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Gustavus Adolphus, the Lion from
the North. When I was in Wittenberg, Germany
in 2005, I picked up this postcard and spot dart one out. I mean,
this is a postcard of the reformers. And of course, front and center,
you see Martin Luther, of course, and John Calvin, two greatest
reformers. You see top right, Ulrich Zwingli. And you see also William Tyndale
and Wycliffe, Jan Hus, Philip Melanchthon. Now, who is this
eighth man here, the odd one out? He's the only person who's
not a minister of the gospel, a theologian, like these other
seven. He's the only one who's not a
16th century person. He's a 17th century person. This
is Gustavus Adolphus. Gustav Adolph, a king, a general. Why would Wittenberg be selling
a postcard with the reformers and have got them all there?
I mean, even English reformers, reform of Prague, Oxford University's
Morning Star of the Reformation, the reform of Geneva. So it's
widespread. But Gustav Adolf is the one political
leader, military leader, king, general, in this postcard of
theologians. We'll explain that right now.
Gustav Adolphus is one of the most inspiring characters of
the Reformation. The rapid rise to fame of Gustav
Adolphus, the young king of Sweden, his military innovations and
dramatic victories in battle turned the tide of the Thirty
Years' War and saved Protestant Germany from annihilation. Military
strategist Carl von Clausewitz and French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
considered Gustav Adolphus one of the greatest generals of all
time. In fact, Napoleon Bonaparte said the two greatest generals
of all time are Alexander the Great and Gustav Adolphus. And then he added, and thirdly,
also Frederick the Great of Germany. So those were, he said, those
were the three best generals of all time. So he considered
Gustav Adolphus to be right up there with the top three generals
of all time who he studied. Now the interesting thing is
Gustav Adolphus was so advanced in his military theory that you
could have put him into a battlefield in the First World War. And while
the technology and so on would have changed, he would have understood
how to make sense of it and would have probably still been a good
general then simply because even though he was 300 years before,
he was such an innovator that his tactics and what he innovated
affected military strategy for centuries to come. Gustav II
of Sweden is famous for employing mobile artillery on the battlefield.
Now artillery up till then was very heavy. You could not pull
it with just a few horses, but he innovated an artillery piece
that was no more than 300 kilograms, which could be maneuvered by
a horse or a couple of horses or by six or seven men could
roll it into place. This is mobile artillery. Up
to then, it would take fast amounts of men and horses, and to move
artillery in a battlefield was almost impossible. But he employed
mobile artillery. And he also developed a very
aggressive tactic where attack was dressed over defense. Now,
generally speaking, with the weapons of that time, the defender
had the advantage. But he changed that where the
attacker had the advantage with very innovative tactics. He emphasised
mobility of the usual linear tactics. Fire and movement drills
were a vital part of his tactics. So he would have, like what we
learnt in South Kowloon Army, fire and movement, every second
man drops and opens fire, the others rush through, and then
they drop and open fire, and then the others move through,
and so you keep moving towards the enemy. He would do that.
in the way of both cavalry and infantry. So he had rows of cavalry
who would go forward and the first in line would fire their
weirlock, flintlock musket pistols at the enemy. They would retire,
the next lot would come forward, they would fire, and then they
would leapfrog one after the other in firing into the enemy
to break up the enemy either infantry or cavalry before they
used their swords in the final charge. Again, he would also
teach volley fires with his musketeers where they would fire and then
the next line would come forward and they would fire and you just
keep moving such as continual firing movement while the other
ranks were reloading. And they usually worked in columns
of 10 or 16 rows, he shortened it to 6. because six was adequate,
that by the time the sixth row had fired, the others should
have reloaded, and then they can continue a continual volley
of fire. And so his musketeers were widely
known for their shooting accuracy and their reloading speed, three
times faster than any contemporary rivals. Now at this stage in
warfare, the average musket was 18 kilograms. He brought it down at first to
nine kilograms, and towards the end of his career, he was bringing
them down to four and a half kilograms, which is closer to
what we carry around today, so that it was able to be utilized
more effectively on the battlefield. He was an active participant
in his battles. He chose to lead charges himself at crucial points.
He was repeatedly wounded in battle, including gunshot wounds
to the neck, the throat, and the abdomen. This is a leader
who led from the front. Because of an early wound where
musket ball was lodged in his neck near his spine, Due to the
extreme pain, he chose to avoid wearing a customary two-part
armor carasses, and he adopted a flexible leather armor instead.
Now, that leather armor would not stop a bullet, but it would
be helpful in sword fights that he'd get some kind of protection
from that. But this is his leather armor, so to speak, if you want
to use the word armor for leather. Gustav II has attributed a number
of technical innovations, including paper bullet cartridges. light
mobile artillery, lightening the muskets, and abolishing the
musket rest. Now, you'll see the way that soldiers at that
time tend to operate. They had their powder. Normally, you can see the powder
casket attached to the side. But because in the heat of battle,
you could easily overcharge. You could pour too much powder
down, or maybe not enough. And so they started having these
specific wooden cartridges where you would have a holder where
you have just a measured amount of powder so at the time you
need to you just dump the contents in when you've got time you can
fill them all up so you've got a measured amount. Will he change
that to having paper cartridges that you've got just enough powder.
So of course instead of pouring up the powder you roll down this
paper cartridge of powder and then you roll down the bullet,
the musket ball afterwards, which of course helps accuracy that
you're going to have exactly the same amount of kick and power
each time, makes it easier to aim better and also you know
what your range is, that it's a measured amount and also makes
it quicker instead of people trying to pour powder down a
barrel, which also can ignite after a few firings that your
barrels are hot, that you pour the powder down, you can get
a powder burning. So these were innovations. As
far as abolishing the musket dress, he did two things. One
thing about getting the rifles a lot lighter, the people didn't
always need musket dress. But then he developed something
else too, that they developed different types of musket dress.
Now you see these are spears and musket dress, that for some
of the larger rifles, muskets, they would rest on something
that could also serve as a pike or a spear. Now, what they would
then be able to do is, they don't have to use them necessarily,
but they could, like the English at the Battle of Crecy and the
Battle of Agincourt, plant their musket rest or their pike-cum-spear
into the ground as an extra barricade or threat to advancing enemy,
especially enemy horses, cavalry would bolt back when they've
got all these sharp pointed goodies aimed in front of them. So, if
you're going to carry a musket rest, well, why carry a musket
rest? Why not carry a musket rest which is also a spear cum
pike? So, those were some of Gustav's
military innovations. He also innovated administrative
reforms conscripting large standing armies. Now, Sweden didn't have
a large population and so he introduced conscription up to
when you had a professional army or mercenaries who would fight
for pay, but he instead decided to have every male in Sweden
had to do their time in the army, and in this way broadened the
base and developed the infantry brigade, improved military logistics,
standardized artillery calibers. The Austrians, for example, the
imperial Austrian, the Holy Roman Empire, they had 26 different
calibers for their artillery. So you can imagine in the middle
of a battle, you could be having real logistical problems when
different sized musket bombs and artillery balls, it's just
chaos. Whereas if you've got a Stendhuis,
this is, you know, one another can help one another. And just
because this artillery piece is knocked out doesn't mean that
you can't utilize the artillery cannonballs and so on. So by
standardizing calibers, he improved logistical support. Gustave's
tactical innovations including perfecting dashing cavalry charges.
