Thanks for your support on Patreon, Daryl Hegel.

Darrell was present during the Siege of Magdeburg in May 1631,

and he somehow managed to escape with his life.

Well done, Herr Hegel.

This, of course, is all a lie, but if you would like me to lie about you, you know where to go.

Head over to patreon.com forward slash when diplomacy fails.

More on that later, but for now, enjoy the show.

Hello and welcome history friends, patrons all, to episode 53 of the 30 Years' War.

Thanks so much for joining me today and thanks also for listening to the episode that came out just before this on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

I really appreciate your feedback on it and by all accounts you guys really enjoyed my

somewhat unscripted, very salty, very passionate take on the event. It's very difficult to look at

what's happening in Ukraine right now and not feel disheartened, not feel upset, not feel like

the world's going to hell in a handbasket, to borrow Mike Duncan's phrase,

but at the same time, what was ever achieved by worrying? And sometimes it is actually quite helpful to escape into a different time,

a different period of history, one which is somehow less troubling than our own, the Thirty Years' War.

Last time, Gustavus's winding journey through early 1631 was examined. We saw the Swedish

strategic position take shape. An agreement with France, with the Treaty of Barvaldo, was

critically important, as was the decision taken among the Protestant German potentates

to forge ahead with the Leipzig Manifesto and defend their lands as a neutral third party,

complete with 40,000 men paid for by monies meant for the empire. These were all significant developments

and things were certainly underway in the spring

of 1631, but even as Gustavus sacked Frankfurt on the odor, and Tilly worked together as many

...