Since the Second Defenestration of Prague in 1618, Protestants and Catholics had been at war. This war, now known as the Thirty Years’ War, was the culmination of a century of rising tensions between the two religions.
By 1630, the Catholic Armies, under the generalship of Albrecht von Wallenstein, had successfully invaded most of southern Germany, pushing the Protestant armies farther and farther north. With the Holy Roman Empire threatening the Scandinavian lands, Gustavus Adolphus. King of Sweden, came to the assistance of the protestants. Approximately 76,000 Swedes mustered under the Lion of the North, and the Protestants began regaining some of their lost territory and driving the Catholics back. Gustavus won several important battles, including the Battle of Breitenfeld, which earned him the epithet, Gustavus the Great.
On November 14, 1632, Gustavus had planned a surprise attack on Wallenstein near the city of Lützen (near Leipzig). Wallenstein found out about the attack, however, and quickly reinforced his lines. Nevertheless, at around 11:00AM on the 16th, the Swedish Army began its advance. They initially performed quite well against Wallenstein’s Army; however, the operational momentum shifted when, during a flanking cavalry raid led by Gustavus Adolphus himself, the Swedish King was killed.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR US:
The Protestants eventually won the battle of Lützen, although it was a Pyrrhic victory. They had not only lost their leader, but approximately 15,000 troops as well. The King of Sweden’s influence has lived for generations, though, and his continued leadership could have greatly affected the outcome of the war.
It is generally accepted that had Gustavus not entered the Thirty Years’ War, the Protestant nations and religions would have been completely subdued by the Habsburg Empire and the Catholic Church. Napoleon Bonaparte, Carl von Clausewitz, and George S. Patton all considered Adolphus to be the greatest general in history. When he entered Thirty Years’ War, the Protestants gained the advantage and put the Catholics on the defensive. The Protestant armies were quickly on their way to ending the war under his generalship. He had even gotten France (a Catholic nation) to subsidize his expeditions.
When he died on the battlefield of Lützen, the advantage returned to the Catholics, and the war was prolonged another 16 years. Had Adolphus not died that day, there may never have been a Treaty of Westphalia, which would have made for a very different Europe, and consequently, a very different United States.
