The Thirty Years War, a religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants, raged across Europe between 1618 and 1648, devastating huge areas of Germany. By 1632 the Protestant powers were in a desperate situation until King Gustavus Adolphus II of Sweden, 'the Lion of the North', came to their rescue. This book describes how, having smashed one of the two main Catholic armies, he faced the other at Lu tzen near Leipzig in November 1632. In a nightmare battle fought in thick fog, his Swedish troops locked horns with the Imperial army. It was a bloody clash, in which Gustavus himself demonstrated true courage at the head of his cavalry - and one for which he would pay the ultimate price.

Richard Brzezinski is a leading expert on the military history of Central and Eastern Europe, greatly admired for his primary research and painstaking work in archives in Sweden, Germany and Poland. He has previously written titles on Polish Armies 1569-1696 and the army of Gustavus Adolphus in Osprey's Men-at Arms series.