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.