As you know, in a war, a lot is decided by chance. After all, it so happened that a German observer officer, while the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee was parked in the port of Montevideo, looking through the rangefinder, mistook the English heavy cruiser Cumberland for the battle cruiser Renaun! But how could he be so wrong? After all, the Renaun had two pipes, and the Cumberland had three! And in the end, having learned about this, the battleship commander asked Hitler's permission to sink his ship and got it! Everything was decided by chance during the battle at Midway Atoll, and how many accidents took place in the war in the distant past and can not be counted.
Today our story will also go about a certain accident that took place a very long time ago - during the Thirty Years War! Moreover, this accident became the basis for the holiday, which the inhabitants of the Czech city of Brno celebrate annually in mid-August, when on the 15th, and when on the 16th. On this day, the Swedes who besieged the city in 1645 lifted the siege from it and left without taking it. At the same time, the bells in local cathedrals begin to ring at exactly 11 o'clock, although in theory they should ring at noon. That is, they call twice. And here's why - now you will find out about it.
View of Brno in 1700. And it is unlikely that it is that much different from what it was in 1645.
It is hardly worth talking about why, how and why this bloody war began. All these causes and consequences would require a large article and would hardly be so interesting to everyone. In this case, the most important thing is that this war in Europe … was! Many countries, in fact, almost all of them, took part in it, and it turned out that the Swedish king Gustav Adolphus and the Swedish troops, who had successfully fought in Europe for a number of years, took part in it.
"Battle of Lützen, death of King Gustav Adolf on November 16, 1632" (Karl Walbom, 1855)
Victories followed one after another, and it all ended with the victorious Swedish troops under the command of Field Marshal Lennart Torstensson under the walls of the city of Brno. Today it is believed that his army numbered 18 thousand people, while the city was defended by only 426 soldiers. True, there were still townspeople and … students in the city who did not want to surrender it to the enemy and decided to defend themselves to the last.
Lennart Torstensson, 1603 - 1651. Stockholm National Museum.
As for Field Marshal Torstensson, he began by offering the city surrender, and when he was refused, he became very angry and declared that he would take this "mouse hole in three days", and "bare kitchen" - within one week. He called the city of Brno “Nora”, but for some reason the Špilberk castle, which towered over it on the hill, “bare kitchen”. However, it is quite possible that he had grounds for this, because it is now a mountain, and the fortress is buried in green trees, and then most likely he saw only bare walls. And the city itself was not very crowded then. It was home to only about four thousand people.
The gate to the Špilberk fortress.
And this same gate is very close.
The commandant of the Špilberk fortress at that time was the Scottish Condottiere George Jacob O'Gilvy, who, according to the townspeople, had a bad temper. Like many people of that era, he was a typical profit-seeker who began his military career in the Danish army, but then went to serve the Austrians. In battle, he lost an arm and was appointed commandant of the Špilberk fortress. Moreover, the Swedish detachments had already approached Brno twice, but did not dare to storm - all of them had some more important things to do. In both cases, O'Gilvy proved to be quite worthy, so he hoped that he would be put in charge of the Brno defense this time too.
This is how the modern city of Brno looks like early in the morning, if you look at it from the wall of the Špilberk fortress. In 1645, it was here below that the Swedish troops were stationed.
But it so happened that it was entrusted to Jean-Louis Redui de Suchet - a Huguenot from La Rochelle, who left France and then fought for 14 years … in the Swedish army. Moreover, Suchet constantly came into conflict with his superiors, that is, his character was almost worse than that of O'Gilvy himself. And so it turned out that after another conflict with the Swedes, he went over to the side of the Imperials and received the rank of dragoon colonel in the Austrian army. Interestingly, the Brno City Council agreed to accept him as the city's commandant only after a personal order from the emperor. And the reason was that Suchet was a Protestant, and O'Gilvy was a zealous Catholic, and the townspeople did not know how one would follow the orders of the other.
Jean-Louis Reduy de Suchet. Unknown artist. Museum of the Špilberk Fortress.
However, Suchet turned out to be an intelligent military leader and, upon arriving in the city, began to act skillfully and effectively: he ordered the houses that stood near the city walls to be torn down, the roofs made of combustible materials were replaced with fireproof ones, the wells were deepened so that more water could be collected in them, and in every house to make it solid stock in case of fire.
