Gustavus Adolphus, Tilly, Wallenstein... and a teen boy in a kilt?
I couldn't think of any more suitable title for this post.
So, there is this Victorian adventure novel: less known than other classics like
Treasure Island,
The Black Arrow,
Around the World in 80 Days, etc.
The author is equally a hardly known one: George Alfred Henty (1832-1902) spent nearly all of his childhood in bed, reading books, due to health problems. When the Crimean War broke out, he left university for a military hospital, but he left the army to become a war correspondent after witnessing first-hand the horrors of war. Shortly after resigning, he married Elizabeth Finucane, who gave him four children.
Henty started his literary career as a story-telling father, his wife and children listening to tales that Henty himself had come up with. These stories, expanded later into novel length, were published throughout the late Victorian era.
Like episodes of
Scooby-Doo and
Sailor Moon, Henty's coming-of-age novels follow the same formula, only altering a few minor details (historical setting, some plot devices, etc). In this case:
- The (usually male) teen protagonist (a typical young person: idealistic, naive, somewhat impulsive) receives a call to adventure, and is then sent abroad (either out of wanderlust, exiled, or recruited).
- The teen protagonist gets to know a great leader of the historical period, for whom he develops sincere admiration.
- The teen protagonist fights a powerful enemy, may be made a POW (Prisoner Of War) and then break prison, or may be wounded and then recover.
- The teen protagonist meets a local aristocrat of the opposite sex. They fall in love, become fiancés and finally marry, to "live happily ever after".
While surfing the Net a couple of years ago, I came across my first Henty novel:
The Lion of the North, published in 1886. As the title suggests, Gustavus Adolphus is the great leader of this Henty novel, that describes in detail the Austro-Swedish phase (1630-1632) of the Thirty Years' War.
Enter Malcolm Graeme, a sixteen-year-old military officer, born and raised in a Lowland hold during the Jacobean era. His guardian (for Graeme was orphaned at an early age and is already a laird) wants him to go to university, but Colonel Munro, a friend of the guardian's, wants the lad to gain renown and glory on the battlefields of Central Europe.
In less time than it takes to say "This isn't Scotland anymore!", Graeme has been recruited and is at the service of the Swedish monarch, finishing off hordes of Imperial troops in Brandenburg-Prussia.
The raven-haired and beardless lad in a kilt grows to admire and idealize the "Lion of the North", whose strawberry-blond goatee and broader waist make him contrast with our laird. Henty's Gustavus Adolphus is charismatic, merry, dashing, brave leaning on reckless: the usual idealized portrayal.
The Imperial generals are depicted as usual: Tilly is fierce yet gallant and determined enough to play second fiddle to Gustavus Adolphus, while dark and reserved Wallenstein contrasts with both of them (yet the author portrays him as a sympathetic and open-minded gentleman ahead of his time).
The plot, if we low out Malcolm and only take the "historical truth" part for granted, leads to those who know the history of the seventeenth century well to draw foregone conclusions, such as:
- Gustavus Adolphus is practically invincible (until he meets his match).
- During the Crossing of the Lech (5th of April, 1632), Tilly will take a gunshot to the right thigh just above the knee. Thus, he will die, a fortnight later, of wounds received in action... and be replaced by Wallenstein.
- At Lützen (6th of November, 1632), Gustavus Adolphus, lost in the fog and gunsmoke, will rush into the enemy ranks, be shot in the back, fall off his steed, and be violently mistreated before he receives a headshot for a
coup de grâce.
- After Lützen, the Swedes, no longer having the upper hand, will be routinely defeated by Wallenstein.
- Wallenstein will be assassinated by Imperial hitmen in his own bedchamber, in February 1633, for attempting to take over the Habsburg Empire.
All of these foregone conclusions I had drawn proved correct.
The Malcolm plot entwines with the "historical truth" part rather nicely. For example, our laird is wounded and falls unconscious at Lützen. He has been shot in the chest, and the bullet has punctured his lung. Then, he comes to in Leipzig, about a week later, and he is informed that Gustavus Adolphus has been killed in battle. Obviously, it comes as a shock to young Graeme, who nearly bursts into tears. After three weeks of convalescence and miraculous recovery, he has a chance encounter on the street with a young unmarried noblewoman called Thekla, and her father, an exiled and impoverished Saxon count, who happen to be staying at the same inn. Love at first sight, like in so many literary works.
The ending is self-biographical and mirrors Henty's most important decision: Graeme will, after two years of witnessing the horrors of war, return to his parents' home. The laird comes back with a lovely bride: Fräulein Thekla. Though this novel doesn't end with the words "happily ever after", it certainly could.
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