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Humanitarian law in the Articles of War decreed in 1621 by King Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Extract

In July 1621 several regiments of the Swedish army were assembled at Årsta Meadow south of Stockholm awaiting transport by ship to the Baltic, where they were to fight the Russian forces which had invaded the provinces in early summer. It was on this occasion that they heard for the first time the new Articles of War read to them by chancellor Axel Oxenstierna. The text had been drafted by King Gustavus himself and revised by Oxenstierna the preceding spring, and the final decree had been signed by the King at camp on 15 July.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1996

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References

page 438 note 1 Berner, F., Gustav Adolf: Der Löwe aus Mitternacht, Stuttgart, 1982 Google Scholar, and Roberts, M., Gustavus Adolphus: a history of Sweden 1611–1632, London (vol. 1, 1953, and vol. 2, 1958).Google Scholar

page 438 note 2 See text in Annex, and Brusiin, O., “Gustav Adolf Krigsartiklar: Några synpunkter”, Tidskrift — utgiven av Juridiska föreningen i Finland, vol. 79, 1943.Google Scholar

page 440 note 3 “Pray child, pray child, the Swede is coming tomorrow”

page 441 note 4 Extracts — Spelling modernized in places to facilitate understanding.

From the only known publication of the Articles of Warin English: The Swedish Discipline, London, 1632 Google Scholar. German translations of the 1621 and the 1632 versions of the Articles of War were published in Entwicklungsgeschichte des Deutschen Heerwesens, Dritter Band, I. Teil, Beilagen XXIV und XV, München, 1938.Google Scholar