The book describes and analyses the early modern Swedish army during the
Thirty Years War after the death in 1632 of King Gustavus Adolphus. At
this time, military operations were handled by field marshals under the
overall command of the Swedish Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna. The book
expands our understanding of the Swedish army during the Thirty Years
War by focusing on its later operations, including those against Polish
and Danish opponents, and not only on the better-known operations in
Germany against the Catholic League and the Holy Roman Empire.
Meanwhile, Oxenstierna continued his administrative reforms, which
enabled Sweden consistently to raise troops, despite the small
population of Sweden and its territories, and enabled an intelligence
and logistics system which could supply the armies, despite the vast
geographical depth of operations. While the Swedish army of Gustavus
Adolphus positioned Sweden as an emerging great power, it was the
subsequent developments of the army under Oxenstierna that enabled the
Swedish rise to regional great power status. While the army of Gustavus
Adolphus has been described elsewhere, the Swedish army's later
developments are less well known. Moreover, the book includes current
research that has not yet appeared in the English language. It also
describes the 1643-1645 Swedish invasion of Denmark ('Torstensson's
War') and the battles and sieges, including those of Vienna and Prague,
that led up to the Peace of Westphalia, which concluded the Thirty Years
War. Finally, the book covers the military aspects of the establishment
of Sweden's first American colony.
