The Army of Gustavus Adolphus 1 Infantry

8/2/2019 The Army of Gustavus Adolphus 1 Infantry

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l1QiIDILITARY MEN-AT-ARMS SERIES 23

THE ARMY O F

GUSTAVU S ADO LPHUS1 IN FANTRY


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published in Great Britain in 1991 by

y Publishing, Elms Court, Chapel Way,

y, Oxford OX2 9LP, United Kingdom.

inf()@ospreypublishing.com

DedicationFor Ingetora

pyright l~~l Osprey Publishing l.td.

nted 11)


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THE ARMY OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS I

NTRODUCTION

onsider the great Gustavus Adolphus! In eighteenon th s h etnon one battle, lost a second, and w as killed inthird. Hisjame m astnon a t barga in p rice!' (NapoleonGaspar Gourgaud, 1818)

he rapid rise to fame of Gustavus Adolphus wasdeed extraordinary. For a time he had the status ofgures like Alexander the Great and Napoleon: menho have inspired their armies to perform incredibleats; men almost worshipped in their own lifetimes.His grip on the popular imagination in his day wassed at least partly on something far more mysteri-s than his wide-ranging abilities. A prophecy of49 made by Paracelsus, a contemporary of Nostra-mus, had foretold a series of worldwide disastersat would only end when a Golden Lion came frome north to defeat the Eagle.

The disasters seemed to begin in 1618, when thehirty Years' War broke out, and the Catholicmperor of Germany, whose emblem was the blackgle, went on the rampage in Protestant Germany.

,630 Gusta vus- the last champion of theotestants-came to the rescue. His landings inrth Germany were accompanied by reports ofttles in the clouds and bizarre deformed births. Ons steady march south he smashed the Catholics at

eitenfeld in central Germany. In 1632 he enteredugsburg, the birthplace ofLuthcran Protestantism,d was received as the 'Lion of the North'; fewubted that in the following year he would march one Eagle's nest in Vienna. Unfortunately, in Novem-r 1632 Gustavus (by this time looking, perhaps, tos own predicted destiny) was killed in an imprudentvalry charge at the battle of Lutz en.The Age of Reason has replaced the 'Lion of theorth' myth with another that surrounds him withaura almost as mystieal. It has turned him into aperhuman genius responsible for all manner ofing's: technical innovations (the military uniform

The 'Lion of the North ':Gustu vus Adolphus(Gustav II Adolf), King ofSweden. There can be n()doubt that he wascxccptionnl; tall andblond, educated andculture-loving, with the

convictionoian

evangelistand the bluntness of asergcant-rnajor, he made alasting impression on all

who met him. Already ithis r632 print with theincredible victory atBreitcnield behind him,hint of superiority andimpnricnce with hisGcrrnan allies hadappeared on his tace.

(Print by MntthecusMerion ot Frenkturt)

leather cannon, the 'Swedish feather', paper bulletcartridges, abolition of the musket rest); administra-tive reforms (conseript standing armies, the infantrybrigade, military logistics, huge increases in the sizeof armies, standardisation of artillery ealibres); andtactical innovations (dashing cavalry charges, offens-ive infantry formations, volley fire, close artillerysupport from regimental pieces)


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CHRONOLOGY

949 Dec.: Gustavus Adolphus born.11 He inherits throne; crowned Oct. 1617.11-13 'Kalmar War'. Danes invade Sweden andtake Kalmar (May 161 I) and Sweden's chiefNorth Sea port, Alvsborg (May 1612). Swedesmust pay a million Rdr. ransom for Alvsborg.

11-17 War J1JthRussia. De La Gardie takesNovgorod (161 I). Gustavus's brother Karl Filipis almost elected Tzar (1613). Gustavus besieges

Pskov (1615). Peace ofStolbova (1617).20 Gustavus visits Germany to marry MariaEleanora of Brandenburg.21-26 Conquest of Livonia (Latvia):21-22 r st campaign: Gustavus captures thecapital Riga (25 Sept.) in a few weeks, a feat his

father had been attempting for I I years.23-24 Sweden prepares for Polish invasion.25-26 znd campaign: Latvia captured as far as

Dvina River. At WallhoJ(Walmojza) (17 Jan.1626) Gustavus defeats Poles in his first openfield battle.26-29 Conquest of Polish Prussia:266 July: Gustavus lands at Pillau, quickly takesElbing, Marienberg and seizes control of the

Vistula. 22 Sept.-I Oct.: Battles at Mewe(GnieJ1J). Polish cavalry halted by musket fire.27 16 April: Battle oj Hammerstein (Czarne);2,500 German mercenaries surrender to thePoles. 18 May: Fresh army lands and marches onDanzig, but Gustavus is wounded (2/3 June)crossing Vistula. 7/8 Aug.: Battle of Dirschau(TczeJ1J): Almost a major victory, but Gustavusshot in the neck. 28 Nov.: Naval battle at Oliva.28 Small scale campaigning, hampered bydevastation of Prussia and plague. June: Swedesrelieve Stralsund which is under siege by theImperialists under Wallenstein.2912 Feb.: Battle 0/G6rzno. Herman Wrangeldefeats Poles. 26 June: Cavalry battle atStuhml Honigfelde (Trzciana). Poles withImperialist help defeat Gustavus. 26 Sept.: Polesand Swedes agree to six-year Truce of Altmark.30-35 'Swedish Phase' of the Thirty Years'War. Gustavus comes to rescue of the GermanProtestants.

1630 The bridgehead in North Germany. He landPeenemunde (16 July), captures Stettin andgradually evicts Imperialists from Pomerania.

1631 Advance into central Germany. 13 April:Frankfurt-an-der-Oder stormed. 20 May: SacMagdeburg by the Catholics: 30,000 die. 22 June:

Brandenburg makes alliance with Sweden. 27July: Devastating night attack on Catholic cavalryat Burgstall. Sept.: Saxony, Bremen, and Hesse-

Kassel ally themselves with Sweden. 17 Sept.:Battle 0/ Breitenfeld ('Leipzig'). Swedes/Saxonsdefeat Tilly's Catholic League veterans.Sept.-Nov.: Swedes occupy Germany north ofline from Mannheim to Prague. Winter:Gustavus sets up his 'General-Government' of

Germany at Frankfurt-am-Main.1632 Into Catholic south Germany. April: Battle

Rain (' Crossing ofthe Lech'). Catholics defeatedTilly killed. Augsburg and Munich captured.3 Sept.: Storm 0/ Alte Feste, Nuremberg-Gustavus defeated while assaulting Wallenstein'scamp. 16 Nov.: Battle ofLut.zen. Gustavus killSwedes are too stunned to follow up Imperialists.

1633-35 Sweden defensive: Oxenstierna takes over

rule for Gustavus's young daughter Christina.163323 April: Heilbronn League formed to control

Swedish/Protestant forces in Germany. Army

mutinies. 8 July: Battle oJOldendorJSwedish/Protestant victory. October: Battle 0Steinau. Wallenstein captures a Swedish armyand reconq uers Silesia.

163425 Feb.: Wallenstein assassinated. 22 April:Brandenburg breaks off alliance with Sweden. 6Sept.: Battle oj Nordlingen, Spanish/Imperialistsdestroy main Swedish/Protestant army. Southand central Germany fall.

163530 May: Peace 0/ Prague. Saxony breaks withSweden and joins Emperor. August: armymutinies--Oxenstierna held hostage. 12 Sept.:Peace 0/ Stuhmsdorf. Prussian conquests returnedto Poland, but Livonia becomes officiallySwedish. April, Oct.: French-Siaedish alliances.Best mercenaries go with Bernhard of Weimar toFrench service. 'French phase' o/Thirty Years'War begins.


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GUSTAVUS AT WAR

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The greatest of roth and early zoth-centuryitary historians have even gone so far as to call himfather of modern armies', and the inventor of

al war'. Of course, no one single man could everve achieved all these innovations. The problem is,at exactly did he do?

The Swedish background

eden began the 17th century as an insignificantckwater, where many southern Europeans believedy wild savages lived. If it was not for the tradingwer of the Hanseatic League, Sweden might havept through the Renaissance entirely. Thanks to thensa, though, Sweden made strong links with therman port of Lubeck; and in return for her copper,eden took on a thin veneer of German culture.Since 1397, the three ancient Scandinaviangdoms-Sweden, Denmark and Norway-haden subject to Danish rule. (Finland until 1809 wast of Sweden.) In 1523 the Swedes broke away andcted Gustav Vasa as their king. Gustav foundedgreat Vasa dynasty. He had three sons: Erik XIVo ruled after him (1560-68), J ohan III (ruled68-92), and Duke Karl.In 1592 Johan Ill's son Sigismund succeeded himthe throne. Sigismund had been brought up as atholic by his Polish mother, and in 1587 had beencted king of Poland. His staunch Catholic viewson led to conflict, and he was deposed by Gustavsa's third son Duke Karl in 1599. In 1607 Dukerl was crowned as Karl IX. However, Sigismundurned to his Polish kingdom determined to recoverSwedish crown. So began the feuding and

bsequent devastating wars between Polish andwedish Vasas which were to last until 1660 and tod in the Baltic hecoming a Swedish lake.

In 1611 Karl IX died, leaving the country to hisycar-old son, Gustavus Adolphus (the Latinisedm of his Swedish name, Gustav Adolf). As well asheriting the Polish war, Gustavus found himselfth his main army absent in Russia, and with anish army of reconquest advancing deep into

weden. Sweden was already in a terrible conditioner decades of conflict; the state coffers were nearlypty, and the population on the verge of rebellion;

task before him was huge. The appalling state ofarmy must have looked like one of his lesser

oblems.

THE MILITARY

BACKGROUND

'The Swedish cavalry in general is badly equipped,having no armour; the foot is badly clothed anarmed, in fact not having a single pike in use orpossession and being mere farmers ... ' This waJohann of Nassau's opinion of the Swedish army i1601. Its failings were admirably confirmed whenwas virtually annihilated at Kirkholm in Latvia i1605 by a Polish-Lithuanian force only one-third itsize.

