The Blue Regiment or the Blue Brigade was an infantry regiment in the service of Gustav II Adolph during his campaigns in Germany in the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...

. A large portion of the regiment was made up of German mercenaries, who were a common phenomenon on both sides. The regiment's name is derived from the blue colored uniforms worn by the soldiers. The regiment was raised around 1624 during the Polish–Swedish War of 1621–25, originally recruited from Swedish provinces. Following the landing of Gustavus Adolphus and his army in Pomerania, new recruits came from local German inhabitants to fill the ranks. From 1630 onward, the Blue regiment took part in almost every battle of the

Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years' War The Swedish invasion of the Holy Roman Empire or the Swedish Intervention in the Thirty Years' War is a historically accepted division of the Thirty Years' War. It was a military conflict that took place between 1630 and 1635, during the course ...

, such as the battle of Breitenfeld (1631), Lützen (1632) and Nördlingen (1634). Battle of Lützen in particular, where it is referred to as the "Old Blue" regiment, though this name was official from 1634 only, was disastrous to the regiment as it lost more than half of its veteran soldiers from the recurring attacks of the Imperial cavalry and the heavy enemy volleys. Term brigade is derived from a Swedish infantry formation called the "Swedish Brigade", which was developed by Gustavus Adolphus during his military reforms. Normally, a brigade would be composed of 2 regiments divided into 4 or 3 squadrons of c. 400 men each, though in some cases, a double sized regiment of around 16 or more companies was able to form a brigade on its own, as it was later with the Blue and Yellow regiments. The regiment was dissolved around 1650 with other colored regiments dissolved around 1638 or before. It was later resurrected as the Göta Life Guards, which was dissolved in 1980.

References

{{reflist Thirty Years' War Regiments of Sweden