Now, he would organize this in concert with the infantry and
the pikemen and the artillery. He had offensive infantry formations. Now, at this time, most units
would have huge blocks of like Greek phalluses where they all
got phalluses, they've got these massive pikes, huge pikes. And so if a cavalry comes, here
you've got these groups 16 deep and they've got these massive
pikes, well, you know, like hedgehogs, porcupines even, no cavalry is
going to penetrate that. But they've got muskets now.
So all you do is get a whole bunch of musket people or artillery
and you aim at these pikemen and you can knock them over like... You're playing skittles. It's just not a good idea. So
what he did is he said, we don't need that many pikemen. We need
much more musketmen to pikemen in any group. And he integrated
pikemen and musketmen so that the pikemen weren't at risk of
musketmen taking advantage of them. So by them being together,
they could handle a cavalry charge. They could also handle infantry
attacks. And in rolling volley fire, where you had a row fire,
next row come forward fire, next row come forward fire, six rows.
By the time the six rows are done, then they start again because
they've been reloading all along. And so continual fire and movement. He also innovated close artillery
support to clear the way in front of rapid infantry or cavalry
forces. So if you wanted advance, the
first thing you did was you brought the artillery to bear on that
point that you want to break through. The artillery would
clear it. They've got to go for cover or they're going to get
knocked over. And then followed that up with musket fire. And
as the people are about to break, in comes the cavalry and seizes
the victory. which he would often lead. And
so he would teach his cavalrymen not just to depend on the sword,
but on their weirlock muskets, their flintlocks. So they would
go into battle and first they would discharge their muskets
into the enemy before charging in. and utilizing their swords.
In fact, generally he'd say you must have at least two volleys
of pistol fire before you charge in with the sword. This would
break up the enemy formations that you're attacking. Numerous
military historians have gone so far as to call him the father
of modern armies. Considering he lived in the 1600s,
that's quite extraordinary. To Protestants, Christopher Dolphus
is one of the greatest examples of a Christian king. He is known
his lifetime as the lion from the north, the protector of Protestantism,
the deliverer of Germany. And his timely intervention stopped
the onward march and devastation caused by the Catholic League
and by the Austrian Empire, also known as HRE or Holy Roman Empire,
which is not holy. It wasn't Roman and wasn't much
of an empire either. It's like Christian science.
Not Christian, not science either. There's no doubt that Gustav
Adolphus helped change the course of European history. He's comparable
to other great Christian military leaders like Oliver Cromwell
and Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. But also as the reformer king,
he can be compared to King Alfred the Great of England. In fact,
he's the only king of Sweden called the Great. Gustav Adolphus
was born in Stockholm Castle on 9th of December, 1594, the
oldest son of King Charles IX of Sweden and of Queen Christina,
daughter of the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein. If you want to know where Schleswig-Holstein
is, it's just south of Denmark on that Jutland Peninsula north
of Germany. Gustav was born during a turbulent
time. His grandfather, Gustav Vasa, had escaped from a Danish
prison in Jutland, succeeded in delivering his country from
the yoke of tyranny, because at that stage they had been a
colony of Denmark. He drove the Danes from Sweden,
he restored their freedom, and he was chosen by the grateful
country to be their king. So his grandfather was actually
the founder of the royal dynasty of Sweden. Gustav Vasa had been
discipled by one of Martin Luther's students. And Gustaf Vasa was
determined to make Sweden a Protestant nation, and he instituted reforms
in all his states. He required all his subjects
to accept this profession of faith, to serve God by being
obedient to his law, and by loving him above all else, to believe
in Jesus Christ as our only savior, to study and teach the word of
God with zeal, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to observe
the Ten Commandments such as the true worship that we should
render unto God. From a king, that's a pretty
good guidance. However, despite Gustav Vasa's sincere faith,
the Reformation lacked widespread popular support in Sweden until
after his death, when his son, Charles IX, the Swedish church
adopted the Lutheran Augsburg Confession of 1530 as its statement
of faith, and Sweden started to be seriously reformed. Augsburg
1530. Gustav Adolf was schooled in
the classics, and by age 16, he is not only fluent in his
native Swedish and German, German being his mother's language,
but he had also mastered Latin, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Russian,
and Polish. Not bad by the age of 16. His
austere appearance ensured he was carefully nurtured to champion
the cause of the Protestant faith. He was trained as a prince and
as a soldier. Already from nine years old,
he has been introduced to public life and accompanied his father
on official business of state, receiving petitions, conversing
with foreign ministers, even joining his father on military
campaigns from the tender age of nine. Gustaf Adolphus was
only 16 years old when his father died, and he succeeded to the
throne of Sweden. He inherited a country facing
critical external threats and internal disintegration. He had
inherited three wars as well. In the West, there was the war
with Denmark. In the East, wars with Russia and Poland. You'd
think that would kind of keep them pretty busy. Those are like
their only neighbors. And the country is bankrupt, and riots
threaten the internal stability of the kingdom. So 16-year-old,
he's got some pretty serious problems to face. His father's
last letter to him is still in existence. It counsels Gustav,
fear God, honor thy father and thy mother, love deeply and sincerely
your brothers and sisters, esteem the faithful servants of your
father, reward each one according to his merits, be humane towards
your subjects, punish the wicked, love the good, trust everyone
but not without caution, observe the law without respect of person,
deprive no one of privileges if they are well-founded and
not contrary to the general good. Good advice. Well, Gustav terminated
the fratricidal struggle against Denmark with the Peace of Canard
in 1613, and then he turned his full attention to the war against
Russia and against the sworn enemy of Sweden, Sigismund, the
King of Poland. Gustav insisted on a strict code
of conduct, regular worship services in his military camps. Morning
and evening, the entire army was required to kneel before
mighty God and reverently implores aid and favor. Gustaf was seen
digging in the trenches, helping build the fortifications, frequently
in the front line of battle. He was severely wounded on a
number of occasions. But on the 27th of February,
1617, he concluded this war with a piece of Stolboda, which was
very advantageous for Sweden. Finland, Latvia, and Estonia
were now under Swedish control. Russia was excluded from the
Baltic Sea. You can see quite an impressive empire that they
have at this stage. And Gustav's first concern was
to ensure that the authorities of all conquered cities returned
to the Protestants their place of worship and freedom of religion.