Karl IX had already tried to reform the army alonthe new Dutch lines. In 1601 he appointed Johann oNassau his general-in-command of the armyLatvia, but Johann's stay was too short for the Dutch

The blood-stained shirtGustavus wore when shotin the neck by a Polishmarksmen at Dirschau inr627.He never wore metalarmour again because ofthe resulting soreness inhis shoulder, and he foundit difficult to use his right

arrn, The three shirts hewas wearing when killed atLiitzen also survive, buthave been even moreheavily mutilated thanthis shirt to provide relicsfor visiting dignitaries.(Li vrustkernrnarcn=hereafter, LRK)


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tem that he attempted to introduce to take a lastingd. Little of the Dutch system had been writtenwn when Gustavus began his schooling. The bulkhis early reading consisted of the conventionalitary textbooks-describing the Spanish-GermanLandsknecht' system then in use in Sweden.In r608 Karl called in Jakob de la Gardie, who hadt returned from Dutch service, to give Gustavuso months of tuition in Dutch techniques. Theancellor commented that during this short periodr j-year-old Gustavus began to talk 'almost

essantly about other peoples' wars, battles, sieges,art of war on land and water, shipping and sea-

vel' .By r6IO, the young Gustavus was already dabblingmatters of military importance and had asked for aitary command. When Denmark invaded Swedenr6r r his impatience could no longer be contained,d he joined the army in the front line. In r6r4 hes setting off for Narva on the Russian border for hist campaign overseas; and in r6r5 he took controlthe (unsuccessful) siege ofPskov in Russia.With the Russian war finally ended in r617, andquestion of his rights to the crown settled by hisonation in October r6r7, Gustavus was able ton to the reform of his army. Immediately he madeof his links with Holland. The Dutch, since r6r3,

d been buying immense consignments of copper top Sweden payoff the t million Rdr. 'Alvsborgsom' to Denmark. From r617 Gustavus sent somehis veterans of Dutch service-Nils Stiernskold,toni Monier and James Seton-shuttling betweeneden and Holland. They asked for mercenaries,ms and armour, and technical assistance with hisllery. Much of this was paid for with Swedishpper.

Meanwhile, important events were taking place inrmany: the Thirty Years' War was brewing, andGerman towns were becoming increasingly un-

y. A movement called Landesdefension (Defence ofLand) had developed to help the small Germanes to protect themselves with locally recruiteditias. It took the best of the new Dutch ideas andned them for a German market. The chief mindswork were Johann of Nassau, and Johann Jacob

n Wallhausen, author of influential militarynuals for infantry- L' Art Mifitaire pournfanterie (r6r5); cavalry-Kriegskunst zu Pferd

Johann, Count of Nassau-Siegen (1.;61-1623), who

along with his cousinPrince Maurits, Stadholderof the United DutchProvinces, and his brotherWillem Lodewijk ofNassau, was at the heart ofthe Dutch retorms.Relearning the lost skills ofClassical armies Iromtranslations ot Rornanmilitary manuals, theyreorganised battleformations tomake them

rnore flexible and to

increase firepower. Johannwas the brains behind the

most Iamous of all drillmanuals, dc Gheyn'sWapenhandelinghe ...(Exercise otArmes) of1607; and the Founder ofone of the first militaryacademies, at Siegcn inGerrneny. His importancein the spread ot'Dutchideas to ProtestantGermany and Sweden isonly slowly COIningto beappreciated. (Museuin

Siegerlandes, Siegen)

(r6r6); and artillery-Archifey-Krzegskunst (r6Johann of Nassau made Wallhausen director of thnew military academy at Siegen in Germany whichhe opened in r6r6. Landesdefension was exactly wGustavus was looking for: it was based on locallyraised troops, and was cheap.

Gustavus's visit to Germany, 1620-21

In r620 Gustavus visited Germany ostensibly to gemarried. He spent a good deal of time roaming


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title page ofpitz's Kriegs KunstKoniglicheredischer Manier ...of War in the Royalish Manner). Printed

638 (though completed1633), it was the firstal describingish drill in any deta il.rowed heavily from

Wallhausen's influentialn}anuals-even this titlepage is little more than areworking of"Wallhausen 's1615 infantry manual,though the rnuskcteer and

pikeman have beenredrawn in 1630S clothing.(lJl'Psala lJniversityLibrary-hereafter, lJlJB)

und German princedoms disguised as 'Captains' (an acronym formed from his title Gustavusolphus Rex Sueciae). On 28 May (O.S.) he visitedann of Nassau in Heidelberg. The events of the

were recorded in the diary of a fellow traveller:we followed Count Johann of Nassau into hismbers. There he showed us with little papers howwould deploy an army in battle, in what way heks a regular fortress should be built. And thenk us into the arsenal, there we saw two types ofons fitted with pikes and small iron-gunso tsty ce er'; ... '.Gustavus returned to Sweden and within two

rs had introduced his most important reforms. Heuced his infantry companies from 272 men to r50,his infantry formations from eight or ten ranks to

six deep. In July r62r he published his Articles ofWar, determined to stamp out 'the insignificantmilitary discipline and order that have hitherto beentolerated ... '.

Also in r62r, Wallhausen published DefenPatriae oder Landrettung, an instruction book on hoto put together a German militia army in the Dutchmanner. His recommendations bear more than pass-ing similarity to Gustavus's chief reforms:

'Companies of r50men ... are strong enough ... themore officers they have the better they are.' As for(files), 'the best convenience will you have if youmake them 6 strong, ... then you can march them sixstrong in the open field, and in half rots, three strongon narrow roads' (an important consideration onSweden's constricted tracks). Wallhausen also de-tailed a huge variety of other minutiae, ranging fromthe best types of clothing, down to the colour of tiltsfor the army's wagons.

It is often said that Gustavus was personallyresponsible for turning Dutch military theories into aworkable military system. This is not entirely correct:what he adopted between r617 and r622, was, with afew changes, basically a refined Protestant Germanversion of the Dutch system.

THE CONSCRIPTARMY

If one of Gustavus's achievements has been singledout by historians as his greatest, it is probably thecreation of a permanent conscript army-one of thefirst in Europe to be organised into regiments with

regional affiliations. Even here, the credit should notall go to Gustavus. His uncle, Erik XIV, had alreadyachieved something similar in the r S60s with(admittedly short-lived) national 'great-regiments',and even these were merely an extension ofmedieval militia system, of a type that had largelydied out elsewhere in Europe.

Conscription

Utskrivning or conscription, as a means of raisininfantry in Sweden, also dates back to the mid-r6thcentury-the cavalry were mostly volunteers.


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nks to poor administration and widespread cor-tion, conscription was not working well untilstavus laid down firm guidelines and began to

orce them strictly.His regulations of 1620 made all males over 15rs old liable for conscription. When an utskrivningordered, the men of a district were divided upfiles (rotar) of ten men, and each file was lined up

ore army commissioners in the local meeting hall.e man was selected from the ten, usually a robustsant of IS to 40 years of age, but preferably young.clothing and sword were paid for, in theory att, from the 'file-money' (Rote-penningar) contri-ed by the nine remaining men of his file. He was

n taken to the locally based regiment and trainedrously before setting off on campaign.

The Provincial Regiments

success of the system -foreigners marvelled atw mere farmers' lads could be turned into disci-

ed soldiers-relied on the establishment of per-nent provincial regiments. These went throughe distinct phases of development: the peacetimedsregiment (16 17); the peacetime Landsregiment

mposed for war of three Field-Regiments (C.1625);finally, the Provincial Regiment (c.1630).

The first stage was set up in 1617 by Chancellorel Oxenstierna rather than Gustavus. He dividedkingdom into eight military districts, each of

ch was to supply a Landsregiment: two in Finland,other six in Sweden (Norrland, Uppland, Soder-

nland, Ostcrgotland, Vastergotland, and Sma-

land). Each Landsregiment was commanded by a 'lacolonel'; and was made up, in theory, of 3,600 menorganised in six administrative 'squadrons' (not to bconfused with tactical squadrons). However, thLandsregiments were peacetime administrative unionly. Prior to a campaign men were drafted out anreorganised into separate regiments for use in thfield.

By the end of 1625 it was seen that these 'fieldregiments' should have a permanent existence. Asresult the Landsregiment began to consist of th

field-regiments (Fattregiment). Either one orwere sent abroad, the remainder staying at homedefend the province from invasion.

With war becoming the normal state of affairsthe late 1620S, it was realised that a separatpeacetime organisation was unnecessary: the field

A company drawn up fortraining in the Swedishmanner, trotn Troupitz'smanuel. The central blockis Ina de up of 'pikemen andthe two wings are ofmusketeers; each block hasits own drurnrner. Thecompany's threecommissioned oflicers-captain, ensign (with flag),and lieutenant-lead theblocks. The two sergeants(responsible for drill andbattle order) watch thesides; and three 'under-oflicers'-Furier, Fuhrer-of-colours (ensign'sassistant), andRiistrncister (captain-of-

armsi=bring up the reThe fourth 'under-otticer',the muster clerk, did notnormally fight in the field.

The illustration is,however, incorrect inseveral crucial details. Thepike block should ha venine files under threecorporals; the musketeersshould have only twelvefiles under three corporalin all. Troupitz probablyillustrates a late Gerrnanvariant, whichcompensates for theincreasing shortage ofpikcmcn in the 1630s. Theartillery pieces are puredecorative.


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ments were the most practical units both in warpeacetime. The Landsregimeni was abandonedits territory distributed among the field-

ments. Each of these developed into a provincial-ment (Landskapsregiment).Gustavus's reforms were finally set in concrete by

1634 government constitution-effectively arter for the army. The document included a list of

provincial-regiments in order of precedence.en regimental numbering' was introduced it fol-ed this ranking system, and remained essentially

hanged until 1925.The provincial-regiments of 1634 (most of whiche already in existence by 1630) were as follows:

eden

plandraborgcrrnanlandnobergkopingarnaDal-rcgt. )crgotlandsinge

AlvsborgVastcrgotland-

DalslandVastmanlandVastcrbottenKalmarNarkc-Varrnland

Finland

Abo-IanBjorneborgTavastehusViborgSavolaxNylandOsterbotten

IINFANTRY REGIMENT

t-Regimen ta l St af f

(1200 men) Colonel"

I I JLt . Colonel"Majo~

Quartermaster

osrs Lt. Col:s Major'S Captain'SChap la in s (2 -4 )

Schultzpany company company company Surgeons (4)

Prov osts (4)

Reg imenta l c le rk

Iaotaln's IICaptatn's IICaptain's IICaptain's I Cou rt m a rs ha l c le rkCourt mar sh al s erge an tompany company company companyStock -knights (bea dle s) (2)

Hangman

(0 company commanders)

INFANTRY COMPANY

(150 men)

I Eac h Rot ( Iil e) c on ta in s 6 'Ma rc hi ng men':: 1 C orporal (e) or Botmaster (A)

: 4 C ommon s old iers, 1 Unde r- ro trn as te r ( ti le -c lo se r],

Compan y Stal l

Captain"UeutenantEnsign

Sergea nts (2)

FUh re r o f c ol ou rsFurier

AUstmei st er (c ap t. 0 1 a rms)Mus te r c le rk

Drummers (3)Muste r-bo ys (4)

(" or Co l., U.Col., Majo r)

( Ca pta in-lieutenan t in

c oio re rs c oy )

II_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ L _

Pas sevo la nt s ( 14 )

The human cost

Between 1626 and 1630 an average of 10,000 menwere conscripted each year, with a peak in 1627 o13,500. This amounted to 2% of the entire malepopulation each year. As the drainage of manpowerincreased in the 1630s, boys of 15-17 began to beconscripted.

