Gustavus Adolphus: The Lion of the North

this video is brought to you by squarespace from websites and online stores to marketing tools and analytics squarespaces the all-in-one platform to build a beautiful online presence and run your business check out squarespace through the link in the description below more about them in a bit when we think of sweden today we think of them as a peaceful nation they haven't been involved in a war either external or internal for over 200 years even longer than switzerland it's hard to believe when looking at modern sweden that this nation used to be the seat of a mighty empire possessing one of the most advanced armies in europe sweden in the 17th century was a country to be feared the reason sweden rose from small scandinavian kingdom to mighty empire can be personified in the only king of sweden to earn the epitar the great gustavus adolphus was a teenager when he ascended to the throne of a country embroiled in religious and dynastic turmoil over the course of 20 years he revolutionized the nation transforming the government from a medieval relic to a more modern bureaucracy but his most lasting contribution was in the field of warfare he modernized the swedish army and built it into a sledgehammer with gustavus adolphus the first modern general at its head he became known as the defender of protestantism when he brought his army to continental europe in the midst of the wars of religion changing the course of history in the process [Music] gustavus adolphus was born on the 19th of december 1594 the son of duke charles the brother of king john iii of sweden john had died in 1592 leaving the throne to his son sigismund who was already king of poland this caused friction because sigismund was a devout roman catholic sweden had been a majority protestant country for 65 years by this point and the nobility was fearful that a catholic king would suppress their religion as it happened elsewhere in europe sigismund was interested in more than religious affairs of his new realm however he wanted to fully integrate the separate kingdoms of poland lithuania and sweden into one combined dynastic kingdom centered on warsaw duke charles the king's uncle and a devout calvinist posed these moves and decided to act to assume the reigns of power for himself the dispute flared into a civil war in 1598 and by 1600 charles had sent sigismund packing back to poland in disgrace he was deposed as king of sweden and charles was crowned as charles ix making gustavus adolphus the new heir to the throne charles's reign was marked by almost constant warfare with denmark with russia with poland where sigismund viewed charles as a usurper and spent years trying to regain his inheritance gustavus adolph has inherited all of these conflicts when his father died in 1611. aged only 17 the new king found himself opposed by three wealthier and more powerful nations that completely surrounded his country if sweden was to survive gustavus needed to reform and modernize his army in the middle ages the nations of europe did not have standing armies they were considered too expensive in times of war the bulk of the army was made up of conscripted peasants who were given little training and were usually poorly armed the only professional soldiers were the knights wealthy members of the nobility who could afford the expensive armor and arms needed but warfare was changing at the dawn of the 17th century the musket was becoming an integral part of infantry units rendering the night class obsolete a new military organization was needed what the king came up with was an entirely new model of bureaucratic governance giving the church responsibility for maintaining a conscription registry from now on local church parishes would be required to keep a roster of physically fit men between the ages of 16 and 60 that could be called for military service when needed not only was this more efficient since everyone went to church and thus churchmen knew their congregation well but it also instilled a religious further into military service now volunteering in time of war was not a civic duty but a responsibility for good christians as well this conscription registry was used to create a system where each swedish province had the ability to raise a provincial regiment of soldiers four of these regiments were to be kept on active duty at all times within the swedish homeland and two in swedish territory in finland giving the king a permanent standing army of around twenty thousand men with the ability to call up the remaining regiments as reserves when needed training for the troops was standardized across the country and inactive reservists were required to keep their weapons in fighting condition at all times gustavus reforms went beyond military organization though he also revolutionized the tactics of his army he recognized the growing power of the musket and the cannon noting that they were great equalizing forces a small army with superior firepower could defeat a larger army the swedish army would invest heavily in artillery but they ran into a problem typical for the period most cannon barrels were made out of either cast iron or bronze and they were extremely heavy too heavy to be easily moved around a battlefield an army's artillery was usually placed on a hill at the start of the battle and remained there for the entire engagement this greatly limited their effectiveness what the king wanted was lighter mobile artillery pieces that could be more easily moved around the field during battle to provide fire support as needed this would give his army a great advantage on the battlefield but it required a completely new design in order to work what the swedish engineers originally came up with was the leather cannon a barrel made out of a thin copper tube surrounded by tightly wound rope cords and topped with leather this weapon was lightweight only requiring two men to pull it around and operate it but in practice the weapons didn't last very long under fire before the barrels burst from the heat injuring or killing the gunners a more practical design was produced essentially a miniature version of existing bronze cannons that could be towed either by a single horse or three men yet still provided a rate of fire fifty percent faster than the muskets of the period gustavus adolphus now had his mobile fire support weapon and developed a new set of tactics to incorporate all the separate pieces of his army into one cohesive unit the swedish king is considered one of the first modern generals to utilize this combined arms style of