To him, that was always the first priority. Freedom for the Protestants,
which in this case meant the Lutherans. Both contemporaries
and historians have commented on the extraordinary generosity
and magnanimity of Gustav. He treated his conquered enemies
with a mildness that astonished both his friends and his foes.
However, he would not tolerate any profanity nor any disrespectful
jesting concerning the Bible or true religion. He often commented
that we should work and live as under the eye of God, in the
presence of God, recognizing that God is looking at us. God
has given me the crown, not that I should fear or remain in repose,
but that I may consecrate my life for his glory and for the
good of my subjects. He really had a servant king attitude.
He was often found studying the word of God and quotations from
the scriptures saturated his conversation and his instructions,
memos, decrees. Gustav was described as a huge
man, blonde, broad-shouldered, handsome beard, piercing eye.
Other written descriptions include of lofty stature, tidy, well-proportioned,
and noble in all his manners and actions. He loved music and
played some instruments very well. Basically, you can see,
this is a Viking. In 1620, Gustav visited Germany
to marry Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg. I think maybe because his mother
was German. He must have been counseled to
go to Germany to find his wife. And so his marriage was celebrated
28th of November 1620 in his palace at Stockholm. And Brandenburg
was the most powerful of all the German northern Protestant
states. So obviously, the Brandenburg
Gate, that's correct. Brandenburg is smack in the middle
of, Berlin is smack in the middle of Brandenburg, correct. So 1620, Gustav was to Germany
to marry her, and sadly, their happy marriage was grief stricken
by the first two children being born dead, stillborn. Gustav wrote, sorrow has come
to my house, God has punished me in giving me a dead child.
but he accepted this loss as a chastisement from the Lord
and humbled himself in the Almighty. When Marie and Gustav were blessed
with a healthy daughter, Christina, Adolphus rejoiced greatly. During
this time, what would be later known as the Thirty Years' War
was threatening to engulf the whole continent of Europe. The
Thirty Years' War was huge. It was more devastating than
the First World War in terms of the percentage of people of
Europe who were killed, and certainly the percentage of people killed
in Germany, where most of the battlefield raged over. More
people died in the Thirties War than died in the Napoleonic Wars,
which lasted 25 years, the French Napoleonic Wars. And there were
some places where more than half of the total population died.
in Germany during the 30 Years' War. The 30 Years' War was absolutely
ghastly. Germany was the battleground between the mainly Protestant
north and the Catholic south. And here you can see the principal
areas of battle. Spearheaded by the Jesuits, the
Catholic Counter-Reformation was mobilizing a militant counterattack
against the Protestant princes of Germany. They sought to reverse
the Peace of Augsburg of 1555, which had been forced upon Emperor
Charles V when he abdicated. Remember, Charles V is the same
emperor Martin Luther defied with his, my conscience is kept,
the word of God speech. The Counter-Reformation Catholics
were led by Archduke Ferdinand, a Habsburg, meaning an Austrian
king, who became Holy Roman Emperor in 1619, and his rival, Duke
Maximilian of Bavaria. The Lutherans were led by the
elected John George of Saxony, And the Calvary was led by Prince
Frederick of the Palatinate, Palatinate being close to the
Rhine. The Protestants formed a defensive
union in opposition to the Catholic League. With Spain seeking to
conquer Holland, or reconquer Holland, the Dutch sought to
support their fellow Protestants in Bohemia, what today we'd call
the Czech Republic, who were resisting the imposition of Catholicism
by Ferdinand. In fact, the Dutch basically
funded the Bohemian revolt in order to take the heat off themselves
in Netherlands. The Bohemians elected Prince
Frederick of the Palatinate as their king, the king of Bohemia.
The Catholic Emperor Ferdinand declared it were preferable to
rule over a desert than over a country of heretics. With this,
he unleashed a wave of religious persecution and political oppression
notorious for hanging people from trees, for being Protestants.
This raised indignation and opposition of the Protestant majority of
Bohemia. Bohemia was a solidly Protestant country. They called
to their Protestant brethren, Hungary, Moravia, Silesia, and
the Evangelical Union in Germany to aid them in the fight against
the common enemies, the emperor and the pope. The first two battles
of this war were won by the Bohemians. Now, this artwork here depicts
the throwing out of the window in Prague, three of the emperor's
leaders, and they all survived, even though it was from something
like second or third floor, because they landed in a dung heap. Although
the Catholics depicted it differently, saying that the Virgin Mary had
sent angels to carry them with wings down to the ground so they
didn't get hurt, but I suppose that's a nicer version. The Evangelical
Union sent 4,000 men under Count Mansfield, who seized Potsdam,
one of the strongest Catholic cities in Bohemia. Count Turin
led the Bohemian armies from victory to victory to the very
gates of Vienna, which is the capital of the Holy Roman Empire
at that stage. With the Austrian army defeated, Ferdinand was
at the mercy of the Protestants when a Flemish army from Belgium
appeared in the city and saved the Catholic Emperor from total
defeat. At this stage, Belgium is actually part of the Netherlands.
Belgium only seceded from the Netherlands in 1830. So the Belgians
were Catholics living in the Netherlands who were hostile
to the Protestant faith. At this point, the new king of
Bohemia, Frederick V, from Palatinate, gave a fence to the Hussites
followers of Jan Hus of Bohemia, and to the Lutherans, and soon
found himself abandoned by all the Protestant princes. Never
a good idea to upset your allies. At their greatest hour of need,
Bohemia suddenly found itself alone against the united troops
of Austria and the Catholic League. Overwhelmed and discouraged,
the Bohemians were defeated, and Prague was taken 9th of November,
1621. Ferdinand had 27 of the most
prominent leaders of Bohemia beheaded. Much property was confiscated,
many were exiled or executed, all Protestant churches were
closed, Bohemia groaned under the oppression of Emperor Ferdinand
II as he tore up and burned the pieces of their Bill of Rights
guaranteeing their religious freedom. Now General Tilly mercily
to many extents, but the faithful servants of the emperor swept
over Germany, pillaging devastating towns, churches, and villages. And the Protestants knew this
was only the prelude to the extermination. There were places where nothing
was left alive, not a chicken. Spain and Austria's early military
successes and their plans to occupy naval bases in the North
Sea and the Baltic coast now led the Dutch to encourage King
Christian of Denmark to open a second front against the Habsburgs.
