Battle of Wimpfen

Battle of Wimpfen
	Part of the Palatinate phase of the Thirty Years' War
	; Battle of Wimpfen, painting by S. Vrancx ; showing the magazine explosion
Date	6 May 1622
Location	Wimpfen, Swabian Circle, Holy Roman Empire ; present-day Baden-Württemberg, Germany 49°11′50″N9°10′20″E / 49.19722°N 9.17222°E
Result	Catholic victory
Belligerents
Margraviate of Baden ; Electoral Palatinate	Holy Roman Empire ; Catholic League ; Spain
Commanders and leaders
Georg Friedrich von Baden	Count of Tilly ; Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba
Strength
12,700 Two 60-pounder guns, one 70-pounder, 20 of a mixture of 3-, 5-, 6-, and 8-pounders, 6 "newly cast' guns, and 9 half culverins	Approx: 15,650+ 8,700 infantry, 900 cavalry, seven 12 pounders, and 1 half culverin with Tilly. 5,200 infantry, 850 cavalry, and five 8-pounders with Spanish.Contents Background ; Bohemian revolt ; Palatinate campaign 2 ; Battle ; Aftermath ; References ;
Casualties and losses
3,000+	1,800+
	Wimpfen class=notpageimage\| Location within Neckar region Wimpfen Wimpfen (Baden-Württemberg) Wimpfen Wimpfen (Germany)

Last updated March 17, 2024

The Battle of Wimpfen took place during the Palatinate campaign period of the Thirty Years' War on 6 May 1622 near Wimpfen.

The combined forces of the Catholic League and the Spanish Empire under Marshal Tilly and Gonzalo de Córdoba defeated the Protestant forces of Georg Friedrich, Margrave of Baden.

Background

Bohemian revolt

In the Bohemian revolt phase of the Thirty Years' War, the Protestant Bohemian nobility refused to confirm Catholic Ferdinand II as their king and had offered Count Frederick V of the Palatinate the crown of Bohemia. Frederick was crowned in 1619 but lost the kingdom to Catholic League troops under General Tilly at the Battle of the White Mountain in 1620.

Due to disunity among Protestant princes the Protestant Union was forced to declare its neutrality in the conflict in the Treaty of Ulm in 1620 and dissolved the following year.

Palatinate campaign

Count Georg Friedrich, Margrave of Baden had been one of the Protestant Union's generals and maintained the mercenary army he had raised.

When General Tilly moved the Catholic League army from Bavaria towards the Palatinate in April 1622 to continue the war against Frederick V, Georg Friedrich declared for Frederick's cause. He marched his army to join General Mansfeld's troops and met with them a few days after their victory against Tilly at the Battle of Mingolsheim on April 27.

By early May, the forces of Christian of Brunswick had arrived to the north of the Neckar River and were prepared to assist their fellow Protestants. While Mansfeld crossed the Neckar at Heidelberg to join with Brunswick and besiege the Spanish garrison at Ladenburg,^[1] Georg Friedrich pursued Tilly's army who were retreating east towards the Neckar crossing at Wimpfen. Unknown to the Protestants, a Spanish army under General Córdoba had reinforced Tilly with several thousand men in the meantime.

Late on May 5, the Protestant troops, coming from the southwest, crossed a small creek (called Böllinger Bach) near the village of Obereisesheim [ de ] and formed up in battle lines.

Battle

Battlefield views from the north (1635 engraving by Merian) and east (1627 engraving by G. Keller [ de ])

On May 6, both sides launched unsuccessful attacks on each other from early morning to about 11 o' clock. Both sides had erected a wagenburg defense, fielded a strong artillery, and were cautious on the attack. Tilly held Córdobas troops in reserve at first, fearing an attack by one of the other Protestant armies in the area that wouldn't come. As the Catholic armies began to break, Tilly's elite regiments held their ground, forming into a tight pike formation and scaring away Georg Friedrich's cavalry regiments.^[3]

There was a lull in fighting until early afternoon when a Catholic assault on Georg-Friedrich's right flank sent his cavalry into flight. At about six o'clock an enemy cannon shot caused an explosion in the Protestant powder magazine, spreading panic in their ranks. Shortly afterwards, their wagenburg fell to Catholic attacks. Many died trying to escape across the Böllinger Bach creek.^[4]^[5]

Aftermath

Count Georg Friedrich was injured in the face and narrowly escaped to Stuttgart, where he abdicated in favour of his eldest son. However, this did not save his family from punishment. His lands were thoroughly devastated by Catholic troops, and in August a substantial part of his domains was awarded to William, Margrave of Baden-Baden of a rival, Catholic branch of House Baden. Until 1771 the margraviate was split into Protestant Baden-Durlach and Catholic Baden-Baden.

