Battle of Wolfenbüttel
Part of theThirty Years' War
Contemporary engraving
Date 29 June 1641 Location Wolfenbüttel,Germany Result Franco-Swedish victory
Belligerents
Swedish Empire  France Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg	Holy Roman Empire Electorate of Bavaria
Commanders and leaders
Carl Gustaf Wrangel Hans Christoff von Königsmarck de Guébriant Hans Caspar von Klitzing	Archduke Leopold Wilhelm Ottavio Piccolomini Johann von Reuschenberg Joachim Christian von Wahl
Strength
c. 26,000,[a] 31 guns[1]	22,000, 11 guns[1]
Casualties and losses
2,000[1]	3,000 dead or wounded, 7 guns captured[1]

TheBattle of Wolfenbüttel took place on 29 June 1641 during theThirty Years' War outsideWolfenbüttel,Lower Saxony. ASwedish army supported by its German allies was besieging the town, and defeated an attempt byImperial forces to relieve it.

Wolfenbüttel, occupied by Imperial forces, was a strategically insignificant town, but it held great value to the Swedes'Guelph allies. A Guelph army underHans Caspar von Klitzing had blockaded the Imperial garrison underJohann Ernst, Baron von Ruischenberg since the previous autumn, but its 7,000 troops had been too small a force to reduce the town. Facing growing uncertainty in the wake of the death of GeneralJohan Banér and mutinous troops following a year of inaction and failure, the Swedes needed to do something to ensure Guelph loyalty and prove to other German Protestant allies that they were still a reliable partner. Thus, they decided to assist in the Guelph siege of Wolfenbüttel. Hearing word of the Swedish advance, an Imperial army underArchduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria andOttavio Piccolomini raced to meet them. The race was essentially a draw. The Swedes underCarl Gustaf Wrangel and their Bernardine allies led by French generalJean-Baptiste Budes, Comte de Guébriant joined Klitzing's troops on 28 June, and the Imperial army arrived just two hours later.^[1]

The besiegers had created a fortified camp that was too hard to take by frontal assault, so Leopold Wilhelm ordered flanking attacks on both sides. Piccolomini's cavalry attacked the Swedish left, but was driven back with light casualties. Meanwhile, the Bavarians underJoachim Christian von Wahl attacked the Swedish right through a woods containing a small redoubt manned by Banér's legendary "Old Blue" Swedish regiment. The Bavarians took heavy casualties storming the woods but finally succeeded in taking the redoubt from the "Old Blue," only to be driven back by a cavalry counterattack dispatched by Guébriant from the main camp. At this point, Leopold Wilhelm decided to withdraw, having taken around 3,000 casualties in total, although the Swedes had also paid a heavy price for their victory, having lost 2,000 men, with the heaviest toll coming out of the most experienced and veteran troops of the "Old Blue" regiment.^[1]

• Guthrie, William (2003).The Later Thirty Years War: From the Battle of Wittstock to the Treaty of Westphalia. Greenwood Publishing Group.ISBN 978-0-313-32408-6.

• Sieges of the Thirty Years' War
• Wolfenbüttel
• Conflicts in 1641
• 1641 in the Holy Roman Empire
• Military history of Lower Saxony
• Sieges involving the Kingdom of France (987–1792)
• Sieges involving Sweden
• Sieges involving the Holy Roman Empire
• Battles of the Thirty Years' War involving France
• Battles of the Thirty Years' War involving Sweden
• Battles of the Thirty Years' War involving the Holy Roman Empire

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