Battle of Nördlingen (1634)

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Battle of Nördlingen

Part of the Thirty Years' War

The Battle of Nördlingen by Jacques Courtois. Oil on canvas.

Date	September 6 - September 7, 1634
Location	Nördlingen, Bavaria
Result	Decisive Spanish-Imperial victory

Combatants

Sweden

Saxony

Holy Roman Empire

Spain

Commanders

Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar
Gustav Horn

Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand
Ferdinand of Hungary
Matthias Gallas

Strength

16,300 infantry
9,300 cavalry
20 guns

21,000 infantry
13,000 cavalry
60 guns

Casualties

13,000–15,000 dead or wounded

3,500 dead or wounded

Thirty Years' War
Plzeň – Záblati – Dolní Věstonice – White Mountain – Wiesloch – Wimpfen – Höchst – Fleurus – Stadtlohn – Dessau Bridge – Lutter am Barenberge – Stralsund – Wolgast – Frankfurt – Magdeburg – Werben – 1st Breitenfeld – Rain – Fürth – Alte Veste – Lützen – Oldendorf – Nördlingen – Wittstock – Rheinfelden – Breisach – Chemnitz – Honnecourt – 2nd Breitenfeld – Rocroi – Tuttlingen – Freiburg – Jüterbog – Jankov – Mergentheim – 2nd Nördlingen – Zusmarshausen – Lens – Prague

The Battle of Nördlingen (German: Schlacht bei Nördlingen; Spanish: Batalla de Nördlingen; Swedish: Slaget vid Nördlingen) was fought on September 6, 1634 during the Thirty Years' War. The Catholic Imperial army, bolstered by 18,000 professional Spanish troops under Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, won a decisive victory in the battle over the Protestant army of Sweden and Saxony.

After the failure of the tercio system in the first Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631, the professional Spanish and Italian troops used in the second battle proved the tercio system could stll contend with some of the deployment improvements devised by Maurice of Orange and the late Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.

1 Prelude
2 Battle
3 Aftermath
4 External links

[edit] Prelude

After the Protestant victory in the Battle of Lützen two years before, the Swedes failed to follow up their victory due to the death of their king, Gustavus Adolphus. As a result, the Imperial forces regained the initiative. In 1634 they occupied the town of Regensburg. Threatening to advance further into Saxony, they started to besiege Nördlingen. The Protestants realized they had to make some attempt to relieve the town, and planned a night attack.

[edit] Battle

The future Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand of Hungary, and his cousin the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand raced to merge their armies, the Spaniards having traveled from their dominions in Northern Italy through the Stelvio Pass trying to open a new 'Spanish Way'.

The Swedish forces of Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar and Gustav Horn desperately tried to prevent this merger, but were unable to catch up with Ferdinand of Hungary. The Cardinal-Infante crossed the Danube on August 30, 1634, at Donauwörth.

In September both armies were able to merge, and camped south of Nördlingen in Swabia. At that time Nördlingen was protected by a small Swedish garrison. Shortly thereafter, the armies of Bernhard and Horn also reached Nördlingen, preparing the events for the decisive Battle of Nördlingen.

The cousins Ferdinand and Ferdinand then prepared for battle, ignoring the advice of the more experienced generals, such as the Imperial general Matthias Gallas, and following that of the Count of Leganés, the Spanish deputy commander.

Bernhard and Horn also prepared for battle, but they were by now rivals and in disagreement with each other. They underestimated the numerically superior enemy forces, due to incorrect reports that did not realize that another Spanish army, that of the late Duke of Feria and Governor of Spanish Milan, had joined the Cardinal-Infante's troops and believed that the enemy forces numbered only 7,000, not 21,000 infantry, compared to 16,000 Swedish infantry.

The Habsburg Meeting at Nördlingen Sept. 2, 1634 between King Ferdinand of Hungary and Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Spain (blond hair)
Peter Paul Rubens (1635)

During the battle, almost anything that could go wrong went wrong for the Swedish forces. This was due to the strong defensive efforts of the Spanish infantry, the feared "Tercios Viejos" (Old Tercios), mainly those commanded by Fuenclara, Idiáquez, and Toralto. Fifteen Swedish assaults were repulsed by the Blue, Black and Yellow Horn regiments on the hill of Albuch, with the decisive support of Ottavio Piccolomini's cavalry squadrons, under direct orders of another Italian commander, the loyal servant to the Spanish Crown Gerardo di Gambacorta di Linata. Saxon and Austrian troops avoided a face to face entanglement, until late in the battle when the Imperial troops observed the weakened condition of the Saxons, who had been sending large numbers of reinforcements to assist the Swedes. An advance by the Imperial troops resulted in the quick collapse and rout of the Saxons. Pursuit of the Saxons threatened to cut off any escape route of the Swedes, who also promptly broke, turning into a panic stricken mob and leaving their side of the field to the Spanish and Italian troops of the King of Spain's brother,

Horn was captured, the Swedish army was destroyed, and the remainder that fled to Heilbronn was only a shadow of the former glorious army, so the two Ferdinands achieved a brilliant military victory.

[edit] Aftermath

The battle marked the end of the Swedish attempt to dominate Germany. With Imperial forces threatening dominance in Germany, with Spain firmly settled on the western bank of the Rhine, and thus with Habsburg armies surrounding France, Richelieu decided to take a more active role in the conflict. Meanwhile, the victory led most of the German Protestant princes to seek a separate peace with the Emperor, which was achieved by the Treaty of Prague in 1635.