Sweden in the Thirty Years' War Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Having disengaged from their war with the Poles at the truce of Altmark, in what year did the Swedes enter the Thirty Years' War?

Answer: 1630

By the end of 1629 the Habsburgs has come very close to achieving hegemony in Central Europe and in the Baltic region. On the 26th July the Swedes landed at Peenem�nde in Pomerania and thus began for them a conflict that would drag on for 15 long years.

There reasons for entering have been much debated; one of the main reasons was to prevent the Baltic being turned into a "Habsburg lake". Also Wallenstein, an Imperial general had been sending aid to the Poles.

2. Which of the Electors of the Holy Roman Empire was the first to ally with the Swedes upon their invasion of North Germany?

Answer: George William of Brandenburg

George William agreed to ally himself with Sweden in 1631, largely it seems due to the sack of Magdeburg earlier in the year. This atrocity was perpetrated by the Catholic Imperial Army against a Protestant town. Protestant Brandenburg would have feared that the same fate lay in store for her if she did not find a strong ally; large areas of George William's state had already been ravaged by armies.

3. Who was the redoubtable general in charge of the Imperial Army facing the Swedes at the First Battle of Breitenfeld (1631)?

Answer: Jean 't Serclaes Count of Tilly

The Swedes won this battle; the first major loss for the Imperial cause and one of the Swedes greatest moments. 41,000 Swedes and Saxons routed 31,000 Imperialists of whom 7,600 are said to have died (Parker).

4. It has already been noted that the Swedes were fighting the Imperialists; this is the shorthand name used to describe men fighting for the Holy Roman Emperor; who was emperor at the time of the battle of Breitenfeld in 1631?

Answer: Ferdinand II

Ferdinand II ruled as Holy Roman Emperor from 1619 to 1637; he was a strong supporter of the Counter Reformation and counted a Jesuit, Father Lamormaini, as one of his most trusted councillors.

5. At which battle did the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus die?

Answer: L�tzen

The king fell while engaged in a cavalry charge; shot three times his body was plundered. Among other things, the king's ring was stolen. (The practice of plundering valuables from corpses was widespread at the time, and discipline among the soldiery in the Thirty Years' War was notoriously bad).

6. In 1632 Gustavus Adolphus' army is said to have been 210,000 men strong?

Answer: False

Gustavus' Army in 1632 is reliably held to have been 100,000 men strong (Roberts), he had aimed to enlarge it to 210,000 by the end of the winter. Though he had 100,000 men under his command he never led them as a unified army in the field. Such a large force in one place would have been impossible to supply at that time.

7. Upon Gustavus Adolphus' death which man took up the challenge of running the Swedish state and war effort?

Answer: Axel Oxenstierna

Swedish Chancellor from 1612, his is the personality alongside Gustavus Adolphus that most shaped his country's destiny in the war. He did not though have the legendary charisma of the dead king and suffered from this in the aftermath of Lutzen; many of Sweden's allies drifted away.

8. At the battle of N�rdlingen (1634) the Swedish armies were commanded jointly; one of the commanders was a German called Bernard. Of what duchy was he duke?

Answer: Saxe-Weimar

N�rdlingen was the Swedish army's greatest defeat in the Thirty Years' War; Bernard of Saxe-Weimar and the other commander, Gustav Horn. saw half their army killed and the latter general was himself captured. From the heady heights of Breitenfeld (1631) the Swedes had fallen to an all time low.

9. The Swedish war effort picked up again after 1636, with the entry into the war proper by France, a country rapidly on the way to superseding Spain as the greatest of Catholic nations. Which famous man was the power behind the French throne till his death in December 1642?

Answer: Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal-Duke of Richelieu

French aid to the Swedes had long been forthcoming in the form of subsidies; it was with the direct intervention by French armies in Germany that Sweden was able feel that a victory might be possible. Richelieu was an important figure in assuring this aid came; he was one of the great personalities of the Thirty Years' War.

10. Upon the death of Gustavus Adolphus his only child was a minor; hence government being taken over by Axel Oxenstierna. In what year did the new monarch reach the age of majority?

Answer: 1644

Gustavus Adolphus' successor to the throne of Sweden was of course his daughter Christina, a famously enigmatic character. She abdicated goverment in 1654 and converted to Catholicism. She spent the remainder of her days living in Rome.

11. Which Scottish colonel, wrote the first regimental history in the English language concerned with his time fighting for the Swedes in Germany?

Answer: Robert Monro

The regimental history of Robert Monro is a key primary source for the Thirty Years' War, revealing as it does an eyewitness view of many battles. The fact it is written by a Scot serving in the Swedish army illustrates that many different nationalities fought as mercenaries in the war. In fact, Scottish and Irish mercenaries fought on both sides in the war.

12. While Sweden was warring in Germany her old enemy, Denmark, had been making trouble in the Baltic. Upon learning in 1643 that the Danes were negotiating an alliance with the Emperor, the Swedes decided to strike first and invaded Denmark. Which general did the Emperor send to aid the Danes?

Answer: Count Gallas

The Emperor Ferdinand III who had sent Count Gallas to relieve the Danes was outmanouevred by Swedish diplomacy; he was forced to recall Gallas in order to protect his own lands from invasion by the new Swedish ally, George Racokczy, Prince of Transylvania. Gallas was subsequently outmanouevred by Swedish generals while he withdrew and lost, according to one chronicler, 17,000 of his 18,000 men to starvation as he travelled through German lands devastated by prolonged war.

13. The Thirty Years' War was famously ended in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia. This peace was in fact made of two treaties, which did the Swedes sign?

Answer: Treaty of Osnabr�ck

Negotiations for peace began in 1643 and lasted for five years; they were carried out at two seperate places: M�nster and Osnabr�ck. The reason for this and the signing of two treaties was the different confessions of France and Sweden. They each negotiated seperately with the Emperor with their own denominational allies alongside them.

14. Sweden, it can be argued, did very well out of the Thirty Years' War and could feel that her goals had been attained. What area of Germany did she NOT receive?

Answer: Pomerania

Sweden had tried hard to gain eastern Pomerania in her negotiations at Osnabr�ck. In the end she had to settle for only the western part.

15. At the end of The Thirty Years' War in 1648, Sweden still had thousands of troops in her pay. In what year was the last of her soldiers withdrawn from non-Swedish land in Germany?

Answer: 1654

The demobilisation of the Swedish army had been one of the sticking points in getting a peace signed. Sweden, being a relatively poor country, simply could not afford to pay the arrears of her huge army herself. Protracted negotiations were thus necessary in order to gain an indemnity to pay them for her: 5,000,000 thalers was the sum arrived at.

Source: Author wyrmirae

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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The Thirty Years War marked the beginning of Sweden's brief period as a great power; it saw this Scandinavian country become one of the arbiters of Europe. Learn something about their intervention in this major war.

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