. A history of mediaeval and modern Europe for secondary schools. rful officer, anddisbanded a part of his army. In July, 1630, however, Gustavus Adolphus crossed theBaltic and entered Germany. He was the king of a compara-tively thinly settled and weak country, which had establishedits own type of Protestantism only after a bitter struggle; butGustavus Adolphus was a remarkable combination of a reli-gious enthusiast and a great master of war. No doubt therewas a political ambition which led him to seek to extendSwedish power south of the Baltic, but no doubt also he wenton the campaign in a h
. A history of mediaeval and modern Europe for secondary schools. rful officer, anddisbanded a part of his army. In July, 1630, however, Gustavus Adolphus crossed theBaltic and entered Germany. He was the king of a compara-tively thinly settled and weak country, which had establishedits own type of Protestantism only after a bitter struggle; butGustavus Adolphus was a remarkable combination of a reli-gious enthusiast and a great master of war. No doubt therewas a political ambition which led him to seek to extendSwedish power south of the Baltic, but no doubt also he wenton the campaign in a high belief that he was doing God andman a pure and devoted service. He had been schooled foraction in a series of fierce campaigns with the Poles and had evolved a new system of tactics based on rapid move-ments, and the adaptation of military formation to the fire-arms, which were replacing the pikes and lances whereon the 1 It is said that many so-called Protestants served in Wallensteins nondescriptarmies, and had their own chaplains, services, 3o4 HISTORY OF EUROPE old style of warfare had been founded. His army was small,but excellently disciplined: a band of blond, blue-eyed giants,sons of the Vikings, pressing south in search, no doubt, ofhard blows and booty, but also of a chance to fight for the Evangelical Religion, which was to them the only truegospel. They came almost in the death-agony of German Protes-tantism. For a moment, such was the fear of the Imperialists,that hardly a city dared to open its gates voluntarily to Gus-tavus. The Lutheran princes hung back, cowed and great city of Magdeburg, which had held out for theProtestants, was captured (1631) by the Imperialists, andsubjected to a sack and massacre which smote fear of theImperialists into every other Protestant town which had con-sidered following her example. But very foolishly the Emperoralienated the most powerful Protestant prince, Elector JohnGeorge of Saxony,1 who made a
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