Now, King Christian was a Lutheran. This ill-fated campaign ended
with the imperial generals Tilly and Wallenstein chasing the Danes
back to their own land. And these staggering imperial
successes and edict of restitution of 1629 handed all Protestant
churches and schools over to Catholic control. Well, this,
of course, provoked a desperate backlash. The German Protestants
now appealed to King Gustav Adolphus of Sweden for protection. After
winning wars against Denmark, Russia, and Poland, Sweden, despite
having barely a million people in total, had emerged as a great
power, a great superpower. King Gustav's military achievements
were originally legendary, and he was perceived as the last
hope of the devastated Protestant cause. Wallenstein's imperial
army, 50,000 strong, had defeated and dispersed the troops of Mansfield,
occupied Silesia, Lower Saxony, and Holstein. Denmark sued for
peace at Lübeck, 22nd of May, 1629. Enormous ruinous taxes
were imposed upon occupied Protestant areas. Soldiers were ordered,
in the name of the emperor, be active. If anyone resists, you
kill him. Throw them into a fire hot enough to melt the stars.
That is not a good idea when you just give soldiers carte
blanche, do what you want. Even the Emperor's brother objected
and letter, Your Majesty can have no idea of the conduct of
the troops. For mere amusement, windows are
broken, walls thrown down, noses and ears cut off. When people
are tortured, violated, assassinated, these are certainly irregularities
which superiors should and can prevent. who fill their purses with the
blood and sweat of poor people. Discontent is everywhere increasing
at an alarming rate. My conscience permits me no longer
to conceal from you the true state of affairs. Not that the
emperor acted upon that warning." That yellow flag, by the way,
is the flag of the Holy Roman Empire. It looks very similar
in color and so on to Vatican's flag for good reason. Now Cardinal
Richelieu, not a friend of the Protestants, this is the number
one enemy of the Huguenots, the French Chancellor, if you've
ever paid attention to Three Musketeers or the Four Musketeers,
Cardinal Richelieu is the conniving politician in the background.
Just to remind you that as Protestants, we should not be ever cheering
the three or four musketeers on because they're the enemies
of the Huguenots, the enemies of the Protestants. And so, you
know, unfortunately, many Protestants are letting their children read
the three musketeers as though they are our heroes. They are
not our heroes, they are our enemies. But anyway, Cardinal Richelieu
was even worse than the musketeers. He was concerned at this resurgent
power of Spain and Austria, and he wrote in his memoirs, all
the prince of Germany, injured and ravaged, looked towards the
king of Sweden in the misery as navigators towards a port
of safety. Now, he was no friend of the
Protestants, but he was deeply concerned about the growing power
of Spain and Austria. Many persecuted Protestants fled
to Sweden for safety, and Gustavus called a senate together at Uppsala
and described the increasing injuries suffered by their brethren
in Germany and the imminent danger which threatened Sweden if she
awaited Catholic control of the Baltic ports. Gustavus determined
to rescue the Protestants from this war of annihilation being
waged by the Austrian emperor. He was aware that he was about
to enter a struggle against a sovereign feared by all of Europe and who
was thought to be invincible. Austrian Empire, this is emperor
of the Holy Roman Empire, and who's Sweden compared to them?
He put his affairs in order, streamlined his government, established
a council as a permanent cabinet to make decisions in his absence,
and with his four-year-old Christiana in his arms, he addressed the
leaders in the hall of assembly. I have not thoughtlessly engaged
in this perilous war, which calls me far from you. Heaven is my
witness that it is neither for my satisfaction nor personal
interest that I go into this conflict ready to sink under
the weight of oppression which hangs over them that German Protestants
stretch suppliant hands to us. If it please God, we will give
them aid and protection. I'm not ignorant of the dangers
that await me. I've already been in many others and by the grace
of God, I've come happily out of them, but I feel that I may
lose my life there. And this is why before I leave
you, I recommend you to the protection of the omnipotent one. He exhorted
the pastors to ever preach the pure gospel to their flocks to
be examples of Christian conduct. He wished his citizens prosperity
in business and abundant harvest. Finally, I send up to God most
ardent prayers for all my subjects. Farewell from the depths of my
heart and perhaps forever. Gustav assembled 15,000 soldiers
and with 30 vessels of war and 200 transport ships set sail
for Europe. This is a major logistical operation. As they landed, he
knelt. O thou that rulest over the heavens
and the earth, over winds and over the seas, how can I worthily
thank thee for the marvellous protection which thou hast shown
during this perilous voyage? My heart is full of gratitude
for thy favours. O, deign to favour my undertaking here so
that it may turn out not to mine but to thy glory. Grant through
me to deliver thy oppressed church and to be to thy faithful servants
a source of great consolation. He noted that the debarkation
took place on the 24th of June, 1630, exactly 100 years to the
day of the Protestants made the celebrated confession of faith
at Augsburg, the Augsburg Confession, after which we were forever known
as Protestants. He exhorted his soldiers, pray
without ceasing. The more prayers, the more victories.
Think not that I undertake this war for myself or for my kingdom.
We go to succor our oppressed brethren. By brilliant victories,
you can accomplish this generous project. Fear not the enemy that
we are going to meet in battle. They are the same that you have
already conquered in Russia. Your bravery has just compelled
Poland to conclude a truce of six years. If you still show
the same courage and perseverance, you will secure to the Evangelical
Church and to our brethren in Germany the peace and security
for which they are now suffering. The king followed up the speech
with a proclamation of the military rules and regulations. Soldiers
were warned against murder or looting or attempt against life
or property would be punishable by death. Their conduct was to
be blameless as they were Christian soldiers fighting in a sacred
cause. secured his communication lines
with Sweden by chasing the imperial troops off the islands in the
Baltic Sea and capturing Stettin. His army disembarked at Pinamundi,
16 July 1630. Pinamundi would become very famous
later in history. As multiple plots to assassinate
Gustav were uncovered, his officers urged him to take precautions.
Gustav retorted, I trust in God. I fear nothing. What shall man
do unto me? and the Jesuits were really busy with assassination
plots. While conquering Pomerania, Gustav was scouting with 70 of
his cavalry and was suddenly surprised and surrounded by 500
of the enemy. The king's horse was shot out
from under him. Many of his men fell all around him during the
furious fighting. The Swedes were about to be completely overwhelmed
when 200 Finns, alerted to danger by the firing, arrived, dispersing
the enemy and saved the king. Of course, the Finns at that
stage were part of the Swedish Empire. Several times during
his military career, Gustav was saved from what seemed like certain
death by some miracle. On one occasion, men all around
him fell under a shower of cannonballs and musket shots so that his
clothes were splattered with their blood. He himself was shot
in the neck, on the shoulder and the stomach. He suffered
a sabre wound to the hand and numerous other injuries. As Gustav
secured northern Germany, the Catholic League mustered two
massive armies under General Pappenheim and General Tilly
to destroy the Swedes. Gustav led his men from victory
to victory, deep into central Germany, securing Brandenburg,
seizing Frankfurt on the order after a short siege. Meanwhile,
Tilly was besieging Magdeburg, one of the most important and
richest Protestant centers in Germany. But while Gustav sought
to hasten aid of besieged Magdeburg, the suspicious electors of Brandenburg
and Saxony refused him passage through their states. Frustrated
by the obstructive timidity of these electors, Gustavus hesitated
to employ force against two Protestant princes, potential allies. Tragically,
after heroic resistance, Magdeburg fell to Tilly's imperial forces.
