Osprey Men-at-Arms 235 : The Army of Gustavus Adolphus (1) : Infantry

The rapid rise to fame of Gustavus Adolphus was extraordinary. For a time he had the status of figures like Alexander the Great and Napoleon: men who have inspired their armies to perform incredible feats; men almost worshipped in their own lifetimes. His grip on the popular imagination was based at least partly on something far more mysterious than his wide-ranging abilities. A prophecy of 1549 made by Paracelsus, a contemporary of Nostradamus, had foretold a series of worldwide disasters that would only end when a Golden Lion came from the north to defeat the Eagle. The disasters seemed to begin in 1618, when the Thirty Years' War broke out, and the Catholic Emperor of Germany, whose emblem was the black eagle, went on the rampage in Protestant Germany. In 1630 the Protestant Gustavus came to the rescue. His landings in north Germany were accompanied by reports of battles in the clouds and bizarre deformed births. At Breitenfeld in Central Germany he smashed the Catholics, and in 1632 when he entered Augsburg, the birthplace of Lutheran Protestantism, he was received as the 'Lion of the North'; few doubted that in the following year he would march on the Eagle's nest in Vienna. This, however, was not to be. The story of this incredible character; the myths which surround him, and the organisation, arms, armour and uniforms of his army, are here examined by Richard Brzezinski, in a book packed with illustrations, including eight full page colour plates by Richard Hook and the author himself.

Contents

• Introduction
• The Military Background
• The Conscript Army
• Mercenaries
• Infantry Arms and Armour
• Infantry Uniforms and Clothing
• The Plates