Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Reign of Gustavus Adolphus, 1611–1632 - C. Gustavus Adolphus and the Thirty Years’ War
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The Thirty Years’ War 161
man at his post. Suddenly the enemies checked them-
selves. What had happened? Gustavus Adolphus with
his victorious right wing had swept up the hill, taken
Tilly’s cannons, and directed them against Tilly’s own
battalions. Tilly’s forces then dispersed in flight. In
vain he attempted to check them. He begged, he threat-
ened, he wept in anger. But his men obeyed him not.
Only his faithful veterans remained true. Crippled
and wounded, they fought each in his appointed place.
They formed a square around their old commander
and withdrew in orderly retreat.
The best results of this victory were the overthrow
of the Catholic supremacy and the preservation of the
Protestant faith. Hence, Breitenfeld is one of the
world’s decisive battles. The small Swedish nation,
which ever since the Viking Age had lived its own life,
almost unknown beyond the Baltic lands, became
through this victory world famous. Now were gath-
ered the fruits of the seeds planted by Gustavus Vasa
and Olavus Petri and developed under the care of
Charles IX, Gustavus Adolphus, and Axel Oxenstiern.
Sweden’s Period of Greatness begins.
Gustavus Adolphits in South Germany. The victory
at Breitenfeld made Gustavus Adolphus master of the,
line of the Elbe. Now his march concerned Germany’s
most important river, the Rhine, where he wished to
liberate the millions of South German Protestants, who
had endured the severest persecutions, and who were
now looking for deliverance. He led his army from
Saxony down into the smiling valley of the Main, to
wealthy South Germany with knightly castles on vine-
clad hills, rich convents, and mighty cities. He came
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