The Lion from Midnight
Inspired by my recent studies of religion and knowledge in Early Modern Sweden I decided to write a short scenario in which Gustavus Adolphus is from an early age, for whatever reason, more inclined towards the apocalyptic teachings of his teacher Johannes Bureus. Paired with a eclectic worldview, a monumental sense of grandeur and greater personal and martial luck Gustavus Adolphus leads his army and Protestantism to its greatest victories.
A House Divided
King Gustav II Adolph, son of Charles IX, ascended to the throne of Sweden in 1610, merely sixteen years of age. Gustav’s father Charles had been the youngest but probably most ambitious and cunning son of Gustav I. His elder brothers had all predeceased him. Eric XIV died after years of imprisonment. John III, his older brother’s capturer and successor, died after 25 years on the throne, being survived by his sons Sigismund and John. Magnus, the third of the Vasa brothers, would die soon his older brother. By the dawn of the 17th century only Charles was alive, governing Sweden as regent for his absentee nephew, King Sigismund (I) of both Sweden and (III) Poland.
King Sigismund had been raised a Catholic, as his mother was a Polish princess and his father sought to close the confessional gap torn open by the Lutherans. Sigismund had promised to respect the autonomy of the Lutheran church of Sweden and was forced to accept his uncle, Duke Charles, as regent. Charles secretly and sometimes openly opposed his nephew on both religious and political grounds. The duke-regent was protestant (some even claimed that he was secretly a Calvinist) and tried to win the support of the Lutheran clergy against his nephew. Despite the fact that Charles surely was a religious man and would later make honest attempts to further entrench and fulfill reformists ideals in the Swedish realm, he was most certainly also driven by relentless ambition. In 1604 he finally succeeded in his scheming and had his nephew deposed.
The End of Time
Merely six years later a adolescent Gustav inherited his father’s realm and the still ongoing conflict with his cousin Sigismund, who would not simply accept the loss of his ancestral home country. In the minds of the Swedish aristocracy the ascendant military great power was not only the home of the still rather young House of Vasa, but birthplace of all civilisation. Göticism paired with apocalyptic Lutheranism, eschatological readings of the Bible and creative reinterpretation of classical sources created a narrative binding Sweden tightly to fall and redemption of the World. Accepted by few outside the Swedish realm those eccentric ideas were passed down to the young Gustav by his teacher Johannes Bureus, who saw himself as the last prophet succeeding Martin Luther, Jan Hus and Christ himself. Bureus had calculated Doomsday to arrive in the Year of the Lord 1673, and believed himself to be the biblical Lion of the North or Lion from Midnight. While quite eccentric the Bureus had the wisdom to not challenge the young kings growing conviction that he himself was the the foretold lion and a new Beric.
Beric was believed to be an ancient king of the Goths (who to Bureus and his peers were synonymous with the Swedes) and head, so the göticist narrative goes, once conquered the whole of Europe. In fact Swedish scholars claimed that most European peoples (Picts, Franks, Estonians etc.) descended from those noble yet bloodthirsty warriors. Beric might have been there greatest king in matters of warfare, of course only to be matched by the military genius of Gustav Adolph himself, but the first king of the Goths was none less than the biblical Magog, grandson of Noah, who had come with his brother Gog to Scandinavia following the great flood. The two brothers, Bureus claimed, had taken with them the stele of Seth, containing the wisdom of the Biblical patriarchs deriving from Adam and collected by his son Seth. The spread of this wisdom would be to Bureus the greatest achievement of the Goths eclipsing by far their martial victories.
The scholars of the 16th century strived to established what language Adam had spoken in Paradise. Many believed it to be Hebrew but some Spanish scholars claimed that it actually was Spanish, some Dutch that it was Dutch, Germans that it was German, and so on. Bureus believed Swedish was a good contender but more important was in fact the written language of Adam and with great certainty Bureus put forth the claim that the ancient runes were in fact this perfect system of writing. The stele of Seth was in fact covered with them and would he only dechiffre all their secrets and all their hidden meanings, Bureus would in fact re-establish the undiluted wisdom of the patriarchs, yes in fact even win dominion over all creatures, as they now could be called by their true names. It would be the key to the end of the world as foretold in the Book of Revelation. Bureus would open the Seven Seals of the Second Coming.