In some northern areas of Sweden the effects weredisastrous. A now notorious study by J. Lindegrehas revealed the effects on the parish of Bygdea,which in 1620 consisted of about 250 farmsteads with1,900 people in all. By 1639 the population had fallento about 1,700. The male population between r 5 and60 had dropped even more dramatically, from 468 in1621 to only 288 in 1639. Of 230 men conscripted,only 15 ever returned alive.

The study also reveals that the mortality ratamong Bygdea conscripts in Prussia and Pomeraniaaveraged 50% per year, almost all from illness ratherthan enemy action. The worst years by far were r627to 1629 when Gustavus was bogged down in PolishPrussia. Conscription to the Swedish infantry, ieffect, amounted to a death sentence.

The basic building block of

Gustavus's infantry wasthe regiment (not thebrigade, as sometimessuggested), Its size wasfixed by Gustavus in 1621at eight companies eachnominally of 1 0 men. Afew larger regiments of t zand 16 companies alsobegan to appear from 1628.Regiments with othernumbers ot'cornpanies hadusually failed to reach

strengthThe regimental staffseems to he ve variedsomewhat at the colonel'sdiscretion, but thecompany stutl'wes fixed at16 men-a very highnumber for armies of thetime, which gave theSwedes advantages ininitiative and flexibility,,111dallowed the companyto function as a seperatcbody in small or remotegarrison.'>.Muster-boys'werc officer's servants: twowere allowed to thecaptain and one each {or

lieutenant and ensign.

'Passevolants' were non-existent mcn whose salarycompensated the captainfor replacing deserters andmen who died of illness;the state was onlyresponsible for making uplosses due to enemy actioIn practice, the allowanceseems to have beenreduced fro11114men to10% ot compeny ctiectives.

Though the

establishment strength ofan eight-companyregiment was officially1,200 rnen, in practice itnumbered only 128 offic(excluding regimentalstaff) and 1,008 'marchingmen' (432 pikemen andmusketeers). The ISOmancompany, in fact,numbered only 16 officerand t zti tncn (S4pikemenand 72 musketeers).


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MERCENARIES

ere was a limit to the burden Gustavus could placehis own citizens. Already in the early 1620S he haddespread rioting on his hands. His only option wasincrease the num bel' of foreign mercenaries.

The word 'mercenaries' has unfortunate connot-ons today, and modern Swedes prefer to call themlisted' (varvade) troops, the term actually used bystavus's administration to distinguish them fromnscripted troops. They were mostly volunteerssed by a recruiting party attracting men to thegiment by the beat of a drum. Nevertheless theyre normally foreigners, usually Germans, forom the main attraction of the Swedish army was

dom more complicated than adventure and, ofurse, money.The mercenary system relied entirely on a fewerprising officers who had access to large sums ofney. The chief of a regiment was normally aonel, who received a personal patent from Gus-us to raise a regiment, which thereafter wastually his own private property. As well as earningubstantial salary, such a colonel-proprietor treated

regiment as a profit-making business. The worstonels fleeced their soldiers mercilessly for everyesd a le r they were worth, and, in the words of oneots officer, often 'could only be induced to payen they had exha usted every means of evasion'.One of the reasons that foreigners flocked tostavus's ranks was the prospect of rapid pro-otion, and the smell of money that this entailed. Aod example is Christofvon Houwald (or Hubald).rn in 1602 the son of a Saxon clothmaker, he joinedas a common musketeer in 1616-18, and servedEmperor, Saxony, Mansfeld and Brunswick

fore going to Sweden in 1624. He rose steadily inBlue Regiment: lieutenant 1625, captain 1627,

jor 1629, lieutenant-colonel 1630, and was made awedish nobleman in May 1630. In winter 1631/32,reward for capturing an enemy fortress on his owntiative, he was commissioned as colonel of a newot and a new horse regiment. When his regiments

re disbanded after the battle of Nordling en in 1634left for Saxon service as a major-general. From35 to 1654 he was in Poland, becoming 'ouerkom-

This picture, painted in

1618, teJls theextraordinary story of agTOUp of seal-huntel's Irornthe island of Gotland whowere marooned on aniceberg in 1603. Theysurvived for 14 days until

the iceberg was blown

ashore. Their thick linedjackets and breeches andeastern-style fur capsshould give an idea otthecold-weather dress ofnative Swedish infantry.(Faro Church, Gotland)

mendant' of Danzig's garrison, and battling againstKhmelnitsky's Cossack rebels at Beresteczko in 1651.He finally died in retirement on a large estate in 1663.

Though Houwald's promotion from the ranks wasnot typical, it was considerably more common in theSwedish army than in others. His wide internationalexperience was not at all unusual. Before 1631however, Gustavus rarely gave regiments to advturers unless they came with impeccable referencesfrom other Protestant armies. He preferred, as inHouwald's case, to train his officers in his ownmercenary 'coloured regiments'.

The Coloured Regiments J

Regiments with colour names were fashionablechiefly in Protestant states. In 1620/21 Count Mans-feld had raised Red, Blue, Yellow and Green mercen-ary regiments for the German Protestants; and in1625/26 the Danes had levied a similar selection.

Sweden's first coloured regiments acquired theircolour names between 1625 and 1627. Significantly,

I Not to be confused with 'coloured brigades', which weretemporary groupings of regiments for campaign and battlefielduse.


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Swedes besiegingOlg.1Stn NorthmH ny, .fuly/A ugust0. I I I the clouds justow the titlelg,lStuJll' is one of thecorologicu Inomena tha tornpnnied GUSt,lvW,'Sval in Germany: thewedish) Lion fighting thepsburg} Eagle. A t this

early stage in the warmallY infantry regimentshad colour names. Writtensources contirm thatVitzthum's (orange)Regiment and the 12-company strong BlueRegiment wcrc present.The Schwartz (black)Regiment is probablyKnypheuseti's. Fro111a1630Sprint. (UUB)

y had the same names as Mansfcld's originaliments; in fact, many of the troops had earlierved Mansfeld, and then the Danes, before comingr to Sweden. The colour names referred chiefly tog colours (see Plate D).e Yellow Regiment: The senior mercenary regi-nt, which at times was called the Court Regimentooregimenn or Guards Regiment. It had severalrt-lived predecessors: 1613, the Liferegt.;

15-16, His Majesty's Regt.; 1618-21, the Drabantgt.; 1621-24, the (old) Hovregt. The (new) Hov-

regt. was formed in 1624, mostly from Germans; itwas first called the 'Yellow Regiment' in 1626, andkept this name until it passed into French pay in

1635.The Blue Regiment: The longest-lived mercenaryregiment. It became officially known, from J634 atthe latest, as the 'Old Blue'.The Red Regiment: The least well-known of thefour-it remained in Prussia until 1631, so did nottake part in the first year's campaigning in Germany.The Green Regiment: The junior of the four, thGreen Regiment has acquired a mythology all of itsown, mostly because one of its colonels, JohnHepburn, was a Scot. The Green Regiment was oncethought to be the ancestor of the senior Britishregiment of the line, The Royal Scots, which in factdescended from a Scots regiment raised by Hepburnfor France in 1633. Some have even speculated that

the 'green' part of the regiment's name came from thegreen of the Scots tartan worn in the ranks. In fact,


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ming ot'Frank turt-sm-Oder, April [6]I. Thisne of the last prints tod colour IJaJ11esorinfantry regiments

bably because theirwere becomingcognisable). Thements are deployed indron-type formationsbattalions) rather thanades; the larger ([2

pany) regiments (Blue,ow and White) fieldsquadrons. Note also

assault columnsking with musketeerspport. Contemporaryon ot a [631 printnally by Peter Rollos.smuseum,terdam)

de from a handful of Seots officers, there wasdly a Scot in the regiment at all. The muster rolls,ch survive in the Stockholm Krigsarkivet, showstly Germans who, in fact, were mainly Prussiansuited as part of the feudal obligations of the DukeBrandenburg to Poland. The regiment was march-to join the Poles in July 1627 when it was

reepted by the Swedes. Israel Hoppe records thedent in his chronicle of the Prussian campaign:Count von Thurn shouted out: "Friends ormies?". To which the [Prussian] infantry replied:ends!". lIe continued: "Then shoulder yourskets!". And when this was done, he rode up andd: "Are you the King of Sweden's men?". "Ja, ja!"

y answered.'Gustavus incorporated the regiment into his army,sent the officers back to the Duke of Brandenburgell him 'to take more care of his men in fu ture' .

The New Coloured Regirnents

ween J629 and J630, Gustavus greatly expandedmercenary force in preparation for his landing inmany. The four existing colour regiments were

eased in size from eight companies to 12 (thelow and Blue Regiments later even reached 16).ny new regiments were also levied; the colonels of

some of these regiments (hoping, no doubt, to breakinto a select circle) adopted their own colour names:The Black Regiments were closely related: three weraised in 1629 from German Hansa towns (mostlyEmden) by Hovma.rsha.IFalkenberg, and accordingthe contemporary historian Chemnitz (I, p.26) awere black regiments. A possible fourth black regiment was raised in early 1630 by Knyphausen, alsmostly in Emden, and in Hamburg. This is probablythe 'black regiment' indicated on a print of the siegof Wolgast. Interestingly, Knyphausen had beenFalkenberg's Lieutenant-General in 1629.The Orange Regiment and Brown Regiment were braised in Prussia in early 1630 from mercenaries

discharged from Polish, Brandenburg and Danzigservice. Hoppe records Johann Vitzthum voEckstadt's 'orange-coloured German regiment'twice, and Dargitz's brown regiment once.The White Regiment was established from the garison of Stcttin which surrendered without fightingfew days after Gustavus landed in Germany.

