The 1300 Year's War: Volume 2

By Robert Maddock and Raija Ponkanen

The book in two volumes describes the evolution of Judeo Christianity and Islam and 1,300 years of warfare between them. Islam and Christianity follow gods with different characteristics and differing doctrinesfree will vs. determinism. They were engaged in bloody conflict from 632 AD until 1856 (Crimean War) when the Ottoman Empire became the sick man of Europe. It reignited with Egyptian encouragement backed by Soviet money, the arming of Fedayeen terrorists in 1956, and the Six-Day War following Egypts seizure of the Suez Canal, and has become progressively more serious ever since.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524549350

Robert Maddock

Robert K. Maddock Jr. has a love of history. He graduated from St. George's School, Middletown, Rhode Island ('52), and Stanford University with a BA ('56). He is a captain (USMCR) with active service and reserve duty ('56-'65), part of which was in the Middle East. He graduated from the University of Virginia with an MD ('62). He did five years' postgraduate training at University of Utah College of Medicine and University Hospitals of Cleveland, was full-time faculty for three years, and eventually was adjunct professor of medicine (U of Utah) and fellow American College of Physicians. His wife, Raija Rönkänen, RN, FNP, is an illustrator. Combined, they have reared nine children.

Book preview

THE 1300 YEARS’ WAR

VOLUME TWO

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THE 1300 YEARS’ WAR

VOLUME TWO

THE EVOLUTION OF

JUDEO-CHRISTIANITY AND ISLÂM AND

THEIR ASSOCIATED WARFARE

Robert Maddock

Illustrated by Raija Pönkänen

Copyright © 2017 by Robert Maddock.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016916650

ISBN:                Hardcover           978-1-5245-4802-5

                          Softcover            978-1-5245-4803-2

                         eBook                  978-1-5245-4935-0

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 in writing from the copyright owner.

Originally Published: Salt Lake City, Robert K Maddock Jr. 2013

ISBN 978-0-578-12797-2 (Volume 2 of Two Volume Set)

© 2016 by Robert K. Maddock Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication or the DVD enclosed with it may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

(Volume 2 of two-volume set)

Photos not credited are by the author.

Printed in the United States of America

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 04/17/2017

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CONTENTS

List Of Illustrations

Introduction To Volume 2

The Thirty Years’ War: End Of The European Middle Ages

The Defenestration Of Prague

The War Begins

The Election Of Ferdinand Ii, Holy Roman Emperor

Tilly

Denmark Joins The Protestants

Wallenstein

Cardinal Richelieu’s Secret Agreement

Gustavus Adolphus Magnus

The Battle Of Breitenfeld

Map – Battle Of Breitenfeld (First Phase)

Map – Battle Of Breitenfeld (Later Phase)

The Battle Of Rain

The Battle Of Alte Veste

Map – The Battle Of Lützen

Wallenstein’s Demise

The Disaster At Nördlingen

The War Becomes International

The Battle Of Wittstock

Map – Battle Of Wittstock

The Empire Strikes Back

The Swedish Counteroffensive

The Battle Of Wolfenbüttel

The Battles Of Kempen And The Second Breitenfeld

Map – Western And Central Europe Campaign (1642)

The Peace Of Westphalia

Europe After Peace Of Westphalia

The Rise Of Russia And End Of The Valide Sultans

Cossacks And The Ukraine

The Cossack-Polish War (1648–1657)

Bohdan Khmelnytsky And The Russo-Polish War (1654–1657)

Ivan Vyhovsky

The Battle Of Konotop

Map – Battle Of Konotop

A Succession Of Hetmans

The Polish-Tatar-Cossack War (1666–1671)

The Battle Of Podhajce

The Polish-Ottoman War (1672–1676)

Table 12. Rulers Of The Ottoman Empire: Period Of Decline

Map – Ukraine / Crimea Seventeenth Century

The Russo-Turkish War (1676–1681)

The Siege And The Battle Of Vienna (September 11–12, 1683)

Map – Siege And Battle Of Vienna

The War Of The Holy League Or The Great Turkish War (1683–1698)

The Battle Of Zenta

Map – The Battle Of Zenta

Obstructionism And The Janissary Influence

The Safavid Dynasty

Ottoman-Persian Wars

Map – Persia 16th - 19th Century

Continuing Decline Of The Ottoman Empire

The Crimean War

Collapse Of The Ottoman Empire

The United States And Barbary Pirates (1784–1816)

The Tanzimât

Debt

The Final Collapse Begins

The Federal Republic Of Germany

Bismarck

The Fallout Of The Franco-Prussian War

Russia Switches Sides

The Great War Begins

What To Do?

Ottoman Empire

Table 13. Rulers Of The Ottoman Empire: Period Of Reform, Debt, Major Wars, Rebellion, And Collapse

The Partition Of The Ottoman Empire

The Paris Conference Of 1919

The Starving Armenians

The Fourteen Points

Secret Agreements

Treaties And Commissions Openly Arrived At

The Paris Peace Conference And The Treaty Of Versailles (1919)

The Rape Of Shantung

1919 Mandates And Spheres Of Influence

Punishing The Hun

Divvying Up The Turk And The Secret Treaty Of Sèvres

Mandates And Oil

Map – Treaty Of Sèvres And Anatolia

The Turkish War Of Independence

Map – Armenia And The Caucasus

The Armenian War

The Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)

The Franco-Turkish War (May 1920–October 1921)

The Treaty Of Lausanne

Map – Europe Before WWI

Map – Europe After WWI

Tyranny And Progressivism

Mercantilism

The Industrial Revolution

The Beginning Of Constitutional Breakdown

The 80-20 Principle

Philanthropy And The U.S. Constitution

Mercantilism Vs. Free Markets

Wilson And Beyond

Soldier Of Fortune, Adventurer, And Publicist

John Smith’s Early Life

The Netherlands

Commission And Coat Of Arms

Map – Smith’s Campaign Route (1602)

Sold Into Slavery

Smith’s Escape Route 1603

America

Jamestown

The First American

The Starving Time

Publicist And The American Dream

Table 14. Population Of American Colonies/States (1650–1800)