Betrayed by traitors, undermined by the procrastination of its
neighbors, the richest city in Germany at the time, Magdeburg,
was overcome by fury and savagery as drunken soldiers of nine nations
purged the Protestants. The victims were so numerous,
it's believed to be around 25,000, that they were thrown in wagon
loads into the Elba River. In one church, 53 young girls
were beheaded. Croatians laughed as they cast
little children amidst the flames. They'd been encouraged these
Protestants were devils and deserved this. And when you tell armies
to behave like that, the tortures and horrors perpetrated in Magdeburg
were so shocking that several imperial officers sought Tilly
to put an end to them. But Tilly replied, I've promised
three days for pillaging and slaying. The soldiers must have
some amusement after so much fatigues. Can you imagine any
officer or gentleman making such a comment? Within 12 hours, Magdeburg
was a roaring furnace which reduced this vast opulent city to smoldering
ruins and ashes. The fate of Magdeburg was reported
throughout Europe as a great triumph in the Catholic areas
and as a frightful tragedy for all Protestants. Gustav Adolphus
now declared his grief and frustration of the obstructionism which had
prevented him from rushing to aid of these beleaguered brethren.
At last, the Protestant princes entered into alliance with the
King of Sweden. But when the elector of Brandenburg persisted
in a neutrality too favorable to Austria to be tolerated, Adolphus
moved against Berlin, and at the sight of the Swedish army,
George William consented to make peace with his brother-in-law.
I mean, after all, Gustav was married to his sister, he should
have been a little bit more helpful on this, but it took the armies
at the gates to make him see reason. By this stage, the imperial
armies had devastated Thuringia, and Gustav moved to rescue Hesse
from the advancing Austrians, so Tilly turned on Saxony. On
the 27th of July, 1631, the Swedes made a devastating night attack
on the Catholic cavalry at Bergstad. The elector of Saxony welcomed
Gustav to the fortress of Wittenberg, the same Wittenberg of Martin
Luther, which put him in possession of the Elbe. Wittenberg's one of the key crossing
points of the Elbe River. On the 17th of September at the
Battle of Breitenfeld near Leipzig, the Saxons and the Swedes combined
to confront Tilly's Catholic League, and this battle was to
determine the future of Protestantism and Catholicism in Europe. Gustav
addressed his troops and reminded them that the very existence
of the Reformation in Germany depended on the outcome of this
battle. We battle not for the honors of this world, but for
the word and the glory of God. for the true faith which alone
can save us, the faith which the Catholics have cruelly oppressed
and which they would gladly blot out of existence. An artillery
barrage lasted two hours opened the battle. A west wind blew
the smoke of the cannons and the clouds of dust from newly
worked fields towards the Swedish lines. Gustav made such a rapid
movement of his troops northwards covered by the smoke that the
enemy had no time to prevent it. As Tilly's forces attacked
the Swedes, they were received by the most violent fire. General
Pappenheim attacked the right wing of the Swedes with his cavalry,
but without any effect. Seven times the imperial cavalry
charged and seven times the Swedes repulsed them using their volley
fire. Gustaf himself commanded the right wing in person and
responded to this threat. Tilly threw all his force against
the left wing of the Swedes, but Gustaf reinforced the three
regiments just in time to block this move. Then King Gustaf himself
decided the victory by putting to flight the enemy's left wing,
seizing the heights in which Tilly had placed his artillery.
Soon the Catholic forces hatched into a fire from their own cannon.
Gustaf had his men trained in the use of a variety of weapons,
including enemy's weapons. Battered by cannon fire and a
general advance of Swedes, imperial forces broke and were routed.
As general retreat was ordered, the imperial army disbanded and
fled in disorder. Gustav's victory at, well, a
camp called Breitenfeld, or Battle at Leipzig, Breitenfeld, Leipzig,
or basically next to one another, was complete. He fell on his
knees in the midst of the dead and the wounded, surrounded by
his men, poured forth aloud his gratitude to God in fervent prayer
for this decisive victory. Then he rose to pass from rank
to rank, thanking his brave soldiers for their sacrifices. In his
dispatch to his Chancellor, Gustav wrote, although we have to deplore
the loss of so many brave men, we should before all and above
all thank God for his divine protection, for we never were
in so great a danger. The results of this victory at
Breitenfeld or Leipzig were immense. The United Forces of the Catholic
League and the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire had been annihilated.
Barely 2,000 remained of the previously invincible army. Tilly
had lost all his artillery and nearly 18,000 men in this one
battle. He could only retreat towards
Bavaria. With no imperial army to stop
him, Gustav liberated the Lower Palatinate, took Marienburg and
Frankfurt am Main and Würzburg. On the 10th of December, he entered
Mainz. The Saxon army marched into Bohemia, liberated Prague
by November 1631. The speed and extent of these
Swedish victories greatly alarmed Richelieu, who had supported
Sweden as a counter to the rising power of the Habsburg, but he
was shocked at this dramatic reversal of fortunes. And so
France would play a game. On one time, they supported the
Austrians. Other times, they supported the
Swedes, and back and forth. Real conniving, backstabbing
politician, old Cardinal Richelieu. Gustav's march to the Rhine was
triumphal. After decades of suffering under
imperial troops, even the Catholics were welcoming Gustav as a liberator. In Thuringia, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar
became one of Gustav's most able generals. Historians have noted
that the irreproachable conduct of the Swedish army inspired
both admiration and confidence. In an age where most soldiers
were not well paid and who lived off looting from the population,
the Swedish army was well disciplined, well paid, and didn't take anything
without paying for it and without the permission of the people.
They behaved in a way that had not been seen before, and this
was an inspiration for Oliver Cromwell's later New Model Army,
where he enforced the same principles, New Model Army in England, which
up to then, nobody liked to see armies come into their villages,
but after the realisation, but you're safe from Cromwell's Ironsides,
and you're safe from King Gustav's Swedes. Soldiers who engaged
in looting received the death penalty. When Gustav captured
Catholic strongholds such as Wurzburg, he organized a government
composed of an equal number of Catholics and Protestants. While
he insisted on Protestants being returned their churches confiscated
under so-called edict of restitution, he ensured that Catholics received
the same freedom of worship and security in their property. So
this depiction that some people like to say that, oh, you know,
the Protestants persecuted the Catholics and Catholics persecuted
the Protestants, that's not true, and that's not fair, and it's
not honest. Generally speaking, Protestants like Cromwell, Gustav
Adolphus, treated the Catholics with great fairness and freedom
and did not persecute them as they persecuted the Protestants.
