A WARRIOR DYNASTY: THE RISE AND FALL OF SWEDEN AS A MILITARY SUPERPOWER, 1611-1721

◗ Henrik O. Lunde

◗ Casemate Publishers (2020)

◗ £18.99

◗ 328 pages (softback)

◗ ISBN: 9781612009315

◗ casematepublishers.co.uk

Author Henrik Lunde, a retired US Army colonel, uses secondary sources to present a concise narrative of Sweden’s rise to military pre-eminence and its campaigns during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, with particular emphasis upon Gustav Adolf in the Thirty Years’ War and Karl XII in the Great Northern War.

One chapter covers the Rhine campaigns with a diagram of Breitenfeld; another, the battle of Lutzen and death of Gustav Adolf, with a map of South Germany and diagrams of the battles of the Lech and Lutzen.

Later chapters cover Karl XII’s Danish, Baltic and German campaigns; his Russian campaign and defeat at Poltava; and death at the siege of Fredrikstend fortress.

Illustrations include eleven maps and battle diagrams, reproductions of portraits and battle paintings.

This is a very readable and informative introduction to military developments in Sweden and the careers of its two famous soldier-kings that may inspire wargamers to explore the Thirty Years’ War and/or the Great Northern War in more depth by consulting additional books and to refight battles such as Breitenfeld, Lutzen and Poltava on the tabletop.