Whereas the increasingly self-centered Bureus tried to discover the last secrets of the runes, the stars and the scripture, his soon to be equally fanatic student Gustav started to prepare for military glory.
The Lion of the North
By 1628 King Gustav had brought relative peace to his realm as he effectively ended the three wars he had inherited by his late father. The king achieved peace with the Danes and the Russians and secured a five year truce with his polish cousin. But peace would never be an option for the ambitious House of Vasa. Following the truce with the Polish Gustav quickly arranged for Sweden to join the conflict between Lutherans and Catholics, which was by now raging for ten years and had torn the German lands asunder.
Reluctantly Christian IV of Denmark, the current patron of the Lutheran cause, accepted Gustav’s offer to intervene on behalf of the protestants. The failing Danish campaign was saved by the formidable Swedish army, who in quick succession caused burning defeats to the Imperials. For his military ambitions Gustavus bled his realm white. The Swedish state was well organized but the country itself was among the poorest in Europe and the war’s of its king would empauper the realm only further. Hundreds of thousands of men left their villages to never return, the tax were increased and ruthlessly enforced and hunger and disease caused death and suffering. Pestilence would even befall the grand army of the Lion of the North. Slowly, less than a mile per hour, the gigantic army, soldiers, their wifes, their children, merchants, prostitutes and thousands of horses, marched through central Europe, feeding itself and the war, leaving nothing but destruction in its course. Thousands of villages were burned to the ground, hundreths of cities conquered and millions died either by the sword or by hunger and disease.
Soon the Swedish manpower was utterly depleted and Gustav’s victories were paid for by French money and by the blood of German and Scottish mercenaries. A real politician in terms of money, a military genius on the battlefield and an apocalyptic Gothic king, Gustavus was a fascinating figure. He redistributed church lands among his generals and appointed them princes and dukes, wherever and whenever he could. It would be ten years before he had to suffer his first real defeat. In 1638 he had to retreat from Austria proper failing to take Vienna, but this setback would only be temporal. More than 200 cities had already fallen, among them Prague, Nuremberg, Munich and many more were to follow.
Imperial forces had forced Gustav to turn northwards and were able reclaimed the devastated Bohemian Crownlands. This apparent defeat did not deter the Swedish king whose apocalyptic and quasi-messianic believes were further kindled by his old schoolmaster Bureus, whose reading of scripture and stars the king trusted more, than the less fantastical worldview of his advisors. It might have been for the best of the Swedish war effort that Bureus was to preoccupied with the eschatological meaning of the Word of God, as revealed in the Bible in nature, to actually give military advice. Like most christians in Europe all of the royal advisors believed the current war to be part of an apocalyptic struggle between Good and Evil. But despite Doomsday not be far away not all shared Gustav ever increasing desire to slay more and more heretics. Duke Charles Philip, the kings beloved younger brother, had been for some time advising Gustav to come to terms with the Imperials, but calls for peace would fall on deaf ears, not least because Charles Philip himself was himself quite ambitious and the price of his desired peace would have been to be paid by the Catholics.
Ever since he had captured Prague for the first time Gustav had promised his Charles Philip the crown of Bohemia and it would be this crown the duke hope to finally receive if peace were to come. By 1640 most of Bohemia was again in the hands of the Habsburgs and Gustav deep inside Polish territory. Despite his victories in the renewed Polish conflict, now fought against Sigismund’s second son John II (also styled IV of Sweden), who had succeeded his brother Vladislav, the situation seemed dire. The Austrians were reclaiming Silesia and slowly cutting the Swedish army off from their Lutheran allies in Germany. But as foretold in the Bible Gog and Magog would invade in the last days and thus not surprisingly, to the old Bureus, the Russians declared war against the John II. Coincidentally the news that the Russians were besieging Warshawa arrived the same day the great prophet Bureus died after short illness in Uppsala. In the Swedish army camp it was soon to be rumoured that he was not dead at all but that he had been taken to heaven by the Lord as had happened to the great patriarch and prophet Enoch.