warfare which is still practiced even today and the king would soon have a need for his new army because there was trouble brewing in europe trouble that threatened to descend the entire continent up in flames okay so we've got a holy war brewing in europe fantastic and we'll get into that in just a moment but first here's a quick word from today's sponsor squarespace now more than ever people are getting creative with their time they're reaching deep into their savings account to start a new business of some kind or maybe launch a blog or a website the world really is yours with squarespace which is the perfect platform to help you fashion the internet into whatever you want it to be it's the platform to use when you're ready to get started on next web project that you've been thinking about you're looking to get in and out quick without thinking too much about what your website should look like well absolutely use one of their beautiful templates to make a website that's fresh and for you like it's right out of the box or maybe you're more of a hands-on person you've got lots of opinions and ideas about what exactly your site should look like well squarespace gives you all of the customization options you could ever want with no updates no patches no technical bs to worry about once you're done setting up your website tinkering with the design if you're so inclined or maybe just playing around with the colors there's so many extra features that squarespace provides so that your site can thrive email campaigns patronage portals social integrations member only areas analytics commercial options 24 7 customer support everything you need in one place so when you're ready to get started on the next project of yours big or small if it involves a website it's gotta be with squarespace right now you can go to squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to launch your site go to squarespace.com forward slash biographics and you'll save 10 of your first purchase of a website or a domain and let's get back to the swedes in 1521 martin luther was excommunicated by pope leo the tenth after refusing to renounce his writings that condemned what luther called the abuses and excesses of the catholic church luther's writings quickly spread across europe thanks to the recently invented printing press and a permanent schism developed between catholics and the new protestant faith religious belief mixed with politics as heads of state chose sides england sweden and the dutch republic became majority protestant countries while france spain and the italian states remained majority catholic where things got complicated was in the holy roman empire of central europe the country we now know as germany existed in the 17th century as a loose confederation of over 1 800 separate states and municipalities known as the holy roman empire while each territory answered to the emperor they also had a great deal of autonomy within their own borders the protestant reformation started in the german states and it deeply divided an already divided country after years of international warfare the piece of augsburg signed in 1555 established the principle of curious regios religio whose realm their religion which meant that whatever the religion the ruler of a particular territory followed would decide what that territory's official religion would be there were problems with the system from the start dynastic struggles became even more vicious as catholic and protestant heirs fought each other over the right to rule it also encouraged rulers in catholic territories to invade and occupy protestant ones and vice versa in order to convert the occupants things only got worse when archduke ferdinand of austria became the heir to the habsburg family dynasty making him the leading contender to be the next holy roman emperor ferdinand was an extremely odd and catholic he once was quoted as saying he would rather his lands be destroyed than tolerate heresy for a single day tensions between catholics and protestants in germany finally broke in 1618 in bohemia a meeting in prague castle between protestant noblemen and catholic representatives of ferdinand turned violence when the catholics were thrown out of a third story window all the men survived the fall but what became known as the defenestrations of prague triggered civil war or at least it started off that way the habsburgs of austria were closely aligned with their cousins the habsburgs of spain and the spanish sent troops to support their ally that brought in the forces of the dutch republic the sworn enemies of spain on the side of the protestants england and france who didn't like each other but disliked the habsburgs even more agreed to give money to anyone who would fight against them in 1625 denmark intervened on behalf of the protestants but several years of war proved ineffective and the danish tapped out after their resources were exhausted cardinal and riccialo the most powerful adviser to the king of france and the chief architect of the alliance against the habsburgs sought a new champion gustavus adolphus and the swedes [Music] gustavus adolphus was known as a martial king from the very beginning he ended the wars he inherited from his father with denmark and russia within a few years of becoming king on favorable terms but he was still involved in a protracted struggle with poland if he wanted to fully invest his country's resources into a fight with the holy roman emperor he needed to find a way to extricate himself from that conflict cardinal richielo intervened arranging for the two sides to sign the truce of altmark in 1629 ending the war now sweden could intervene in the chaos going on in germany gustavus wanted to help his fellow protestants but his motives weren't entirely altruistic the swedish king saw an opportunity to enhance his country's prestige positioning himself as the defender of the protestant faith he also hoped to make territorial gains in continental europe on the fourth of july 1630 gustav zidov has landed at panamund in pomerania at the head of an army of thirteen thousand men he was facing a much larger army commanded by one of the emperor's best generals johann sirclays the count of tilly tilly was an experienced and feared commander with many victories over protestant armies to supplement his own forces gustavus wanted to recruit allies from the german states but the germans were distrustful of the swedish king's intentions and were unimpressed with his military credentials especially compared to the catholic general for months the swedish army was stuck in the