Battle of Oldendorf

Battle of Oldendorf
Part of the Thirty Years' War
Battle map c. 1883
Date 8 July 1633 Location Hessisch-Oldendorf, Germany Result Swedish victory
Belligerents
Sweden Brunswick-Lüneburg Hesse-Kassel	Holy Roman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Duke of Brunswick Knyphausen Melander	Bönninghausen Gronsfeld (POW) Geleen Jean de Merode  †
Strength
13,000, 37 guns	14,700, 15 guns
Casualties and losses
700 dead or wounded	3,000 dead or wounded, 1,000 captured

The Battle of Oldendorf, ^[a] took place on 8 July 1633 during the Thirty Years' War near Hessisch-Oldendorf in Lower Saxony. A Swedish army supported by its German allies was besieging Hamelin, and defeated an Imperial army sent to relieve the town.

Background

Following Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years' War in 1630, William V, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel allied with his distant relative and Protestant co-religionist, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, and helped reduce the Imperial presence in Westphalia, the Ruhr area and Sauerland. ^[1] Proximity to the Dutch Republic increased the strategic importance of this region when the Eighty Years' War with Spain restarted in 1621, but it remained a secondary theatre during the Thirty Years War, with few major battles. ^[2]

The 1633 campaign focused on securing the supply route stretching from Bremen on the coast south along the River Weser, where the Imperial defence was led by von Bronckhorst-Gronsfeld. ^[3] In March 1633, Swedish troops commanded by George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, plus others from Hesse-Kassel and Brunswick-Lüneburg, besieged the town of Hamelin, in what is now Lower Saxony. ^[4]

In response, an Imperial army of 11,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry was assembled to relieve it, the senior officer being von Bönninghausen, with Geleen, Gronsfeld and Jean de Merode acting as his deputies. ^[5] Most of these hastily assembled troops were inexperienced and poorly trained, while Bönninghausen was a limited commander, who had achieved his position largely due to his ability to recruit new regiments. ^[6]

Battle

Hamelin

River Weser

Bremen

Oldendorf

Osnabrück

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Key locations in article

This threat prompted Swedish troops Peter Melander and Dodo zu Innhausen und Knyphausen to join Brunswick, and block Bönninghausen's advance. Leaving a few hundred men to continue the siege, their combined forces consisted of 7,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry. ^[7] On 8 July, the two armies made contact near Hessisch-Oldendorf, approximately 20 kilometres to the northwest. ^[5]

That night, Brunswick positioned his troops on a plateau northwest of the town, along a line running from Oldendorf on the left under Knyphausen, to the nearby village of Barksen on the right commanded by Melander, with Brunswick himself in the centre. Their opponents deployed 500 metres away, Bönninghausen and the reserve in the rear, with Gronsfeld and Merode on the right and left respectively. ^[7]

The battle opened at 7:00 am with an artillery barrage. Shortly after 9:00 am, Geleen and Gronsfeld cautiously advanced, but were immediately counter-attacked on both flanks. After two hours of fighting, the Imperial troops began to retreat, Merode being killed sometime after 11:00 am, while Gronsfeld was captured. ^[8]

Most of the reserve fled without firing a shot, and the battle ended around 2:00 pm. The Imperial army collapsed, losing more than 3,000 dead or wounded, plus another 1,000 taken prisoner, the Swedes and their German allies incurring an estimated 700 casualties. ^[9] Other sources put Imperial losses at over 6,000, those of the allies under 300. ^[10]

Aftermath

With no hope of relief, Hamelin surrendered and the Swedes seized Osnabrück, which they held until 1643. The Hessians also acquired a number of garrisons, although most of their army moved southeast in a bid to recover their homeland in 1634. ^[11] Oldendorf was followed by a minor Swedish success at Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm on 11 August, but neither side gained a significant advantage from the 1633 campaign. ^[12]

Defeat at Nördlingen on 6 September 1634 broke the Swedish hold on Southern Germany. ^[13] Most of their German allies reconciled with Emperor Ferdinand and signed the Peace of Prague, including the Electorate of Saxony, leading to direct French intervention in the Thirty Years' War on the side of Sweden. ^[14]

The Hessians were left in possession of most of their Westphalian garrisons in the hope they could be persuaded to sign the Peace of Prague, and integrate their troops into the Imperial army. The attempt ultimately failed, but was supported by Melander, who resigned from the Hessian army in 1640, then re-entered the war in 1645 as Imperial commander in Westphalia. ^[3]

Notes

1. German: Schlacht bei Hessisch-Oldendorf

References

1. Schattkowsky 2003, p. 241.
2. Wilson, Tkacova & Pert 2023, p. 1049.
3. Guthrie 2003, p. 238.
4. Bedürftig 2006, p. 73.
5. Guthrie 2003, p. 252.
6. Wilson, Tkacova & Pert 2023, p. 1061.
7. Wilson 2009, p. 522.
8. Guthrie 2003, pp. 237–239.
9. Burschel 1994, p. 272.
10. Wilson 2009, p. 523.
11. Wilson, Tkacova & Pert 2023, p. 1062.
12. Guthrie 2003, p. 28.
13. Guthrie 2002, pp. 28–29.
14. Guthrie 2002, p. 29.

Sources

• Bedürftig, Friedemann (2006). Der Dreissigjährige Krieg: Ein Lexikon (in German). Primus. ISBN   3-89678-287-8.
• Burschel, Peter (1994). Söldner im Nordwestdeutschland des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (in German). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN   3-525-35650-1.
• Guthrie, William P (2002). Battles of the Thirty Years War: from White Mountain to Nordlingen, 1618-1635. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN   0-313-32028-4 . Retrieved 30 August 2009.
• Guthrie, William P (2003). The later Thirty Years War: from the Battle of Wittstock to the Treaty of Westphalia. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN   0-313-32408-5.
• Jaques, Tony (2007). Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: F-O. Volume 2 of Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A Guide to 8,500 Battles from Antiquity Through the Twenty-first Century. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN   978-0-313-33538-9.
• Schattkowsky, Martina (2003). Witwenschaft in der frühen Neuzeit: Fürstliche und adlige Witwen zwischen Fremd- und Selbstbestimmung (in German). Leipziger Universitätsverlag. ISBN   3-936522-79-0.
• Wilson, Peter H. (2009). Europe's Tragedy: A History of the Thirty Years War. Allen Lane. ISBN   978-0-7139-9592-3.
• Wilson, Peter; Tkacova, K; Pert, Thomas (2023). "Mapping premodern small war: the case of the Thirty Years War (1618-48)". Small Wars & Insurgencies. 34 (6): 1043–1071. doi: 10.1080/09592318.2023.2220503 .