Gustavus Adolphus
King of Sweden who led his army into the war in Germany against the emperor Ferdinand II and was killed at the battle of Lützen in November 1632. A broadsheet printed by his own side presented him as dying for God’s word and German liberty.
The treaty of Osnabrück names him, as king of the Swedes, Goths and Vandals, as the first opponent of the emperor Ferdinand II in the war that it ends, and records that the war continued under his successor Queen Christina after his death (Treaty of Osnabrück preamble).
A broadsheet printed by his own side after the battle of Lützen, fought on 6 November 1632 by the old calendar, tells how he rode in too far among the enemy with his cavalry, was mortally wounded and was found afterwards with five shots in his body (Lützen broadsheet (1632) title and narrative of the battle). It puts into his mouth the words that, if he fell, he would die for the honour of God, for God’s word and for German liberty (Lützen broadsheet (1632) title and narrative of the battle). See the Thirty Years’ War and the Peace of Westphalia.
In the timeline
- 1618 to 1648, firm dateThe Thirty Years’ War and the Peace of Westphalia
A revolt of Bohemian Protestants in 1618 grows into a war that draws in all Germany and its neighbours. The treaties of Osnabrück and Münster in 1648 fix the rights of Catholics, Lutherans and Reformed in the Empire by the year 1624; the pope declares those articles void.