little corner of pomerania surrounded by imperial held garrisons the catholic saw gustavus adolphus is nothing more than a minor annoyance so they left him alone while the main imperial armies fought in italy but the stalemate couldn't last forever and at the start of 1631 both sides made their move [Music] the swedish army advanced south on the city of frankfurt capturing the town after a short siege gustavus hoped to convince the protestant states to join him in a show of force a so-called rough wooing meanwhile the main imperial army under the count of tilley marched north to magdeburg one of the swede's allies and sacked the town slaughtering an estimated twenty thousand inhabitants a dreadful show of force of his own both armies marched towards each other separated by the electorate of saxony which had as yet been untouched by the war and wanted to remain neutral after weeks of negotiations councilly forced the issue by invading saxony forcing the saxons to ally themselves with the swedes for their own self-preservation the two armies ran into each other on the 7th of september 1631 at the village of breitenfeld close to the city of leipzig the battle began at midday with an exchange of artillery fire the swedish guns quickly proved their superior skill managing to fire off three to five volleys for every one that the imperials fired after the imperial cavalry was rebuffed with heavy losses tilly ordered his powerful infantry to attack the saxon forces posted on the left flank of the allied line routing them from the field but the attack had strung out the imperial forces in a disorganized line one that the disciplined swedish troops moved to exploit they surrounded the imperials and annihilated the entire army it was a complete triumph for gustavus tilley's army sustained 27 000 casualties over 75 of the original force the destruction of the imperial army was a huge morale boost for the protestant cause for the first time since the war began they had a strategic initiative over their catholic opponents the swedish king's victory was the talk of europe and the german princes which had been reluctant to ally themselves with gustavus before breitenfeld hanover has castle and brandenburg prussia among others now flocked to his banner the french agreed to pay even greater subsidies for sweden's army and reinforcements were pouring into the camp it was time for gustavus adolphus to go on the offensive armies of this period did not fight in the winter so the war was paused soon after the battle of breitenfeld as the cold weather set in in march of 1632 the swedish army emerged in winter quarters numbering 40 000 including their german allies the target was bavaria one of the wealthiest and strongest principalities on the catholic side it was hoped that by knocking bavaria out of the war it would force the emperor at the negotiating table on protestant terms if it didn't work well bavaria was close to vienna the austrian capital where the holy roman emperor's court was and they'd marched there next in april the swedes were situated across the river lack from a reconstructed imperial army under tilly the only obstacle between them and the bavarian heartland on the 15th of april gustavus decided to force a crossing military engineers built a pontoon bridge across the river under fire from imperial guns once again however the swedish artillery proved its superiority as they were able to successfully cover the infantry as they crossed and supported them as they stormed the imperial position soon after crossing the decisive moment came when tilly was shot in the leg during the assault and was evacuated from the field without their general the morale of the imperial army collapsed and they retreated in a quirk of fate the loss of tilly probably saved the army from being annihilated as it had been breitenfeld since gustavus was in the process of encircling the imperials but hadn't managed to close the noose before the enemy fled tilly died two weeks after the battle after his wound became infected southern bavaria was now completely open to the swedish army and they marched unopposed capturing town after town some of the larger cities such as munich and augsburg were only occupied if they managed to pay a ransom a large sum of gold to support their protestant occupiers but the smaller cities and towns weren't so lucky and were put to the torch their inhabitants killed or imprisoned such was the ugliness of a war of religion this kind of conduct occurred throughout the 30 years war on both sides an estimated 8 million people died during the war from disease famine and bloodshed the death of the count of tilly had left the imperial army leaderless and the rampaging swedish army was increasingly alarming to emperor ferdinand he was forced to recall to command a man he neither liked nor trusted but who he felt was the only man who could match gustavus adolphus on the field of battle albrecht von wallenstein was a celebrated general from earlier in the war he was directly responsible for knocking denmark out of the conflict and had been rewarded handsomely for his military victories but his accumulation of personal power and his ambition for more alarmed the emperor who saw him as a threat to his own authority in september 1630 wallenstein had been dismissed from command and had retired to his estates in silesia now he was back charged with raising a new army and stopping the swedish king wallenstein had been paying attention to the way that gustavus adolphus went about the business of warfare and in the new imperial army he put together he implemented some of the swedish reforms to military organization einstein was popular among the common folk and was able to quickly raise a new army and take to the field suddenly gustavus adolphus found himself outnumbered rather than risk a battle he retreated to the city of nuremberg which wallenstein besieged hoping to starve the swedes out for three months it was a stalemate until gustavus was forced to retreat out of bavaria into saxony having lost half his army to disease and starvation the imperials hadn't fared much better and were unable to pursue for some time for months weinstein and augustus had been circling each other with their armies but neither had been able to entice the other into a decisive battle november was late in the campaign season and the imperial army was preparing to go into their winter quarters and saxony gustavus adolphus was chafing at his forced retreat at the hands of his opponent and wanted one more crack at barlenstein before the weather made further movement