Map – Early American Settlements

Weather, Plague, And Economics

Figure 1. Middle Ages Version Of A Hazmat Suit

Unholy Alliances

Reformers Of Christianity

The Cathars

Waldo And Waldensians

Beghards And Beguines

John Wycliffe

Jan Huss

Johannes Gutenberg

Erasmus

William Hychyns / Tyndale

Martin Luther

The Knights’ War (1522)

Thomas Müntzer

The Peasants’ Revolt

Organization Of The Lutheran Church

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

The Love Of Young Women And The Reformation

Other Early Reformers

Success Of The Reformation And Henry Viii

America: The Land That Britain Almost Forgot

Slavery In The New World

Table 15. The Distribution Of African Slaves (1519 And 1867)

The Pope, Spain, And Portugal Divide The World

Wars Involving Great Britain

Table 16. Civil And Religious Wars Of The British In The Seventeenth Century

Table 17. International Wars Of The British In The Eighteenth Century

America And The Restoration Of Christianity

Thomas Jefferson

A Bill For Establishing Religious Freedom

Jefferson’s Religious Beliefs And The Restoration

John Lothrop

Stone And Campbell

Joseph Smith Jr.

Transmission, Publication, Criticism, And Content Of The Book Of Mormon

Revelation And The Evolution Of The Church

Agency And Choice

Abrahamic Covenant And Priesthood

Trouble

Baptism By Fire

Differences

Faith In Every Footstep

Josiah Quincy’s Prediction

The Korân And Its Background

Chronology

Table 18. George Sale’s Sūra Chronology

Table 19. Order Of Sūras According To Nöldeke

Table 20. Chronology Of Sūras According To Grimme

Table 21. Chronology Of Sūras According To Muir

The Islâmic Calendar

Militancy

Table 22. Forty-Eight Sūras (Ad 610–615) Militancy In Sequential Order

Table 23. Twenty-One Sūras (Ad 615–616) Militancy In Sequential Order

Table 24. Twenty-One Sūras (Ad 617–621) Militancy In Sequential Order

Table 25. Twenty-Four Sūras (Ad 622–632) Militancy In Sequential Order

Table 26. Summary Of Militancy Rate For Four Korânic Periods

Emphasis

Table 27. Relative Importance Of Topics In The Korân According To The Supreme Sunni And Shia Councils

References To Historical Events

Predictions Of The Outcome Of The Byzantine-Persian War

The Written Korân

The Korân Refers To Itself

Facing Mecca

Critics

Table 28. Criticism Of The Korân Within The Korân

The Quraysh Attempt To Explain Muhammad’s Visions

Origins

Fables Of The Ancients

Sources

Table 29. Summary Of Korân Verses Borrowed From Known Sources

Table 30. Foreign Sources Of The Korân

Preservation Of The Korân

Safe Keeping And Publication

Korân And Islâm And The Book Of Mormon And Lds Church Compared

Islâmic, Christian, And Jewish Scriptures

Sharia Law

Stylistic Analysis

Single-Word Usage

Words And Topics In Specific Korânic Periods

Phrases And Stylistic Analysis

Other Evidence For Possible Alterations Of Text

Important Doctrines Of Christianity And Islâm Compared

The Personages Of God

The Characteristics Of God

Table 31. Christian And Islâmic Concepts Of God

Christianity Free Will And Predestination

Islâmic Predestination And Christian Free Will Compared

Table 32. Good And Evil Kings Of Judah And Israel

The Korân And Predestination

The Bible And Foreordination

Heaven Or Hell: Judeo-Christian Doctrine

Heaven Or Hell: Islâmic Doctrine

The Mahdi Or Mehdi

Doctrine And Civil Law

Success Of The Umayyad Conspiracy

Epilogue

It’s The Economy!

Good, Evil, And Warfare

Appeasement And Vengeance

Human Characteristics

Freedom

Table 33. German/Russian Losses In World War Ii (Excluding Civilian Casualties)

Church And State

Us Vs. Them

Predestination Or Choice

The Causes Of Twentieth-Century War

Table 34. Causes Of War In The Twentieth Century

Money, Usury, And Capitalism

Politics, Socialism, And Joseph Smith

Appendix 3

Appendix 4

Refereces

1300 Years’ War Time Line

End Notes

List of Illustrations

Volume 1 Frontispiece. Masters and practitioners of the four phases of war: Alexander the Great (ancient phase 1), Gustavus Adolphus Magnus (modern 1), John J. Pershing (2), George S. Patton (3), Osama bin Laden

Volume 2 Frontispiece. Leaders of Christianity and modern philosophy: Constantine the Great. On the right representative of and practitioners of free will: Johannes Gutenberg, Desiderius Erasmus, Henry VIII (on the left), Thomas Jefferson, and Joseph Smith Jr.

On the left are believers of predestination: Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Hassan al-Banna. Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler were more atheistic.

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME 2

The introduction to volume 1 emphasized military leaders representing the evolution of warfare from Alexander the Great to ‘Usāmah bin Muḥammad bin ʿAwaḍ bin Lādin (Osama bin Laden). General Robert E. Lee, the King of Spades and developer of trench warfare, might have represented second-phase warfare better, but he had nothing to do with the 1300 Years’ War, while John J. Pershing did in his Philippine campaign. Volume 1 also traced the background of the ancient world and the development of Judeo-Christianity and Islâm. The European Dark Ages brought about by an acute climatic change in AD 535 spread plague sealed the doom of the Western Roman Empire and weakened Byzantium. Islâm ascended first with the Umayyad Arabian dynasty followed by the Persian Abbasids. The Abbasids died with the Mongol invasions, but the Fatimid Mamluks halted the Mongols near Megiddo in the Battle of Ain Jalut. The Ottoman Turks inherited Islâm’s mantle, but their progress was temporarily halted by Tamerlane’s Central Asiatic forces in the early fifteenth century. The introduction of gunpowder did little at first until the development of both mobile cannons and shoulder-fired muskets.