The colour names of the new coloured regiments,unlike the old ones, were not normally used in officia

correspondence. Initially, they were all intended thave 12 companies, but quickly all but the WhiteRegiment were reduced to eight. Note that there were


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ny more mercenary units without colour names,d these were known instead after the name of theironel.

Table A: Mercenary Regiments with ColourNames

e four old coloured regimentsllom 1624 (no c.o.)-25 Frans Bernhard v.

Thurn -27 M. Teuffel -31 N. Brahe -33 Lars Kagg -34 Schonbeck 1635 toFrance(from C.1634 called The 'Old Blue') 1624H. G. v. Arnim -25 M. Teuffel -27 H. v.der Noth -29 H. K. v. Klitzing -30H. G. aus dem Winckel -36? 'Old Blue'

1650d1624/25 K. S. v. Plato -26 Ernhard Ehren-

reiter -30 Giesebrecht v. Hogendorf -35d1627 H. K. v. Klitzing -29 John Hepburn

-32 Adam v. Pfuel -35d

ue

d

een

w coloured regimentsack 1629 D. v. Falkenberg -30d?ack 1629 Adolf D. Efferen genannt Hall -31

G. Wulfv. Wildenstein -32d?

ack 1629 Claus Dietrich 'Sperreuter' -30?I-I.Jk. v. Thurn -34d

ack? 1630 Dodo Knyphausen -31drange 1630 J. Vitzthum v. Eckstadt -35da/PI? 1630 Melchior v. Dargitz -31d?hite 1630 Damitz -31 J. Jost v. Rehn -32 W.

Burt -32 Dodo Knyphausen -37 Sara-zini -38d

y: First date is year of levying, following datesg. '-32' = 1632) show changes of colonel;= unit disbanded; v. = von; Christian names-= Maximilian, S = Sigmund, W = Wilhelm,= Nils, I-I = Hans, K = Kaspar, J = Johann,= Georg, D = Dietrich, Jk = Jakob.

British Mercenaries

ost of Gustavus's foreign mercenaries were Ger-

ans, but he recruited many other nationalities. Theutch and Flemish were sought after chiefly asgineers or artillerymen; the French (mostly

The brigade ofthreesquadrons, from a print ofthe battle ot'Hessisch-

Oldendorf(r633) inTheatrum Europacum, III(Frankfurt, r639).Eachsquadron was, in theory,made up of fourcompanies (representedhere by four company flagsin front of each squadron'spikes). Low campaignstrengths rneanr that, inpractice, tacticlsquadrons alrnost alwayshad more than tour

companies.The Swedish brigadeonly barely outlived

Gustavus; Turner, whoarrived in Germany inr632, saw it used 'for onyear after the King's death;but after that time, I saw itwear out when dctetisivear111Sirst, and then pikescame to be neglected ... 'Brigades continued to beused as higher levelgroupings ot'regiments illthe modern sense, but werereplaced (except possiblyin a few pitched battles) bya return to the squadron(i.e. battalion) as the

tactical torrnarion.

Huguenots) served often as dragoons; ProtestantBohemian exiles supplied at least one completecavalry regiment. The British, however, outnum-bered by a very large margin all these and othenationalities except the Germans. Their specialitywas infantry, because the export of horses from

Britain was forbidden.The connection of Scotland with Sweden has often

been called a 'special relationship'. The Scots andSwedes had much in common: harsh climates,poverty at home, and strict Protestantism. In a periodwhen water linked rather than divided peoples theywere not really so far apart geographically. WhenGustavus had his main channels of mercenary recruitment from Germany cut off by enemy action i

1627 and 1628, it was only natural for him to turnBritain for troops.

Soon, though, the Swedes began to appreciate th


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hereasthe regiment >111dmpany werepermanentctures, the 'Swedish'adron and brigade wereentially temporarypings [or use on thelefield. The Swedishdron appeared firstween 1617 and 1621. Itmodelled on the Dutchalion or half-regimentady used by the Dutch

er Prince Meurits atsiege ot'Rhees in 1614.s diegram is based onb)' Watts in Thedish Discipline. The

IPikemen I36 r ol s)t 50 pacesMusketeers

(3 2 rots)

Surplus Musketeers(total 16 rots)

CJ CJThe Swedish Squadron

Brigade of three squadrons1627-28.1631-34Pik.1 1

Musk.13 1'I -=P':--k.--::3-'1D 'I ----=P::-ik.--,2:--'11Musk.,2 1ISurpl us Muskets (48 rots) I

Musk et b lock s (32 rots)Pike bl ocks (3 6 ro ts)

1 P ik.1 1

Musk., 3 1'I:--P:C:ik-.:-3I D 'I- -- -: -P -'k .- 2- '11 Mu sk ., 2Brigade of four squadrons

1628-31

ISurpl us Muskets (48 ro ls) I

s~s~C:::?P~s8 rots) (total 32 rots) (8 rots)

tish for positive reasons: 'They are good fellows,ier to deal with than others tend to be,' wroteenstierna in 1630. Whereas German mercenariespolitical interests too close to home, the British

ld be trusted to hold strategic Latvian, PrussianNorth German garrisons. Scots, in particular,

an to playa role out of all proportion to theirmbers. The German mercenary and Swedishscript units they were given to command easilynumbered the wholly British units. At least aen Britons rose to the rank of major-general andher, Field-Marshal Alexander Leslie being thest famous of all.As perhaps the ultimate symbol of trust Mackays commissioned in 1630/31 to raise a British

abant' bodyguard for Gustavus. This onlyterialised shortly before the battle of Lutzen,en officers from disbanded British regiments were

squadron deployed in twomain bodies: a pike blockof 36 rots (files of six men),followed after an interval(usually of 50 paces) by amusketeer formation of32rots. The squadron '0 5musketeers could advanceto either side of the pikeblock ifit was threatened.A further 16 rots of'surplus' musketeers (96

rnen} provided a reserve orcould be detached forother duties. Excludingofficers, a squadronnumbered .,04marching

The 'Swedish' brigade isone of the few innovationsthat can be credited toGustavus (or at least to hisstall) with some certainty.Surviving contemporarysketches of orders ofbattleshow that after trials withfive and even sevensquadron wedges, a three-squadron brigade evolvedin Polish Prussia over1627-28.Gusto vus added afourth (reserve) squadronin around 1628-29,probably to counter thehuge Imperialist tercios heexpected to Ieee inGermany.

The only detaileddiagrern of the 'Swedish'brigade published in itsday was Lord Reay '0 5sketch in The SwedishDiscipline in 1632. This hasled to the mistaken vicwthat the brigade off oursquadrons was thestandard formation: itwas, in fact, seldom usedin bettle, and had to beabandoned in mid-1631because ote shortage of

pikernen. The brigade ofthree squadrons took itsplace. Lord Reay (Col.Mackay) left Swedishservice for Scotland late in1630,and never returned,so was quite unaware ofthe changes that took placein I63I; his diegrarn wasout of date before it wasprinted.

It is important tounderstand the difference

between Swedish brigadesand regiments. Brigadeswere not permanentbodies. They were made

men (half a full-strengthregiment).

Gustavus did try tomake the squadron apermanent unit: half-regiments ot tourcompanies were frequentlyreferred to as 'squadrons'for edministrativepurposes-indeed, anyundersize regiment ofthree to six companies was

usually termed asquadron. But it is wrongto link these'adrninistrative' squadronstoo closely with the'tactical' one.

up at the start of acampaign from themanpower available.Sometimes there wereenough rncn in a singleregiment to field a

complete brigade (as wasat first the case with theYellow and BlueRegiments); usually,though, as nlany as foufive regiments had tocombine. The regimentsstill existed as separateentities within the brigade.When a brigade receivedhea vy cesualties or unitwere detached for garrisoduties, new regirnents werebrought in to maintain thebrigade as a viablebattlefield formation.

The custom of givingbrigades colour names hasalso caused muchcontusion=most Iamouslyin the case of the GreenRegiment and the GreenBrigade (or 'Scots'Brigade, > 1 0 5it was calledbriefly). According to TSwedish Intelligenccr28), brigades 'had their

names from the chieiestColours [flags] belongingto the eldest [i.e. senior]Colonell of the brigade.' Inpractice, a colour namewas used only if thebrigade included acoloured regiment; andthen only if its flags werestill recognise ble and notcompletely in tatters. By1632this was seldom thecase, and most brigades

were calJedsimply afterthe name of their seniorcolonel.


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med into a makeshift royal bodyguard whileaiting further appointments.Mackay has come down in modern histories as thest famous recruiting master, but his efforts wereily surpassed by those of Sir James Spens, who

Table B: British Regiments in SwedishService, levied 1624-32

ens' Lev ie s24-34? J. Spens (Scots)27-34? J. Ramsay (Scots)29-33? G. Earl of Crawford (Engl.)29-36? G. Cunningham (Scots)29-30 In. Meldrum (Scots)29-35? In. Hamilton (Scots)

nald Mackay's Levies29-34 D. Mackay, Lord Reay (Scots)29-31 Mackay (Monro's sqdrn) (Scots)31-33 John Monro (Scots)1-33 Thomas Conway (Engl.)

ex ander Forbes' L evies31-33? A. Forbes (Scots/Irish)31-33? F. Hamilton (Scots/Irish)

rquis ofH am ilton's 'English Arm y'31-32 A. Hamilton (Scots)3r-32 J. Hamilton (Engl.)31-32 J. Ramsay (En!!,!.)31-32 J. Astley (Engl.)

her Lev ie s32-34? Arthur Aston (Engl.)32-34? J. Lumsdaine (Scots)32-39 G. Fleetwood (Engl.)

oiedfrom Scots in P olish/ D anish service29-33? R. ('Young') Leslie (Scots)29?-38/39 Patrick Ruthven (Scots/Germans)

ristian names: J = James/Jacob, Jn = John,= Alexander, G = George, R = Robert,= Frederick, D = Donald. Only regiments com-

ed principally of British troops levied between24-32 are listed; several others were levied Im-diately before and after these dates.

held at various times the curious status of Britishambassador to Sweden and Swedish ambassador toBritain. As early as 1606 Spens was raising troops forSweden. Between 1624 and 1629 alone he personallyarranged the levying of six regiments in Britain. In1629 he was appointed 'General over all the British'in Swedish service. He died in 1632, allegedly fromthe shock of Gustavus's death.