impossible the swedes marched out of camp and headed towards the last known position of the enemy hoping to take the imperials by surprise in their haste they'd left the vaunted three-pounder cannons in camp the attempted surprise attack failed when the swedish army ran into imperial rearguard station five kilometers south of the town of lutsen this skirmish delayed the swedish advance by several hours and alerted wallenstein to the danger allowing him to recall his disparate forces nightfall and the armies were a couple of kilometers apart preparing for a fight the next day according to the gregorian calendar which is what we used today the next day was the 16th of november 1632. the swedes still used the old julian calendar so to them it was the 6th of november whatever the date was it dawned extremely foggy making it hard to see both armies were about equal strength about 20 000 men each ballenstein's army was deployed along the luzen-leibzig road in a defensive position complete with trenches the swedes were in position to assault this line by 11am gustavus adolphus led his troops into battle as he always did riding a magnificent war horse named strife he had been shot in the shoulder by a polish musketeer in 1627 and the ball had never been removed the old injury reduced his arm ability and prevented him from wearing the bulletproof steel curase or breastplate that was typically worn by officers of this period the battle started off well for the swedes as they attacked the imperial left flank which was weak they were met by a cavalry charge led by gottfried zu pampenheim the imperial second in command they repulsed the swedes but pampenheim was shot by a cannonball and killed this caused the counter-attack to collapse seeing an opening gustavus adolphus put together a cavalry attack of his own the confused melee around the left flank of the imperial battle line only got worse when the king's cavalry charge hit was around 1 pm 2 hours into the engagement when gustavus sustained his first wound a musket shot that hit him in the left arm crushing it around the same time his horse was hit in the neck making it very hard to control the fog and smoke swirled around the field and in the confusion the king rode behind enemy lines and was attacked by a squadron of imperial cavalry he was shot again in the back as well as suffering cuts from sword thrusts and he fell off his horse he was shot a final time in the temple and it killed him he was 37 years old [Music] no one knew what had happened to the king for hours during a larlin battle his horse was spotted wandering around between the lines riderless the momentum of the battle stalled as a search was commenced gustavus body was found soon after it had been partially stripped of his outer clothes and jewelry and left there to avoid destroying the morale of the army the king's body was removed from the field in secret bernhard of sax weimar a german prince who was the second in command for the protestant forces took command of the army after being told of the king's death and the fight continued the brutal battle finished around nightfall when the swedes took the imperial artillery battery and turned the guns on their former owners compelling mullenstein to retreat to leipzig and leave the field to the swedes it was the definition of a pyrrhic victory for sweden they had won the day but at horrific cost not only had they suffered 10 000 casualties but the loss of their king was to prove fatal to the swedish expedition though they would remain at war with the empire they would no longer assume a leading role in the coalition instead france seeing the swedish momentum stall decided to intervene directly in the war and thereafter the war became less about religion and more about the ancestral rivalry between the french house of bourbon and the austrian and spanish houses of habsburg it took almost two years for king gustavus adolphus body to be returned to sweden and buried in stockholm he was accompanied by his horse stryve who was staffed after his death and is still displayed today at the royal armory in stockholm his death left the throne of sweden to his five-year-old daughter christina who would later go on to convert to catholicism abdicate her crown and live the rest of her life in rome as the guest of the pope none of which was likely to have made her father happy as for his opponent albrecht von wallenstein he was destined not to outlive gustavus for long and preferred and had him assassinated in 1634 after a report surfaced that the general was preparing to defect to the protestants the peace of westphalia finally ended the 30 years war in 1648 and was considered a major victory for the protestant powers the treaties guaranteed the freedom of each state within the holy roman empire to choose their own religion and also guaranteed the right of all citizens to practice their religion in private even if it was different from the state religion where they lived it was also a recognition of sweden as one of the great military powers of europe granting it territory and pomerania and elsewhere and the holy roman empire projecting its influence over most of northern germany indeed for the rest of the 17th century the swedish empire was considered one of the most powerful on the continent even establishing their own colony in the new world new sweden located on the site of the modern day city of philadelphia pennsylvania though the age of the swedish empire only lasted for about a century the ideas put forward by gustav's adolphus lasted much longer his military tactics and organizational style was studied and copied by generals for generations after his death in particular by napoleon bonaparte who used gustavus theory of superior firepower to conquer most of continental europe what's more he left a legacy as being a staunch defender of the protestant religion and because of his efforts the idea that an individual was able to choose their own religious belief and practice it without interference from the government remains an integral part of most modern countries though he has been dead for almost 400 years gustavus adolphus continues to cast a long shadow the human incarnation of the german legend of the lion of the north so i really hope you enjoyed this video thank you to squarespace for sponsoring it please also consider pressing that like button below subscribing to this channel and thank you for watching

Channel: Biographics

Views: 168,193

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: dgRoe9pzH3A

Length: 23min 46sec (1426 seconds)

Published: Mon May 17 2021