Volume 2 begins with the Thirty Years’ War. It was the first modern war. It caused the European powers to forge ahead of the Ottomans militarily. The Ottomans reached the peak of their power on September 11, 1683, at the gates of Vienna. September 12 began their retreat and inexorable slide into decay through tyranny, bureaucracy, immorality, and bankruptcy—thus proving once again that government when poorly or corruptly administered is not the friend of the people (1 Samuel 8). The fifteenth century saw the Renaissance in Europe, the beginning of the great age of exploration and efforts to break Islâm’s trade monopoly in the Far East. The sixteenth century ended the Middle Ages with the perfection of the printing press. Kingdoms became states, and the Reformation took place. Sciences and literacy flourished. In the seventeenth century, European empires began to expand. North America became a battleground for English, French, and Spanish interests with permanent North American English colonies. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw the spread of major worldwide conflict between the European powers perfecting the art of modern warfare. These centuries saw the Age of Reason (or the Age of Enlightenment), the Industrial Revolution, and the rise of Marxism.

The cover of volume 2 shows several men responsible for Western religious and philosophical evolution. Many early Christian and Islâmic leaders left no record of their likeness and cannot be portrayed accurately. Many consider such depictions blasphemous. Portraits, photographs, and sculpted images are available for those shown.

At the top is Constantine the Great. He was responsible for bringing Christianity as the state religion to Rome and Constantinople. He urged it to unify its beliefs into a creed. It became a unifying force within the Roman Empire and adopted two major pagan holidays: the Saturnalia as Christmas and the spring fertility rites as Easter. Marriage remained outside Christian influences until the sixteenth century and continues many of its former pagan traditions. To the right of Constantine is Gutenberg, whose metal movable-type printing press made Bibles available to many, promoted literacy, and allowed several principalities to become national governments. Without it, the Reformation might not have occurred. To the left of Constantine are Martin Luther and John Calvin, who were leaders of the Reformation and champions of predestination. Below them is Henry VIII, a Devine Right tyrant, who created his own brand of Reformation—Anglicanism, later to adopt free will as its doctrine. Below Gutenberg is Desiderius Erasmus, a Catholic contemporary of Luther. He was somewhat sympathetic to Luther, but a champion of free will or agency who opposed Luther’s and Calvin’s ideas on predestination. Thomas Jefferson, a political leader, was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), which is the background of this front piece. He was responsible for breaking the bonds between church and state (Virginia) with a Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom (1777), which influenced the establishment of the Constitution’s First Amendment. As a nonsectarian Christian who did not subscribe to the common Christian sects of his day, he knew the importance of these two works, memorialized on his tombstone. He hoped for a restoration of the true church of Jesus Christ. Alone at the bottom right of the cover is Joseph Smith Jr., who brought about a Christian restoration.

Following World War I, there was great disillusionment in Christianity. How could a true god allow such a horrible Christian civil war to happen? Man could do better by his own wits. Many turned to socialism/communism as a replacement. At the bottom left of the cover are Karl Marx in the middle with Adolf Hitler to the right and Hassan al-Banna to the left. Marx was the principal exponent of communism, which denied the importance of all religion, eternal truths, and morality. However, its failure in World War I Germany prompted the need for a modified form of socialism—National Socialism sponsored by Mussolini and Hitler and later adopted as the principal form of government by many Middle Eastern Islâmic states. Islâm’s doctrines include hard-core predestination—a belief that fits well with communist philosophy, but not with Marx’s ideas of scrapping all religion, morality, and eternal truth. Islâm was also sympathetic to Hitler’s anti-Semitic ideas. The Muslim 13th Waffen SS Mountain Division fought with Hitler’s troops during World War II. Hassan al-Banna organized the Muslim Brotherhood, whose terrorist methods meant to bring back Islâm’s caliphate of old. These confront us today. In spite of its Constitution, the United States evolved toward a democratic progressivism or socialism lite during the twentieth century.

In the last half of the twentieth century, education in the United States underwent a dumbing down. What might have been expected of a student in the eighth to twelfth grade is now expected of a college or graduate student. John C. Calhoun made this observation in his Oregon Bill speech in 1848. It was found in my grandfather’s eighth-grade reader.

"Just as a people rise in the scale of intelligence, virtue, and patriotism, and the more perfectly they become acquainted with the nature of government, the ends for which it was ordered, and how it outght to be administered, the power necessary for government becomes less and less, and individual liberty greater and greater."¹

The less people learn and the less moral they become, the more tyrannical the government needs to be. People unable to control themselves require a strong government to do it for them. We struggle with these concepts today.

THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR: END OF THE EUROPEAN MIDDLE AGES

The gradual increasing superiority of Christian European tactics, weapons, and industrial might whittled away at the Ottoman Empire’s medieval troops, declining currency, ineffectual leadership, and stifling bureaucracy. Ottoman decay increased and foretold a bleak future. Even worse for the Ottomans, the Europeans were about to change warfare forever in one of the most devastating conflicts of all time, the Thirty Years’ War. This so distracted the major European colonial powers (Spain, France, and England) that they had little time or inclination to pay attention to their colonies in the Americas.

The Reformation of the sixteenth century brought Protestantism to Europe. It soon split into various sects: Lutherans, Calvinists (Presbyterians, Huguenots), Bohemian Brothers (the Hussite movement), Church of England (Anglicans, Puritans), and Anabaptists (Baptists with all its various sects). A Catholic counterreformation began shortly after, spearheaded by the Jesuits (Society of Jesus) of Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556).¹ An uneasy religious toleration between Protestants and Catholics existed. Somehow the Jesuits became tutors of the young Ferdinand Habsburg (1578–1637) and brought him up a staunch, intolerant Catholic. By twists of fate and his Habsburg heritage, he began as the Duke of Steiermark (Styria), a southeastern area of Austria bordering modern Slovenia. It was subject to Turkish raids, but Ferdinand’s major enemies were Protestants, not Ottomans. He decreed that all Protestants return to Catholicism or leave his territory. One-third of the population left. For lack of male heirs in the Habsburg line, he found himself the king of the Habsburg territories less the Netherlands and Spain. In 1617, when the Holy Roman Emperor, Matthias of Bohemia, was dying, Ferdinand was named as king designate of Bohemia (western Czech Republic). At the age of thirty-nine, he became the Holy Roman Emperor and the cause of one of the most destructive wars in European history.