Bureus’ students had for several years now tightly controlled the university of Uppsala and their evermore grandiose eschatological interpretations of the seemingly never ending warfare were further confirmed by the sighting of comets, the birth of deformed children and tales of possessed maidens, proclaiming the end of the world. The Lutheran printing presses in Uppsala, Stockholm, Rostock and Leipzig continued to produce uncountable amounts of leaflets and pamphlets distributed in most of Europe, celebrating the victories of the righteous, who were lead by the glorious second Beric and Lion of Midnight. For undeniable even the most Burean scholar had to profess it was indeed the King not his old teacher who was the foretold herald of the apocalypse. It was he who led the forces of Gog and Magog to rinse the world from heretics, pagans and all other followers of the Pope-Antichrist.
Just like the wise Goth Abaris, who had brought Hyperborean wisdom to Pythagoras and Plato and founded Greek philosophy, and king Märker of Uppsala, who had brought Gothic hieroglyphs to the Egyptians, had contributed to rise of civilisation so would the Bureans contribute and prepare for the world for the end of days and the return of the humankind to its paradisiacal perfection. By 1643 John II had long surrendered, renouncing his right to the Swedish throne, and Gustav had driven the Imperials back to Vienna, defeating the Austrian menace once and for all. The Habsburg family had been unable to escape the city and fallen into the hands of the Lutherans. Every single member, even the children, of the family were publicly executed in the most gruesome ways imaginable. They were tortured for hours to the entertainment and horror of their former subjects before their remains were burned. With the fall of Vienna the Austrian branch of the Habsburg family went extinct. Some imperial princes had previously been slayen on the battlefield and captives that had been made during the years of war were ruthlessly executed as soon as Austria had fallen. Peace was in sight for the tortured German lands, the bloody peace of the Lion from Midnight. Lutheran pamphlets spread the Bureans’ news that the last of the four earthly empires had fallen all over the continent and that the Lion had brought peace, at least to the Germans.
Had it not been for their dynastic rivalries the Spanish and French could have put an end to the Gothic reign of horror, but French money and destroyed cities kept the murderous death machine going. The Bourbons were sure the end of Habsburg encirclement was on hand. The death spiral of the Austrians, would soon befall their Spanish brethren and Bourbon France would be the hegemon of the continent. They did not only finance the Swedish but also watched in delight as Spain had to suffer setback after setback against the English and Dutch.
To the Habsburg in Madrid the virtual eradication of their Viennese brothers were devastating news but they could afford to look eastwards, while they themselves were embroiled in conflict with the protestants.
For the next eight years Gustav, who had reached his zenith of body weight in the late 1640s, continued to slowly eradicate the last holdouts of Catholicism in Germany but by 1651 resistance had grown as even protestant princes feared that they had simply exchanged Habsburg tyranny for Vasa tyranny. Trying to control the German Lutheran clergy more tightly and weed out heterodoxy Gustav gave the outshadowed Danes change to once again defend the faith and the German princelings. It would take twelve long years before Gustav, now once again thin like in his youth, would finally defeat Denmark.
Once again the price for victory was paid with the blood of millions. John II of Poland had joined once again against his Swedish kinsman and the southern Germany rose in rebellion. French cash flow slowly declined during those years as the Bourbons saw themselves faced with war. The Spanish had made truce with the Dutch and England was currently being ravaged by a civil war, leaving the Habsburgs free to undermine France. The Spanish-Franco proxy wars in Italy emptied the coffers of the Catholic great powers and made the apparent problems of the Swedes made them unable to see that the dreams of the Lutherans would become reality in only a few years.
Polish and Danish forces had swarmed the southern Swedish provinces and laid waste to the cities of Växjö, Norrköping, Örebro and Nyköping. The filthy purgatory of Stockholm had turned into hell when Polish canons were placed upon the cliffs of Södermalm and started their bombardement of the already disease ridden city. Prince Alexander Charles, John’s youngest brother, led the campaign and watched with glee as the canons slowly shattered the walls of the Swedish capital. But in the South Gustav and his army were unstoppable, knowing the war would not be won in Sweden the Lion slowly devoured the rebellious northern Germany and left nothing but bones. The south German uprising, mostly composed of peasants, was mercilessly butchered by the Hungarians of King George II of House Rákóczi, whose father had to thank the Swedish for his crown and whose Transylvanian homeland had long fought for the protestant (albeit calvinist) cause.
