Loosely allied with Swedish King Gustavus II Adolphus against the Catholic League led by the day's super powers, Kingdom of Spain and Holy Roman Empire over the winter of 1631–32, and following summer, the "up-timers" had early on organized a mixed army of "down-timer" Germans and "up-timer" and leadership under Michael Stearns to protect the region. While arrangements with Gustav were cordial, they were not close until the "up-timers" used their influence to arrange favorable financial terms for Gustav to borrow funds for his war aims. Among other things, the New United States had expropriated the Thuringian territories of Gustav's only reliable German princes, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar and his brothers (also styled as Dukes of Saxe-Weimar).