Battle of Kolding | |||||||
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Part of the Torstenson War | |||||||
![]() Robert Douglas, Unknown author | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
7,000 | 6,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
200 killed and wounded | 500 killed and wounded |
The Battle of Kolding (Slaget ved Kolding) on January 9, 1644 was the opening engagement of the Torstenson War between the Swedish Empire and Denmark-Norway. The battle was primarily a cavalry engagement between Swedish and Danish cavalry near the Danish seaport of Kolding. The encounter was part of the wider Thirty Years' War, which saw heavy fighting in Central Europe. The Danish army made a defensive stand only to be overrun by the advancing Swedes. It was a decisive victory for the Swedish forces and by the end of January the Jutland peninsula was a Swedish possession. [2]
Relations between the Swedish Empire and Denmark-Norway had always been poor, but worsened in the 17th century. Since 1630, the Swedes had been at war with various German states in the Thirty Years War. Denmark-Norway had been involved in the war but had left the conflict in 1629. At that time the Dano-Norwegian government had been open to a Swedish intervention in the conflict, but as the Swedish army won victory after victory the Dano-Norwegians became increasingly concerned and antagonistic towards the Swedish Empire. In 1643, the Swedish government under Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna decided that Denmark-Norway was in a vulnerable position, and the Swedish Empire could benefit from declaring war on them. In December 1643, Swedish troops moved into the Jutland peninsula, advancing afterwards into the then Danish territories of Halland and Blekinge. The Dano-Norwegians and their King Christian IV were completely unprepared for the war. Despite this fact, Christian IV ordered the Danish army and navy to mobilize to face the Swedish threat. [3]
At the town of Kolding in eastern Jutland, Swedish and Danish cavalry clashed in an engagement. The goal of the Danish cavalry was to harass the Swedish forces in the Jutland peninsula. The Swedish cavalry were led by Lieutenant General Robert Douglas. The Danish cavalry were led by Frederik von Buchwald, who belonged to a noble family that owned a great deal of land in the Jutland peninsula. Von Buchwald had 6000 cavalrymen under his command, but the Dano-Norwegian army had been greatly unprepared for the war and it was many years since they had engaged in a conflict. The Swedish cavalry, on the other hand, were experienced veterans of the Thirty Year's War. The Swedish cavalry outnumbered the Danish force, and the battle lasted quite a short time. The Swedish force charged towards the Dano-Norwegian forces and engaged them in horse to horse combat. After some heavy fighting, the Dano-Norwegian cavalry began to rout and retreated from the battlefield, leaving the Swedes the victor. [4]
The Dano-Norwegian force fled north to Snoghøj. There, the Dano-Norwegians capitulated on January 11. The city of Kolding was pillaged by the Swedes and the road north was open. The battle was, as mentioned, mainly a cavalry battle so most of the Dano-Norwegian soldiers escaped without injury and the casualties on both side were quite small. [5]
The Battle of Lesnaya was one of the major battles of the Great Northern War. It took place on October 9 [O.S. September 28] 1708 between a Russian army of between 26,500 and 29,000 men commanded by Peter I of Russia, Mikhail Mikhailovich Golitsyn, Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov, Christian Felix Bauer and Nikolai Grigorovitj von Werden and a Swedish army of about 12,500 men commanded by Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt and Berndt Otto Stackelberg, at the village of Lesnaya, located close to the border between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia. The Swedes were escorting a supply column of more than 4,500 wagons for their main army in Ukraine.
The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I of Russia, Frederick IV of Denmark–Norway and Augustus II the Strong of Saxony–Poland–Lithuania. Frederick IV and Augustus II were defeated by Sweden, under Charles XII, and forced out of the alliance in 1700 and 1706 respectively, but rejoined it in 1709 after the defeat of Charles XII at the Battle of Poltava. George I of Great Britain and the Electorate of Hanover joined the coalition in 1714 for Hanover and in 1717 for Britain, and Frederick William I of Brandenburg-Prussia joined it in 1715.
The Treaty of Roskilde was concluded on 26 February (OS) or 8 March 1658 (NS) during the Second Northern War between Frederick III of Denmark–Norway and Karl X Gustav of Sweden in the Danish city of Roskilde. After a devastating defeat, Denmark–Norway was forced to give up a third of its territory to save the rest, the ceded lands comprising Blekinge, Bornholm, Bohuslän (Båhuslen), Scania (Skåne) and Trøndelag, as well as her claims to Halland.
The Second Northern War (1655–60), also First or Little Northern War) was fought between Sweden and its adversaries the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1655–60), the Tsardom of Russia (1656–58), Brandenburg-Prussia (1657–60), the Habsburg Monarchy (1657–60) and Denmark–Norway. The Dutch Republic waged an informal trade war against Sweden and seized the colony of New Sweden in 1655, but was not a recognized part of the Polish–Danish alliance.
The Battle of Lund, part of the Scanian War, was fought on December 4, 1676, in an area north of the city of Lund in Scania in southern Sweden, between the invading Danish army and the army of Charles XI of Sweden. The Danish had an army of about 13,000 under the personal command of 31-year-old King Christian V of Denmark, aided by General Carl von Arensdorff. The Swedish army, which numbered about 8,000, was commanded by Field Marshal Simon Grundel-Helmfelt and the 21-year-old Swedish king Charles XI. It is one of the bloodiest battles in percent of casualties on both sides ever fought in Scandinavia.
