Battle of Freiburg 1644 - THIRTY YEARS' WAR DOCUMENTARY

[Music] the French have decisively won at require and that has swung the pendulum of the 30 Years War yet again their Swedish allies commanded by torched in son have recovered from their earlier defeats and are now attacking the heart of the Holy Roman Empire advancing further than even their legendary King Gustavus Adolphus but is that enough to end the war the Battle of Freiburg is going to prove that more blood has to flow shout out to brilliant for sponsoring this video we're happy to be partners with brilliant as this educational platform and our channel share similar values do you know someone who likes to ask how does the refrigerator work or how do I solve this puzzle or maybe even what is quantum computing if so we've got just the thing for you spread the love of knowledge and learning to your loved ones by gifting them brilliant this really excites us because it's such a fun way to nurture curiosity build confidence and develop problem-solving skills crucial to school job interviews or their career brilliant thought-provoking content breaks up complexities into bite-sized understandable chunks that will lead them from curiosity to mastery go to brilliant dot org slash kings as generals and grab a gift subscription to help your loved ones finish their day a little smarter Rockwell was one of the most serious defeats the Habsburgs suffered during the Thirty Years War it now seemed that nothing could stop condemned from taking over the Spanish Netherlands as his opponent Jean de Becque Spanish Army was much smaller than that of the French Prince however the Spanish Netherlands was a country of many dozens of fortified cities so all Beck needed to do was reinforce the city Conde was going to attack the latter went forth evil in the hopes of cutting the Spanish Netherlands from the Habsburg territory to the south Bek managed to sneak in reinforcements before conde besieged thin veil on June 16th 1643 this allowed the city to withstand a two-month siege the campaigning season was coming to an end so Conde abandoned the siege and returned to France the leader of the Dutch Republic Frederick Henry attempted to advance from the East but Bek successfully bluffed him into thinking that the Spaniards received fresh troops which forced the former to retreat despite this minor improvement in the situation it was clear to the Spanish King Phillip the 4th that the situation in the Netherlands was untenable he needed all his troops to fight off the uprisings in Portugal and Catalonia so Beck would get no help Philip also basically broke his alliance with his Habsburg cousin Ferdinand 4/3 and started peace negotiations with the Dutch Republic back west the swedish commander torched and son was slow to exploit his recent decisive victory at Brighton felled in November of 1642 he besieged Leipzig and sent konigsmark towards Westphalia to distract the Imperial forces in that area the fall of Leipzig a month later was a serious blow to the elector of saxony john george torstensson's troops took Chemnitz in late december and started marching towards the crucial fortress of Freiburg besieging it in early 1643 meanwhile the loser of the Battle of Brighton failed Archduke Leopoldville helm had returned to Vienna leaving his army under piccolo Meany to be reformed at reckon it's the latter was incredibly effective and by January had fourteen thousand men available to help Freiburg indeed piccolo meanies advanced towards the fortress forced Torstensson to go into winter quarters Piccolomini returned to Bohemia and was inexplicably removed from command in favor of galas the campaign was renewed in late March as torsion son attempted to invade Bohemia a long series of maneuvers marches and counter marches between his army and that of galas began and ran well into October when torsion son was able to reach Bern and raided the area his hope was that he might receive support for an attack from the largely Protestant transylvania simultaneously the Swedish commander sent a force under konigsmark to raid Franconia and then Saxony in hopes that it would force the Imperials to divide their forces while galas ordered krokov to march into Pomerania via brandenburg to weaken Sweden's hold over the region supported by a small polish detachment crow cough managed to take a few settlements Galus decided to reinforce him with cavalry and a perk I'm but torsion son was able to destroy that group the round drop out at the same time konigsmark was commanded to engage krokov and by the end of september the imperial force was pushed into neutral poland back in Moravia torsion son who didn't get any help from transylvania lost all of his momentum for seating yay Gandalf and as oxen whena was planning to invade Denmark he called the commander back north [Music] despite being Protestant and starting the 30 Years War on the same side Denmark and Sweden were natural rivals the success of Sweden made Danish King Christian the fourth increased the tax for trade passing through the Straits word leaked out that the Danes were negotiating an alliance with the Hapsburgs and that made the conflict that would later be known as the Torstensson war inevitable auxin aquinas plan was for marshal horn to attack from the north admiral fleming to secure the Baltic Sea and Torstensson to strike Jutland from the south although Torstensson feared that his absence would allow Gala's to take back Silesia Moravia and Saxony he strengthened the