CHAPTER XI. 



Cavalry in the "Thirty Years' War." Gustavus 

 Adolphus, Tilly, and Wallenstein. 



SECTION I. — GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 



f the 



In the Thirty Years' War the military art went through 

 several phases of development, Gustavus Adolphus, 

 King of Sweden, the great central figure of that conflict, 

 having been the most noted military reformer of modern 

 times.^ In fact, he made a greater progress in tactics 

 and the military art generally than any commander 

 before or since his time. He was, practically, the creator 

 of a new art of war, which, in its essential points, sub- 

 sists to the present day. His appearance on the European 

 stage marks therefore a distinct and important epoch,^ 



Gustavus Adolphus belongs to a type that appears 

 but rarely on the pages of history. He was well edu- 

 cated, thoroughly acquainted with the military institutions 

 of antiquity, and understood fully the principles upon 

 which Alexander, and Hannibal, and Csesar won their 

 imperishable renown. He was a great innovator upon 

 the military systems of his time, and although some of 

 his changes were real novelties, most of them were 

 rather the result of an intelligent recurrence to the ideas 

 of the ancient masters than, properly speaking, new 

 inventions. 



He improved the discipline of the army very materially, 

 and was the first to introduce the order and regularity 

 ^ Beamish, 334. « Decker, 36. 