This is how the walls of the fortress look today.
And this is the bridge over the inner moat.
The walls of the bastions have a significant slope, making them look like the walls of Japanese castles.
Watchtower. Most likely, the later addition in the era when the fortress became a prison.
Nice things, however, were done in this fortress in peacetime. Such a "lively" animation is arranged there …
And these are the passages to the fortress casemates. By God, such thick walls will save you from the devil, not that from cast-iron cannonballs!
Naturally, the two arrogant and ambitious condottieri, and even with bad characters, simply could not stand each other. However, fortunately for the townspeople, there was also a Jesuit monk in the city, a man of very meek disposition, with an amazing personal motto: "Let poverty become my mother, and humility and patience my sisters." He was called en Martin Středa, and he was from Silesia. He joined the order in 1608, in the 1920s became a professor of rhetoric, philosophy and theology, and in 1638 he even headed the Czech branch of the order. Three years later, he became the rector of the Jesuit College in Brno. That is, this person was knowledgeable and deserved.
As usual, there are cannons on the bastions. But these are not the guns that were fired in 1645. These are 150 years older.
Date of manufacture on the trunnion. As you can see, even then very simple and functional tools appeared, devoid of even the slightest decoration!
It should be noted here that it was the Jesuits who did a lot for the Catholicization of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Moravian Margrave. For example, by the beginning of the Thirty Years War, Catholics in percentage terms here accounted for only 10% of the country's population, but at the end of it there were already about 30%. But changing faith is not taking off your pants, is it ?! It is clear that the imperial policy of the Habsburgs also played a role, but one cannot spread the faith by violence alone. That is, the Jesuits skillfully "worked" directly with believers and not by force, but by example, showed them that … "God is on the side of large battalions!" As a result, in just some 15-20 years, the Czech Republic became unrecognizable. And if, after the Battle of White Mountain, the Austrian troops in Moravia had to deal with the peasants, the partisans-Protestants, then only 20 years later, the Protestants, the Swedes, had to fight the Catholic partisans there!
The Marauding Soldiers (Sebastian Vranks, 1647).
It should be noted that there are quite hackneyed and banal phrases (mostly very pretentious), which no one really perceives, so much their content has "erased" in the mind from frequent use. For example, the phrase "all as one rose to defend their hometown."
Miniature figures of soldiers of the Thirty Years War era. Army Museum in Stockholm.
However … in the city of Brno it was exactly like that! From its four thousand population, a bourgeois legion was created, which was joined by about a thousand people, that is, every fourth of its inhabitants. Much more, if you keep in mind that in addition to men, there were also women and children in the city. As a result, the number of soldiers in the garrison reached one and a half thousand, and the most combat-ready part of it was the student legion, formed from 66 students of the Jesuit college - the pupils of Professor Martin Strzheda.
German soldiers of the Thirty Years' War era. Old engraving.
The siege of Brno began on May 3, 1645. The Swedes began shelling, digging trenches and mining the city walls. They paid special attention to the Špilberk fortress, which dominated the city. Everyone understood that if this fortress fell, the city would certainly fall after it.
Vienna Military History Museum. Hall dedicated to the Thirty Years War.
On May 15, the proud Catholic O'Gilvy finally agreed to recognize the supremacy of the Huguenot Suchet (after all, he saw a professional in him!) And obey him in everything. And on time, because already on May 20 the Swedes went to storm the fortress, managed to break into it, but were knocked out. But the defenders organized several sorties and managed to destroy part of the redoubts built by the Swedes. Moreover, the young Jesuits were the first to go into battle and the last to leave it. It got to the point that the townspeople began to sing verses that, they say, simple schoolboys, and beat the invincible Swedes.
Soldiers of the Thirty Years' War from the Military History Museum in Vienna, already in full growth.
And then Mother Nature herself came to the aid of the besieged. On June 4, a violent storm broke out, with wind and rain flooding the Swedish trenches. The water rose very quickly and there was so much of it that some of the Swedes who besieged the city drowned. In any case, there was nothing good for the besiegers, who were sitting in trenches and in tents, in such a riot of the elements, and their morale fell. In addition, Torstensson suffered a gout attack, and he handed over command to his deputy.
Morion helmets. Both infantrymen and horsemen wore such helmets during the Thirty Years War. Municipal Museum of the city of Meissen, Germany.