fortresses in the area and publicly announced that he was retreating to Pomerania in order to confuse the enemy the march north started in mid-november and in late November he entered the Danish holdings in Holstein torched in son occupied a number of fortresses and by January 20th 1644 the Swedes were ready to invade judgment leaving some troops to beseech Gluckstadt Torsten son moved the rest to the narrow channel separating the mainland from the island of Fernan while Horn took the provinces of Holland and Scania save for Malmo both Swedish generals needed Flemming to win the naval battle to take the Danish capital but Christian took command of the fleet and defeated the Swedes in a number of naval engagements between February and July most importantly at Colbert Hyder in the aftermath of which Flemming was killed and the Swedish fleet was blockaded at Kiel [Music] simultaneously Imperial commander in Westphalia hats felt began threatening torsion son from the southwest and galas appeared from the southeast in July the Swedish commander left fran yo to secure jet land and advanced south rapidly with what troops he had using scorched earth tactics while retreating back to his initial positions galaxy's troops suffered from the lack of supplies and he wasted months worried that the Swedes might cross the Elbe at the same time konigsmark was sent south drawing away hats felt the caution the Imperial commanders employed played against them as Sweden entered an alliance with the Dutch and their United navies finally defeated Christian at FEMEN crippling the Danish Navy in the process although no major battles were fought between the Swedes and the Imperials in 1644 Galla sees mismanagement famine desertions and plague reduced his troops to a few thousand and the Habsburg army basically ceased to exist an alliance between Sweden and Transylvania was signed with the Prince of the latter George the first for a cod sea was eager to support torsion son's march against Vienna however we need to leave torsions on for now and focus on the events in the West the defense of the Holy Roman Empire in the Rhine region was mostly left to be elector of bavaria maximilian the first and his army commanded by franz von mercy managed to effectively destroy the french army under ran so at total england on november 24th 1643 this balance the decisive french victory at require and gave bavaria the initiative after wintering in the area mercy took Ubel England in May and then perceived hurtin field planning to stop it out this gave the new french commander of the theater on reach our end time to organize his forces although he had 10,000 troops mostly made up of Germans from vemma against 20,000 commanded by Mercy terrain crossed the Rhine on June 1st in two columns by June 4th Turin was at her finger and even defeated a small Bavarian detachment despite that the French just didn't have enough troops to fight and started their retreat mercy left a small group to continue the siege and moved to the West the siege in Freiburg on the 26th while Turenne set a camp at Benson burg and started a series of skirmishes killing a few hundred Imperial soldiers however all that was in vain as Freiburg fell on the 29th it seemed that all the French gains of 1638 were about to be reversed yet the French Prime Minister Cardinal Mazarin had another idea Duke of aliança Stav was assigned to lead the army in Flanders and conde was sent to the Rhine theater and appointed as the commander of the German army his 10,000 march towards to Rend reaching him on August 2nd just 13 days after the appointment as mercy was forced to leave small detachments at Freiburg and hirin field he now had 17,000 troops against 20,000 under Conde merci probably knew that the usually rash conde was going to attack directly and he also lacked horses which made a retreat difficult so he started creating a fortified position to the southwest of Freiburg an area that was favorable for this tactic with its river valleys hills and forests the Schoenberg hill which was impossible to form a line formation on was central in this plan mercy's north was secured due to the river dry sun while on his right flank his troops erected a line of Palisades from Haas Lac to the western slopes of the Schoenberg Hill further defended by the moose felled forest to the west a sconce and a star fort were placed on the western edge of the hill to make scaling it even more costly these fortifications that could have put the likes of Julius Caesar to shame were manned by five infantry regiments 4,000 or so soldiers supported by five guns the Imperial left was made up of 1,000 or so footmen but that was enough as they were defending a narrow passage the Banshee ein between Schoenberg Hill and another forest to the east that pass was also blocked by obstacles but in general it wasn't expected that the French were going to attack here as bypassing Schoenberg would have their left flank open to attack a small group was stationed on top of the hill to coordinate the two wings divided by the hill the majority of the imperial troops some 12,000 stayed in the main camp to the south of has lack the French knew of these preparations Turan and Conde argued on the best course of action and this was the precursor of the debates that would happen within the French military community for the next decades and centuries Turan was advising not to engage Mercy's remarkable physician directly and to move north and then West cutting the imperial