By Isaac Blatter

Oddly, the fall of the brilliant King Gustavus Adolphus on the field of battle marked both the beginning of Sweden’s rise to power and the end of one of the most aggressive ages of military reform. This period, roughly the beginning of the 1600s, saw th...

Crowned King at 17

When Gustavus Adolphus ascended the Swedish throne in 1611 at the age of 17, his army consisted of recalcitrant nobles and peasant levies who refused to fight outside the borders or to wield weapons they didn’t like, such as the pike, which had made ob...

One Long and Continued Crack of Thunder

Although these detachments slowed the cavalry, they provided necessary support to punch holes in the enemy pike hedge. The musketeers and artillery would fire a single—according to a contemporary Swede—thunderous volley, in order to “pour as much lead in...

An Army of 150,000 Mercenaries and Conscripts

Instead of tolerating problems as did other leaders, Gustav took the first step toward solving them. His reforms set the standard for conscription and the national conscript armies that would dominate Europe for the next century and a half. Even in Gu...

The Lion of the North

The Swedish king then charged from the right at the head of his cavalry, capturing the Habsburg guns and turning them on their owners. The imperial troops fought desperately, but the relentless firepower of the Swedes devastated them, and in the ensuing fi...