A Warrior Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of Sweden as a Military Superpower, 1611-1721

322 Pages·2014·7.93 MB·English

by  Henrik O. Lunde

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A WARRIOR DYNASTY
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A
Warrior
Dynasty
T
HE
RISE FALL
AND
SWEDEN
OF AS A
MILITARY
SUPERPOWER
1611–1721
HENRIK O. LUNDE
CASEMATE
Philadelphia & Oxford
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Published in the United States of America and Great Britain in 2014 by
CASEMATE PUBLISHERS
908 Darby Road, Havertown, PA 19083
and
10 Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford, OX1 2EW
Copyright 2014 © Henrik O. Lunde
ISBN 978-1-61200-242-2
Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-61200-243-9
Cataloging-in-publication data is available from the Library of Congress and
the British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying,
recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission
from the Publisher in writing.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
For a complete list of Casemate titles please contact:
CASEMATE PUBLISHERS (US)
Telephone [phone], Fax [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
CASEMATE PUBLISHERS (UK)
Telephone [phone], Fax [phone]
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Contents
MAP AND BATTLE SKETCH INDEX 6
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 9
INTRODUCTION 15
Chapter 1 Gustav Adolf’s Danish and Baltic Campaigns 31
Chapter 2 The Military Revolution—
Dutch and Swedish Reforms 59
Chapter 3 Sweden Intervenes in the Thirty Years War 81
Chapter 4 The Breitenfeld and Rhine Campaigns 107
Chapter 5 The Tortured Road to Lützen 132
Chapter 6 Swedish Military Operations in Germany 1633–1648 165
Chapter 7 Defending an Empire—Karl X and Karl XI 189
Chapter 8 Karl XII’s Danish and Baltic Campaigns 215
Chapter 9 The Russian Campaign—Karl XII’s Exile and Death 246
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 279
Appendix I BIOGRAPHIC SKETCHES OF
SELECTED SOURCE AUTHORS 286
Appendix II SELECTED EUROPEAN RULERS 1500–1700 289
Appendix III LIST OF FIELD MARSHALS MENTIONED 293
BIBLIOGRAPHY 295
INDEX 302
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Maps and Battle Sketches
The Growth of an Empire 2
North Baltic Operational Area 40
South Baltic Operational Area 43
North German Operational Area 83
Battle of Breitenfeld 115
South German Operational Area 133
Battle of the Lech 137
Battle of Lützen 156
Swedish 1658 Route Across the Frozen Belts 198
Route of Sweden’s Invasion of Russia 254
Battle of Poltava 269
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This book is dedicated to
Dr. Enoch J. Haga
Friend — Adviser — Supporter
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PrefaceandAcknowledgments
Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom,
and a great empire and little minds go ill together.
EDMUND BURKE
A
s a 13–14-year old student in Norway I first read Edward Gibbon’s
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire as a special assignment. I
found this 225-year-old work (published between 1776 and 1788)
as fascinating then as I did recently when I read it again.
I have two reasons for writing this book. First, throughout my life I have
wondered if the elements that Gibbon identified in the decline of Rome
would be equally pertinent in our times. In this work I make an initial at-
tempt to answer my own questions, particularly as they apply to my former
profession as a military planner and practitioner. Some elements in the rise
of a power are obvious, such as size, population, and resources, but others
are more difficult to identify.
Sweden is a good place to begin because in many ways Sweden breaks
the commonly perceived mold when we talk about national and military
power. Factoring in Finland and Sweden’s holdings along the eastern shores
of the Baltic, Sweden had something like 1.3–1.5 million inhabitants at the
time it intervened in the Thirty Years War. There was virtually no industrial
base except for mining; the country was a poor agrarian society. Nevertheless,
Sweden was able to defeat powers or combinations of powers with more than
ten times her population and with much greater resources.
It is important to get some terms and definitions out of the way at the
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