But it is our common lot to die, and the gods themselves cannot rescue even one they love,

when death, that stretches all men out, lays his dread hand upon him.

Athena, The Odyssey, book three.

The like like

like waking up from a really good night on the town with a horrendous hangover,

Axel Oxenstierna had to take some serious painkillers, assess the situation, and planned

Sweden's next move in the labyrinth of the Holy Roman Empire.

He was Sweden's chancellor and headed the regency government set up to rule in place of the Lake Gustavus Adolphus till his daughter Christina came of age.

Gustavus had gone wild in the 18 months since entering the empire, but now the Swedish party was over, and

Axeux had to try to resume where his master had left off, starting with his neighbours.

Russia under Tsar Michael had strengthened its ties with Sweden to the detriment of Poland,

and had ensured that a series of chain reactions

meant both Swedish involvement in the Holy Roman Empire and a Russian preparation for war against its Polish foe.

Sweden had signed the piece of Altmark in 1629, which ended the Swedish-Polish war,

but Gustavus still feared that Poland would attack him in the rear

if he did not orchestrate some kind of insurance policy, and that was where Russia came in.

Tsar Michael had more than a score to settle with his Polish enemy. In the so-called time of

troubles, Russian lands had been shipped away by both Poland and Sweden, but only Poland

still claimed the Russian crown, and only Poland still harbored apparent ambitions for Russian territory.

The fruits of the diplomacy between Russia and Sweden were a virtual guarantee of Russian intervention

in the years following Gustavus' invasion of the H.R.E. in summer

1630. Delays in Russian preparedness convinced Gustavus that it would be better to move west

...