly from this bombardment when the bombardment ceased four thousand Imperial black Kyra Sears on tears left wing charged without orders commanded by gottfried soup Oppenheim repeated attacks were made on the position of Field Marshal Johan banners Swedish cavalry but too little effect the small musketeer companies between each squadron of fired at point-blank range as the Imperial cavalry charge disrupting them blunting the attack and allowing their own cavalry to counter charged with an advantage after the seventh attempt to break his wing had failed banner sallied forth with his finished light cavalry and swedish heavy cavalry smashing the depleted imperial horse and forcing us to flee the field during this action the main infantry force and a teal hat 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 teal then ordered his tow Theo's 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 Protestants 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 Marshall 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 counter-attack with his reorganized cavalry forces during this counter-attack the engaged infantry regiments pivoted and concentrated their new high firepower tactics and their accompanying three-pound artillery pieces on the tercios threatening their left and repelled the Imperial attack at the same time the victorious cavalry of banner now commanded directly by their King Gustavus Adolphus swept across the frontline and attacks 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 leonard Torsten son 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 Papen Heim as well as till himself were both wounded 7600 Imperial soldiers were killed and a further six thousand 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 Prince's 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 thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring today's video Squarespace gives people a powerful and beautiful online platform for which to create your website and allows you to create a website 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Channel: Kings and Generals

Views: 562,489

Keywords: Thirty Years' War, 30 years war, White mountain, european wars of religion, hussite, eighty years war, ottoman wars, bohemia, austria, holy roman empire, thirty years war, gustavus adolphus, full documentary, gustav ii adolf, battle of white mountain, ottoman empire, holy roman empire explained, full length documentaries, documentary film, kings and generals, military history, decisive battles, world history, Denmark, Christian IV, Stralsund, breitenfeld, lutzen, Lützen

Id: 56mj5OqcqdU

Length: 18min 18sec (1098 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 02 2019