Explore the epic conflict and contrasting leadership styles of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden and Albrecht von Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland, two titanic figures in the Thirty Years War whose strategic brilliance and dramatic deaths shaped the course of modern warfare, analyzed in vivid detail by the author.

The conflict, personal rivalry and contrast in personality, generalship and command, between the two iconic commanders in the Thirty Years War, King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden for the Protestant powers, and Albrecht von Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland. More than just commanders at the tactical level they were statesmen, military organizers and strategists on a continental scale. Both commanders represented the 17th-century ‘military revolution in action’. The writing is vivid, graphic and detailed, without overloading, and readers can feel ‘involved’ in the action, from strategic planning to battlefield tactics, and even the melee. Both generals are titanic figures come, and their respective deaths - Gustavus heroically in battle and Wallenstein, murdered with the Emperor’s compliance – were dramatic highpoints in the long war. This is no hagiography, and the author analyses the contrasting reputations of two of the greatest military figures in modern history and analyses mistakes as well their triumphs. Both commanders’ understanding of the role of the modern state and finance as vital factors in the military revolution and modern warfare. A major contrast was Gustavus’s constant search for the tactical and strategic initiative compared to Wallenstein’s caution and patience and development of counter-punch defensive tactics. Exceptional for the period, a young warrior like an ‘Alexander’, Gustavus excelled in inspired battlefield leadership even at huge risk. Despite his death at Lutzen in 1632, he and his steadfast chancellor Oxenstierna, had decisively defeated the Emperor’s attempt to subjugate the Empire and introduce the Catholic counter-reformation. Gustavus contributed hugely to the ending of Habsburg supremacy while advancing new concepts in modern war. His death ushered in his acolytes including generals Baner, Saxe-Weimar and Torstensson. Gustavus or Wallenstein, the greater of the two? The reader must judge but Napoleon included Gustavus in his list of ten greats with Julius Caesar, Hannibal Barca, and Alexander the Great.

• Introduction
• Chapter I A Time of Wars
  • The Thirty Years’ War
  • A time of wars and the defenestration of Prague
  • Other elements of the European and global war
  • France and the Thirty Years’ War
  • A game of thrones
  • Gustavus Adolphus
  • Wallenstein
  • The Thirty Years’ War in Germany, 1618–29
• Chapter II Gustavus in Search of Security, Identity and Glory
  • Gustavus, Sweden and strategy, 1604–20
  • Kalmar War (Danish war), 1611–13
  • Ingrian War, 1610–17 (against Poland and Russia)
• Chapter III Wallenstein at War on the Carpathian Frontier
  • The Catholic terror in Bohemia, bonfire of freedom and Counter-Reformation, 1620–48
  • Wallenstein at bay in the eastern marches
  • The war expands to the Carpathian frontiers of Moravia, Hungary, and Transylvania, 1619–22
  • The Treaty of Nikolsburg, December 1621, and the Compromise of Sopron, 1622
• Chapter IV Gustavus Invades Polish Livonia and Captures Riga
  • War in the Baltic: Sweden v Poland, the Livonian phase, 1621–23
  • Poland in 1618: Noble oligarchy
  • Winged Hussars and Polish military capacity, 1600–21
  • Baltic strategic issues
  • Siege of Riga and the course of the first Livonian War, 1621
• Chapter V Danish Intervention – The Rise of Wallenstein
  • Enter Wallenstein, 1626: the ‘Offer’
  • Danish foreign policy and competition with Sweden
  • The Hague Treaty 1625 with Denmark: ‘to intervene or not to intervene that is the question’
  • Wallenstein and war finance
  • The grudging acceptance of the offer, 17 April 1626
  • Discipline
  • Wallenstein’s relationship with officers
  • Battle joined with the Danes, 1626
  • The Battle of Dessau Bridge, 25 April 1626
  • Mansfeld’s last hurrah, Silesian campaign, Transylvanian overtures, 1626
  • Bethlen Gábor’s way of war: Mansfeld at bay, late summer–autumn 1626
  • Battle of Lutter, 27 August 1626
  • Wallenstein: the ‘winter of discontent’, 1626–27
  • The defeat of Denmark: Wallenstein rides high, 1627–28
• Chapter VI Gustavus Fights for the Baltic
  • Livonian campaign second phase, 1625–26