General Tilly continued his campaign and prevailed again at the Battle of Höchst in June, then proceeded to subdue the fortified towns of the Electoral Palatinate one by one.

In 1623 the Diet of Regensburg awarded Frederick V's lands and seat in the Electoral College to Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, an eminent leader of the Catholic League. From 1623 he styled himself Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria and his duchy Electorate of Bavaria.

Related Research Articles

1622 (MDCXXII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 1622nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 622nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 22nd year of the 17th century, and the 3rd year of the 1620s decade. As of the start of 1622, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Frederick V was the Elector Palatine of the Rhine in the Holy Roman Empire from 1610 to 1623, and reigned as King of Bohemia from 1619 to 1620. He was forced to abdicate both roles, and the brevity of his reign in Bohemia earned him the derisive sobriquet "the Winter King".

The Battle of Mingolsheim was fought on 27 April 1622, near the German village of Wiesloch, 23 km (14 mi) south of Heidelberg, between a Protestant army under General von Mansfeld and the Margrave of Baden-Durlach against a Roman Catholic army under Count Tilly.

Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly was a field marshal who commanded the Catholic League's forces in the Thirty Years' War. From 1620–31, he had an unmatched and demoralizing string of important victories against the Protestants, including White Mountain, Wimpfen, Höchst, Stadtlohn and the Conquest of the Palatinate. He destroyed a Danish army at Lutter and sacked the Protestant city of Magdeburg, which caused the death of some 20,000 of the city's inhabitants, both defenders and non-combatants, out of a total population of 25,000.

The Catholic League was a coalition of Catholic states of the Holy Roman Empire formed 10 July 1609. While initially formed as a confederation to act politically to negotiate issues vis-à-vis the Protestant Union, modelled on the more intransigent ultra-Catholic French Catholic League (1576), it was subsequently concluded as a military alliance "for the defence of the Catholic religion and peace within the Empire".

Bernard of Saxe-Weimar was a German prince and general in the Thirty Years' War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst von Mansfeld</span> German noble and military commander (c. 1580–1626)

Peter Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld, or simply Ernst von Mansfeld, was a German military commander; despite being a Catholic, he fought for the Protestants during the early years of the Thirty Years' War. He was one of the leading mercenary generals of the war.

The Battle of Fleurus of August 29, 1622 was fought in the Spanish Netherlands between a Spanish army and the Protestant forces of Ernst von Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick during the Eighty Years' War and the Thirty Years' War. The bloody struggle left the Protestants mangled and the Spanish masters of the field. The Spanish victory would ensure Catholic dominance in Germany till the intervention of Denmark–Norway.

Christian the Younger of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, a member of the House of Welf, titular Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and administrator of the Prince-Bishopric of Halberstadt, was a German Protestant military leader during the early years of the Thirty Years' War, fighting against the forces of the Imperial House of Habsburg, Habsburg Spain, and the Catholic League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bad Wimpfen</span> Town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Bad Wimpfen is a historic spa town in the district of Heilbronn in the Baden-Württemberg region of southern Germany. It lies north of the city of Heilbronn, on the river Neckar.

The Battle of Höchst was fought between a Catholic League army led by Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly and a Protestant army commanded by Christian the Younger, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, close to the town of Höchst, today a suburb of the city of Frankfurt am Main. The result was a one-sided Catholic League victory. The action occurred during the Thirty Years' War.

The Battle of Dessau Bridge was a significant battle of the Thirty Years' War between Danish Protestants and the Imperial German Catholic forces on the Elbe River outside Dessau, Germany on 25 April 1626.

Gonzalo Andrés Domingo Fernández de Córdoba was one of the main Spanish military leaders during the Eighty Years' War,^[?] Thirty Years' War, and the War of the Mantuan Succession.

George Frederick of Baden-Durlach was Margrave of Baden-Durlach from 1604 until his abdication in 1622. He also ruled Baden-Baden.

The Margraviate of Baden-Durlach was an early modern territory of the Holy Roman Empire, in the upper Rhine valley, which existed from 1535 to 1771. It was formed when the Margraviate of Baden was split between the sons of Margrave Christopher I and was named for its capital, Durlach. The other half of the territory became the Margraviate of Baden-Baden, located between the two halves of Baden-Durlach. Baden-Durlach became Lutheran during the Protestant Reformation, unlike Baden-Baden, which remained Catholic. Baden-Durlach occupied Baden-Baden from 1594 to 1622, but was driven out after being defeated at the Battle of Wimpfen, during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). The territory was ravaged during the Nine Years' War (1688-1697). Following the extinction of the Baden-Baden line in 1771, the Baden-Durlach inherited their territories and reunited the Margraviate of Baden. The reunified territory was caught up in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, emerging in 1806 as the Grand Duchy of Baden.

