Thirty Years War Intro 4: 'For God or the Devil'
When Diplomacy Fails Podcast
Zack Twamley
4.8 • 773 Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2018
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
'This is a fight between God or the Devil. If his Majesty wants to side with God, he must join me. If he prefers to side with the Devil, then indeed he must fight me. There is no third way"
Gustavus Adolphus may give us our podcast's theme, and our book's title, but there was much more to the Thirty Years War than the famed King of Sweden. In this introduction episode, we place you in the thick of this dilemma - neutrality was impossible, yet the consequences for picking one side or the other were potentially catastrophic, so how could those caught in the middle decide? To make our point, come with us to the sack of Magdeburg in may 1631, a city whose people chose the 'Devil' in the mind of the Imperialists, and paid the ultimate price, as the worst single atrocity of the conflict takes place. It's time to pick a side history friends, are you for God or the Devil?
Remember to BEFIT!
B is for blog
E is for email wdfpodcast@hotmail.com
F is for Facebook, the Page and the Group
I is for iTunes, please rate, review and subscribe
T is for TELL ANYONE!
Visit the Thirty Years War section of the website.
Pre-order our book on the Thirty Years War
Are you TeamFerdinand or TeamFrederick ? It's time to pick a side, and a t-shirt!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Imagine you, you in a nice comfy seat, with your hands behind your head, taking in the views, |
| 0:09.7 | instead of taking on the road, maybe even taking a nap. That's the bliss of getting where you need to go |
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| 0:23.1 | And we'll take you there. |
| 0:24.6 | Avanti West Coast. |
| 0:26.5 | Feel good travel. |
| 0:32.1 | When Gustavus Adolphus, the King of Sweden, |
| 0:35.8 | landed on the Baltic shores of northern Germany in summer 1630. |
| 0:40.7 | He was faced with several dilemmas, foremost among them being the need for allies and supplies. |
| 0:46.8 | Believing that both resources existed in the lands of the Elector of Brandenburg, a ruling prince |
| 0:52.5 | in the northeast of Germany, who happened to be his cousin, |
| 0:55.9 | Gustavus wrote a strongly worded letter to him, which has been immortalized ever since, |
| 1:01.7 | with good reason. The Swedish king wrote, |
| 1:05.2 | The elector has to be friend or foe. When I come to his borders, he must declare himself cold or |
| 1:10.5 | hot. This is a fight between |
| 1:13.1 | God and the devil. If my cousin wants to side with God, then he has to join me. If he prefers to side |
| 1:18.7 | with the devil, then indeed he must fight me. There is no third way. If the elector chose his |
| 1:27.0 | master, the Holy Roman Emperor, then Sweden's king would be his foe and all of his lands would be ripe for the taking. |
| 1:32.2 | If he chose to side with his cousin King Gustavus Adolphus, who was stationed with an abundance of soldiers nearby, |
| 1:38.3 | then Gustavus would still probably suck his lands dry, but the Elector would at least be permitted to hold on to these |
| 1:44.6 | lands if he was lucky. Harrowing indeed was the prospect of turning against his emperor, |
| 1:52.4 | the constitutional and traditional figurehead of the elector of Brandenburg's world. Just as sure |
... |
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