Many high-ranking Britons decided to stay on inSweden, and some, like Spens, Hamilton, Forbes andFleetwood, established important Swedish noblebloodlines. But with trouble brewing in Britain mostreturned home between 1638 and 1640. Theybrought back (especially to the Scots army) a much-needed professionalism; but also a brutal mannerpicked up in Germany that marred the otherwisefairly gentlemanly conduct of the English Civil Warsof the 1640S.

These veterans also left some of the most detailedaccounts of Gustavus's wars available in any lan-guage. Robert Monro's E xpedition TP ith the WScots Regiment (called Mac-Keyes Regimenjustifiably famous as (probably) the first ever regi-mental history. James Turner, who arrived withLumsdaine's new regiment in 1632 and stayed inGermany until 1639/40, left numerous practicalinsights in his Memoirs and Pallas A rmata . WilliWatts, later military chaplain to Charles I and PrinceRupert, compiled in The SI1 JCdishIntelligencerThe Swedish D isciplineeyewitness accounts frommany British colonels ineluding Hepburn, Mus-champ, Astley and Mackay.

INFANTRY ARMS

ANDARMOUR

The musket was a latecomer to Sweden: it wasalready well established in northern Europe by the1570s, but the first shipment of 200 muskets fromHolland is recorded only in 1592. The Swedes werereluctant to give up their older but much handierlight firearms- 'small shot' or calivers, known in

Sweden mostly as 1'0'1' or bO'sser-and there was litpressing urgency, since Sweden's chief enemies inthe Baltic were also slow to take up the musket.


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The 'true' or 'full' musket was bored to fit leadls weighing '8 to the pound' (about 21.7 mm), andd smaller balls of '10 to the pound' to facilitateding in battle. With a weight of about 7.5 kg and aocious recoil, this was considered by many (in-ding Wallhausen) to be too burdensome for therage soldier.In 1599 the Dutch had already introduced a new

ndard: bored for lead balls of '10 to the pound'out 19.7 mm), it fired balls '12 to the pound rolling(about 18.6 mm) for field use. This was known ineden as the 'ordinary' or 'half musket. Its weights at first around 6-6.5 kg. The Swedes seem neverhave fully abandoned the larger calibre: in 1626,instance, Hoppe noted that in Polish Prussia theyre carrying 'very large muskets'.

Lightening of the musket

was often claimed that Gustavus was the first tohten the musket so that it could be used without a. As late as 163 I, however, he placed an order withFlemish director of the Swedish arms industry,

uis de Geer, to outfit 32 complete infantryiments: all were to be equipped with musket forks.

inventories of the Stockholm Arsenal make itar that forks were still being issued many yearsr Gustavus's death: 1626-5,300; 1635-12,162;45-826; 1655-none.Lighter muskets, however, had already begun toear in Europe. Stocks were redesigned to bealler, and barrels, which made up most of thesket's weight, were lightened considerably byroved casting techniques. Some, probably withrtened barrels, found their way into Swedishds apparently from captured German arsenals. In32, Sebastian Dehner, chronicler of the Germann of Roth en burg ob del' Tauber, wrote: '6 May ...ompany of Swedish infantry arrived, among theme musketeers armed with the new very lightskets without forks.'

Abolition of the Bandolier

dern historians have claimed that Gustavus abol-d the bandolier and introduced cartridge poucheshis musketeers. Again, there is no evidence for

, and more to contradict it. The Stockholmenal, in fact, continued to issue bandoliers until att 1670.

Matchlock muskets withthe 'fishtail'Spanish-Dutch butt, thestandard type inGustavus's army. Precisedating is still difficult; thebest clues are weight and

calibre. The barrel lengthalso gives a hint ofnationality: in Sweden thiswas set at 2 Swedish ells/4Swedish ft. (II8.7cm, J ft.ro-~n.), but mbst survivingwcapons are slightlyshorter-according to adocument of r629, barrelmakers would only befined if their barrels were 3

'fingers' (S cm, 2 in.) tooshort.Top: Dutch parade rnusketc.1600(AM 432); rrriddle:Swedish munition musketwith 'crowned ring' markotjonkoping; c.T620-40

(4.1kg, and IIs.scm longbarrel of zo tnrn calibre,AM 4062); bottom:Swedish? musket c.r600-Jo(6.4 kg, with II4cm barrelof iq.r mm calibre, AM4064).(Royal ArmyMusewn, Stockholm-hereafter, AM)

Turner, however, writing about his Swedish service in the 1630s, noted: ' ... I saw these [Bandoliers]laid aside in some German armies: for it is impossiblefor soldiers wanting Cloaks (and more want Cloaksthan have any) to keep safe these flasks ... from snowand rain, which soon spoils them, and makes thpowder altogether useless.'

SwinesfeathersThe main reason for the early failures of the Swedesagainst the Poles was their shortage of the pikemen


18/47

ential to protect them from the fierce Polishalry. 'The infantry are very badly furnished withg pikes and harness,' wrote Johann of Nassau;o they can and will not be persuaded otherwise.'ohann adopted an interesting stop-gap. He 'pre-ed a few hundred carts and had five pikes laid onmade fast to each one; these were pushed out in

nt of each formation ... In use against cavalry theye found to be very good, and they were takenng into the field, since one could shoot over them

the exposed shooters could be covered withm.' These carts were still mentioned in Sweden in4, but soon fell out of use. (Johann, of course,

monstrated them again to Gustavus in 1620.)There are already (possibly spurious) references tonesfeathers in Gyllenhielm's 1601 account of hismpaigns in Livonia, where he ordered his infantryarry 4-4! ft. long stakes with spikes at each end asnesfeathers or Spanish Reiters' to be used against

Musket with a Swedishsnaplock (early flintlock).They were issued in bulk inthe I620S, and not just toartillery and bodyguardsas in other armies; this waspartly because ofdifliculties in Sweden ofobtaining the hugequantities of matchneeded for matchlockweapons. As early as I62IWallhausen thought them

'discardable antiquities',and recommended morereliable matchlocks intheir place; Gusta vusmade great efforts toreplace them for the I630S.Calibre I9.6mm, barrellength IIS.S cm.Proofmarks suggestmanufacture at [onkopingin the I620S. (WrangelArmoury, Skokloster)

the Polish cavalry. By Gustavus's day they appear tohave been forgotten, however.

Swinesfeathers (or 'Swedish feathers', as they wereoften called by foreign authors in later decades) werenot, as usually suggested, invented by Gustavus, andin fact were not even Swedish: in 1618 Gustavus hadbeen writing to one of Prince Maurits's teachers,Simon Stevin, in Holland to find out informationabout them. They were clearly derived from 'SpanishReiters' ('Spanish horse') or cheoaux-de-fris('Frisian horses') used earlier in the Netherlands. In1621 Gustavus ordered 16,000 swinesfeathers fromhis Arboga foundry-enough for 28 regiments. Thefirst deliveries from the Stockholm Arsenal weremade only in 1624. Anything between one and eight

A bandolier made fromdark grey sealskin, fromthe Wrangel Armoury.

Inventories suggest that itdates to before I6S6. Each

wooden powder containeris II6 mm tall and coveredwith black leather to

protect it from rain and toreduce noise. The bulletpouch and priming flask(sixth from the left,with a spout) ha ve bothfallen off and ha ve beentied on incorrectly. Suchpriming flasks of the sampattern as ordinarypowder containers aresometimes called'corporals 'in Swedishsources. They appear in

the I6IOS,and seem to hreplaced the old triangularpriming flasks by theI630s. (Skokloster)


19/47

mpanies of an eight-company regiment wereuipped with them, but not all regiments receivedm.Turner describes them as: 'a stake five or six footng, and about four finger thick, with a piece of sharpn nail'd to each end of it'. The most completecount is by Schildknecht, an engineer in Polishvice, in his manual Harmonia Fortalitiis:'In the Year [r6]26 the Swedish musketeers ...ed against our Poles, instead of forks, a stick thats strong, long and thick ... furnished at the frontth a spike two spans long, and at the back with ann barb, and called a "Schweinsfeder". During aarge the musketeers planted these Swinesfeathersmly in the ground, obliquely towards our Polishvalry, so that the spike pointed directly at therse's chest. They stepped back somewhat and also

dels (approx. r/6thle) of 'Swedish feathers'stakes for constructingvaux-de-frise, made asof a complete

niature armoury by theremberg engineerann Carl (activeS-65). The proportionsdistorted so that thefts look thicker than thesize objects. It is

ually said the t Johannrl made them forstavus during his stayNuremberg in r6J2, buts is unlikely.Gustavus's infantry hadeady abandoned thenesleether in r628,ugh there rnaj: haven a revival in the lateros after the pike arms run down, sincerner claimed to 'haven them made use of inrmany'. Turner also

ote (speculatively) of 'anrument that mightve for both rest andther, and such wouldhaps be very useful andnvenient.' Othercriptions make it cleart the musket-rest-cum-nesfeather credited tostavus had, in fact, notbeen invented. These

dels were probablyde in the r6sos or r660s.ermanischestionelmuseum,remberg)

gave fire over them ... This fashion was used on theSwedish side for barely two years: why they stoppedit I do not know. Perhaps it was because of thedifficulty of carrying them, or that they did not alwayshave to fight against cavalry ... It astonished me, evat the time, that such an advantage against the cavalryshould be allowed to go ... '

Despite Schildknecht's note to the contrary, it iclear from arsenal inventories and numerous othersources that they were issued in addition to musketrests and not instead of them.