The naval Battle of Dynekilen took place on 8 July 1716 during the Great Northern War between a Dano-Norwegian fleet under Peter Tordenskjold and a Swedish fleet under Olof Strömstierna. The battle resulted in a Dano-Norwegian victory.
Niels Juel was a Danish-Norwegian admiral and a Danish naval hero. He served as supreme command of the Dano-Norwegian Navy during the late 17th century and oversaw development of the Danish-Norwegian Navy.
Kolding municipality is a municipality in Region Syddanmark on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in southeast Denmark. The municipality covers an area of 640 km², and has a total population of 87,781 (2008). Its mayor is Jørn Pedersen, a member of the Liberal Party (Venstre) political party. The main city and the site of its municipal council is the seaport city of Kolding, the sixth largest city in Denmark.
The Torstenson war, Hannibal controversy or Hannibal War was a short period of conflict between Sweden and Denmark–Norway from 1643 to 1645 towards the end of the Thirty Years' War. The names refer to Swedish general Lennart Torstenson and Norwegian governor-general Hannibal Sehested.
The Battle of Halmstad, also known as the Battle at Fyllebro, was fought on August 17, 1676, at Fyllebro, approximately five kilometers south of the town of Halmstad in southwest Sweden. It was the last battle in Halland between Denmark and Sweden.
The Battle of Helgeå, or Battle of the Holy River, was a naval engagement which took place in 1026 between joint Danish and English forces and a combined Norwegian and Swedish force, at the estuary of a river called Helge in Sweden.
Koldinghus is a Danish royal castle in the town of Kolding on the south central part of the Jutland peninsula. The castle was founded in the 13th century and was expanded since with many functions ranging from fortress, royal residency, ruin, museum, and the location of numerous wartime negotiations.
The Dano-Swedish War of 1657–1658 was a conflict between Sweden and Denmark–Norway during the Second Northern War. In 1657, Charles X of Sweden and his Swedish army were bogged down in Poland. Frederick III of Denmark-Norway saw an opportunity to recover the territories lost in 1645 and attacked Sweden. The outbreak of war with Denmark provided Charles with an excuse to withdraw from the Polish campaign and move against Denmark.
Triangle Region Denmark is a cooperation consisting of seven Danish municipalities on the Danish peninsula of Jutland and the island of Funen: Billund, Fredericia, Haderslev, Kolding, Middelfart, Vejen and Vejle.
The Dano-Swedish War of 1658–1660 was a war between Denmark–Norway and Sweden. It was a continuation of an earlier conflict between the two belligerents which had ended just months earlier, after Sweden and Denmark brokered a peace agreement in Roskilde in 1658. In the aftermath of that conflict, the Swedish king Charles X Gustav desired to add the province of Royal Prussia in Poland to the Swedish realm, but his position in the region was not strong enough with the opposition of Brandenburg and Austria. However, the Danes stalled and prolonged the fulfillment of some provisions of the earlier peace; the Swedish king decided to use this as a pretext to attack with an ambitious goal: to vanquish Denmark as a sovereign state and raze the capital of Copenhagen. A quick and decisive defeat of Denmark was however only seen as a means to a greater end. The long-term goal was to wage war in Europe without fearing Danish interference.
Denmark–Norway, also known as the Dano-Norwegian Realm, Twin Realms (Tvillingerigerne) or the Oldenburg Monarchy (Oldenburg-monarkiet) was an early modern multi-national and multi-lingual real union consisting of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Kingdom of Norway, the Duchy of Schleswig, and the Duchy of Holstein. The state also claimed sovereignty over three historical peoples: Frisians, Gutes and Wends. Denmark–Norway had several colonies, namely the Danish Gold Coast, the Nicobar Islands, Serampore, Tharangambadi, and the Danish West Indies.
The English Wars were a series of conflicts pitting the United Kingdom and Sweden against Denmark-Norway as part of the Napoleonic Wars. It is named after England, the common name in Scandinavia for the United Kingdom, which declared war on Denmark-Norway due to disagreements over the neutrality of Danish trade and to prevent the Danish fleet falling into the hands of the First French Empire. It began with the first battle of Copenhagen in 1801 and its latter stage from 1807 onwards was followed by the Gunboat War, the Dano-Swedish War of 1808–09 and the Swedish invasion of Holstein in 1814.
The Battle of Kletsk took place on 30 April 1706, in- and outside the city of Kletsk, Belarus during Charles XII's Polish campaign of 1701–1706, in the Great Northern War. The Swedish forces were led by Carl Gustaf Creutz who defeated a larger Russian–Cossack force under the command of Semjon Nepljujev and Danylo Apostol. Many of the Russian and Cossack regiments participating in the battle were wiped out and ceased to exist as fighting units.
The Battle of Bysjön was fought between Swedish and, for the most part, Norwegian troops on 22 December 1644. The battle took place on the ice of the frozen Lake Bysjön in the parish of Eda in Värmland, Sweden. The battle was part of the Torstenson War (1643-1645), known locally as the Hannibal Feud (Hannibalsfejden) between Sweden and Denmark-Norway. The Danish-Norwegian victory meant the invading army could potentially continue into Värmland and Dalsland.
Claus von Ahlefeldt (1614–74) was a member of the Ahlefeldt noble family of Holstein, who married the King of Denmark-Norway's natural daughter and rose to become a field marshal in Danish-Norwegian service.