Stockholm was ravaged by fire but Prince Alexander could still not take the city by force as he was ordered to return to the south and depart for the continent. The Danish had started to doubt their strategy as it became apparent that Gustav army, where Swedes were already a rather small minority would not stop, even if the realm would burn. Instead Gustav forced the Danish and their allies to retreat further north into Denmark proper, where he finally defeated them. As soon as King John II learned of secret talks between his presumed ally and the Swedes he cancelled the Polish war efforts. On their way back to the continent Polish forces did not only once again ravage southern Sweden but also pillaged and burned countless villages in Danish Scandia. Two years later the unlucky Danish king, Frederick III, would find fall victim to a conspiracy of nobles, who not unjustly blamed him for the military catastrophes of the realm.
By 1663, ten years before the prophesized end of the world, Gustav II Adolph had three surviving legitimate children and as well as a nephew and a niece, children of his deceased brother Charles Philip (died 1655). It was told that Princess Christina was quite alike her father in her stubbornness and ambition but grew to hate him as she grew older. Her brother Beric inherited their father's appetite (albeit he did not grow in width but in height) and delusion, as it was told he would force his servants to worship him as God. Gustav’s youngest son and half-brother of Christina and Beric, was the young Charles Elias, of whom it was told that he had been born on the battlefield to the sounds of heavenly basuns. The young Charles Elias was a shy and quiet child who could not stand the smell of the public massburning, which his older brother so much enjoyed. Whereas they followed their father, their orphaned cousins Princess Margaret and (infant) King Wenceslaus V Gustav, where kept at the royal palace in Stockholm to be tutored far away from the papist miasma still poisoning continental Europe. The Bohemian scions had to move northwards as the Polish army had gotten closer to the capital and would never return to the south. Margaret would die in childbirth in 1666, whereas her brother would succumb to pneumonia the year thereafter.
By 1671, two years before the world were to come to an end, the Lion of the North now old, grey and sickly thin, could neither ride nor walk anymore, being carried in a portable throne in the Bohemian royal palace. He was forced to retire to Prague, a city which he had robbed of invaluable pieces of art and science, shipped to the starving homeland of the Goths, and which had suffered several conquests by different powers, depopulating the city and the its kingdom. But the old Lion would not die yet. Like his old teacher Bureus he had now seen all the divine secrets of the Scripture, he could read the night sky like a book and he felt that the world was coming to an end.
Beric and the Swedish menace crossed the Alps in 1671 on orders of the great Lion from Midnight, laying waste to every village and town in their way. Slaughtering hundreds of thousands, forcing millions to die of starvation and pestilence. The Beric II, as he styled himself, had come to slay the beast, the whore, the Antichrist. The end was close. No idolatrous papist would leave with their live. Beric, the horseman of the apocalypse, towered over his man in stature and in fanaticism. They marched straight to Babylon, where the frightened populace had imprisoned Pope Clement - the literal Antichrist. But the pagan Romans could not buy themselves free of their sins. The Goths slayed every man, woman and child they could find in the the once Holy City. They removed Egyptian obelisks, brought to the city two millennia ago, preparing them for return to Sweden, as they were covered in hieroglyphs who contained the runic wisdom of their forefathers. They burned the churches, melted the gold and silver and smashed monuments and statues. Beric ordered the destruction of St. Peter and after three days of borbadement only ruins were left of the great church.
On Good Friday 1673 news arrived that the Lion of the North had finally died. On Easter Sunday 1673, three weeks after the Swedish had entered Rome, they finally burned the Pope alive after hours of public torture. The city smelled of death. Ash covered the streets and rotten corpses filled the public squares. On Easter Monday the Spanish completed the encirclement of Rome. The end has come.