The origin of the term swinesfeather is unclear. Itcould be a slang term, meaning roughly 'pig-sticker',or it could be related to the boarspear. A connectionhas recently been suggested with the 'svinhufvu(swine-head), which may be the old Swedish word foranother anti-cavalry device-the caltrop.

j\


20/47

enal inventories, ordersrms manufacturers,other sources proveSwedish musketeers

well as pikemen wereed throughouttavus's reign withmets. Wallhausennoted6r5 that the bestntry helmets were toound in theherlands. At first theye imported to Swedenm Holland; but by ther620sSwedishndries began to massuce 'Dutch pots' orrn-hetsi such as thisunder Dutch andmish supervision. Noteplume-holder at rear.al cheek pieces areing liom thismple. (Photo: AM)

The partisan was theSwedish infantry officer'ssymbol of rank and hismain battlefield weapon.Six partisans were issuedper company, according toinstructions dated r623and C.r630;it is not certainhow these weredistributed, but since thereis no evidence for issues ofhalberds two of them mayhave gone to sergeants(who elsewhere in Europeused halberds), while thecaptain may ha ve obtainedhis finer model elsewhere.(A) Swedish partisanc.rs80-r600, probably a

reworked halberd (LRK2S/407);(B) r604-1I, withKarl IX's initials CRS,probably made inEskilstuna (LRK 236r);mass-produced partisanmade in Arboga for juniorofficers, r620-3-,(Hallwylska Museet); (Dquality 1620SDutchpartisan belonging to NilsBrahe (Skokloster); (E)partisan for the King'sBodyguard (Drebents)rnadc in Amsterdam inr626 (LRK 3767a).AfterSeitz, Berdisanen,(Stockholm, r943).

B

The Pike and Pikernen's Arrnour

ere were two main types of pikehead popular ats period: a broad, flat lozenge, and a spike of square

oss-section. Wallhausen wrote that the broadriety was generally thought better, but he found theuare-head type was 'not bad against cavalry'. It iseresting, considering the Swedish obsession withvalry defence, that nearly all surviving pikes inweden are of the square type. These pikes have theual metal strips running down 50 to 100 ern onher side of the shaft from the pikehead. Thekeshafts are 3.5 em in diameter at the thickest part,

d taper towards both ends. They were madeually from ash wood, but Gustavus also permittedple, pine and aspen.

The few surviving Swedish pikes that have nbeen drastically shortened in recent years tovercome storage problems are between 5.2 metres(17ft.) and 5.4 metres (17ft. 8in.) long. This ties in

well with the regulation 9 Swedish ells (5.3 metres)that Gustavus established in 1616. However, pikesoften did not remain this length on campaign.Officers like Monro complained, apparently, to littleeffect about pikemen who 'cut off the lengths of theirpikes as often seen upon marches, being very un-comely to see a squadron of pikes not all of onelength'.

Gustavus placed special stress on the equipping of

his pikemen. They were issued with full armour(harness), usually comprising back and breastplates,gorget, tassets for the thighs and helmet. After


21/47

stavus's death, lacking his personal supervision,pike arm became increasingly run down, and theportion of pikemen began to drop significantly asire regiments converted themselves intosketeers.In 1635 Chancellor Oxenstierna wrote that it waslonger necessary to send pike harness to Germanyhey were little used and tended to get thrown away

the long marches typical of the campaign; the fallssues of pike harness in the late 1630S is confirmedhe Stockholm Armoury inventories. By 1640 fully

moured pikemen must have been a rare sight in theedish army in Germany.

Infantry Swords

swords of the ordinary infantrymen pose some-ng of a problem, since none can be identified in

edish collections. They differed from cavalry andcers' swords (which will be covered in the secondhese Men-aI-Arms titles) in being simpler and ofrer quality. In theory all native Swedish troops,h pikemen and musketeers, had to provide them-ves with swords out of their 'file-money'. Inctice, though, probably because enough wereer available, many served without them-ppe's descriptions of native Swedish troops inssia in 1626 indicate that many had axes rathern swords. In 1630 Gustavus had all the 'file-ney' paid directly to him; swords thereafter werevered cen trail y.

INFANTRY

UNIFORMS ANDCLOTHING

e first thing that emerges from the account booksthat buffcoats, sleeveless or otherwise, were notmally issued in Gustavus's army. They may haven worn on a fairly large scale among wealthytch and German citizen militias; but amongedish field armies they were probably used only by

me officers, and then as private purchases or booty.e dress of the ordinary infantryman was a woollenh suit comprising breeches and a jacket, and

called simply 'soldier's clothing'. I t was often issuedin the form of cloth which had to be made up at theregiment's own expense. Cloth was seen as a basicnecessity and, indeed, was often issued by the sameofficials responsible for army victuals.

New clothing was normally issued once a year, justbefore the onset of winter. It comprised shoes, socand shirts in addition to the basic jacket and breeches.

The Swedes were, understandably, particularly con-cerned about winter clothing. Swedish peasants weretold to make 'voluntary' contributions of furs andwoollen socks and shoes for the Latvian campaign in1621/2; and warm Russian boots were purchased inRiga. A Scots regiment in December 1625 wereordered to garrison Riga only 'if the Scots havesufficiently warm clothes to stand the cold'. Durinthe German campaigns, too, there were regular

shipments from Sweden of 'Lappish' furs for thearmy.

Though the basic purpose of keeping soldiersclothed was for decency and warmth, Gustavus hadcertainly begun to see already the incidental benefitsthat good clothing of a single colour and cut gave ithe field. It was already common to have militaclothing' made in a standardised style. A 'pattern'(probably a finished garment) was often sent to thetailor along with the order. Military garments, iSweden at least, were already quite distinct fromeveryday peasant dress, and indeed from most othercivilian clothing. The hoary old statement thaThirty Years' War soldiers simply wore their ordi-nary civilian clothing is simply not true.

In a letter dated May 1621, Gustavus wrote thanew Swedish conscripts should not arrive 'in theirfarm habits and with their long jackets', since thmany foreigners in Stockholm would see them andspread spiteful rumours abroad 'to the kingdom'sgreatest despair and damage'. He recommended thatthese conscripts obtain dress 'befitting men of war'.He also made it clear that 'the material itself matterslittle, only that the clothes are well cut'. And as earlyas 1622, he ordered that each company or regimentshould be similarly dressed.

Uniforrn colours

Until about 1620 the majority of soldiers in Sweden(particularly first-time conscripts who purchasedclothing with the 'file-money' levied on conscription)


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Musketeer from theengra ved metal cotiin ofErik Soop, colonel of theVsistergiitlend cavalryregiment, made for hisfuneral in I632. Themusketeer wears a smalljacket, baggy breeches anda hat with a round crown.He carries a musket with arather odd-looking stock,used with a rest and

bandolier. Such engra vingswere usually copied fromforeign prints, and wereoften many years out ofdate. (Skare Cathedral,sketch after Bellander)

to make do with the locally produced cloth. Thisrse woollen material, called 'vadmal' in Sweden,usually undyed and so of a greyish-white colour,exact shade depending on the sheep of the area.s 'peasant grey' cloth was regarded in Swedenost as a symbol of class. Coloured clothoadcloth)-the material of the upper classes-was

stly imported from Holland, England or Ger-ny; and because of its great expense was reservedroyal bodyguards, and for specific issues of

forms for state occasions such as royal visits. Theedish clothing industry was not yet sufficientlyeloped to produce enough coloured cloth for theryday use of the army as a whole.Gustavus seems first to have become anxious ahoutarmy's poor clothing during his visit to Germany1620. In Germany and Holland complete regi-nts of 'yellow coats' and 'red coats' had beenmmon since 1600 and earlier. On his return, heided on a cheap measure to add colour toerwise drab garments by adding coloured trim-gs, probably inserted in the seams. A letter to theg dated 24 September 1620 mentions that: ' ...h for the soldiers will not be sufficient for allmpanies. The Smaland infantry have been sentugh for 100 "riding-jackets" with yellow and bluemmings, the Ostgoth infantry enough for 350ing-jackets" of "in-mixed" [insprengtt] cloth andow trimmings, and the Uppland regiment ... 250

ing-jackets" with yellow and black trim.'

The real solution, however, was both to improveve cloth production, and to import more cloth.s was achieved to some extent in the early 1620S

Musketeer on engravedback-panel of a clock,marked I63I, madeprobably at Vim in southGermany. The shoulder'wings' of his newlyfashionable long-skirtedjacket are worth noting.(Skokloster)

when the infantry began to enjoy regular annualissues of a coarse coloured cloth called 'piuk', andofficers received fine English cloth. But the system

was far from efficient. In July 1626, when Gustavuslanded in Polish Prussia, Hoppe saw the first columnsmarch into Marienberg: 'The foot were mostlyshabby Swedish peasants, they had poor clothing butwere disciplined soldiers ... '. Poles like the chroniclerPawel Piasecki thought much the same: 'they weremore like labourers than soldiers'. Even Gustavusadmitted (in a letter copied by Hoppe) that 'Thesemen I have with me now, are only poor Swedishfarmhands and poor in appearance, also ill clothed,but they fight well, and I hope that they will shortlybe better clothed; already before Frauenburg theyhave obtained 500 red coats.'

Gustavus was most fortunate in taking Elbingwithout a fight; the Baltic base of the EnglishEastland Company, Elbing was the unloading pointoflarge shipments of English cloth bound for Poland.This was of great help during the Polish campaigns.

In 1626 he decided to improve clothing manufacture at home. The clothmills of Sweden were tdeliver their output direct to the Royal Wardrobet Klddkammarens; and a central workshop was toset up in Stockholm employing 40 to 50 tailors whowere to provide ready-made suits of clothing to hitroops. They were to make 'Hungarian jackets'(jackor) in two sizes: two-thirds of them large, anone-third small. Unfortunately, it is difficult to tell to

what extent if any these projects were carried outbecause the Royal Wardrobe account books for 1626and 1627 are missing.


