30YearsWar #54: Protestant Germany Joins Sweden

When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Zack Twamley

Phd, International Relations, Korean War, European History, 17th Century, 18th Century, Politics, 20th Century, Thirty Years' War, History, 19th Century, War, First World War

4.8 • 773 Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From the moment Gustavus Adolphus landed in Northern Germany, it was clear that his triumph was impossible so long as the Protestant Electors of Brandenburg and Saxony refused to join his side. Throughout spring and summer of 1631 though, Gustavus' luck finally began to turn, thanks in part to his liberal use of intimidation, and the horrendous miscalculations of the Emperor. Pointing his cannons at Berlin soon compelled a defenceless Elector of Brandenburg to make an alliance. Saxony, on the other hand, was a different matter. Dresden chose Sweden not because of what Gustavus did, but because of what Count Tilly, the Emperor's commander, was forced to do.

Desperate for supplies after Magdeburg had been destroyed, Tilly sought aid from his Emperor. When this was denied, and when his troops appeared dangerously close to dissolving, Tilly came to terms with the new reality. The unspoiled lands of Saxony must be harnessed to reinvigorate his army - whether the Elector of Saxony liked it or not. The blunder forced the Saxon and Brandenburg Electors into Sweden's camp, and with the rest of Protestant Germany bound to follow their banners, the stage looked set for the great test of the Swedish King. As the new reluctant allies looked anxiously at the approach of autumn 1631, not even they could have imagined what would happen next...

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for your support on Patreon, Madeline McCrae.
0:03.8	Madeline was warned away from the sack of Magdeburg when she saw the plumes of smoke stretching high into the sky,
0:10.7	and she soon found shelter in Saxony. Good for you, Madam. This, of course, is all a lie,
0:16.2	but if you would like me to lie about you, head on over to Patreon. More on that later, but for now, enjoy the show.
0:27.7	Hello and welcome history, friends, patrons all, to episode 54 of the 30 Years' War. So last time we watched Magdeburg
0:40.7	burned to the ground, as one of the most infamous scenes of the Thirty Years' War took place.
0:46.9	Considering the visceral nature of the sack of Magdeburg, it's easy to forget amidst the
0:51.5	propaganda that the event was actually a loss for Gustavus Adolphus,
0:56.4	who had been forced to allow one of his major allies, that is the city of Magdeburg, to fall to the
1:02.0	imperialists. The reason for this failure, Gustavus insisted, was down to those two darned Protestant
1:08.1	electors, John George of Saxony and George William of Brandenburg.
1:12.7	Because those two were so unwilling to support the Swedish king, their lands were blocked
1:16.9	off to him, and he couldn't march from his base in Pomerania to help Magdeburg.
1:22.0	Yet, while it had been a terrible scene and an unfortunate setback, it was not all rosy for
1:27.1	the commander who seized
1:28.4	Magdeburg, Count Tilly. While his forces had taken much from Magdeburg, they would not be
1:34.4	able to rely on that sacked city for support into the future, as they had hoped. So, Count Tilly
1:40.8	would have to find new sources of succour for his large army, lest they desert or engage in any more disastrous attacks on imperial cities.
1:50.1	What this meant for both commanders was that Swede and Imperial alike were earnestly searching for some opportunity to force a decisive encounter, and during the summer of 1631, this encounter appeared close at hand,
2:03.1	but first, some housekeeping remained in the way. In this episode then, we examined that summer
2:08.4	of 1631 and the background to that famous battle of Brightonfeld, where the greatest and most
2:14.0	important victory of Gustavus's career occurred, just a few kilometres away
	...

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