The Defenestration of Prague

Before Matthias, the Holy Roman Emperor from 1576 to 1612 had been Rudolf II (1552–1612), king of Hungary and Croatia. In July of 1609, he published a royal decree allowing full religious freedom to all his citizens: "each party may practice freely and fully the religion in which he believes he may find salvation."² This supported the Augsburg Convention of 1555.

On May 23, 1618, a delegation of Bohemian Protestants met at the Hradćany palace in Prague (N 50°05′, E 14°25′). Ferdinand’s militant Catholicism was well-known.

It was essential that a Protestant sympathizer replace Ferdinand as king of Bohemia to prevent him from becoming Holy Roman Emperor. They denounced the Bohemian Catholic board of regents and found two of them and their secretary in the palace. All three were pitched out a third-story window to the waterless moat seventy feet below (the Second Defenestration of Prague).³ Fortunately, the three landed on a huge pile of manure in the moat and survived. The Protestant rebels set up a rump council with thirty directors and selected Friedrich of the Simmern line, the Elector of Palatine and husband of Princess Elizabeth of England, to be king of Bohemia. His connections might bring money, sympathy, and even military support to their cause. Some count this event as the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War.⁴

The Palatine region or Palatinate of southwestern Germany is bordered on the northwest by the Rhine River. The Rhineland-Pfalz is the largest of its five sections and includes the wine-producing area of Germany; the other four are much smaller and are crowded in its southeast corner near mountains and dense forests. The Catholics were just as determined to keep Ferdinand. The Holy Roman Emperor must be a Catholic Bohemian king. There were seven electors; three were Catholic and three Protestant. The king of Bohemia held the seventh or swing vote. From the Catholic viewpoint, Friedrich would never do.

The War Begins

Count Matthias Thurn, who had been the ringleader of the Protestants, knew that trouble was inevitable and began raising troops. He had little financial backing; and England’s James I, despite family ties with Friedrich, remained disinterested, tightfisted, and unsympathetic. At the same time, Ferdinand’s small body of troops entered Bohemia in the fall of 1618 and started burning villages. There were no serious battles. Matthias, the dying Holy Roman Emperor, called the full estates of Bohemia together, which deposed Ferdinand (Catholic) and elected Friedrich (Protestant) as their king.

Just as the vote was about to take place in Frankfurt am Main (N 50°06′, E 8°41′) to replace Matthias as Holy Roman Emperor, the word reached them of Friedrich’s installation. The three Catholics were bishops of Mainz (N 50.00°, E 8.16°), Köln (N Cologne 50.57°, E 6.58°), and Trèves/Trier (N 49.45°, E 6.38°). The electors of Brandenburg, Saxony, and Friedrich (Elector of Palatine) were Protestants. If Ferdinand were not the king of Bohemia, he could not be the new Holy Roman Emperor; but if he were to be king, Ferdinand would have to conquer Bohemia in a hurry. However, Ferdinand was out of money, and wars cost money—lots of it. Maximilian I of Bavaria, a fellow Jesuit, offered to help, but only if the Palatine electorate was transferred to Bavaria. Philip III of Spain sent money and a Spanish army from the Netherlands since it was a matter of faith to join the Catholic League. A secret arrangement between Spain and the Austrian Habsburgs as well as armed might reinstalled Ferdinand. Now it was safe to vote.

The Election of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor

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Matthias of Austria, king of Hungary and Croatia or the Holy Roman Emperor, died on March 20, 1619.⁵ On August 19, 1619, the electors met in Frankfurt with Ferdinand II now sitting as king of Bohemia, and he was elected Holy Roman Emperor. Frederick became the Winter King for the remainder of the year. The Protestant Union was forced into diplomacy to survive. They asked for money from England; it never came. They asked for troops from Holland; they came too late but, after 1620, formed the nucleus of the Protestant Union army commanded by Ernst Graf von Mansfeld. The Catholic League was able to win many battles against them but could never destroy them.

The Bohemian Protestants were desperate for allies to help them fend off Catholic rule. They had elected Frederick V, Elector of Palatine, as king;⁶ but diplomacy never trumps an army. So they sought allies from other quarters: the Duke of Savoy, the Elector of Saxony, the Prince of Transylvania, and the Ottoman Empire. Several Ottoman diplomats even showed up in Prague. Ferdinand’s government intercepted and published all their secret diplomatic messages, which added to the crisis. This brought in the opportunists. One should never let a good crisis go to waste.

Gabriel Bethlen von Iktár (1580–1629) ⁷ was both pro- and anti-Habsburg, depending on the situation. He was the Protestant Prince of Transylvania,

yet he sent troops to assist at White Hill but also led an anti-Catholic revolt in Hungary and eventually gained free Protestant worship in Transylvania from Ferdinand II of Austria.

In 1619, Zygmunt III Waza, the Polish king, sent ten thousand mercenaries into Transylvania to assist the Habsburg Catholic cause against Gabriel Bethlen, whose seven thousand troops under Rogawski were allegedly menacing Vienna, the Habsburg capital. They were defeated at the Battle of Humenné in the Carpathian Mountains (November 1619).⁸ Bethlen now called on the sixteen-year-old Osman II with the alleged encouragement of the Protestant League to assist him against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.⁹ (A two-front war is always desirable when dealing with the Habsburgs.) When the Ottomans offered to send four hundred thousand (always a grandiose exaggeration) in exchange for a payment of annual tribute to the empire, this began the Polish-Ottoman War of 1620–1621. It was fought primarily by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. At the Battle of Cecora (September to October 1620), fought primarily over control of Moldavia, the Ottomans with a force of thirteen to twenty-two thousand annihilated a Polish army of about ten thousand. However, the following year, their force of two hundred thousand to quarter of a million was delayed by thirty-five thousand Poles until the autumn snows came. The Turks were defeated at Khotyn, with a loss of about forty thousand. The Ottoman Empire’s brief adventure with the Protestant Union was over. Osman blamed Janissary cowardice for the failure and threatened to replace them with a Turkish national army. The Janissaries led a coup and strangled Osman II in 1622.¹⁰

Tilly

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In July 1620, the Catholic League’s army crossed into Bohemia, under the leadership of a Dutchman, Johann T’Serclaes (1559–1632), the Count of Tilly, who was handpicked by Maximilian of Bavaria. Tilly, as he is commonly known, was a professional soldier of many years’ experience and a master of the Spanish method of fighting—squares of pikemen with musketeers at the corners, guns placed in front, and with cavalry on the wings. Tilly met them at White Hill near Prague on November 8, 1620, and annihilated the Protestant army. It is thought that if the war remained confined to Bohemia, it might have ended quickly after this crushing defeat. However, the earlier death of Matthias emboldened the Bohemians to exploit the Catholic vs. Protestant furor, and the war tended to spread from Bohemia into the rest of Europe with German principalities becoming the battlefield.

