Battle of Wimpfen
Part of thePalatinate phase of theThirty Years' War
Battle of Wimpfen, painting byS. Vrancx showing the magazine explosion
Date 6 May 1622 Location Wimpfen,Swabian Circle,Holy Roman Empire present-dayBaden-Württemberg,Germany 49°11′50″N9°10′20″E / 49.19722°N 9.17222°E /49.19722; 9.17222 Result Catholic victory
Belligerents
Margraviate of Baden Electoral Palatinate	Holy Roman Empire Catholic League Spanish Empire
Commanders and leaders
Georg Friedrich von Baden	Count of Tilly Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba
Strength
12,700[1] 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[2]	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 Spanis.[2]
Casualties and losses
3,000+	1,800+[3]
Wimpfen class=notpageimage| Location withinNeckar region Show map of Neckar Wimpfen Wimpfen (Baden-Württemberg) Show map of Baden-Württemberg Wimpfen Wimpfen (Germany) Show map of Germany

TheBattle of Wimpfen took place during thePalatinate campaign period of theThirty Years' War on 6 May 1622 nearWimpfen.

The combined forces of theCatholic League and theSpanish Empire under MarshalTilly andGonzalo de Córdoba defeated theProtestant forces ofGeorg Friedrich, Margrave of Baden.

In theBohemian revolt phase of the Thirty Years' War, theProtestant Bohemian nobility refused to confirm CatholicFerdinand II as their king and had offered CountFrederick V of the Palatinate the crown of Bohemia. Frederick was crowned in 1619 but lost the kingdom toCatholic League troops under GeneralTilly at theBattle of the White Mountain in 1620.

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

CountGeorg 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 thePalatinate in April 1622 to continue the war against Frederick V, Georg Friedrich declared for Frederick's cause.He marched his army to join GeneralMansfeld's troops and met with them a few days after their victory against Tilly at theBattle of Mingolsheim on April 27.

By early May, the forces ofChristian of Brunswick had arrived to the north of theNeckar 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 atLadenburg,^[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 GeneralCórdoba 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 (calledBöllinger Bach) near the village ofObereisesheim [de] and formed up in battle lines.

Battlefield views from the north (1635 engraving byMerian) and east (1627 engraving byG. 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 awagenburg 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 theBöllinger Bach creek.^[4][5]

Count Georg Friedrich was injured in the face and narrowly escaped to Stuttgart, where he abdicated in favour ofhis 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 toWilliam, Margrave of Baden-Baden of a rival, Catholic branch of House Baden. Until 1771 the margraviate was split into ProtestantBaden-Durlach and CatholicBaden-Baden.

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

In 1623 theDiet of Regensburg awarded Frederick V's lands and seat in theElectoral College to Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, an eminent leader of theCatholic League. From 1623 he styled himselfMaximilian I, Elector of Bavaria and his duchyElectorate of Bavaria.

• Conflicts in 1622
• Battles of the Thirty Years' War involving the Holy Roman Empire
• Battles of the Thirty Years' War involving Spain
• Battles of the Thirty Years' War involving the Palatinate
• Margraviate of Baden
• 1622 in the Holy Roman Empire
• Military history of Baden-Württemberg
• Palatinate campaign
• Heilbronn (district)

• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• CS1 maint: location missing publisher
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Coordinates on Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from March 2017