SWEDISH CAVALRY DRAGOONS 30 YEARS WAR

The Thirty Years' War, fought in 1618-1648, was one of the most important conflicts of the 17th century, which had a huge impact on the relationship of power between the then powers. In some simplification, it can be assumed that the peace ending it, i.e. the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, made France (along with the Pyrenean Peace of 1659) a leading power in the Old Continent, and significantly weakened the position of the Habsburgs in Europe. It is also worth remembering that the great winner of the Thirty Years War was also Sweden, which owed its superpower position primarily to its great army. Its profound reforms were carried out by Gustav II Adolf of the Vasa dynasty, ruling in the years 1611-1632. This outstanding ruler introduced significant changes to the Swedish cavalry and in fact created the Swedish dragoons from scratch. First of all, it should be stated that the Swedish army probably came into combat contact with dragoons for the first time during the war with the Republic of Poland in the years 1600-1622. However, the first unit of this type appeared in the Swedish army probably only in 1621. A year later, three companies of dragoons were established. In 1624, a 5 company force of dragoons was formed, with around 620 men. It underwent its specific baptism of fire during the next war with the Commonwealth in 1626-1629, when Swedish officers learned to properly operate this type of formation, often making mistakes in this matter. However, they were quickly corrected and in the course of the so-called During the Swedish Thirty Years' War (1630-1635), Swedish dragoons were already a formidable weapon. Its quality can be seen in the battles at Breitenfeld (1631) or at Lützen (1632), which, however, ended with the death of Gustav II Adolf, who was nicknamed the Lion of the North during his lifetime.