As I mentioned before Mankell was making the unsupported assumption that the cavalry of Gustav Adolf was using the same tactics as the later cavalry of Karl XI and Karl XII. Swedish historians of the late 19th and early 20th Century have tied themselves into knots in order to explain away this letter in order to mantain Mankell's unsupported claim that the Swedes charged at the gallop. A style which he called attacking in "the French manner" and in plain text he writes that it was tactic that had not previously been used by the Swedes. After the battle of Halmstad he described how the Swedish cavalry had charge home at speed, sword in hand. If the Swedish style was so revolutionary why does not Montecuccoli say single word about them in his "Sulle battaglie"? Or why does not Monro mention them as one of the reasons why the Swedes won at Breitenfeld?Ī key proof that the Swedes did not charge at the gallop, sword in hand, is to be found in a letter by Nils Bielke who was one of the foremost Swedish cavalry commanders in the Scanian war.
Writers like Monro, Montecuccoli and Cruso never mention the Swedish cavalry tactics as either 'new' nor as more effective than those of anyone else. The key factor is that there seems to be no period source which describe the Swedes as attacking at the gallop. This leaves Mankell who does not provide a source for his claim (much like Roemer). The thing is that Chemnitz 1648 history of the Swedish war in Germany does not say anything about the pace of the Swedish charge. This is in turn based on Chemnitz and Mankell. My guess is that Roberts relied a lot on "Sveriges Krig 1611-1632", Appendix volume II, page 120 were the Swedish cavalry is describe as using 'new' tactics which involved charging at the gallop. Roberts' 1958 work would probably be "Gustavus Adolphus, a history of Sweden 1611-1632" The question is if there is any clear evidence that Rupert and his men did charge at the gallop? Much of this seems to rest on Rupert's supposed introduction of 'Swedish' tactics, and since 'Swedes' supposedly galloped then Rupert also galloped.īut since Swedish tactics did not involve galloping that particluar line of reasoing does not hold up to scrutiny.