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Uniforms of the Coloured Regiments

No Swedish regulations have yet been found thatequired coloured regiments to wear uniforms of theame colour as their names. In Denmark, however, in625, the Red Regiment and Blue Regiment woreasaques' of red and light blue respectively. The dateere is significant, because it was exactly the sameear in which the Swedish coloured regiments began

o appear.Contemporary descriptions (mostly by Hoppe-

ee commentaries to Plates D and F) show that atast the Yellow, Blue and Red Regiments had coatsf a colour matching their names; but no referencesave been found for the other coloured regiments.A report of October I627 (PRO London, SP

5/ 2 /f . I79) from James Spens to Charles I ofngland seems to refer specifically to the first four

olour regiments: 'For clothing his armie he [Gus-vus] hath coarse cloth made in his countrie; ... andith this he clothes his common soldiers, causing toye it in red, yellow, green and blue, which makes aeat show in the fields; and this was never doneefore this king's time.' Of course, Spens was writingnly about the situation in Sweden, but it wasobably this very passage (quoted first by Walterarte in I759) that started the rumour that Gustavus

vented the uniform.Even non-coloured regiments do seem on thehole to have received uniforms of a single colour.he accounts, however, refer only to 'coloured cloth',d rarely specify the shade. It would seem that thosesponsible delivered one colour if they had enoughough the Thirty Years'arproduced a flood oftures, it is di tticult tontify troops who are

wedish. Most artists

nting the Thirty Years'ar were aCCLIa ly based inllend and Belgium.ose From Germunyed mostly in the wealthywns of Nuremberg,gsburg and Frankfurt,they mostly copied the

ops they sa w everyy=nerncly citizenitias, which usuallyre civilian clothing.is has greatly distorted

idea ot'wher Thirtyrs' Warsoldiersually worc. Even this

carefully selected group ofcontemporary images isfar from IQo%reliable. (A)Swedish musketeers atstorm ol'Wiirzburg, Oct.I6J I, by Georg KOIer ofNuremberg; (8) Gustavus'sentry into Erturt, Oct.I6]I, Fromsketch bySamuel Fritz (townarchives, Erfurt}; (C) RoyalLifeguards? at Steinheim,Nov. I6]I, probably byMerian ot'Frankturt; (D)musketeer withMonmouth cap?Fromwoodcut of Gustavus'sentry into Augsburg, April

16J2, by Georg Kress ofAugsburg.

A


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it, but were not afraid of mixing if they did not:erences to 'any-colour-at-hand cloth' are common.is rather offhand attitude must have given somempanies the appearance of harlequins: in 1629, forample, the 106 soldiers of John Ruthven's newlyived Scots company of James Ramsay's regimentceived the following cloth: 39 ells of red, 42 ells ofllow, 351 ells of Scots kersey (grey or perhaps blue),

3 ells of unspecified colour, and 207 ells ofnycoloured cloth'.

The German campaigns

e question still remains: to what extent wasustavus's army uniformed in Germany? If oneng is certain, it is that Gustavus determined hisops would make a better show than they had inland. Chancellor Oxenstierna managed to buyoth from the English Eastland Company in Elbingcredit, and with this he had clothed most of the

w mercenaries assembling in Prussia by early 1630.ck in Sweden, Gustavus realised that the arrange-ents for equipping his conscripts locally wouldver work properly. In January 1630 he ordered thate 'file-money' raised on conscription should bended over to his officials and he would himself issue

clothing. This measure worked, at least while he wasin Sweden to supervise it: virtually all the newconscripts and mercenaries assembling in Sweden inearly 1630 were issue? with clothing by the RoyalWardrobe.

After the landings in Germany the Swedes con-tinued to purchase cloth on a large scale; in 1631, foexample, 3,803 men of Swedish national regiments

received ready-made suits of clothing in Stettin,transaction again co-ordinated by the RoyalWardrobe.

Despite the hardships of the first year's campaign-ing the Swedes managed to maintain a fairly decentappearance. On 15 September, a few days before thebattle of Breitenfeld, when the Elector of Saxony(whose own fresh army was immaculately uniformed)inspected the Swedes, he found them 'Not nearly abad as We were led to believe ... '. Gualdo Priorato,who served at one time in both opposing armies,noted of Gustavus's infantry at Breitenfeld that 'thegreater part of the soldiers [probably meaning onlythe front line offour brigades] were clad in blue andyellow casacks'.

'Better men ... nor better cloathed did I ever sec,wrote the British envoy Henry Vane when hwatched the main Swedish army leave Wi.irzburg twomonths later. By this time they had benefited fromthe success of Breitenfeld, in particular the hugecaptured stores at Wurzburg, from which few unitswere said to have departed without new clothing.

Again in the following year, after careful examin-ation under the floorboards of the Munich arsenal,

The casack or casaque wasa mysterious garmentoften mentioned in writtensources. In 1621Wallhausen called it'Schi.itzenrock [shooter's-coat] or cosackcn', and itseems he was referring to atuburd-likc coat otthe typeshown here in PeterIselburg's Neues SoldatenBuchlein OFr61S(liftcdfrom de Gheyn). Laterversions may have differedconsiderably. WallhaLlsendescribed it as the onlygarment a musketeer

needed, because it couldprotect bandoliers andrnusket Fr0111ain (byhiding the barrel in a

sleeve!). The maindisadvantage was cost,since it needed 1110rccloththan breeches and jacket;

this 111ayexplain whyreferences to it arc rare inSweden. Orders Forcasacks became slightlymore common after theSwedes arrived inGermany. The ItaliensDeodati and GualdoPriorato write that mostSwedes at Brcitcnfcld andLiitzen wore 'cesecclie',but it is hard to find thesecasacks on pictures of the

1630s,and possible that theword now meant little"more than a jacket. (PANLibrary, Gdansk}


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I

.II o J / ."/'1 1" ' ;

{

The Eastern Front: Finns and Lapps1Finnish musketeer2 Lapp, reindeer and sledge /


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1 Pikeman, Mackay's/Monro'sScottish Regiment

2 English musketeer,Hamilton's Army

3 Irish musketeer, AlexanderHamilton's Scottish Regiment

4 Irish/Highland 'redshanks' recruit

{

\

\


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Flags of the coloured infantry regimentsI The Green Regiment2 The Red Regiment

3 The Blue Regiment, 16324 The 'Old Blue' Regiment c.1633-355 The YellowRegiment

4


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{f;:~

A\ G:~

A

R (T J S R ~ Sh$.liro~~~V~Yflliil@~1 ! kW $gV n r rlf@ ~e~3

C @ AR

~S

a@ D J 14 W J li l@ '~ U \i 'W l ~ lC g -

5

='".~~ '"~....~

:~~"~

'"~aQ.,

~~"7


30/47


31/47


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Destitution: North Germany and Prussia, 1634/51Swedish peasant recruit2 Swedish musketeer, 1633mourning uniform3 Veteran wearing Hongreline,

Ii\. \ \

'\ \ ~ \." \ \ ~\\\,' \'


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siege of Riga, 1621. Onight arc the Poles-uanians in longerngarments, and oneft the Swedes inl jackets and baggyches. Note that thedish musketeers wearon-type helmets andy short calivers with

curved butts rather thanmuskets. The flag on thelower left bears an orb, atypical emblem found onSwedish flags. Detail of aprint by Georg Schwcngl, acitizen of Riga who wenton to become an engineerin Swedish service. (AM)

ording to Monro, 'were found clothes and Armes,dy to cloth an army of ten thousand foote, whichped our Army much.' But things were beginningchange for the worse. Cloth stocks in Sweden andthern Germany had been seriously depleted as theedish army marched south. Gustavus wrote asly as November J63I demanding that the newiments mustering in Sweden 'should not be sent tonaked from the neck down as has been the caseil now'.With the Swedish army growing at a phenomenale after the victory at Breitenfeld, even the wealth-areas of Germany, around Frankfurt-am-Main,ld not hope to clothe all the new mercenaries, letne provide the veterans with the customary winterthing.n the chaos that followed Gustavus's death thediers in southern Germany were not being paid, letne issued with new uniforms; and with the army

ted in its tracks there were no new stocks toture, so the clothing situation degenerated evenher. The raggamuffin armies on Thirty Years'

"j,( .,,; j~ > " "

War battle paintings are mostly those of the laterI630s, from a time when the Swedes (meaningusually German Protestants under Swedish control)became almost legendary for their scruffiness, andwhen in the Czech language 'Szwed' became syonymous with a man in rags.

Conclusions

For a long time it was believed that Gustavusinvented the military uniform. In fact, he was onlycopying what others had done before him elsewherein Europe. The suits of clothing he issued were oftenuniform both in colour and in cut, but the motivationwas mostly to cut costs. With the coloured regiments,though, there is good evidence that he was trying togo beyond basic necessity and was attempting tocreate a unit identity based partly on uniform. Butthis, too, was not his idea: it had already been done bythe Danes among others.

There is, however, some vague and potentiallycontroversial evidence that Gustavus was trying tostandardise on blue uniforms for his native Swedishregiments-blue, of course, was adopted only muchlater in the 17th century as the standard Swedish coatcolour. A 'New Blue Swedish regiment' of Ostgothswas recorded by Hoppe in Prussia in I628; andseveral native Swedish units in Germany were on

occasion described as 'blue' regiments-most not-ably Erik Hand's Ostgoth Regiment, which may bethe same as Hoppe's 'New Blue Regiment'. Two


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Table C: The Infantry Brigades, early September 1631

Noo!,Coys. Regiment Pikemen Musketeers Offi

T he Yellow B rigadeKing's Lifeguard company 4 8 6 0 2 2

1 2 The Yellow Regt. (Teuffel) 5 1 4 6 9 0 1 9 2

4Chemnitz 4 2 1 2 0 6 4

6 0 4

The B lue B rigade1 2 The Blue Regt. (Winckel) 38 4 6 3 6 1 9 2

1 2 The Red Regt. 1 8 9 3 8 6 1 9 2

573

Ake Oxenstie rn a's B rig ade( Smedes[Finns}

8 Lillie Uppland, 1 3 5 3 3 0 1 2 8

Ndrke [5 Vdrmland8 Hastfehr Finns 1 3 2 2 9 4 1 2 8

7 Oxenstierna Dalarna 3 2 4 5 1 6 1 2 8

5 9 1

Erik: Hand's Smedish B rigade8 Erik Hand Ostergotland 3 4 8 5 4 0 1 2 8

4 W, von Salzburg Dalsland 1 6 8 2 8 2 6 48 Carl I-lard Vdstergotland 1 2 0 2 4 0 1 2 8

636

gades at Breitenfeld and one at Lutzen were madeentirely of native Swedes, and contemporary

criptions suggest that on both occasions they werestly dressed in blue. Blue cloth was also orderedre commonly than other colours: in 1 6 3 1 , formple, Hans Barkhusen was contracted by theedish state to buy 2 0 , 0 0 0 ells of cloth overseas,ferably dyed blue, but if he was unable to findugh then red or brown.

te:

gades were not permanent structures; their com-

ponent regiments were often changed to keep thnumber of pikemen close to a fixed number-e nz

pikemen ~for three-squadron brigades (as here)The eight brigades above were reorganised into sevenfor the battle of Breitenfeld on 17 September; someregiments were even split (for the battle onlybetween different brigades.