At one Catholic town where the rulers had persecuted the Protestants
most cruelly, his officers urged Gustav to punish them, by which
he meant execute them. The king replied, I've come to
break the chains of bondage, not to forge new ones. Let them
live as they have lived. Frankfurt on a main now resisted
Gustav and declared the desire to remain a commercial ally of
the empire. Gustav responded indignantly,
I am astonished to learn that Frankfurt prizes more highly
its wealth than it does its duties, which religion and patriotism
impose upon it. It is indeed little to its honor
to talk of its sale shops and its fairs while in the liberty
of Germany, and the future of the Reformation are at stake.
It is for the well-being of Germany and for the independence of the
Protestant faith that I do battle. No obstacle can stop me, for
I am conscious of the justice and nobleness of my cause." Well,
Frankfurt soon opened its gates and received Gustav with great
honour, as his army surrounded and prepared to do siege. when a Jesuit priest was captured
attempting to assassinate the king. Gustav responded, the king
cannot live shut up in a box. The wicked have not so much power
as ill will and confidence in God is the best safeguard. God
knows perfectly how well and how long he wishes to employ
my frail arm. If I fail, he will raise up another
instrument more worthy and more powerful than I. His work does
not depend on the life of any one man. At the beginning of
1632, Gustav pursued Tilly into Bavaria, where he defeated the
imperial force at the Battle of Lech. In the face of Tilly's
strongly entrenched camp at Rhein, he pursued the fleeing enemy
to the fortress of Ingolstadt, where Tilly died of his wounds
a fortnight later. Gustav then liberated the long
oppressed Protestant cities of Augsburg and Ulm. In May, he
occupied Munich, the capital of Bavaria, and the heart of
Catholicism in Germany, I might add. The magistrates and the
citizens of Nuremberg received Gustav and his force with great
rejoicing, with a thunder of cannon and a ring of bells mingled
with applause and songs from the most enthusiastic crowds.
He rejoiced to be in the center of Germany, in one of the most
powerful cities of the empire amongst fellow Protestants. Printed
copies of Gustav's address to the city of Nuremberg still remain.
I thank you. I can wish nothing better in
return than perseverance in the evangelical faith. Let nothing
turn you from it, neither threats nor promises, nor any of the
passions to which the human nature is subject. Let not the riches
of earth make you forgetful of the still more precious treasures
of heaven. You have wicked and wily enemies whose aim is the
annihilation of Protestantism. Their hope is to found a peace
upon the ruins of all Protestants, and they seek their end by the
destruction of millions of souls. God has entrusted to you the
administration of an opulent and powerful city, so govern
it as not to fear to give an account which you one day have
to render at the tribunal of God. In these misfortunes, God
has aimed to make us feel how much we are sinners. For you,
for the defense of the gospel, I've left my peaceful home and
come into your agitated country. I've sacrificed the resources
of my poor subjects, their blood, my life, and love of my family.
I will do for you all that the grace of God will give me the
power to do. On your side, be willing to suffer for a while,
if need be, for a sacred cause. Remain faithful to it. Then God
will bless you. He will cause your city to flourish.
His name will everywhere be revered, and after the glory and honor
of earth will come that of heaven. Poems and songs composed at the
time described the new, the good king of Sweden, the glorious
protector, the new Gideon, the second Joshua who directs the
battles of the Lord, this other David who has brought Goliath
low, this valiant man whose heart is without fraud, who seeks only
the glory of God. in your own lifetime to have
poems and songs composed like that. After seeing Tilly the
Butcher of Magdeburg suitably punished, Gustav wrote into Augsburg
as a citizen saying Psalm 103 and rejoiced greatly over the
liberation. And here you can see some of the Thirty Years'
War activities, the different movements and attacks, Denmark's
failed attack, Sweden's movements all around and seeking to fight. You can see the French attacks
as well, which came in at another time, and the counterattacks
from Vienna towards Prague. Gustav entered the city where
princes were first called Protestants for resisting the Emperor Charles
V and where Melanchthon had presented the Augsburg Confession just
100 years before, with great emotion and rejoicing. At the Battle of Ingolstadt,
a 24-pounder cannonball swept the king's horse from under him.
The man next to him, the Duke of Baden, had his head shot off
a few moments later. The king was covered in blood
and dust, and all around feared that Gustav had been killed.
He rose and declared, neither my high birth, nor my royal crown,
nor my weapons, nor my many victories can save me from death. I submit
to the will of God. If he takes me from the world,
he will not abandon the sacred cause which I defend. I know
that I can count upon the aid of an all-powerful, and that
it is he who has sent me into Germany." Despite cruel treatment
meted out on his soldiers when captured by the Catholics, Gustav
resolved to respond to their most bitter hatred by inexhaustible
mercy. Many sought to persuade the king
to avenge upon Munich the sacking of Magdeburg, due to them what
their soldiers did to Magdeburg. But he steadfastly refused this
call for revenge and for bad, and the pain of death, any crime
against life or property. Even the Bavarian priests praised
the nobility of such a generous adversary. Gustav visited the
priests and engaged in evangelical discussions with them in fluent
Latin. When some of his generals complained
that the king would do better to put to flight these Jesuits
than to discuss with them thus, Gustav replied, why would you
persecute these men? Do you not see how much they
injure the cause which they defend and how much they help the cause
which they oppose? At this point, the Catholic League
was dissolved. Austria lay open on all sides.
No army stood between Gustav and the Emperor Ferdinand in
Vienna. However, at this point, the old enemy, Wallenstein, defeated
the Saxons in Bohemia and marched with 60,000 men on Saxony. Gustav had only 20,000 men, but
he could not allow Nuremberg to suffer the same terrible fate
as Magdeburg. So he moved with all haste to
prevent Wallenstein from reaching it. Nuremberg is the apple of
my eye. I will defend it with all my power, declared Gustav.
But Wallenstein stopped short of Nuremberg and encamped in
an impregnable position, threatening the Swedes from the heights occupied
by several hundred cannon. There were frequent skirmishes
and vicious fighting as the Swedes attempted to take the entrenched
positions on the Imperials. Thousands of soldiers were lost
on both sides. Famine began to affect the camps and discipline
broke down. King Gustav confronted his men and allies concerning
his complaints, which afflicted his heart. I would rather lose
life than sully by crime the sacred work which God has entrusted
to me. I pray you, in the name of divine
mercy, to look within yourselves, question your own conscience.
Remember that you must render an account to God of your conduct,
and that you may one day appear before the tribunal of the judge
who sees all things. As Wallenstein began to lay waste
to Saxony, Gustav marched 20,000 men to
Erfurt. He ensured that all the people
and possessions en route were respected. His troops prayed
morning and evening, and no disorderly conduct was reported thereafter.