From Bohemia, the Spanish army moved into Germany and punished Frederick V’s Palatinate. The military disasters of November broke up the Evangelical Union of Protestant princes, and Ferdinand moved into Bohemia, saying it was "better to rule over a desert than a country full of heretics."¹¹ As previously arranged, the Palatine electorate was transferred to Bavaria, and Catholic reprisals began in Bohemia.

A few were executed. Over seven hundred noblemen lost their titles and property and were exiled unless they became Catholics. Protestant churches were closed or destroyed. Protestant professors and teachers were given three days to leave the country, and Prague University’s revenues became Jesuit property. By the end of two years, half the landed property was in Ferdinand’s hands; he put all of it up for sale. This overt theft made Ferdinand unpopular with both Catholics and Protestants. The Bohemian nobility was gone, only to be replaced by Germans, Spaniards, and Italians. No one in the German states was safe. Tilly’s army beat the Protestant Union’s forces in many battles. Ferdinand followed with his Catholicization. Just as in Bohemia, the churches and universities were all turned over to the Jesuits. This included the Calvinist center of learning, the University of Heidelberg. Its library went to Rome, never to be seen again.

Denmark Joins the Protestants

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In 1625, King Christian IV of Denmark, a military leader of note, joined the Protestant side; he would remain an active participant until 1629. Denmark’s army and navy were strong. His country was the most prosperous and powerful state in the north. This changed the entire nature of the conflict. It was not going to be a walkover for the Catholics. Both Ferdinand and Tilly knew it. More power was needed. This came from a former Bohemian Calvinist brother, Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Waldstein (or Wallenstein) (1583–1634). Since 1617, he had increased his riches by finding troops for the Bohemian war. He had connections with the De Vito bank. They had the rights to purchase and sell for profit all the confiscated silver in Bohemia. Wallenstein was a war profiteer who benefited from the sale of looted Protestant estates. His religious beliefs, mostly astrology, would not get in the way of his acquisition of filthy lucre. For his support of the Catholic cause, Ferdinand made Wallenstein Duke of Friedland and commander in chief of the Catholic League’s armies over Tilly. Some thought Wallenstein had no conscience.

Wallenstein

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Wallenstein raised a mercenary army of fifty thousand men, mostly scoundrels. He paid for it, trained it, commanded it, and saw that it paid for itself by its conquests so long as he got his cut. By 1625, it was ready to march. He moved north to cooperate with Tilly against King Christian and his general, Ernst Graf von Mansfeld. King Christian defended the north along the Elbe River. Tilly beat him there. In Saxony, Wallenstein faced Mansfeld. He beat him and chased him into Silesia, where he broke Mansfeld’s army. In December 1626, Tilly pursued Christian into Holstein. Wallenstein joined with Tilly, and they both beat him then overran Jutland with their armies. What was left of the Danes retreated back into Denmark while Wallenstein took Mecklenburg and Pomerania. In 1628, Wallenstein became the Duke of Mecklenburg after deposing the Protestant duke. King Christian was back in Holstein, where Tilly was chasing him again. Wallenstein joined in, and the two beat Christian again. King Christian and the Danes were out of the war.

In March 1629, Ferdinand II signed the Edict of Restitution, which nullified the Peace of Augsburg of 1555, which restored all church properties, lands, and authority secularized in 1552 back to the Catholics. Only Saxony and Brandenburg remained as Protestant states. Northern Germany would be re-Catholicized. Nothing existed to stop Wallenstein’s eighty-thousand-man army of locusts except the Imperial Diet. In 1630, with knowledge of how Wallenstein had despoiled not only Protestant, but also Catholic lands, the Diet stripped him of his command. Wallenstein retired filthy rich to his castle, and Tilly was to mop up as general of the empire and the Catholic League.

Cardinal Richelieu’s Secret Agreement

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The plight of the German principalities did not escape the sharp eye and mind of Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, first minister of France. Since he was a Catholic cardinal, the prospect of making everyone Catholic was not terrible. What was frightening was a shift of imperial power away from France into the Germanic north. An alliance between the Spanish and this northern juggernaut could make short work of France. Cardinal Richelieu with "au contraire Mon frère" in mind had secretly given money to support Protestant King Christian, but Christian was out of the war. Who else could the scheming Richelieu find? There was only one northern country left that might be able to turn the tide. Richelieu didn’t know much about them; it was relatively small and allegedly unimportant, but Richelieu was forced to agree to the terms that had been previously demanded by them—a lump-sum payment and four hundred thousand rix-dollars per year plus a truce between Sweden and Poland arranged by France.

French intelligence in those days was the best, but there was every indication that Richelieu did not know what kind of bargain he had made. Sweden at the time was a little nation of less than 1.5 million people. Geographically, it was one-third the size of England and one-tenth the size of the Habsburg lands. However, it had been involved in a war with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from about 1600 to 1629. It also fought Muscovy and the Ottoman Empire.¹² Richelieu knew that it had sent naval and ground forces to Stralsund during Wallenstein’s siege in 1628 and had beaten him back. He soon discovered that it would be easy to get the Poles to agree to a truce with Sweden following the Battle of Trzciana/Honigfelde (June 1629) of the Polish-Swedish War (1626–1629). Who were these guys?

Richelieu did not know that he had just bought the services of one of the greatest statesmen of his time, Axel Gustafsson Oxenstierna af Södermöre, and in the bargain had hired one of the greatest generals of all time, the Lion of the North, King Gustavus Adolphus Magnus II (1594–1632). Later, both Napoleon and Carl von Clausewitz would consider him the greatest general of all time in league with Alexander the Great.

