Thanks for your support on Patreon, David O'Brien.

David accompanied Maximilian von Trottmanstorf's delegation to Westphalia,

and he bribed a guard to ensure that they entered Moonster in secret.

Nice work, David.

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

Patreon.com forward slash when diplomacy fails or click on the link in the

description below.

Hello and welcome history friends, patrons all to episode 78 of the 30 Years' War.

In the last episode, we fast forwarded our narrative somewhat to bring to an end one of our significant story threads, the Dutch Spanish War, otherwise known as the 80 Years War.

As we've seen over countless episodes, the Dutch

played a critically important role in furthering the 30 years war, as they chipped away its

Spanish power until Madrid could go no further. The Dutch won their war with Spain, but it

remained to be seen if they could win their peace. We will put a pin in the Dutch for now, though we'll certainly have cause to refer back

to them in the story going forward.

Now that the Dutch are a bit tidied up, though, we can focus our attention on the more active

fronts, both at Westphalia and on the battlefield.

Leonard Torstensen's Swedish army remained a critically important, powerful entity within

the empire. And further to the west, the French were putting pressure on the Emperor's main ally,

Bavaria, to exit the war. Along the Pyrenees, the French joined their Catalonian allies to attack

the Spanish, and it was broadly along these fronts, central Germany, the Rhine and the

Pyrenees, that the campaigning season of 1646 rumbled on. The contest would be one of

endurance on the battlefield as much as at the peace table, and the stakes could not have been higher.

...