Gustav Horn (22 October 1592-10 May 1657) was a Finnish general who served as a Field Marshal of Sweden during the Thirty Years' War.
Biography[]
Gustav Horn was born in Orbyhus Castle, Uppland, Sweden in 1592; he came from a Finnish noble family. He served in the 1621 siege of Riga, took part in the conquest of Tartu in Livonian Estonia, led the defense of Livonia against Poland-Lithuania in the late 1620s, and became a Field Marshal at the age of 35. Horn was appointed King Gustavus Adolphus' second-in-command at the start of the Thirty Years' War, and he fought at the First Battle of Breitenfeld, invaded the Rhineland and Swabia, assumed co-command of the Swedish army in Germany after Gustavus' death, and was defeated and captured at the First Battle of Nordlingen in 1634; he was held prisoner until 1642. He was exchanged for three Imperial generals and fought in the Torstenson War against Denmark, and he later served in Livonia and died in 1657.