Gustavus Adolphus Magnus

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Gustavus Adolphus Magnus II (1594–1632) was a universal man who had been of necessity (considering the neighborhood) reared for war, which he proceeded to reinvent. He was to gain the title the Father of Modern Warfare.¹³ He spoke nine languages fluently, designed buildings, wrote hymns still sung, and was a superb athlete and horseman. His regents and tutors considered him fit to rule by the age of seventeen. He understood the importance of communications both strategically and tactically and modified it to make it work. He understood the importance of logistics and reinvented it as well. He also knew the importance of the pursuit with total annihilation of an enemy army in retreat. His army was not mercenary. Mercenaries could be bought by the king with the most gold on the eve of battle. In addition, his army of necessity had to be smaller to correspond to the population of Sweden. He had to do more with less, and he found a way—gunpowder.

The Swedish army was a conscript army, loyal to Sweden and its Protestant faith. By 1630, most were armed with a new lightweight wheel lock or even flintlock musket that could be fired from the shoulder or crouch position. Only 20 percent were armed with pikes. His troops were formed in lines five to six men in depth instead of the Spanish square, or terço, of two thousand to three thousand armored pikemen/swordsmen in a square formation with arquebusiers or musketeers at the four corners. Swedes no longer wore cumbersome heavy Spanish armor that restricted their movement. However, muskets were of limited value against cavalry, thus the need for pikemen. His musketeers were drilled until they could load and fire three times faster than any army in existence.

He invented field artillery. He did away with sledges and anything heavier than a twelve-pounder. His typical gun was a lightweight six- or three-pounder put on wheels and serviced by a crew of three men and two horses. It could fire premade cartridges of powder and shot that could increase the fire per gun to ten to twelve rounds per minute instead of one or less. Gun mobility allowed the crews to turn, aim, and deliver massed fire on a single critical point on the field and change targets in less than a minute. His guns were antipersonnel weapons, not siege weapons. Instead of one gun per thousand men (standard in other armies), his army had six per thousand. The six-pounder fired grape or solid shot up to six hundred to seven hundred meters into the opposing army with deadly effect. The three-pounder was for close action at about two hundred yards. Guns were arranged in batteries usually in the gaps between battalions along the front but could be pulled to safety before an opposing army got within musket fire range (about eighty yards).¹⁴ With his rapid-firing muskets and artillery commanded by Marshal Lennart Torstensson, the ability to mass-fire against any target on the battlefield made his smaller-gunpowder army unbeatable.

Gustavus’s cavalry tactics were aggressive. They were to be used for more than scouting, screening, and quick hit-and-run tactics. Their primary weapon was the saber, but flintlock pistols were also available. His cavalry were mostly landed gentry from its easternmost province, Finland. They brought their own horses to the field. They were soon known as the terror of the battlefield because of their nickname: the Hakkapeliitat. This came from their battle cry "hakkaa päälle! (Finnish for cut’m down), which they shouted as they charged into a fleeing enemy. The old adage of He who fights and runs away will live to fight another day" was obsolete. During the Thirty Years’ War, they were led by Marshal Gustav Horn.¹⁵

Pikes made a comeback in 1632; against cavalry, muskets were not as good as pikes. By 1634, most armies had two musketeers to one pikeman. With the demise of the heavy medieval lances of eighteen feet, the typical pike length shrank to about thirteen to fourteen feet by 1680. With the increase in muskets, body armor in European armies disappeared by 1660. Although there was a trend to lighter-weight muskets as noted, the hitting power of the heavier muskets was missed. Flintlocks began replacing matchlocks sometime around 1610 to 1630. By this time, both were about the same caliber. Bayonets that attached quickly to the flintlocks were not invented until 1687. The pike then became obsolete.¹⁶

The large baggage train with numerous female camp followers, characteristic of mercenary armies, was out. Logistics were leaner and meaner. Only essential military supplies, few camp followers, and speed were the orders of the day. The Swedish army could move twenty miles per day instead of the usual ten. After a few serious battles with the Swedes, it didn’t take long for most European armies to reequip and retrain along Swedish lines.

When Gustavus II became king at age seventeen, his father had left him with three wars. Denmark had attacked Sweden in 1611. The war ended in 1613 with the Treaty of Knäred in which Sweden had to pay an indemnity but did not lose territory. The Ingrian War with Russia (1610–1617) ended with the Treaty of Stolbovo. Russia ceded Kexholm and Ingria to Sweden. This resulted in large territorial gains in southwest Karelia around Lake Ladoga, including the territory around St. Petersburg (Ingria), Estonia, and Livonia. Sweden now controlled lands north, east, and south of the Gulf of Finland. This denied Russia access to the Baltic Sea.¹⁷

In 1620, Gustavus II, then twenty-six, married Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, a German princess (1599–1655). Her royal credentials were impressive. At the time, she was said to have been the most beautiful queen in Europe.¹⁸ In 1626, Gustavus II and a force of 4,900 men began the final Polish-Swedish War by ambushing a two-thousand-man contingency of Polish-Lithuanian troops in Latvia. In May 1626, with the approval of neutral Prussia, he made a surprise invasion of Prussia with 125 ships, 7,000 infantry, and 1,000 cavalry and reinforced a number of coastal cities that had been fighting the Catholic League. He then reinforced his troops to a total of twenty-two thousand in preparation for taking Danzig (N 54.21°, E 18.40°). In September, Gustavus with—8,150 infantry, 1,750 cavalry, and 74 cannons—stopped a Polish army of eleven thousand, forcing King Sigismund to withdraw and reinforce. By this time, the Swedes had also reinforced but were under the command of Oxenstierna, and the contest ended in stalemate. The Swedes drove east and in December at Kokenhusen in Livonia (present-day Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) forced the commonwealth army to retreat to the Dvina River. In the meanwhile, Gustav pushed west to Danzig. In the battle near the Vistula, he was wounded and withdrew. Gustav next tried to draw the Polish army out into a pitched battle, where he could bring his superior firepower to bear. But the Polish commander, Stanisław Koniecpolski, kept back; and only cavalry action ensued with great destruction of the Polish cavalry. The Poles knew they had to rearm Swedish-style and proceeded to try. In the ensuing war in Livonia, the Swedes and Poles fought to another standstill, but the Poles were glad to sign a peace treaty in 1629.¹⁹

In 1628, Wallenstein laid siege to the city of Stralsund (N 54.18°, E 13.50°) on the Pomeranian coast, at that time in northeastern Germany (now part of Poland). Wallenstein’s siege failed because of help from Denmark, Sweden, Scotland, and a heavy July rain.²⁰ Wallenstein withdrew in August 1630. The victory was solidified by the Treaty of Stettin (N 53.25°, E 14.35°), hammered out over the next several months. It gave Sweden control of the defense of Pomerania along with its foreign affairs. Local government, along with religious freedom, remained in Pomeranian hands. In return, Pomerania had to pay for four Swedish garrisons (one hundred thousand talers per year).

