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Written by Eric Flint

The Swedes

Gustav Adolf, the King of Sweden, better known under the Latinized name of Gustavus Adolphus. In real history, he died at the battle of Lutzen in 1632. In the 1632 universe, that battle never happened and he is still alive and kicking.

Axel Oxenstierna, Gustav Adolf's principal lieutenant and second-in-command. After Gustav Adolf's death at Lutzen in 1632, Oxenstierna became the de facto ruler of Sweden so long as Princess Kristina was a minor.

These are two images of Lennart Torstensson, one of Gustav Adolf's generals. Torstensson was younger than most—only 28 years old at the time of the battle of Breitenfeld—and a specialist in artillery. In real history, by the end of the Thirty Years War he had become Sweden's most important general officer.

Other important generals in the Swedish forces were:

Johan Banér (1596-1641)

Gustav Horn (1592-1657)

And—later in the Thirty Years War—Carl Gustav Wrangel (1613-1676).

Kristina was Gustav Adolf's only child, born in the year 1626 and eight years old when her father was killed at Lutzen. She is, without a doubt, one of the most fascinating women of the time period. Extremely intelligent and strong-willed, she eventually abdicated her throne, converted to Catholicism, and moved to Italy where she spent the rest of her life until her death in 1689.

Here are some rather more glamorous images of her:

Yup. Hollywood once made a movie about her, starring Greta Garbo.

There are a multitude of anecdotes about Kristina. Probably the most famous is that she was held responsible for the death of the great French philosopher Descartes. She invited him to take up residence in Stockholm, which he did, but then insisted that he had to meet her early every morning to discuss philosophy. In one of those early-morning treks to her rooms in the winter, Descartes took ill and died.

My personal favorite anecdote, however, is that much later in life she threw a big party at her villa in Italy when one of her friends was chosen to be the new Pope of the Roman Catholic church. The party got wild and out of hand, and Kristina ordered all the guests to vacate the premises. When the unruly and drunken guests ignored her, she summoned her soldiers and ordered them to open fire on the crowd. The death toll was eight party-goers, but she did break up the party.

The Habsburgs

This is Ferdinand II, the Emperor of Austria and the Holy Roman Empire when the novel 1632 begins. His reign began in 1620 and lasted until his death in 1637. He was the dominant political figure in central Europe at the time, as well as one of the foulest. The man was not particularly bright, prone to brutality, and a religious bigot. The little fellow with Ferdinand's hand on his head in the image on the left, incidentally, is not his son. He's a court dwarf, kept around to amuse the Emperor.

Ferdinand II's son, the King of Hungary, succeeded him to the throne and reigned until his death in 1658 as Emperor Ferdinand III.

The King of Hungary was an accomplished military leader, and, in real history, joined the Cardinal-Infante from the Spanish branch of the Habsburg dynasty in leading the Habsburg forces which defeated the Swedes at the battle of Nordlingen in 1634. The following year, Rubens painted an idealized portrait of their meeting on the battlefield, which is shown above.

Don Fernando, better known as "the Cardinal-Infante," was the younger brother of the King of Spain, Philip IV. He was born in 1609 and died early, in 1641, from an ailment diagnosed as "an ulcer of the abdomen." The Cardinal-Infante was probably the best military leader produced by either branch of the Habsburg dynasty in this time era. He was made a Cardinal of the church against his wishes, and always chafed at the status. He wanted to be a soldier, not a religious figure. Somewhere around 1631/1632, the famous Spanish painter Velasquez did the portrait of him shown above while hunting.

This is Velazquez's portrait of the Count-Duke of Olivares, who was the principal government official in Spain during the time period covered so far in the 1632 series—in effect, the Spanish equivalent of Cardinal Richelieu in France or the Earl of Strafford in England.

The Germans

Maximilian of Bavaria was one of the principal political figures of the time. In addition to ruling the large and important principality of Bavaria, he was also the head of the Catholic League and thus commanded the Catholic League's armies, whose principal general until his death at the Crossing of the Lech was Tilly. Early in the Thirty Years War, Maximilian also obtained the lands in the Upper Palatinate formerly controlled by the Protestant Elector Frederick, who was the shortlived "Winter King" of Bohemia and whose wife was the sister of Charles I of England. Maximillian then got himself officially appointed the Elector of that region. Maximillian is one of the most unsavory characters of the time period, and readers of the 1632 series can expect any number of opportunities to hiss and boo the fellow.

The very attractive young woman on the right in the portrait is his niece, Maria Anna of Austria, whom Maximillian married in 1635 after the death of his first wife. Maria Anna was much younger than he was, only twenty-five years old at the time of the marriage. She will figure prominently in the novel which Virginia DeMarce and I are writing in the series, 1634: The Bavarian Crisis. Both Virginia and I are firmly convinced that this sprightly lass can do a lot better for herself than Maximillian.

