ABSTRACT
Throughout her marriage to Lennart Torstensson, Brita De la Gardie's life focused on warfare. Torstensson was a Swedish nobleman who had a highly successful career in the Swedish military. Throughout the late 1620s and early 1630s, he rapidly rose through the ranks to become a general. During the late 1630s, he acted as second in command to Johan Banér who had been appointed as the Swedish army's commander after Gustavus Adolphus's death at the Battle of Lutzen in 1632. De la Gardie's experiences were not unusual. From the mid-1500s through the 1650s, the Swedish crown continuously waged wars against its neighbors as it sought to expand and protect its growing empire around the Baltic Sea. Throughout the seventeenth century, every European army entered the field followed by many camp followers consisting of soldiers' and officers' families and servants. No state possessed the administrative structures or resources to consistently supply its armies in the field.
