Torstensson
LENNART, Swedish general in the Thirty Years' War; born in Torstena, Sweden, Aug. 17, 1603; became in his 15th year page to Gustavus Adolphus; and in 1630, as captain of the bodyguard, accompanied the king to Germany, where he highly dis- TORTOISE tinguished himself in the battle on the Lech, April 5, 1632. He was taken prisoner before Nuremberg, Aug. 12, 1632, and six months in a subterranean dungeon shattered his health and obliged him to return to Sweden. In 1641 he became commander-in-chief of the Swedish army.
He entered Schlesien through Sachsen, took Glogau and Schweidnitz, turned into Moravia and captured Olmütz. Obliged to retreat into Sachsen before the Archduke Leopold and Piccolomini, he turned on his pursuers and inflicted a severe defeat at Breitenfeld, Nov. 2, 1642. In consequence of Denmark's declaration of war against Sweden, in December he burst into Denmark, and in six weeks subjugated the whole peninsula, with the exception of the fortresses Rendsburg and Glückstadt. After defeating the Austrian general Gallas at Jüterbok, Nov. 23, 1644, he returned into Bohemia, defeated Katzfield at Jankau, March 6, 1645, overran Moravia, and demolished the fortifications before Vienna. He then laid siege to Brünn, but was forced to retreat into Bohemia. He was made Count of Ortala by Christina in 1647, and died in Stockholm, April 7, 1651.