How Gustavus Adolphus Combated the Winged Hussars

Between 1600 and 1629, the Swedes faced one of the most successful cavalry forces of the early modern Period: The Polish Winged Hussars. During the Polish-Swedish Wars the Swedes suffered many humiliating defeats on their behalf — until, in 1621, things changed: Gustavus Adolphus entered the stage. He found innovative ways to combat the Polish horsemen and learned a great deal from them. This is how contemporary historiography explains how Gustavus Adolphus dealt with the Polish Winged Hussars.

#history #education #sandrhoman

Our reading list on military history:

Bibliography:
Clifford, J. R., Tactics and the Face of Battle, in: Tallet, F., (editor), European Warfare 1350-1750.
Eltis, D., The Military Revolution in Sixteenth-Century Europe, London 1995.
Frost, R., Northern Wars, State and Society in Northeastern Europe 1558-1721, 2000.
Grbasić, Z., / V. Vuksić, L'âge d'or de la Cavalerie, 1989.
Kloosterhuis, J., “Cavalry” in: Encyclopedia for Early Modern History.
Love, R.S. «All the King’s Horsemen”: The equestrian Army of Henri IV, 1585-1598, SCJ 22 (1991), 511-33.
Meyer, H., Geschichte der Reiterkrieger, 1982.
Oeser, E., Pferd und Mensch. Die Geschichte einer Beziehung, 2007.
Parker, G., Dynastic War, in: Parker. G., (editor), The Cambridge History of Warfare, 2005.
Roberts, M., Gustav Adolf and the Art of War (first printed 1955), in: Essays on Swedish History, 1967.

[SandRhomanHistory]

For those who were asking for more content on Gustavus’ campaigns in Germany: there will be more on that In the next few videos.

[ieuanhunt]

One of the most underrated tools at a soldiers disposal. The shovel.

[pan_jzm]

Polish cavalry: *charge with cold steel*
Gustavus Adolphus: "WRITE THAT DOWN, WRITE THAT DOWN!"

[alder]

Battle of Gniew (Mewe 1626) was won by neither of sides, but it was strategic victory to both of them, Sweds broke the siege of Gniew, Poles forced Gustavus to stop his advance to Gdańsk. This battle showed also that you can no longer win a battle with mostly infantry against cavlery (like Swedish forces) or mostly cavlery against infantry (like Polish), you need both to be succesfull.

Your videos are of the highest visual and historical quality, it's pure joy to watch it. Keep it up, you deserve far more viewers!

[mariushunger]

How to defeat the winged hussars
Gustavus: Dirt, we need dirt

[Tareltonlives]

The real winner of the Polish-Swedish wars? Russia

[mattdelumen]

it takes a legend to take down a legend

[mobitouchiha]

Gustavus Adolphus: I am altering warfare, pray I don’t alter it any further

[TheSimon]

Sabaton fans be like: "What is this? a crossover episode?"

[ArtilleryAffictionado]

Your channel is god's gift to humanity (metaphorically saying "its the one thing youtube historiography needed" for those that take things seriously). Thank you for the effort and dedication you put into doing this, you are my absolute favorite!! love your work man!!

[richardcleveland]

Interesting. Gustavus fascinates me, and his death during the 30 Years' War poses one of the great "What ifs" of history. Though Gustavus found ways to deal with the Hussars, they were still around almost 60 years later when Sobieski led them to the relief of Vienna - 50 years after the Swedish king's death. A fine video; many thanks.

[natanl]

I hate videos on the Polish and Swedish, because I love both and hate to see either lose. Great videos my man, keep them up! :)

[not-a-theist]

I haven't appreciated this period of history for a long time. You changed that.

[Artur_M.]

I love to see the history of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth being presented in-depth, especially in the larger European context!
A note about pronunciation: C in Polish is never pronounced like 'k', it's usually pronounced like 'ts' (unless it's in a digraph with h or z).

[AzureIV]

I love how everything in these animations gets shattered like glass.

[Altrantis]

I feel like there's been a collision of Sabaton songs.

[rotciv]

Gustavus Adolphus reminds me of Philip II of Macedon.
Not the best, he was far from unbeaten. But damn, he was so reliable, effective and, most importantly, he damn well knew to adapt and bring the changes his people needed when they needed them.

A genious and a legend.

[clintmoor]

you're bringing us the good stuff. as usual. thanks!

[corby]

It's amazing how adaptible Gustavus was.

[sarahsidney]

Always happy to see a new video being uploaded to this channel!