In January 1631, Cardinal Richelieu and Gustavus signed the Treaty of Bärwalde, agreeing to fight on the Protestant side for one million livres a year. Gustavus wasted no time, and in early 1631, he advanced southwest into Brandenburg. His goals were the defense of Lutheranism/Protestantism in Germany along with trade. The Baltic was rapidly becoming a Swedish lake. At first, the going was tough. No one wanted to sign with anyone, especially some young upstart who had not proven himself against Tilly. For his part, Tilly was in northern Italy, ignoring this squirt from the north. He had beaten the Danes; the Swedes would be a piece of cake.

In May, Tilly’s army sacked and slaughtered twenty thousand Protestants at Magdeburg (N 52.80°, E 11.37°). When the word got around Europe, most Protestants realized how tenuous their existence was. Meanwhile, Gustavus kept moving to the southwest and increasing his forces slowly with local mercenary troops. His strength had grown to twenty-three thousand by the time he reached the border of Saxony. Tilly had moved out of Italy and was just south of Saxony. He requested transit across Johann Georg I’s lands. He wanted to catch Gustavus in the flank. Thus far, Saxony had avoided general devastation. This would allow his troops a free hand at ravaging virgin land. Johann Georg I, the Elector of Saxony, refused; but Tilly invaded anyway. Johann Georg allied himself with Gustavus, and both moved south toward Saxony and planned to strike Tilly near Leipzig (N 51.20°, E 12.23°).

As Tilly approached Saxony bent on looting it, Gustavus moved toward Leipzig. They met just six miles north of the city near the little village of Breitenfeld (N 53.36°, E 10.38°). Gustavus’s army of twenty-four thousand and his Saxon allies of eighteen thousand deployed south of the small village of Podelwitz (N 51.26°, E 12.23°) on September 17, 1631. Tilly’s forces of thirty-five thousand deployed slightly west of Göbschelwitz. The Swedish army, as described previously, was deployed with infantry and two cavalry units in the center. On their right was a large force of cavalry. On the left between them and the Saxons was a smaller group of cavalry. Swedish cavalry numbered about eight thousand. The Saxons, with a more traditional army of mostly pikemen with few muskets, were deployed farther to the left with cavalry on both wings. Nine thousand of the eighteen thousand Saxon troops were untrained conscripts. Cavalry numbered about five thousand. The length of the field was about three miles. The imperial Catholic League’s army under Tilly had modified Spanish squares consisting of twenty-five thousand trained troops mostly armed with muskets. However, these squares were still packed many men deep, making it impossible for them to fire more than one-fourth of their muskets at any given time. Their squares were spread out in a long line with cavalry at both wings and one cavalry unit in reserve. Their immobile sledge-drawn guns were in front. Gustavus’s Protestant Union army had the advantage in artillery pieces and mobility. Their troop formations that were only six ranks deep allowed all musketeers to be engaged at the same time. Gustavus’s ability to fire three shots for every one of the empire’s army and engage all their muskets in a massed rolling volley of fire, one rank after another, proved lethal.

The Battle of Breitenfeld

The battle began about noon with Lennart Torstensson’s artillery barrage. This lasted an hour or two. The Swedes firing four shots to one per gun was so hot that Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim of the Catholic League on the left flank ordered an impromptu cavalry charge against the Swedish front and right flanks. The Swedes aimed for the horses. Massed musket fire proved far more lethal than pikes, and huge holes developed in the imperial cavalry formations. The charge was broken with heavy losses.

What was left of the cavalry was counterattacked by Gustavus’s cavalry, which drove them from the field. At the same time, the imperial cavalry on their right flank took off without orders toward the Saxons, holding down Gustavus’s II left flank. The Saxons and their mostly medieval army fled north back to Saxony, thus exposing Gustavus’s left flank. Now recognizing an opening, Tilly began an oblique move of his infantry toward the Saxon position in an effort to fold up the Swedes’ left. This move exposed Tilly’s own left flank and his now-silent big guns. He had only minimal cavalry to defend them.

BATTLE OF BREITENFELD (FIRST PHASE)

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Gustavus moved immediately. He personally led his Hakkapeliitat light cavalry, and charged into the Imperial army’s left. Tilly’s artillery was captured and turned against the Imperial army’s troops. Hakkapeliitat horsemen were cross trained to shoot artillery. The enfilading artillery fire sent shot bouncing over the ground straight through the rear and flank of the Imperial troops cutting down many with each shot. In the meanwhile the Swedish second line and cavalry under Count Gustav Horn engaged the strung out Imperial infantry on the Swedish left. Instead of withdrawing from their now impossible situation, the Imperial troops stood their ground and traded volleys 1:3 with the Swedish army. An hour of this kind of exchange cut down what remained of Tilly’s army.

BATTLE OF BREITENFELD (LATER PHASE)

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By 6:00 p.m., it was over. Tilly was severely wounded, six thousand were prisoners of war, and most of the rest lay dead. Tilly and a few of his troops were able to escape toward Leipzig to the south. Gustavus did not stop. His cavalry pursued stragglers relentlessly. Two days later, it captured three thousand more imperial troops at Merseburg (N 51.22°, E 12.00°) after a brief skirmish. Tilly’s army was annihilated. The imperial Catholic League was unable to muster more than seven thousand men from their reserves to field an army. Gustavus’s army was now larger than ever and free to roam Germany.

