{ "slug": "breitenfeld-1631", "title": "Battle of Breitenfeld (1631)", "status": "draft", "era": "1600–1760", "date_text": "17 September 1631 (7 September in the Julian calendar then used by Protestant Germany and Sweden)", "start": "1631-09-17", "end": "1631-09-17", "war": "Thirty Years' War", "cdb90_war": "THIRTY YEAR'S WAR", "place": { "name": "Breitenfeld, north of Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony (now Saxony, Germany)", "lat": 51.4178, "lon": 12.3778, "wikidata": "Q205379" }, "lede": "On 17 September 1631, north of Leipzig, Gustavus Adolphus's Swedes survived the rout of their Saxon allies, turned to face Tilly's victorious right and destroyed the Imperial-League army. It was the first great Protestant victory of the Thirty Years' War.", "result": "Decisive Swedish-Saxon victory", "result_cdb90": "attacker loss", "belligerents": [ { "role": "attacker", "name": "Imperial and Catholic League army", "commanders": [ "Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly", "Gottfried Heinrich zu Pappenheim", "Egon von Fürstenberg" ], "strength": { "value": 31400, "low": 31400, "high": 36000, "source": "s1" }, "casualties": { "value": 13600, "low": 13000, "high": 14000, "source": "s1" } }, { "role": "defender", "name": "Swedish and Saxon army", "commanders": [ "Gustavus Adolphus", "Gustav Horn", "Johan Banér", "John George I, Elector of Saxony", "Hans Georg von Arnim" ], "strength": { "value": 40150, "low": 37000, "high": 42000, "source": "s1" }, "casualties": { "value": 5550, "low": 5550, "high": 6550, "source": "s1" } } ], "sections": { "background": "By 1630 the Thirty Years' War seemed won for the Emperor Ferdinand II. The armies of the Empire and the Catholic League had beaten the Bohemians, the Palatinate and Denmark, and the Edict of Restitution of 1629 threatened to strip the Protestant princes of church lands secularised since 1552. In the summer of 1630 Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden landed in Pomerania with nearly 18,000 men, partly to protect Sweden's Baltic interests and partly as champion of the Protestant cause. The Treaty of Bärwalde in January 1631 brought French subsidies that let him enlarge his army.\n\nThe great Protestant princes, above all John George I of Saxony, were reluctant to join a foreign king against their emperor. Their hesitation cost them Magdeburg, which Tilly's army stormed and sacked in May 1631 while Gustavus was still negotiating for passage to relieve it; much of the city burned and most of its population died. The massacre hardened Protestant opinion against the Emperor, while Tilly's army, short of supplies in a devastated region, turned on Saxony to force the Elector's hand. Instead John George allied with Sweden.\n\nThe Saxon army joined the Swedes north of Leipzig in mid-September. Tilly took Leipzig on 15 September and seems to have meant to wait there for reinforcements, but his cavalry commander Pappenheim was eager for battle and Tilly drew up his army on rising ground near the village of Breitenfeld. Gustavus, with the Elector's army beside him, marched south to meet him on 17 September.", "forces": "Tilly, then 72, was the most experienced Catholic commander in Germany. His army of about 31,000–36,000 was veteran and confident, with Pappenheim and Fürstenberg leading the cavalry wings. Its infantry stood in the Spanish manner: one long line of deep blocks of pike and shot, which Jean-Pierre Bois counts as seventeen squares of 1,500–2,000 men, with about 26 heavy guns in front and cavalry on the wings. The cavalry relied heavily on pistol fire, often delivered by successive ranks.\n\nThe Swedish army, about 22,000–23,000 strong, was the product of a decade of reform and war in Poland. Gustavus formed his infantry in brigades of three or four small squadrons with a reserve, in two lines, so that units could turn and support one another. Musketeers fired by salvo, and detachments of musketeers stood between the cavalry squadrons, which were trained to charge home with the sword. Every regiment had light guns, and Lennart Torstenson's heavier artillery was concentrated. Many of the best regiments were Scots and Germans in Swedish pay; Hepburn, Monro and Mackay all served there.