supply line to the north of Freiburg which would have forced the Bavarian commander to retreat east leaving his rare vulnerable to lead charges of the superior French cavalry however Conde was in charge and he believes that the Bavarians could be defeated with a frontal attack so he overruled Turin and other generals and ordered a direct assault on the 3rd of August toran were sent to recognize her the enemy defenses and found the ban stein pass he was instructed to advance here with five thousand footmen while conde would command five thousand infantry and a few hundred cavalry against the Imperial right 3,000 or so horsemen defended the left side of Condes forces and a few guns were set up on a small hill behind his positions with the rest of the army in reserve between the two French commanders the attack was to start at 5:00 p.m. which was another controversial decision torrens forces had to march four hours before the fight which tired them and it was just hours before sunset meaning that the French had mere hours to win the battle Condes offense started from the village of a bringin against the village of board this was the weakest link in the Imperial fortifications since other readouts weren't able to assist directly and the French led by as be north were able to overcome the wall despite enemy fire scaling the walls broke their formation however and the Imperial fire on the other side of the wall forced Condes forces to retreat down the hill this time the French leader ordered desper known to attack the southeast portion of the wall with torn on being sent against the southwest once again the wall was taken and once again the French were greeted by Bavarian fire des pennons already battered troops weren't able to resist for long most of them retreated downhill while a group under / saw dispersed in the forest to the east soon tauntauns units who were disheartened by the allied route fell back to a bringin the French were taking heavy casualties but not nearly enough to change Condes mind the French general ordered a third attack leaving only cavalry in reserve for the third time his troops surmounted the walls however this time bavarian cannons further north were finally turned and used against them killing many on the other hand the defenders of baal were running low on ammunition and the troops led personally by Conde reached and attacks them simultaneously Hassan's regiments surprisingly managed to perform in the woods and joined the fight against the Imperial defenses from the east the defenders were overwhelmed and slaughtered meanwhile torrents flank reached its position earlier than expected headed by a vanguard of 1,000 Musketeers and a rock sir via Mercy's outpost sent word of their approach and informed the commander Turan probably knew that he was facing a minor force and attacked at 4:15 p.m. eager to break his foe before they were reinforced the initial French advance pushed the defenders back but mercy who considered this attack to be more dangerous than the one that was being openly prepared by Conde arrived in time with 5,000 soldiers to push Rock servi air back wounding the French leader in the process torrents situation was bad he had the numerical advantage a cavalry reserve and artillery nearby but wasn't able to use any of that due to the narrowness of the passage furthermore he had to attack immediately in order to tie up enough of Mercy's forces to give Condes attack a chance so he moved to the front line and led the offense himself with no room to maneuver and use their advantages the French were suffering heavy casualties but continued to fight at that moment Condes troops once again were moving north this time to take stern Schanzer Rosenberg who was left in command by Mercy mustered 2,000 and moved south to reinforce the readouts on schanberg the two sides skirmished for an hour but ruinberg who clearly was a weak commander decided that he couldn't defend the position without the southernmost defenses and had to retreat to the main camp Conde ever an opportunist would have followed but his troops were in terrible shape and it was now dark at raining so he called it a day after taking Stan Schanzer the French now controlled Schoenberg mostly due to Condes personal bravery to the west the dogged fighting continued until 4:00 a.m. when mercy was informed that the hilde was lost this meant that his rear might be open to an attack so the Imperial commander disengaged and moved back to the camp leaving Turan in control of the passage the French lost almost 3,000 troops on this day most of them on to Ren's flank Imperial casualties were around 1,000 on August 4th using the facts that Condes army was exhausted mercy moved his army to the east and ordered his troops to create another line of defense based around the hills of Loretto and get film the Imperials were now defended by the dry Somme to the north and east with Freiburg providing cover for their northern flank most of their infantry was on the hills with the rest of the footmen and cavalry in reserve near the village of agile housen as there was now parity in the number of troops for both sides mercy was sure of victory Conde took the main Imperial camp on the same day while to Rend his troops in Mertz housing the French used the day to rest and tend to the wounded there were still no agreement between their commanders as Turan wasn't eager to go on another frontal attack Conde however was sure that Mercy's retreat on the 3rd was a rout and that's the