User:Tinkaer1991/Skirmish at Höxter
| Skirmishes at Höxter | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Thirty Years' War | |||||||||
 Copper engraving of Höxter, c. 1672 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Catholic League |
 Denmark–Norway Welf–Brunswick | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Johann Tilly |
Christian IV Wulf Buchwald Johan Hardenberg | ||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
|
Unknown |
1 detachment 1 corps | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 1,500 men | Unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||||
The Skirmishes at Höxter (Danish: Træfningen ved Höxter, German: Eroberung von Höxter) was a a series of minor skirmishes between Catholic forces and Protestant rebels between 28 – 30 July [O.S. 18 – 20 July] 1625. The skirmish would subsequently start the Danish intervention in the Thirty years war.[1]
Background
[edit]The Spanish invasion of the Rhine Palatinate demonstrated that Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Ferdinand II, was willing to trample on Protestant German liberties to advance a Catholic agenda.[2] Frightened by Catholic-Habsburg gains, but encouraged by the show of international support, Christian IV of Denmark agreed to help orchestrate a meeting of Danish, English, Dutch, and Protestant German delegates at Segeberg, Holstein in March 1621.[2]
The following years, Christian’s bellicosity grew as the Catholic–Habsburg threat came ever nearer to the borders of the Lower Saxony Imperial circle. The Protestant resistance of condottiero Ernst von Mansfeld and Christian IV's nephew, Christian of Brunswick, drew the attention of Emperor Ferdinand. By 1622, the German Catholic League, under Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, was pressing on Lower Saxon territory in persuit of Mansfeld and Duke Christian. During 1623, Tilly's army crosses into Lower Saxon territory twice and promised a full-scale invasion if the Protestant princes did not obey and aid him.[2]
Prelude
[edit]The tensions culminated in 1625, when Christian IV was elected as military commander (Kreisoberst) of the Lower Saxon Circle.[3][4] He took command of a mixed force of 20,000 mercenaries and local conscripts, with small numbers of English, Scottish, French, Dutch and Danish troops soon joining the army.[3] Tilly's army, 25,000 strong, marched into southern Hesse
Skirmishes
[edit]Aftermath
[edit]See also
[edit]Works cited
[edit]- Lockhart, Paul (1996). Denmark in the Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648: King Christian IV and the decline of the Oldenburg State. London: Associated University Presses.
- Lockhart, Paul (2007). Denmark, 1513-1660 : The Rise and Decline of a Renaissance Monarchy. Oxford University Press.
References
[edit]- ^ Roche, freiherr Carl Du Jarrys von la (1848). Der dreissigjährige krieg: vom militärischen standpunkte aus beleuchtet. Nach grossentheils archivarischen und sonstigen noch unbenützten quellen bearbeitet (in German). Hurter.
- ^ a b c Lockhart 2007, p. 163.
- ^ a b Lockhart 2007, p. 166.
- ^ Lockhart 1996, p. 133.