The King Is Dead. German Broadsheets Printed on the Death of Gustavus Adolphus and Charles I

chapter 12 The King is Dead. German Broadsheets Printed on the Death of Gustavus Adolphus and Charles i

Jan Hillgaertner

‘The Swede is still alive’. With these triumphant and comforting words, a re markable broadsheet begins its narration of the death of the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus (1594–1632). The broadsheet appeared in 1633 and tells in allegorical figures the story of the heroic death of the perceived saviour of German Protestants.1 It draws upon Greek mythology: Mnemosyne, the muse of memory, stands with Gustavus as God stands with his church. Urania declares that the king will metaphorical live on until the Last Judgement. The unexpected death of Gustavus stirred the interest of the German public to the point that the event became an early media sensation. Contemporaries discussed what must have happened on the battlefield of Lützen: Gustavus’ death left a void that needed filling. For this, publishers used the power of the broadsheet not only to inform the public of what had happened, but for more partisan purposes: on the Protestant side to maintain confidence in the Swedes and denounce the Imperial enemy (and the overwhelming majority of these broadsheets represented the Protestant point of view). Broadsheets were part of the voluminous literature that attempted to bring sense to the unexpected loss. When the Swedes began their intervention in Germany, they used broad sheets and pamphlets to stimulate support from the German Protestants. The broadsheets sought to give meaning to their actions and justify them; the use of cheap print was part of a larger propaganda campaign. This aimed to unify the Protestant Dukes under the Swedish king and encourage them to supply troops and goods. The public had to be convinced of Gustavus’ good intentions and invincibility. Speaking of Gustavus as the Lion of the North soon became proverbial amongst the German populace; establishing this trope represented a considerable success for his propagandists.

1 Geoffrey Parker, The Thirty Years War (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984), pp. 121–132. For a discussion of Gustavus’ actual reasons to enter the Thirty Years War, the protection of religious freedom as well as securing the Swedish homeland, see Günter Barudio, Gustav Adolf der Große. Eine Biographie (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1985), pp. 352–375.

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The unprecedented quantity of broadsheets published during these years has already attracted a degree of scholarly attention. John Roger Paas, in his seminal study, emphasised the enormous importance of Gustavus for Protestant authors and publishers.2 He demonstrated how the image of the king would change over time, and how popular broadsheets relating the deeds of Gustavus became with the purchasing public. Wolfgang Harms elaborated on this theme, demonstrating the extent to which Gustavus was as much a totem as a historical figure, a canvas on which Protestant authors could paint colourful images of a divinely appointed king. Propagandists cre ated a superhuman image of the king who appeared as a Christianised version of Alexander, Hercules and Judas Maccabeus, on his rightful mission to save Protestants from Catholic expansion.3 The broadsheets published before his death constructed a positive image of the king’s personality and his motives. In the broadsheets he combines piety with forceful action as he advanced into Germany.4 The role of propaganda changed radically after his death. It was now, according to Olaf Mörke, that it shifted towards keeping the memory of the king and his victories alive and restoring the fragile unity amongst the Pro testant dukes fighting on Gustavus’ side.5 This article explores the ways contemporary authors framed the unexpect ed death of Gustavus on the battlefield of Lützen in 1632 through the medium of illustrated broadsheets. To understand the scope of these sources we need to place them in the wider context of broadsheet production in Germany in the 1630s and 1640s. The attention Gustavus received was unique. Similarly un expected, the death of the influential Catholic commander Count Tilly (1559– 1632) received little attention in the heavily Protestant-dominated media. Only the dramatic murder of army leader Albrecht von Wallenstein (1583–1634) attracted anything like the same media attention.6 In the last portions of this

2 John Roger Paas, ‘The Changing Image of Gustavus Adolphus on German Broadsheets, 1630–3’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 59 (1996), pp. 205–244. 3 Wolfgang Harms, ‘Gustav Adolf als christlicher Alexander und Judas Makkabaeus. Zu F ormen des Wertens von Zeitgeschichte in Flugschrift und illustriertem Flugblatt um 1632’, Wirkendes Wort, 35 (1985), pp. 168–183. 4 Hellmut Zschoch, ‘Größe und Grenzen des “Löwen von Mitternacht”. Das Bild Gustav Adolfs in der populären protestantischen Publizistik als Beispiel religiöser Situationswahrnehmung im Dreißigjährigen Krieg’, Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche, 91 (1994), pp. 25–50. 5 Olaf Mörke, ‘“Der Schwede lebet noch“ – Die Bildformung Gustav Adolfs in Deutschland nach der Schlacht bei Lützen’, in Maik Reichel (ed.), Gustav Adolf König von Schweden. Kraft der Erinnerung 1632–2007 (Dößel: Stekovics, 2007), pp. 88–90. 6 See for example the broadsheet Eigentliche Vorbildung und Bericht, welcher gestalt der keyserliche General Hertzog von Friedland beneben etlich anderen Obristen und Offizieren zu