\n\nThe Saxons, about 15,000–17,000 under the Elector and Field Marshal Arnim, formed up as a separate army on the Swedish left. Most of them were recently raised and had not fought a battle.", "course": "CDB90 records the battle as a single engagement, number 6 (BREITENFELD I), from 14:30 to 18:30. The narrative sources start the artillery duel around noon and have the fighting end near nightfall; the times below are approximate and follow Wikipedia's reconstruction.\n\n**Deployment.** Tilly stood on low rising ground facing north, his guns on the Galgenberg in front of his centre, Pappenheim's cavalry on the left and Fürstenberg's on the right. Gustavus came on from the north across the Lober stream, the Swedes on the right and centre and the Saxons, separately, on the left, with the Düben–Leipzig road running between the allied armies. A south-westerly wind blew smoke and dust into the allies' faces.\n\n**Cannonade (from about noon).** The two artilleries fired for some two hours. The Swedish guns fired faster and more often and did serious damage to the deep Imperial blocks.\n\n**Pappenheim's charges (from about 14:00).** Without Tilly's orders, Pappenheim led the cavalry of the Imperial left against the Swedish right under Banér, then tried to work round it. The Swedes wheeled to face him. Each attack met volleys from the musketeers posted among the cavalry, followed by Swedish squadrons charging with the sword, and each was driven back. Wikipedia counts seven repulses before Banér's counter-charge, around 16:00, broke Pappenheim's cavalry and drove much of it from the field.\n\n**The Saxon collapse (about 15:00–16:00).** On the other flank Tilly sent his right, led by Fürstenberg's and Isolani's cavalry with the infantry following, against the Saxons. The Saxon army broke within an hour and fled, taking the Elector with it towards Eilenburg and leaving its guns behind; only a small part under Arnim held. Some Imperial cavalry pursued and plundered the Saxon baggage. Gustavus's left flank, under Horn, was suddenly in the open, with Tilly's main infantry moving across the field towards it.\n\n**Horn's new front (about 16:00–17:00).** This was where the Swedish system paid off. Horn turned his wing through about ninety degrees to face east, using the smoke and dust for cover, and Gustavus sent the brigades of the second line, Hepburn's among them, with their regimental guns. The slow Imperial blocks, struggling to wheel, attacked a front of about 10,000 men instead of an open flank. Fürstenberg's cavalry charges broke against the musketeers, and Swedish fire shattered the tercios one after another.\n\n**The counter-stroke (about 17:00–18:00).** With Pappenheim gone, Gustavus led the cavalry of the right wing across the field, against the Imperial left and onto the Galgenberg, and took Tilly's guns. Swedish gunners turned them on the Imperial infantry, while the Saxon guns lost earlier were retaken by Scots regiments. Under fire from front and flank, and charged by Horn's cavalry, the Imperial army broke.\n\n**Rout (to nightfall).** Tilly, wounded several times, was carried off towards Halle under cavalry escort. Pappenheim gathered some infantry at the edge of the Linkelwald and covered the retreat, but the rest of the army disintegrated, and the pursuit took thousands of prisoners. Fighting had ended by nightfall.", "aftermath": "Tilly lost about 7,000–7,600 killed and wounded and some 6,000 prisoners on the day, together with his artillery and baggage. Thousands more were lost in the days after to desertion, pursuit and peasants. The Swedes lost about 2,000–3,550 and the Saxons perhaps 2,000–4,000, most of them in the rout. Leipzig was retaken within days.\n\nThe victory changed the war. For the first time a Protestant army had destroyed a major Catholic field army, and the battle made Gustavus the leading power in Protestant Germany. Instead of marching on Vienna he left that road to the Saxons and turned south-west through the rich 'priests' alley' of the Rhineland bishoprics: Erfurt, Würzburg and Frankfurt fell, and he wintered at Mainz. Ferdinand had to recall Wallenstein, and Tilly, beaten again at the Lech in April 1632, died of his wounds soon after.