After a brief siege, the Spaniards in Mainz were sent back to the Netherlands, and Jesuits were banished. Johann Georg took his army unopposed into Silesia and Bohemia. The empire was on the ropes. Cardinal Richelieu was ecstatic; he knew he had a winner. He was now firm in his agreement to support the Swedish army.

The Protestants in Germany flocked to join the Protestant Alliance. The Catholicization of Germany was over and the Reformation saved. From a military standpoint, the battle proved that Gustavus’s methods could beat any army in the world. The armies of pikemen during the Middle Ages were gone. The annihilated Spanish squares were obsolete. The offense was back. Massed artillery and musket fire ruled the battlefield. Fielding a gunpowder army cost more money than a prince could afford. War was the province of nations and kings, not princes and principalities.²¹

Gustavus headed for the Palatinate and the Rhine Valley, where he established winter quarters. In March 1632, he invaded Bavaria (Freistaat Bayern), the southeastern part of Germany and strong ally of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor. His goal was to preserve the structure of the German principalities and guarantee religious freedom for Protestants. Guaranteeing the principalities would prevent a united German state— Richelieu’s primary goal.

The Battle of Rain

By the spring of 1632, the Catholic League was able to put together an army of twenty-five thousand, and Tilly was back in command. It met Gustavus’s force of forty thousand at the Bavarian city of Rain (N 48.41°, E 10.55°) on the Lech River on April 15, 1632. As they faced each other across the river, Gustavus put his fertile mind to work. He selected a bend in the river with the convex side facing him. He covered the opposite bank with artillery fire and, under a smoke screen of burning wet straw, sent his engineers to build a pontoon boat bridge across the Lech. Then he sent the Hakkapeliitats across to dig breastworks protecting the bridgehead and bring artillery across to rake the hill where the Catholic League’s army was dug in. This river crossing scheme originally came from Gustavus, just as many other tactical innovations. It has since been copied many times.²² As the barrage opened fire on the hill, Gustavus brought his army across the bridges and immediately attacked the hill. Early in the battle, Tilly was hit in the leg by a cannonball. The wound proved mortal several days later. His second-in-command, Johann Reichsgraf von Aldringen, sustained a skull fracture wound minutes later; he lived but was temporarily out of the fight. Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, ordered the leaderless Catholic League’s army to retreat. It escaped only because a fierce storm blew up, leaving trees down across the roadways behind them hampering pursuit. Casualties were at two thousand on the Protestant Union side and three thousand for the Catholic League.

The Battle of Alte Veste

In May 1632, Gustavus’s army marched into Munich (N 48.8°, E 11.34°), taking the city. With Tilly dead, Emperor Ferdinand II had no option but to recall Wallenstein from retirement to assume command of the Catholic Leagues forces. Wallenstein knew how to get and lead troops. He also demanded and got complete control of the army, all confiscated territories, and veto over all imperial orders. While in retirement, Wallenstein had kept up with events. He knew Gustavus’s weaknesses. One was the Saxon alliance. When his army had been recruited, Wallenstein drove the Saxons out of Bohemia. He then opened secret negotiations with Johann Georg and Georg Wilhelm of Brandenburg. They agreed to get the Swedes out of Germany while maintaining Protestant toleration despite Ferdinand II’s opinions. He also had studied Gustavus’s tactics and logistics and found that it relied heavily on guns and gunpowder. Going toe to toe with him was foolish. It would be best to wait him out. The farther from the Baltic Gustavus was, the more likely his logistical system would fail. In the meanwhile, Wallenstein would let his amoral scoundrels live off the land. They would consume it like locusts. With this system, he could wear down Gustavus.

Toward the end of the summer, Wallenstein’s army of forty thousand was ready to fight. He proceeded to Nürnberg (N 49.27°, E 11.5°), where Gustavus was encamped. Wallenstein occupied Alte Veste (N 49.27°, E 10.57°). For six weeks, Gustavus challenged him to come out and fight, but Wallenstein knew better. He needed neither speed nor artillery for his defense. Both armies were hungry and dying of illness. Wallenstein waited. Alte Veste was a broken-down old castle (Berg) atop a hill surrounded by abatis. An abatis is a defensive position that consists of a series of trenches and mounds of increasing height. Sharpened pikes from felled trees point outward from mounds facing the enemy. This prevented cavalry attacks and allowed defending troops to pour fire from the tops of the mounds into oncoming troops that had to go through the pointed stakes and over a succession of trenches and hills. With supplies running short, Gustavus decided to attack on September 9, 1632. This was a poor decision, and his army barely escaped disaster because of his reserve cavalry. The Swedes lost three thousand men. Casualties are not listed for Wallenstein but were probably much lighter. In addition, Lennart Torstensson, Count of Ortala (1603–1651) and Gustavus’s famed leader of artillery, was taken prisoner and held for a year.

Gustavus had suffered his first defeat. Wallenstein was proving to be a dangerous opponent. To get the Catholics out of Germany, Gustavus had to achieve victories. A defeat was not good. Wallenstein was close to Protestant Germany. This caused the defection of some Protestant units. However, this year’s campaign was not over. Gustavus started for Vienna to produce results; but Wallenstein ignored him, took Leipzig, and started ravaging Saxony. Dresden (N 51°2′, E 13°44′) was in his path. The unstable Johann Georg appealed to Gustavus. Gustavus had to get to a winter base of supply, so he headed back intending to meet Georg near Leipzig. Time was running out. Wallenstein had already decided to defend the area around Lützen (N 51.15°, E 12.08°) and sent his men to deepen the ditches on either side of the Leipzig road. The fields were relatively flat with rolling countryside. Gustavus II could not ignore Wallenstein’s threat to Protestant Germany. He was now facing an opponent who, although considered a thief and immoral by most, learned rapidly when it came to military matters. This would become obvious in the next battle—the most important battle of the Thirty Years’ War.

The Battle of Lützen

On November 14, 1632 (Julian calendar), Wallenstein returned to Leipzig for the winter. He divided his forces into two parts: one under his command and the other under Pappenheim. Winter was already making it difficult to camp and fight. However, Gustavus II felt otherwise. Bad weather is