ABSTRACT
In the winter and spring of 1631-32 Gustavus Adolphus stood in a position such as no other Swedish monarch - not Charles X, not Charles XII - was ever to enjoy in the future, and certainly had not enjoyed in the past. His astonishing military successes enabled him to bully the princes of Germany, ride rough-shod over neutrals, and towards allies assume a brusque intransigence and an asperity of language such as Richelieu, for one, had not been used to encounter. His vast new armies, his confidence in his ability to defeat his enemies, permitted him to adopt a tone of menace to his old enemy, Christian IV. Nor did his involvement in the politics of Germany inhibit him from manoeuvres designed to shake the throne of the Polish Vasa. His diplomacy took on a wider range; his political horizons expanded to include virtually the whole of Europe. From Constantinople to Amsterdam, from Switzerland to Lithuania, his agents were active, disseminating the story of his invincibility, dilating on the exploits of the ancient Goths, painting in flattering hues the wealth and the economic potential of his backward dominions, spreading their nets for recruits, provisions, subsidies, alliances, to lend weight to the great military projects he was formulating for the coming year.