The siege of Heidelberg or the Imperial-Spanish capture of Heildelberg took place from 23 July to 19 September 1622, at Heidelberg, Electorate of the Palatinate, between the Imperial-Spanish army led by Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly and Don Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba against the Anglo-Protestant forces of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, commanded by Sir Gerard Herbert and Sir Horace Vere during the Palatinate campaign, in the context of the Thirty Years' War. On 16 September the city of Heidelberg was taken by storm, and the Heidelberg Castle surrendered three days later to the Imperial and Spanish forces.

The Capture of Mannheim was undertaken on 2 November 1622 by the Imperial-Spanish army commanded by Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly against the Protestant troops under the Englishman Sir Horace Vere during the Thirty Years' War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palatinate campaign</span> 1620–23 phase of the Thirty Years War

The Palatinate campaign, also known as the Spanish conquest of the Palatinate or the Palatinate phase of the Thirty Years' War was a campaign conducted by the Imperial army of the Holy Roman Empire against the Protestant Union in the Lower Palatinate, during the Thirty Years' War.

The Diet of Regensburg of 1623 was a meeting of the Imperial States of the Holy Roman Empire convened by Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II. The meeting was not technically an imperial diet in the full sense, but a convention of princes or Deputationstag – a looser constitutional format giving the emperor greater leeway to take decisions without being bound by formal procedures. At it the Electorate of the Palatinate was transferred to Maximilian I of Bavaria. The meeting marked the high-water mark of imperial power during the Thirty Years' War.

The Baden Army was the military organisation of the German state of Baden until 1871. The origins of the army were a combination of units that the Badenese margraviates of Baden-Durlach and Baden-Baden had set up in the Baroque era, and the standing army of the Swabian Circle, to which both territories had to contribute troops. The reunification of the two small states to form the Margraviate of Baden in 1771 and its subsequent enlargement and elevation by Napoleon to become the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1806 created both the opportunity and obligation to maintain a larger army, which Napoleon used in his campaigns against Austria, Prussia and Spain and, above all, Russia. After the end of Napoleon's rule, the Grand Duchy of Baden contributed a division to the German Federal Army. In 1848, Badenese troops helped to suppress the Hecker uprising, but a year later a large number sided with the Baden revolutionaries. After the violent suppression of the revolution by Prussian and Württemberg troops, the army was re-established and fought in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 on the side of Austria and the southern German states, as well as in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 on the side of the Germans. When Baden joined the German Empire in 1870/71, the Grand Duchy gave up its military sovereignty and the Badenese troops became part of the XIV Army Corps of the Imperial German Army.

References

1 2 von Reitzenstein, K. Frhr. (1906). Der Feldzug des Jahres 1622 am Oberrhein. ZGO. pp. 271–95.
1 2 Nafziger, George (2000). "Battle of Wimpfen" (PDF). Nafziger collection. Combined Arms Research Library . Retrieved 21 October 2018.
1 2 Wilson, Peter H. (30 July 2009). Europe's Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War. Penguin UK. ISBN 9780141937809.
↑ Bardey, G. (1997). "Wiesloch - Wimpfen - Höchst, die Schlachten des Jahres 1622" [Wiesloch - Wimpfen - Höchst, battles of 1622]. Deutsches Soldatenjahrbuch 45[German Soldier Annual 45] (in German). pp. 67–70.
↑ Findeisen, Jörg-Peter (1998). Der Dreißigjährige Krieg[The Thirty Years' War] (in German). Graz. p. 165.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[von_R-1] 1 2 von Reitzenstein, K. Frhr. (1906). Der Feldzug des Jahres 1622 am Oberrhein. ZGO. pp. 271–95.

[Nafziger-2] 1 2 Nafziger, George (2000). "Battle of Wimpfen" (PDF). Nafziger collection. Combined Arms Research Library . Retrieved 21 October 2018.

[Europe's_Tragedy-3] 1 2 Wilson, Peter H. (30 July 2009). Europe's Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War. Penguin UK. ISBN 9780141937809.

[4] Bardey, G. (1997). "Wiesloch - Wimpfen - Höchst, die Schlachten des Jahres 1622" [Wiesloch - Wimpfen - Höchst, battles of 1622]. Deutsches Soldatenjahrbuch 45[German Soldier Annual 45] (in German). pp. 67–70.

[5] Findeisen, Jörg-Peter (1998). Der Dreißigjährige Krieg[The Thirty Years' War] (in German). Graz. p. 165.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]