On the march, the king saw a bird of prey pursuing a lark. Incredibly,
the lark flew straight down and rested on the king's shoulder.
The king tenderly took the lark in his hands and declared, poor
little bird, may God protect you. And he thanked God for giving
him even this opportunity of saving one of his creatures from
harm. And he saw this as a symbol of the work that he was called
to accomplish, protecting Protestant Germany from the Austrian eagle.
In Erfurt, Gustav was welcomed by his queen, who had traveled
to meet him there. But he could only stay one day as the threat
from Wallenstein was so severe. As he took his leave, Gustav
declared to his queen, be of good courage. We shall see each
other again. If it may not be in this life,
it shall at least be sooner or later in the abode of eternal
blessedness. He kissed her one last time and rode fast to rejoin
his troops. I will not be afraid of 10,000s
of people who have set themselves all around me. At Lutzen on the
16th of November, 1632, Gustav summoned his chaplain and spent
an hour with him in prayer before attending the regular religious
services held every morning for soldiers. He remained on his
knees throughout the whole service. Before his men deployed, he had
them sing the battle hymn he himself had composed. Notwithstanding
the tumult and the threatening cries which resound all around
you, fear nothing, little flock. Your enemies rejoice in your
destruction, but their joy will be of short duration. Let not
your courage fail you. Your cause is the cause of God.
Accomplish your mission. Place yourself in the hands of
God and you shall fear no danger. He will find another Gideon to
defend the people and the word of God. We hope in the name of
Jesus, the violence and snares of the wicked will turn against
them. They will thus become an object despised. God is with
us. We are with him. Victory belongs to us. A thick
fog covered the plane in which the battle was to take place.
The imperial forces in the foreground depicted with the yellow crest,
Swedish forces depicted by the blue flag. As the Swedes sang psalms, Wallenstein's
cannon announced the impending assault. Gustav gave the command,
God is with us. As he mounted his horse without
armor, his officers pleaded them, please wear armor. He replied,
the eternal one is my armor. He then rode along the lines
to encourage his men, announcing, the day has arrived in which
you are to show what you have already learned in war. Hold
yourselves ready. Conduct yourselves as worthy
soldiers. Fight valiantly for your God, your country, and your
king. I beseech you in the name of a Christian conscience and
of your honor, do your duty today. as you've done heretofore. March
with courage. I myself will show the way. I'm
ready to risk my life and to shed my blood with you. Follow
me, have confidence in God, and bear away a victory whose fruits
you and your posterity will gather forever. The soldiers responded
with shouts of joy and enthusiasm, and at 11 a.m. the fog dissipated.
The sun brilliantly illuminated the field of Lützen. Gustav raised
his eyes towards heaven and cried aloud, Jesus, Jesus, be thou
my help this day while we battle for the glory of thy sacred name.
He then brandished a sword high above his head and command forward
now in the name of the Lord. And the king placed himself on
the right wing of his army and led them across the trenches
that had been dug by the Austrians. When his infantry did not advance
fast enough, he dismounted and charged with them to inspire
them with a better example. Continually in the front line,
Gustav sought to strengthen each weak point and inspired his men
to throw back the enemy. At a crucial point in the battle,
he became separated from his troops while leading a cavalry
charge into a dense cloud of gunpowder smoke. hit by gunfire,
fell and was killed while lying severely wounded on the ground,
probably trampled by other horses. As word spread throughout the
Swedish army that the king was dead, they hurled themselves
like furious lions upon the left wing of the enemy, and they cut
the imperial forces to pieces. Duke Bernard de Weimar took control
of the army and, charging the right wing, seized the artillery
of the Austrians. Wallenstein was preparing to retreat when
Papanam arrived with eight regiments of reinforcements. Papanam was
immediately wounded and forced to withdraw, dying the next day.
All hope of bringing the imperial forces back into line dissipated. Wallenstein abandoned Saxony
to the Protestants who finally retook all the strong places
that had been occupied by the Austrians. Wallenstein was later
assassinated in orders of the emperor, 1634, for failing in
this battle. And this gives you a bit of a
look at the chaos of the Thirty Years' War. And every red dot
marks an imperial Catholic defeat, and every blue dot marks an imperial
victory. So you get a bit of a feel for
how this worked out. And you can see the gray areas
went to Sweden. grayish areas up here, Bremen
and Pomerania. The beige areas went to France. You
can see like Metz that went to France. The areas that went to
Saxony, large amounts of this part here. The areas that went
to Poland marked in this dark green, The blue went to Transylvania,
so there's a realignment of the whole of Central Europe as a
result of this. The victory of Lutzen was more
cause of grief than joy for the Swedes. Nothing could compensate
for the loss of their beloved king. When I visited the Stadtkirche
in Wittenberg, Germany, I saw in the center of the church 1632
Gustav II, Gustav Adolf. His body was laying in the church
in Wittenberg, in Luther's church, the Stadtkirche in Wittenberg,
immediately after he was killed in battle, before being transported
back to Sweden. some of the memorial pictures
made of this event. In fact, the queen grieved so
much she would not allow him to be buried for many months. And this is the official tomb
of Gustav Adolphus in Stockholm. And the magnus underneath the
grate. Again, they used Latin a lot
at that time. Latin was the language of the
educated. This is the site in Lutzen where
Gustav Adolf died, and they have a chapel built there, and the
Swedish flag flies there. This is a memorial of this is
where the Swedish king died. In Sweden, in Stockholm, there
are many memorials, monuments to Gustav II, Gustav Adolf, and
very prominent in Stockholm. And you can see on the buildings
and the coins memorials of this great courageous king. This is
the wreck of one of his great battleships, which sunk in the
Baltic Sea in a storm, which was raised more recently. And you can view it now in a
museum. See the size of the people down there? It's a very big ship. Because it sank in the storm,
it's preserved pretty much. And now it's a museum piece.
His castle and his crest. Histories of Gustavus Adolphus. The Northern Hurricane is one
of the titles, one of the books on him. And Gustavus Adolphus
the Great, another book. Actions of the Thirty Years'
War by Guthrie. There's many others. There's
also the Swedish stamp, postage stamp that depicts the moment
of his death. The Lion from the North is the
book that more people here might have read by G.A. Henty. G.A. Henty is the accessible historian
who makes these things available, very popular for home schoolers. Truter's vision, Gustav Adolphus
had remained faithful to the mission and he successfully fought
for religious freedom in Germany. He had championed the cause of
Protestantism. He had secured religious freedom
for centuries to come. Gustav Adolphus was a dedicated
Christian king, a reformer king, and a great general. He transformed
the art of warfare. He changed the course of history.
He liberated Protestant Germany from the threat of annihilation.