\n\nBreitenfeld has long been taught as the triumph of Swedish linear tactics, combined arms and firepower over the deep tercio. Modern historians accept the importance of Swedish flexibility, drill and artillery, but warn against too neat a story: Tilly's own formations were shallower and more flexible than the textbook Spanish square, and the Imperialists came close to winning once the Saxons ran. A monument to Gustavus Adolphus stands on the field.", "wargaming": "Breitenfeld is an ideal big pike-and-shot game: a single afternoon on open, rolling ground with almost no terrain to worry about, beyond the Galgenberg, the Lober stream behind the allies, a village or two and the Linkelwald on the Imperial left. The whole battle works at one base or unit per brigade, tercio or few squadrons, with 20–30 minute turns, on a table long enough to give the Saxon flank room to collapse and Horn room to wheel.\n\nThe game hangs on asymmetry. The Swedes are flexible but outnumbered once the Saxons go; the Imperialists are slow to manoeuvre but deep, steady and confident. Rules need to reward Swedish salvo fire, mixed musketeer-and-horse wings and regimental guns, and to penalise deep blocks for wheeling, without making the result automatic.\n\nThe Saxons are the heart of the scenario. Making them break by a die roll, a morale test after the first contact or a fixed turn keeps the Swedish player guessing about when his left will open. Interesting 'what ifs': the Saxons hold; Tilly keeps Pappenheim under control and attacks as one army; Fürstenberg's cavalry turns at once on Horn instead of pursuing the Saxons; Gustavus has to fight with the Saxons absent. For a smaller game, Horn's wheel and the fight for his new front work well as a two-hour action at battalion or squadron level." }, "images": [ { "file": "File:Battle of Breitenfeld - Initial dispositions, 17 September 1631.png", "kind": "map", "caption": "Initial dispositions at Breitenfeld, 17 September 1631: Tilly's line on the rising ground, the Swedes on the allied right and centre and the Saxons on the left.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Battle_of_Breitenfeld_-_Initial_dispositions%2C_17_September_1631.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Battle_of_Breitenfeld_-_Initial_dispositions%2C_17_September_1631.png/960px-Battle_of_Breitenfeld_-_Initial_dispositions%2C_17_September_1631.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Breitenfeld_-_Initial_dispositions,_17_September_1631.png", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "", "credit": "", "width": 1097 }, { "file": "File:Battle of Breitenfeld - Annihilation, 17 September 1631.png", "kind": "map", "caption": "The final phase: Horn's new front, Gustavus's attack on the Imperial guns and the collapse of Tilly's army.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Battle_of_Breitenfeld_-_Annihilation%2C_17_September_1631.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Battle_of_Breitenfeld_-_Annihilation%2C_17_September_1631.png/960px-Battle_of_Breitenfeld_-_Annihilation%2C_17_September_1631.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Breitenfeld_-_Annihilation,_17_September_1631.png", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "", "credit": "", "width": 1085 }, { "file": "File:Schlacht Ordnvng I. May in Schweden vnd I. Chvrf. Dvrchl. Zu Sachsen vnd dan(n) es Graffen von Tilli bey Leipzig 7. Sept. 1631 LCCN2016645753.jpg", "kind": "map", "caption": "A contemporary German print of the order of battle at Leipzig, dated 7 September 1631 in the old calendar.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Schlacht_Ordnvng_I._May_in_Schweden_vnd_I._Chvrf._Dvrchl._Zu_Sachsen_vnd_dan%28n%29_es_Graffen_von_Tilli_bey_Leipzig_7._Sept._1631_LCCN2016645753.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/Schlacht_Ordnvng_I._May_in_Schweden_vnd_I._Chvrf._Dvrchl._Zu_Sachsen_vnd_dan%28n%29_es_Graffen_von_Tilli_bey_Leipzig_7._Sept._1631_LCCN2016645753.jpg/960px-Schlacht_Ordnvng_I._May_in_Schweden_vnd_I._Chvrf._Dvrchl._Zu_Sachsen_vnd_dan%28n%29_es_Graffen_von_Tilli_bey_Leipzig_7._Sept._1631_LCCN2016645753.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schlacht_Ordnvng_I._May_in_Schweden_vnd_I._Chvrf._Dvrchl._Zu_Sachsen_vnd_dan(n)_es_Graffen_von_Tilli_bey_Leipzig_7._Sept._1631_LCCN2016645753.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Hauslab, Franz, 1798-1883, DLC, collector", "credit": "Library of Congress Catalog: https://lccn.loc.gov/2016645753 Image download: https://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3b10000/3b14000/3b14500/3b14544r.jpg Original url: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016645753/", "width": 1227 }, { "file": "File:Gustavus Adolphus at the Battle at Breitenfeld.jpg", "kind": "painting", "caption": "Gustavus Adolphus at Breitenfeld, painting by Johann Walter, 1632.