  • Diplomacy with Russia, Sweden prepares the invasion of Prussian Poland, 1616–28
  • Sweden’s Invasion of the Polish Prussian coast, 1626
  • Development of the Prussian beachhead, June–December 1626
  • Battles for Mewe, September–October 1626
  • International reaction
  • Sweden’s Polish Prussia campaign, 1627
  • Sweden’s Polish Prussia campaign, 1628
  • Sweden’s Polish Prussia campaign, 1629
  • Sweden, France and the Truce of Altmark, September 1629
  • Swedish economy, military–industrial complex, sinews of war, 1600–30
• Chapter VII The Edict and Dismissal of Wallenstein
  • The siege of Stralsund, 1628
  • Gustavus’s Scots and English soldiers
  • The consequences of Stralsund and new strategic directions
  • The ‘miraculous’ Treaty of Lubeck, Danish fightback and the exit of Denmark, 1629
  • Spanish designs for a Baltic maritime dream, 1627–29
  • Wallenstein and the Duchy of Mecklenburg, 1627–29
  • Wallenstein becomes Duke of Mecklenburg, 1629, and von Moltke ‘the collaborator’
  • The Edict of Restitution, background and reactions, 1627–29
  • The Diet of Regensburg, French diplomacy and the dismissal of Wallenstein, 1629
  • Ferdinand’s errors: ‘toil and trouble’
  • Peace and diplomacy at Regensburg
  • The Day of the Dupes and the wars converge, 1630
• Chapter VIII Enter Gustavus and the Battle of Breitenfeld
  • The Swedish decision to intervene in Germany
  • The French–Swedish Treaty of Barwalde, January 1631; Franco–Bavarian Treaty of Fontainebleau, 30 May 1631
  • Swedish invasion: building a base in Pomerania, 1630–31
  • The Leipzig Convention, March 1631
  • The Magdeburg campaign, 1629–May 1631
  • The storming of Frankfort an der Oder, 13–15 April 1631
  • The sack of Magdeburg, 19 May 1631
  • The subjugation of Brandenburg, June 1631
  • The laager at Werben, August 1631, and the engineering corps
  • Military engineering
  • The Battle of Werben, early August 1631
  • The Breitenfeld campaign, September 1631
  • Trial by battle, Breitenfeld, 17 September 1631
  • Evolution of military tactics and technology, the impact of Gustavus
• Chapter IX Gustavus Rampant and Wallenstein Recall
  • Gustavus’s use of the victory, autumn–winter 1631
  • Gustavus’s masterplan, 1631
  • Transylvanian and Ottoman possibilities
  • Modern warfare – magazines and bases of supply
  • Finance, economics, contribution and salvia guardia
  • The diplomatic consequences of the Swedish march to the Rhine, 1631–32
  • Gustavus’s ‘blitzkrieg’, advance to Mainz, autumn 1631
  • Gustavus and the German princes; ‘with friends like these …’, winter 1631–32
  • Making war pay: Swedish army finances
  • The Habsburg reaction; Wallenstein’s recall in late 1631–32 and mustering troops
  • The Göllersdorf agreement, the Emperor and Wallenstein, 14 April 1632
  • The Lech campaign, Gustavus’s grand strategy, March 1632–15 April 1632
  • The Battle of Lech, 14–15 April 1632
  • Finnish elite forces
  • After Lech: the invasion of Bavaria, April-June 1632
  • Horn’s detached command: conquest of the left bank, siege of Benfeld and conquest of Alsace
  • Small wars in Germany and peasant resistance, 1631–33
  • Gustavus v Wallenstein
  • Gustavus’s strategy, summer 1632
• Chapter X Gustavus v Wallenstein
  • Towards the sieges of Nuremberg and Battle of Alte Veste, June–September 1632
  • Small war in Franconia, June–August 1632
  • Gustavus surrenders the strategic initiative to Wallenstein, June 1632
  • Military chess around Nuremberg, June–September 1632
  • Battle of Alte Veste, 1–3 September 1632
  • The Imperialists’ Croat light cavalry, 1618–48
  • Gustavus at bay, September–November 1632
  • Gustavus: the last gamble, Battle of Lützen, 16 November 1632
  • Lützen analysis and comments
  • Who won?
  • Lutzen consequences 1632–3
• Chapter XI The Assassination of Wallenstein
  • Wallenstein: Loyalty and betrayal and the fall, November 1632–February 1634
  • Assessment of Wallenstein’s fall and the issue of Czech nationalism
  • Flight
  • The rewards of murder
• Chapter XII Gustavus and Wallenstein – an Assessment
  • Wallenstein and Gustavus as commanders
  • A comparison of strategic objectives
  • As leaders
• Chapter XIII Military Revolution and State Modernisation
  • The Swedish army, 1632
  • The infantry fight in early modern Europe
  • Romans: corps deployment, logistic and encampment
  • Battlefield entrenchment
  • Cavalry
  • The role of artillery
  • Uniforms
  • Literacy, universities, books
  • Military revolution
  • Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Appendix: Currencies and Conversions
• Plates