And the whole course of modern history would have been dramatically
different had not the Lord worked in such a tremendous way through
the courageous crusade of this lion from the north. Psalm 27
verse 1 to 3 says, The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom
shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Though an army encamp against
me, my heart shall not fear. Though war may rise against me,
in this I will be confident. We will be uploading this onto
our reformationessay.org website. One of the lectures on the Soldiers
for Christ audio mp3 is of course, Gustav Adolphus. One of the chapters
in Victorious Christians Who Changed the World is also dedicated
to him, and one of the heroes of the faith in those MP3s. He
was not in the greatest century of Reformation, but the century
that followed, the 17th century, and he is certainly the great
defender of the gains of the Reformation. Any questions, any
comments on Gustav Adolf? flag come from? Well, it's a
Viking flag. So all of the Viking countries
have crosses in the center testifying to the conversion from paganism
to Christianity. I bet the pagans hate those flags
when you think about it. Because everywhere from Denmark,
Norway, Iceland, even England, all have the cross in the Viking
flags. Finland, of course. So the blue
and the distinctive yellow or gold, the gold cross on the blue
background, that's the Swedish version of the Viking flags.
And they've had it from the time of Gustav Vassa, his grandfather,
initiated that flag. Yes. If you had the opportunity,
would you rather fight under Sir Gustav or King Alfred the
Great? What a tough choice. Well, King Alfred the Great was great,
but I must say, Gustav Adolf, wow, what a general, what mobile
warfare. And because it's easier for us
to identify with the kind of warfare tactics he was using
than what they would have been using in the days of Alfred the
Great, I think I would choose Gustav Adolf. or Oliver Cromwell,
who were close. In fact, Oliver Cromwell adapted
a lot of his tactics and so on from what he learned. Remember,
the English Civil War was in the 1640s, so they modeled a
lot of their tactics on how to respond to the Catholics and
to defend England on what they learned from Gustav Adolf. So
I'd have to say Gustav Adolf, yeah, of the options. Well, obviously it's advisable
to wear armour. I believe in wearing armour,
there's nothing wrong with it. He didn't do it because of the
discomfort from still having that musket ball lodged in his
neck. And he just found it too constricting. Now in our sword fighting, I
believe in wearing all armour can, but then again, We have those who don't believe
in much armour and they've got arguments for it too. So Angelo,
what would you say the advantage of fighting with or without armour?
What would you add? Because there is an advantage
to not wearing armour, it gives you more... Armour is constricting. You've
got much more fluidity of movements. That's why the ancient Picts
and Scots would fight, and some Vikings too, without armour,
because it gave them more freedom of movement, more flexibility.
Now, it makes you more vulnerable, but you can move faster, so there's
a give and take. There's advantages and disadvantages
to both. But there are definitely people who prefer to fight without
armor. He made that choice. His leather armor was some protection
against swords, but it was not any protection against musket
balls. And that's a tough choice. Yes, so there's nothing uniquely
spiritual about saying, I won't take armor. But his choice was
primarily because it was uncomfortable. The armor wouldn't have actually
helped him Yes, I mean, that's the thing. He was in the thick
of it and he led from the front. I mean, there are some people
who do that. You know, you think in the Second
World War, there's people like Erwin Rommel, who was in the
lead tank so many times, which is, you're not meant to do that
if you're a commander of an army. You're meant to be back where
you can view everything, but there are those who believe in
leading from the front, by example, and they take extra risks in
doing so. But soldiers will follow such
people. You know, when your commander's taking as much and more risks
than the rest of you, it inspires good men. The armour that they
wore those days could actually stop the musket balls as well. The kind of leather armour they
wore? Not necessarily the leather, but the steel. Oh, right. Yes. I mean, bear in mind, depending
on the range, because the musket balls, they weren't the sharp
pointed bullets we've got today. You know, it might knock you
off your horse, but it would probably prevent penetrating.
True. A crossbow might be more deadly
than some of those musket balls. Any other comments, observations? From those who've read G.A. Henty,
anything you want to add? I must say, every G.A. Henty book
I've read on, I mean, he's always got these great historical novels.
I've read about 12 of them. I must say they're just great.
But he must have written, what, 60, 70? I mean, there's a lot of them.
I'd like to get more. They're very hard to get from
secondhand bookshops. I've got about 12, but they're superb. There's a generation, or there
are several generations, who've learned most of their history
from G.A. Henty books. He teaches a lot of great history with interesting,
dramatic scenarios. not normally from the view of
these famous people, but somebody who was there and witnessed it.
So that's, it's a great way of learning history. Yes. It's quite amazing that
Sweden, you said a word of the Vikings, weren't they? Yes. Or
the Danes. To have gone from that, well,
to have been converted. So that's quite amazing. So he
was, he was the evangelist. You know, a little bit of the
history of, say, Arthur. Wasn't Arthur a saint? I think you've actually dealt
with this before, but it just really occurred to me that the
power of the gospel for these people to become Christians in
Sweden, I think that there was a protest in Sweden. There were
some fine missionaries who went there. But King Alfred the Great
was the first to defeat the Vikings in battle in the ninth century. And he required, instead of killing
the top nobles of the Vikings he defeated, he had them catechized
and baptized and embraced them as Christians, which is an interesting
way of. He said, I can't sign a treaty
with you as pagans because you won't keep your word. But if
you become Christians, then you've got to keep your word. But the
thing is, it was a gracious beginning to the conversion of the Vikings,
which took nearly a century. But the conversion of the Vikings
was just amongst The Norway branch and the Danes, very violent.
Amongst the Swedes, they were more converted by peaceful missions. But still, the Vikings in total,
about the year 1000 marks the point of Vikings being converted
wholesale, whole kingdoms where the king gets converted and they
all declare, OK, you've all got to get converted now, simple.
Baptism or battle, a converted eye, simple. Christ is greater
than Thor, simple. The days of Thor's over. It's
now the day of Jesus. He's greater than Thor. It's
just the way it is. And Woden. Woden's yesterday. Jesus today. So, yeah, I mean, the way how
the Vikings were won to Christ is an incredible story. But to
think that Sweden was once such a great power that it could defeat
the imperial force of Austria, just amazing. And, you know,
just another word that while I'm not a cheerleader of Sweden
and everything. They're one country in Europe
that refused to lock down, refused the mask mandate, refused to
close down the economy, refused the vaccination mandates and
all the rest of it. And they haven't done any worse than anyone
else. They've done better than all
the others. England, Spain shut down hard, and they've got worse
COVID cases than Sweden that didn't close down anything. So something good to say for
Sweden in present day as well. We need to rekindle the Viking
spirit. Yeah.
Gustav Adolphus - The Lion from The North
Series Reformation Society
| Sermon ID | 242212224296 |
| Duration | 1:10:21 |
| Date | |
| Category | Teaching |
| Language | English |
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