Baner's Bohemian Campaign
| Baner's Bohemian Campaign | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Thirty Years' War | |||||||||
Map of Bohemia following the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
|
Swedish Empire Bohemian Exiles |
Holy Roman Empire · Bohemia · Bavaria · Brandenburg · Saxony | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Johan Banér Lennart Torstensson Torsten Stålhandske[a][1] Carl Gustaf Wrangel Hans Christoff von Königsmarck Adam von Pfuel Johan Lilliehöök[b][1] |
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm Ottavio Piccolomini Melchior von Hatzfeldt Matthias Gallas Raimondo Montecuccoli (POW) Georg Lorenz von Hofkirchen (POW)[1] Philipp von Mansfeld[a][1] | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
18,000 at Melnik 16,000 at the end of the campaign |
10,000 at Melnik 30,000 from Leopold Wilhelm | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
38 exiles wounded and 153 killed during the Assault on Pirna[1] 400 killed at Melnik 1,000[c] |
1,400 at Melnik several thousand | ||||||||
Baner's Bohemian Campaign was a Swedish campaign in Bohemia under the command of the Swedish general Johan Banér.
Background
In January 1639, Johan Banér began a campaign south through Saxony after regrouping the Swedish army. The Swedes crossed the Elbe River at Lauenburg and then relieved the city of Erfurt and besieged Freiberg. Two armies then came to unite against the Swedes and to prevent this from happening, they quickly marched against one, which was defeated in the Battle of Chemnitz. The other army, 10,000 men under the command of Melchior von Hatzfeldt, then retreated into Bohemia to Prague. Banér then began his campaign into Bohemia by assaulting Pirna.
Campaign
After taking Pirna, Baner pushed, leaving 3,000 men to hold the gorge.[1] Initially, parts of the Swedish army under the command of Adam von Pfuel, Carl Gustaf Wrangel and Torsten Stålhandske departed to capture strategically important towns on the Elbe and besieged its fortresses. After a short siege, the Swedes also occupied Tetschen and the next day the towns of Aussig and Leitmeritz were captured. From Leitmeritz, Banér issued a manifesto in which he wrote that he had come "as a friend to help the Bohemian kingdom against papist oppression". However, it was soon noticed that Bohemia, which had already lost large supplies during previous campaigns, could not support the Swedish army and as a result the Swedes were required to take the food needed to continue. The result was devastating for the Bohemian population, who had to endure several hardships. He then surged south into a land that was free from war sense 1634. Matthias Gallas massed 10,00 men under Lorenz von Hofkirchen to stop Baner at Melnik he emerged from the mountains on 29 May. Against his subordinates advice, Hofkirchen threw away his initial advantage with a premature attack and lost 1,000 killed and 400 captured, including him and Raimondo Montecuccoli.[1] The imperial position got even worse when Johan Lilliehook took even more Brandenburg garrison and Stålhandske overrun Silesia after defeating Phillip von Mansfeld.[1] Melchior von Hatzfeldt arrived with his 10,000-strong army in the capital. Banér placed his army in battle formation outside the city and fired on it in an attempt to lure Hatzfeldt into battle, but this did not happen.[2]
In September, von Hatzfeldt's army was able to cross the Eger River unnoticed and marched to Meissen, but when the Swedish army came to meet him, he turned to Franconia instead. The Swedish army then returned to Bohemia and arrived in Prague on October 11. The city was then shelled and the Swedes captured some fortifications. One of the bullets reached the house in which Commander-in-Chief Leopold Wilhelm was sitting. However, the city could not be captured again, the Swedes abandoned the siege on October 29 and instead departed for southern Bohemia where they burned Tabor and Pilsen while an army under Hans Christoff von Königsmarck marched away towards Franconia. However, now most of the imperial armies were gathering against the Swedes. From the Netherlands, Ottavio Piccolomini marched with an 8,000-strong army while von Hatzfeldt marched from Franconia with an 7,000-strong army. As a result of these circumstances, the Swedish army departed from Bohemia in March 1640 and destroyed the bridge over the Elbe while the imperial army came close behind him.[3]
Aftermath
Johan Banér's Bohemian campaign was one of the most brutal of the Thirty Years' War, marked by plunder, fire, beatings and death. Thousands of villages and homes were burned and the population had to endure constant raids. Johan Banér became known as "The Cruel Arsonist" while perhaps the most feared Swede in Bohemia, Adam von Pfuel, boasted of having burned down over 800 Bohemian villages. After the Swedish army left Bohemia, the war continued in Thuringia.
Notes
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wilson 2009.
- ^ Guthrie 2003.
- ^ Akiander 1857.
- Bibliography
- Akiander, Matthias (1857). Finlands minnesvärde män. Samling af lefnadsbeteckningar [Finland's memorable men. Collection of biographical notes] (in Swedish).
- Bryan, Michael (1886). Dictionary of painters and engravers, biographical and critical
- Fryxell, Anders (1838). Berättelser ur svenska historien
- Guthrie, William (2003). The Later Thirty Years War: From the Battle of Wittstock to the Treaty of Westphalia. Praeger. ISBN 9780313324086.
- Harrison, Dick (2014). Ett stort lidande har kommit över oss: Historien om trettioåriga kriget
- Jensen, Alfred (1910). Svenska minnen från Böhmen och Mähren: kulturhistoriska skisser från trettioåriga kriget
- Starbäck, Carl Georg, & Bäckström, Per Olof (1886). Berättelser ur Svenska Historien, Volym 5
- Wilson, Peter H (2009). Europe's Tragedy: A History of the Thirty Years War. Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-7139-9592-3.