fortifications on the hills were a bluff the commander devised a plan to take the fortifications his troops would charge up the Loretto hill and tie up as many enemies as possible while Turan was to use the cover of the Beca wood to cover his advance and then take Bourne Haldor which would make the defense of the Hills untenable and give the French victory the French attack was supposed to start at 8:00 a.m. on the 5th of August yet conde ants to Wren were suddenly informed of movement to the south of Vaughn Halden both commanders wrote to their extreme rights to personally scout the situation as the Imperial presence in the area which mean that to Rennes right flank might be in danger and their plans were no good however desper nan who was to command the French movement towards the Loretto Hill didn't receive news of that and his troops were too close to Mercy's forward readouts a group of dismounted dragoons was defending this position and they opened fire at the advancing French although this wasn't the position Despereaux had to attack he ordered the units to take it in response mercy reinforced the redoubt despina had to send in even more reinforcements and the battle started the shells Musketeers tasked with taking the Bekaa would thought that it was the signal to attack but the Bavarian troops were still not distracted so most of the Frenchmen who exited the forested area were killed on sight Doremon who had to charge here moved forward in confusion but immediately was greeted by imperial volleys the French were stopped in their tracks The Imperials then counter-attacks pushing Doremon downhill kondeh who was returning to his flank from reconnaissance concentrated nearby forces and charged the advancing Bavarians driving them away the French commander then took over the troops of DOMA and moved against the enemy position at Van Alden this attack was met by overwhelming musket and cannon fire killing and wounding many Frenchmen missing Conde only by chance luckily for the retreating Conde the French Center led by Turan attacked the center of the Imperial fortifications which forced Mercy to reinforce this position and allowed Conde and test Bernard to disengage the French lost more than a thousand in that encounter battle while Mercy's casualties were less than 300 [Music] once again Conde wasn't discouraged and ordered another attack this time Turan was going to divert enemy attention to the south while despina would take Loretto hill this assault began at 3:00 p.m. the French managed to scale the northern hill which were promptly treated with bullets and cannonballs and were forced to fall back the second wave was able to get closer to the readouts but once again was forced to run the same fate awaited the third and fourth French waves stubbornly sent uphill by Conde the French commander decided to add another element to his attack the third and fourth waves reformed and attacks the enemy fortifications from the West while the dismounted dragoons whose armor was heavier than those of the footmen charged the Loretto hill from the north initially that worked as intended with the Bavarians being pushed back and losing the redoubt however mercy had his own cavalry reserve and it was sent forth to attack the French dragoons from the right they stopped the French advance Conde attempted to turn the tide by sending his last reserves into the fray which that was countered by Mercy's last reserves this was a desperate fight slowly but surely beep ovarian started to gain an upper hand and push the French downhill luckily for Conde terrain still had some cavalry reserves and they move left blocking the Imperial pursuit these horsemen defended the French footmen until nightfall Conde lost another 2,000 men bringing the total of his losses to 8,000 almost half of his army the third day of the battle was the deadliest for mercy with more than a thousand killed or wounded overall he had lost 2,500 through three days of battle Conde and terrain spent the 6th fortifying their camp worried that Mercy who now outnumbered them was going to attack but the latter proved to be too cautious or maybe his army was also too battered to attack Condes bravery that gave him the brilliant victory at require was perfectly counted by Mercy whose defensive strategy changed the balance of power in the war once again but was that enough to save the Empire we will find out in the coming videos in this series which will be released soon so make sure you are subscribed to our Channel and have pressed the bell button we would like to express our gratitude to our patreon supporters and channel members who make the creation of our videos possible now you can also support us by buying our merchandise by the link in the description this is the kings and Generals channel and we will catch you on the next one

Channel: Kings and Generals

Views: 363,318

Rating: 4.9487677 out of 5

Keywords: Thirty Years' War, 30 years war, ottoman wars, holy roman empire, thirty years war, gustavus adolphus, full documentary, full length documentaries, documentary film, kings and generals, military history, decisive battles, world history, Stralsund, breitenfeld, battle of lutzen, rocroi, melo, conde, tercio, Nördlingen, richeliu, ottoman empire, gustav ii adolf, battle of rocroi, pike and shot, king and generals, european wars of religion, history documentary, freiburg, mercy, turenne

Id: nDTjr2UjLl0

Length: 25min 20sec (1520 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 23 2020