The History of the Thirty Years War is a five volume work, which followed his very successful History of the Revolt of the Netherlands. Written for a wider audience than Revolt, it is a vivid history, colored by Schiller’s own interest in the question of human freedom and his rationalist optimism. Volume 2 covers late 1620 through the aftermath of the Battle of Leipzig (now known as the First Battle of Breitenfeld), in 1631. (Summary by Alan Winterrowd)