Europe’s Tragedy: A History of the Thirty Years War, by Peter H. Wilson

Abstract

A recent exhibition in Brandenburg an der Havel showed material excavated from the site of the battle of Wittstock, fought between the imperial Catholic and the Swedish Protestant armies on 4 October 1636. On the Swedish side, roughly a third of the force were Swedes and Finns, the rest were Germans with a strong contingent of Scots, including some fifty senior Scottish officers. The imperial force was similarly diverse in composition. Eight thousand men perished on one day alone. Among them were the 125 soldiers from both sides whose mass grave was discovered in 2007 and whose remains formed the core of the exhibition.Typical of the individual fates revealed by forensic archaeological analysis was the profile of one soldier: a Scot aged between 21 and 24, 168 centimetres in height, with evidence of periods of childhood starvation, serious dental decay, severely worn shoulder and hip joints, chronic periostitis, shot lodged in the upper arm and multiple wounds caused by halberds and daggers. The battle transformed the war. The Swedes had previously been defeated and, by 1636, many on the imperial side believed that the war was all but over. The unexpected Swedish victory at Wittstock ensured that the conflict continued for twelve further years.