Von Thurn's brigade demonstrates most clearlythat regiments were not organised into brigadessimply because they had the same colour flags ouniforms. Note also that each regiment, no matter

how depleted, has its full complement of officers,


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No a/'Cays. Regiment

88

The Green BrigadeThe Green Regt. (Hepburn)Monro of Foul is GermansMitschefallBock

8888

The Scots BrigadeJames Lumsdaine (ex-Spens)Mackay/MonroJames RamsayJohn Hamilton

88

Von Thurn's BrigadeCount von Thurn (Black)Hall von Effcren (Black)Damitz (White Regt.)Vitzthum (Orange Regt.)Dargitz (Brown Regt.)

12

88

1 28

,t's Brigade

RosenWaldsteinJohn Ruthven Germans

8Musketeer Reserve

General Bauer's Regt.

Pikemen Musketeers Officers

2 4 4150

66

1 2 81 2 8128

1 2 8

180

1 4 41 087 2

50 4

128

1 2 81 2 81 2 8

10 38 4

1 4 42 7 0

9 6

6 9 7

1 2 81 2 819 2

1 2 81 2 8

2 4 1

33 0

4 26

37 2

216

15 6180

177

51 3

4113 6 6

350

19 2128128

81 0

THE PLATES

The road to war-native Swedish troops, I626ive Swedes formed the backbone of Gustavus's

my during his early campaigns. The men showne from the Norrland Landsregiment are based onDuwall portrait of 1626. Note, however, that

st Swedish native troops at this time do not appearhave been as well uniformed as shown here;

descriptions of them in Prussia in 1626 suggestappearance more like the Swedish peasant recruit iPlate G.

AI: Corporal of musketeersAn interesting feature of the uniforms of Gustavus'sarmy was that jackets and breeches were often of thsame colour, because they were usually made fromsingle issue of cloth. The accounts of the RoyaWardrobe (Kliidkammaren) at the SlottsarkiveStockholm, as well as the army account books in thKrigsarkivet and elsewhere, describe in great detai


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views through thedows of this fairlyspiring portrait aremost detailedving pictures ofavus's native troops.oat ot erms with the

1626 has allowed Arneelsson to identity thecer as Col.Jakoball, and hence hisps as the Norrlanddsregiment. Duwalld 1.,89-1634) was a

north Gcrmen whoclaimed descent From theScottish MacDougalls.Gilded chains (here with>111 unusually early portraitmedallion of Gustavus)were given to otiicers asrewards for good service.The portrait is signed NFP: possibly the FrenchinunNicolas de In Fage.(Karlberg Slott,Stockholm)

se issues of cloth for uniforms. Over 1628-32 the

cal amount for an ordinary soldier was 4 to 5edish ells. The greater part was for breeches rathern jackets. In 1632, for example, Sperling's Soder-nland regiment received red and blue cloth andinstructed to use 2.5 ells for jacket and 2.75 for

eches; this meant that the jackets were quite smalltight. Any extra cloth allowance would be used

lengthening the skirt of the jacket.The helmets on the source resemble a type of

rion common at around 1600 in Protestant Ger-ny, and hint at the strong Swedish links withmany (especially Lubeck) before Dutch trading

might began to prevail. The gorget is probably wornas a sign of rank, suggesting a corporal.

The source shows a firearm with an old-fashioneddownward curving butt: probably an obsolete caliverrather than a musket-a shortage of muskets forcedthe Swedes to continue using calivers as late as 1630The caliver was light enough not to need a musketrest, but Wallhausen suggested (in 1615) that it wabest 'to accustom calivermen to carry the fork withtheir caliver; it will be for them a gentle exercise fo

later carrying the musket.'

A2: PikemanPikemen wore the same uniforms as musketeers, butit is difficult to make out much detail of theiequipment on the Duwall portrait. Fortunately, thereis a suit of pikeman's armour at Duwall's feet on hiportrait (possibly the colonel's own suit).

A3: CaptainSwedish officers were often issued with cloth at thsame time as their men. They received more thantheir soldiers (for example: ordinary soldiers, musi-cians and corporals in James Scott's Finnish regiment in 1632 received 5 ells, other NCOs 6, lieuten-ants and ensigns 8, and captains 12). It was alsbetter quality (often English broadcloth), and thofficers' higher pay allowed them to have it tailored

more fashionably. White plumes appear to have beenstandard for the entire landsregiment. The officerscach row (i.e. administrative squadron) on the sourcewear a common sash colour: orange here, or greygreen in the 'colonel's' squadron. As will be discussedmore fully in Volume 2, there is, in fact, virtuallyevidence at all for a national Swedish sash colouduring Gustavus's lifetime. This captain carriesgood quality imported Dutch partisan as his symbol

of rank; partisans issued to junior officers wermanufactured in Sweden and of much poorer quality.

Detail From the Duwallportrai t of 12 of the 24companies ot'the NorrlandLandsrcgiment in 1626.Each row off ourcompanies has uniformlyclothed men and officers,suggesting that eachrepresents an

administrative squadron.The flags are of the smallDutch style tapprox. 1.75metres square) issued

1622-29, which replaced aneven smaller pattern(approx. 1.65 metressquare) issued 1621-22.The flags have been over-painted, perhaps reflectingthis change. They are,from left row to right: redgreen, yellow, all with gold

wreaths; one flag has a lionand crossed swords orarrows.


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mmers trom thewall portrait. This isof the earliest knownesenta tions of sleevedcoats. Few ordinal),ntrymen outside or

town militias worebuttcoats at this period;these were probablypurchased privately by thecolonel.

Drumrner

ch infantry company was allowed three drummers.perienced and intelligent men were often prefer-

to boys as they had a secondary role as messen-s, and had to act on their initiative and take in ally saw if this job took them behind enemy lines.e silver-braided buffcoat has been restored fromtures of Dutch militia ischutterv companies, anddouble-ended drumsticks are taken from a

rman print of a Thirty Years' War drummer.

:Musketeer, colonel's squadron

s musketeer is typical of those in the row of fourmpanies closest to Duwall on the portrait. Thisition and the more decorative dress suggest it to bem the colonel's 'administrative squadron'. Thenesfeather is reconstructed from eyewitness ac-nts; swinesfeathers were issued from 1624 until28 in addition to musket rests.

The Eastern Front: Finns and Lappse Scandinavians have used skis for thousands ofrs. Norse mythology had its own ski war god, UII,pson of Thor, and a ski goddess, Skade. One saga

even records the I r th-century King Harald Hadradaboasting of his skill at skiing.

Ski-troops were certainly in use in Sweden-Finland in the 1500s; by the 1600s references to themare common. The first recorded captain of ski-troopswas the Finn Hans Boije; in March 1606 he crossedthe frozen Gulf of Finland to Narva with 600 skiers.Widekindi writes, in 1671, of 4,000 Swedish ski-troops sent to assist the Russians against Poland in1609. This figure has been repeated by later his-torians but is obviously too high, since little morethan 4,000 infantry in total fought in this campaign.More reliable documents suggest far fewer skiers: inMarch 1609, for instance, Boije is again mentioned inRussia, scouting with ISO ski-troops from SouthEast Finland.

There is no evidence for ski-troops in the Prussianor German campaigns; but they continued, long afterGustavus's death, to harass the Russian and Lithu-anian cavalry armies on Sweden's 'Eastern front'.

BI: Finnish musketeerSeveral Finnish infantry regiments came to Germanywith Gustavus, but most were deployed in Latvia,Estonia and along the Russian border. This Finn,based on a German engraving, has dress of Westernmilitary type. The coat is probably a 'casack'. Fur

caps or similar headgear must have been worn on alarge scale by Gustavus's infantry, since there is littleevidence for large issues of the broad-brimmed felthats usually linked with this period. In any case, inbattle all infantry were expected to wear helmets.This snaplock musket (LRK 4916) h~s a butt whichresembles the simple early Dutch butt on theengraving.

The skis are based on a crude sketch and descrip-

tion by Johann of Nassau of the strange 'shoes' heobserved on Finnish ski-troops: '8 foot long and onehand wide, and made of thin wood ... I have seenthem several times in Livonia used against the Polesto make strong raids at night on their camp ... in themiddle is a leather band in which one puts the foot ...if there is something of a hill, they attach fur to theleft "shoe" one hand wide and made from reindeerskin so that one can get a grip.' At this period a singlelong ski-pole was more common than a pair. Theplate at the base of the pole was often simply a flat discof wood.


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pp wearingtched skis. Theer ski on one foot isn in ski jargon as anur' or 'Andor', and ison the underside withgive H better grip onnow and CO preventliding when goingl. For downhillhes the skier glided

on the broader unlined skion his other foot. Likemost ot'hiscontemporaries, he usesonly a single long ski-pole.The crossbow remained inuse in rem 0 tcr parts ofScan dina viamostly forhunting. From JohannesSchctlerus, Lapponia(Frankfurt, 1673).

: Lapp, reindeer and sledgeee companies of Lapps along with reindeers andges arrived in Stettin in November 1631, accord-to one German broadsheet. The report may have

been propaganda, since some Imperialists, att, were convinced that Gustavus's successes wereto the Lapps in his army 'who cast a spell uponr enemies and prevented them from offering anystance' .Thanks to several early travellers, 17th-centuryp dress is fairly well documented; it was madeely from reindeer hide. The bow here is based onearly Swedish Lapp example at Orbyhus Castle. Itf composite construction covered in birch bark,very similar to those described by r yth-centuryellers. Though already obsolete, bows are occa-ally recorded in Gustavus's army. Walter Harteting in 1759) mentions as many as 3,000 archerswedish service in 1628, but it is not clear who theye. They could not have all been Scots or Irish-n, as the only British regiment to arrive in 1627-28Ramsay's, numbering 1,200 men, and it was

mediately issued with pikes and muskets. It is

e likely that they were newly arrived Finnsiting re-arming: Finnish 'bowshooters' are men-

tioned in a letter dated April 1627 as being clothed forservice away from home.

C: Storming the breach-British mercenaries,I6JISo much has been written about the Scots in Swedishservice that the English and Irish have been almostcompletely overlooked (the Welsh at this time werenormally classified as English). The English alonesupplied seven regiments between 1624 and 1632.The Irish too had a long tradition as mercenaries, butthey were distrusted by Gustavus because of theirreligion, and served mostly with Catholic powers;even so, several thousand Irish fought in nominally'Scottish' regiments. In fact, many Englishmen alsofound their way into 'Scottish' regiments: mercenarycolonels were entitled to levy men from any part ofthe British Isles and certa

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The Army of Gustavus Adolphus 1 Infantry

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