The Thirty Years War Quotes

“Though they are now largely silent, the voices from the seventeenth century still speak to us from the innumerable texts and images we are fortunate to possess. They offer a warning of the dangers of entrusting power to those who feel summoned by God to war, or feel that their sense of justice and order is the only one valid.”
― Peter H. Wilson, Europe's Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War

“Even had a suitable Swede been available, it is unlikely Oxenstierna could have imposed him on the German generals. There was never any thought of giving command to Johann Georg of Saxony, whom Oxenstierna distrusted and despised as ‘an insignificant tosspot’.”
― Peter H. Wilson, The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy

“Protestant propaganda presented the Thirty Years War as a papal crusade, with the Jesuits as the pontiff’s storm troopers.”
― Peter H. Wilson, Europe's Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War

“The Swedes captured 5,000 new uniforms, broke into monasteries, held the monks to ransom, and opened the crypts to steal rings from the corpses. They took even more from the living, including 10,000 books which they sent to quench Queen Christina’s thirst for knowledge.”
― Peter H. Wilson, Europe's Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War