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Gustavus_Adolphus_at_the_Battle_at_Breitenfeld.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Gustavus_Adolphus_at_the_Battle_at_Breitenfeld.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gustavus_Adolphus_at_the_Battle_at_Breitenfeld.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Unidentified painter", "credit": "Uploaded by: sv:User:Den fjättrade ankan", "width": 381 }, { "file": "File:Breitenfeld 1631 - Carl Wahlbom.png", "kind": "painting", "caption": "Gustavus Adolphus at Breitenfeld, by the Swedish painter Carl Wahlbom.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Breitenfeld_1631_-_Carl_Wahlbom.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Breitenfeld_1631_-_Carl_Wahlbom.png/960px-Breitenfeld_1631_-_Carl_Wahlbom.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Breitenfeld_1631_-_Carl_Wahlbom.png", "licence": "CC BY 4.0", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0", "artist": "Carl Wahlbom", "credit": "https://www.europeana.eu/sv/item/2021009/_EB73F5FB82735CDFDA3A05D749141E73", "width": 2385 }, { "file": "File:Gustav II Adolf.jpg", "kind": "portrait", "caption": "Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Gustav_II_Adolf.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Gustav_II_Adolf.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gustav_II_Adolf.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "User Marcos Souza on pt.wikipedia", "credit": "Originally from pt.wikipedia ; description page is (was) here", "width": 150 }, { "file": "File:Johann Tserclaes count of Tilly.jpg", "kind": "portrait", "caption": "Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, commander of the Imperial and Catholic League army.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Johann_Tserclaes_count_of_Tilly.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Johann_Tserclaes_count_of_Tilly.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johann_Tserclaes_count_of_Tilly.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Unknown author Unknown author", "credit": "https://alchetron.com/Johann-Tserclaes,-Count-of-Tilly-1063557-W#-", "width": 507 } ], "sources": [ { "id": "s1", "title": "Battle of Breitenfeld (1631)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Breitenfeld_(1631)", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s2", "title": "Breitenfeld, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition (1911), on Wikisource", "url": "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Breitenfeld", "kind": "article" }, { "id": "s3", "title": "Jean-Pierre Bois, 'Breitenfeld, bataille de (1631)', Encyclopædia Universalis", "url": "https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/bataille-de-breitenfeld/", "kind": "article" }, { "id": "s4", "title": "J. Rickard, 'Battle of Breitenfeld, 17 September 1631', History of War (2000)", "url": "https://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_breitenfeld.html", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s5", "title": "Peter H. Wilson, Europe's Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War (Allen Lane, 2009)", "url": null, "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s6", "title": "Robert Monro, Monro, His Expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment Called Mac-Keys (London, 1637)", "url": null, "kind": "primary" } ], "cdb90": [ 6 ], "order": 3, "url": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/breitenfeld-1631/", "oob": [], "oob_lwtv": [], "scenarios": [], "orbat": null, "orbat_lwtv": null, "reading": { "prose": [], "history": [], "fiction": [], "poetry": [ { "work_id": "ia:derdreissigjhri00cohngoog", "title": "Der Dreissigjährige Krieg", "in": null, "author": "Julius Otto Opel", "life": "1829–1895", "year": 1862, "kind": "poem", "library": "Internet Archive", "url": "https://archive.org/details/derdreissigjhri00cohngoog", "language": "ger", "contemporary": false, "subject": false, "references": 4, "page": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/reading/der-dreissigjahrige-krieg-8c8846/" } ] }, "reading_lwtv": { "prose": [], "poetry": [] }, "photos": [], "photos_kind": "photographs", "newspapers": null }