The

The Hi there and welcome to a history of Europe key battles.

This is the 30 Years' War, Part 4 out of 7.

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden and the Swedish wars leading up to the 30 years war.

Of all the countless personalities involved in the story of the Thirty Years' War, two stand out from the rest.

The Imperial Commander Valenstein, who was introduced last week, and King Gustavus Adolphus, are considered two of the greatest military sagittists of the age, if not all time.

Their military contest across Central Europe, culminating in the Battle of Lutzen, 1632,

is one of the most well-known episodes of the war.

In the previous three weeks, I have described the first dozen years of the Thirty Years' War.

Protestant-led revolts in Bohemia and Austria were comprehensively crushed by the newly elected Holy Roman Emperor,

Ferdin and the Second, who then worked with his Habsburg cousin, King Philip

the 4th of Spain, to further impose imperial authority and the Catholic faith throughout his

empire. Both had ambitions to extend their control into the Baltic coast, and until 1630,

the plan was going well. The king of Denmark,

Kristen IV, attempted to push back the imperial forces, but his armies were heavily defeated,

and he was forced out of the war. In his place arrived his traditional rival in the Baltic, Sweden,

when the power of their king, Gustavus Adolphus, was determined to expand the Swedish power in the Baltic, and at the same time strike a blow for his fellow proscients.

It's worth at this point catching up on events in the Baltic region.

The Swedes had fought Russia and Poland for many years for control of the southern Baltic coastline.

In the year 1582, they achieved military success and gained from Ivan the Terrible, the territories of

Estonia and Ingrria, an area located along the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland.

One key dynamic was the strong dynastic links between Sweden and Poland. The King of Poland, Lithuania from 1587, Sigismund III was the son of King John III of Sweden,

...