Habsburg victory at the Battle of Nordlingen
Citations (1)
- The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers whole source · open book
As late as the battle of Nördlingen (1634), Cardinal-Infante’s infantry resisted fifteen charges by the formidable Swedish army and then, like Wellington’s troops at Waterloo, grimly moved forward to crush their enemy. At Rocroi (1643), although surrounded by the French, the Spaniards fought to the death. Here, indeed, was one of the strongest pillars in the Habsburg edifice; and it is significant that Spanish power visibly cracked only in the mid-seventeenth century, when its army consisted chiefly of German, Italian, and Irish mercenaries with far fewer warriors from Castile.
chapter: Strengths and Weaknesses of the Habsburg Bloc