Johannes Tserklaes, Count of Tilly, was one of the major military figures in the first half of the Thirty Years War. He was born in Brabant in the Spanish Netherlands in 1559 and remained loyal to the Catholic church throughout his life. He was the chief general for the Bavarian forces in a number of battles in the first half of the war, including the Battle of the White Mountain in 1621 which routed the Protestants rallied under the banner of the Elector of the Palatinate, King Frederick of Bohemia, and returned control of Bohemia and Moravia to the Austrian Habsburgs. He is probably most famous—or infamous—because it was troops under his command which carried out the notorious sack of Magdeburg in 1631. Tilly actually tried to stop the massacre—as did his chief lieutenant Gottfried von Pappenheim (see below)—but the troops were completely out of control once they breached the walls of the city. The massacre of the inhabitants of Magdeburg was the single worst atrocity in the Thirty Years War, a war which was full of atrocities from beginning to end. For years afterward, Protestant troops would often refuse to accept the surrender of Catholic soldiers, replying to offers of surrender with the chilling slogan "Magdeburg quarter."

Tilly finally died in the battle fought on the Lech river when Gustav Adolf's troops succeeded in forcing a crossing, in April 1632. The depiction of that battle and Tilly's death in my novel 1632 is quite accurate historically, by the way. The only dramatic liberty I took was adding Julie Sims' sharpshooting to the scene and Torstensson's use of the American cannons.

These are both portraits of Albrecht von Wallenstein, who, along with Tilly, was the major military leader on the Habsburg side of the Thirty Years War. He was born into a family of minor Protestant Bohemian nobility in 1583, but converted to Catholicism at the Jesuit college of Olmutz while still a young man. He rose quickly in rank and wealth once the Thirty Years War began, and soon became the major mercenary general for the Austrians as well as the largest landowner in his native Bohemia. In real history, he eventually became perceived as a threat by the Habsburgs and was assassinated by soldiers acting as Habsburg agents in 1634. In the 1632 universe, his fate will be...

Different. I will say no more about that here, since that story is told in my short novel The Wallenstein Gambit, which is one of the stories included in the upcoming (January 2004) 1632 anthology, Ring of Fire.

Gottfried von Pappenheim was born in 1594 and fought against the Swedes at the battle of Lutzen in 1632. Like Gustav Adolf, he died in combat there while leading his troops. In the 1632 universe, since that battle never happened, he is still very much alive. He fought under Tilly at the battle of Breitenfeld in 1631, and then switched his allegiance to Wallenstein, whom he faithfully served until his death the following year. Pappenheim was one of the most feared cavalry leaders of the day, and was in command of his famous "Black Cuirassiers."

As a character, he has only been mentioned thus far in the 1632 series. But he plays a prominent role in The Wallenstein Gambit in the anthology Ring of Fire, and he is also a major character in K.D. Wentworth's story in the same anthology, "Here Comes Santa." (As a matter of fact, he's the "Santa" of the title. If that seems peculiar to you, well... I recommend reading Kathy's very witty story as soon as you get the chance.)

This is a portrait of John George I, Elector of Saxony, one of the major German princes during the Thirty Years War. He was born in 1585 and died in 1656, ruling Saxony for almost half a century after succeeding to the electorate in 1611. Alas, poor Saxony. I've never been able to find anything good to say about this man—although, in fairness, I should state that Virginia DeMarce thinks I'm a little too unforgiving. It is true that John George faced a very difficult situation. That said, Virginia doesn't think much of him either.

Georg Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, was Gustav Adolf's brother-in-law. During the Thirty Years War, however, he tended to follow the lead of John George of Saxony.

This is an image of Wilhelm Wettin, the oldest of the four dukes of Saxe-Weimar. Saxe-Weimar was one of the smaller but still important principalities of the Holy Roman Empire. In effect, as the story unfolds in 1632, the rising new United States gobbles up most of the Saxe-Weimar territories. Wilhelm is a prominent character in both 1632 and (especially) 1633. All historical accounts I've read of the man make him seem—along with his brother Ernst, portrayed below—a fundamentally decent and attractive fellow, who seems to have shared relatively few of the typical political vices of the second-tier German nobility of the time. He will continue to occupy an important role in the 1632 series as it unfolds.

Ernst of Saxe-Weimar was one of Wilhelm's younger brothers and served Gustav Adolf and Oxenstierna as a very capable administrator of their conquered territories in south-central Germany. He hasn't figured very prominently in the 1632 series thus far, but will occupy a more important role in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis.

One of Wilhelm's younger brothers, Bernhard was the most accomplish military leader of the four Dukes of Saxe-Weimar. In real history, he did not betray Gustav Adolf as portrayed in the novel 1632, but his personality makes that betrayal quite plausible. Bernhard was an arrogant and self-centered man, who, after Gustav Adolf's death, tended to operate largely on his own behalf as an independent condottiere.

The French

Armand-Jean du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu, was effectively the ruler of France on behalf of King Louis XIII throughout most of the Thirty Years War. He was the most capable political ruler of the time, with the possible exception of Gustav Adolf. He is portrayed in the 1632 series as "the Great Villain," but that's a slanted and ultimately unfair portrait of him. In the context of the 1632 universe, it's reasonable enough, although I've taken care to give the readers as full a picture of him as possible. But in real history, he is often credited as the man who essentially "invented France" as a modern nation, and he is considered—rightly—one of the greatest figures in French history. Most of the unsavory reputation which Richelieu has today, especially in the English-speaking world, derives from the absurdly distorted image of him given in Dumas' The Three Musketeers. The man was certainly ruthless, but no more so than any capable ruler of the time—and whenever possible, he was inclined to leave the executioner's ...