LATER THIRTY YEARS’ WAR SWEDISH AND WEIMARIAN

LATER THIRTY YEARS’ WAR GERMAN

LATER THIRTY YEARS’ WAR SWEDISH AND WEIMARIAN

France was lacking an experienced army, general, Richelieu negotiated a deal with Bernhard by which he would provide an army for France in exchange for massive French subsidies, along the lines of those previously paid to Gustavus. At the same time he was also the general of the Heilbronn League of minor German princes, which led him to veer between a French inspired policy and a Heilbronn inspired one, making him a somewhat erratic person to deal with. However, as he had an army in being, and was able to keep it at a meaningful strength most of the time, he could not be discarded. On his death from plague in 1639 his officers concluded a deal with Richelieu whereby their army more formally transferred into the service of France. From then on it was usually led by a French marshal, the most famous of whom was Turenne, who continued to lead the remaining Bernhardine units after their severe losses in 1643 forced the French to formally take the army into

their establishment.

The Swedes, after consolidating their Pomeranian possessions and receiving reinforcements from home, again started to campaign to the south. For the next decade the war became one of attrition,with neither side able to deliver a knockout blow to the other. Armies marched vast distances to and fro across Germany which led to cavalry

Army arrayed for battle

becoming the most important arm. However, this also resulted in the armies becoming smaller as horses need a lot of food and water to keep them in the field.When pitched battles did occur both sides had their successes, but in general the Swedes won more than they lost and towards the end of the 1640s their French allies were also becoming more effective.This led to a series of combined operations, with the French fighting in southern Germany and the Swedes further north, in order to defeat both the Bavarian led Catholic League and the Imperial armies. Eventually this proved successful, with Bavaria being forced out of the war in 1647. Facing total exhaustion and collapse, the Imperials finally agreed to peace in 1648, the famous Peace of Westphalia, which allowed a drastic reduction in armies across the whole of Germany.

TROOP NOTES

With the war now consisting of frequent long marches and fewer major engagements, armour became increasingly unpopular amongst the troops, who now routinely abandoned it as cumbersome and uncomfortable. At Christmas 1635 the Swedish chancellor Oxenstierna wrote “No horsemen’s or soldier’s harness or pots need be sent here, since they have become little used, but mostly cast off because of the long marches one is engaged in here.” However, as Montecuccoli writing about 1640

LATER THIRTY YEARS’ WAR SWEDISH AND WEIMARIAN

LATER THIRTY YEARS’ WAR SWEDISH AND WEIMARIAN

LATER THIRTY YEARS’ WAR SWEDISH AND WEIMARIAN

Territory Types: Agricultural, Woodlands, Hilly

Allies

German Protestant allies – Later Thirty Years’ War German

French allies – Thirty Years’ War French

Transylvanian allies (only in 1644) – Hungarian–Transylvanian

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LATER THIRTY YEARS’ WAR SWEDISH AND WEIMARIAN