Wallenstein's Masterpiece: The Battle of Lützen 1632 Hour By Hour | Thirty Years War

on a cold and foggy morning in november 1632 gustavus adolphus pushed his man to march hastily towards the imperial enemy lines he knew the time was of the essence imperial reinforcements were on their way and he needed to attack before their arrival [Music] this cold and foggy morning marked the beginning of a battle that was going to become one of the most gruesome encounters of the 30 years war and a fatal moment in gustavus career some military historians see the battle of lutzen as the starting point of a new tactical regime in europe which heralded the growing deployment of musketeers in an increasingly linear fashion others disregard these tactical changes as insignificant in the grand scheme of things this video will briefly situate the battle of lutzen in the war year of 1632 and analyzed the combat action hour by hour with an emphasis on individual tactical units this is how contemporary historiography recounts the battle of lutzen [Music] in 1632 the predominantly catholic imperials had to acknowledge that they had suffered a major defeat at the battle of breitenfeld one year earlier now the protestant king gustavus adolphus marched victoriously through the territory of northern germany the lion of the north they called him some even whispered of a new augustus a reference to the first roman emperor the catholic emperor ferdinand ii of the habsburg dynasty surely was not amused desperate times required desperate measures and the times were indeed desperate for the emperor so he was compelled to reinstate an old acquaintance as generalissimo albrecht wenzel or zebus von waldstein better known as valenstein re-entered the stage this military entrepreneur had been a very successful commander during the early years of the 30 years war maybe too successful in 1630 he had been released from service because the emperor had grown wary of his increasing influence power and ambitions in 1632 however with the previous commander count johan vontilli defeated and gustavus ransacking bavaria the emperor was in dire need of a competent general walenstein was his only hope so the 1632 campaign would pitch the two most successful commanders of their time against each other gustavus adolphus and albrecht von wallenstein the historian peter wilson notes that in 1632 the swedes were at the peak of their power in germany and that it was the most intensive campaign of the entire war all in all five major battles were fought in 1632 in some sense 1632 was quite a special year because many sizable armies operated in germany at the same time in this video we will focus mainly on the battle of lutzen the last battle of the 1632 campaign unfortunately we can never cover all the events of a certain time period in one video so we recommend you have a look at the documentaries of today's sponsor curiositystream for additional information curiositystream is home to thousands of streamable documentaries and non-fiction tv shows on topics like history nature science and more one of our favorite series is the story of europe which spans across several centuries starting with the ancient greeks and going all the way to 1989 when the iron curtain fell the documentary does a great job of giving you the bigger picture of what happened in europe and how it is connected it is hosted by dr christopher clark who is actually one of our favorite historians curiosity stream offers a great deal if you sign up using code sandro man you get unlimited access for just 14.99 for the whole year so go check that out now let's jump back to the battle of lutzen in order to understand why the battle of lutzen happened it is vital to keep three things in mind firstly gustavus had to make a move after his earlier victory at breitenfeld to keep up his momentum strategically this meant to strengthen his position in germany while preventing reinforcements from brussels and madrid reaching the imperial army secondly the saxons who had fled the field during the battle of breitenfeld were still a shaky ally to the swedes thirdly the swedish bridget in pomerania was strategically important as it was the best way of bringing supplies and troops into germany from the swedish heartland peter wilson explains that after breitenfeld gustavus decided to invade the southern side of the danube where the rich capital of munich is situated later on he could have moved along the danube to passau which was the gateway to vienna and thus to the habsburg emperor meanwhile weinstein had raised a fresh army in bohemia within a few weeks and marched into northern bavaria to cut off gustavus supply line this meant that gustavus faced a risk that his already flickering ally john george would once again abandon him gustavus rushed north when he arrived at the protestant city of nuremberg on the 16th of june he learned that the imperial forces were already moving to intercept him he decided to halt the city and dock in waldstein having arrived on the 17th of july built his own camp west of the city at czerndorf gustavus was now trapped in the city he had 18 000 soldiers but faced insurmountable supply problems however at the same time a disease raged in valentine's camp eventually gustavus decided to attack valenstein near a medieval castle called altefeste this battle would merit another video entirely but in short valenstein remained in his defensive position and despite their best efforts the swedes could not punch through the imperial lines for gustavus this was quite a dent in his reputation in the end the two armies had to part ways because both were ridden with disease and had literally eaten up all the food in the nearby region so gustav was pulled out on the 15th of september and decided that wallenstein no longer posed a considerable threat subsequently he marched south in order to winter in swabia and most likely thought waldstein would follow him however valenstein had understood the weak link in gustavus alliance and moved north overrunning the rest of franconia entered thuringia and then continued northeast into saxony in order to winter now gustavus realized his mistake valenstein was not only threatening his principal allies saxony but also endangering communications with the baltic bridgehead he raced north covering 650 kilometers in 17 days after his long exhausting march gustav was rested at erfurt it was now very cold and supply conditions were deteriorating on the 14th of november weilstein disbursed his troops many modern military historians think of this as a critical mistake however if he had not done this his army might have deserted moreover trouble was brewing further west on an urging request of his subordinate poppenheim weilstein let him and 5800 men go to westphalia in order to defend it against protestant attacks the intelligence of valentine dispersing his men reached gustavus on the same day he decided to force a battle hoping for another breitenfeld to restore his reputation he had to move quickly and attack decisively to ensure that none of the dispersed troops could return in time however on the 15th of november general rudolfo coloredo commanding a detachment of 500 dragoons and croats blocked his way at the marshy stream of the river ripach delaying him for four hours it was now too late for battle gustavus was forced to make camp for the night it was now clear that the two most distinguished generals would clash in a major engagement for a second time this time it would be decisive one way or another waldenstein recalled his units at midnight of the same day poppenheim received a letter with the latin note kito kitisime in greatest taste only two hours later he was riding for lutzen with his cavalry it was about a day's ride the infantry was marching too but it would take them much longer to arrive gustavus delay also gave waldenstein the time to prepare his position he intended to fight a defensive battle similarly to the battle at altefeste hizman could take advantage of a sunken road many historians argue that it was turned into a trench but neither the most recent archaeological finds could prove this nor was he documented in the report of the imperial commander hulk where one would expect to find it peter wilson wrote that such trenches would also have restricted the mobility of the imperial cavalry and hindered their counter-attack it should thus be treated with caution wallenstein's right flank rested on the village of lutsen itself an old stone castle and the garden in front of it provided good cover for musketeers but even more important were probably the mud walls which were intended to stop floods in addition there was a river called mulgraven which was no real obstacle itself but got muddy towards lutzen the flossgraben on the other side of the battlefield however was not passable as it was brought with steep banks and vegetation it could only be passed by way of some small bridges the imperials deployed their main force slightly to the north of lutzen and the road to leipzig with a strong battery placed on the windmill hill and a smaller called the 7-gun battery further to the imperial left the formation consisted of infantry in the center left by rudolfo coloredo and cavalry on the wings on the right under waldenstein on the left under henrik hulk in contrast to the battle of bridenfeld one year earlier the imperials had modified their infantry formation this is probably the most controversial aspect of the battle because there are different contemporary sketches some of which indicate that the imperials deployed in big pike squares however most other primary sources and the overwhelming majority of historians agree that walenstein did not deploy in the traditional square fashion instead he imitated the swedish shallow pike formations with shot to the side maximizing for firepower the infantry also had smaller regimental guns to support them and wallenstein deployed significant reserves in spite of being outnumbered the cavalry consisted of heavy currency regiments mounted archibazires and light croat cavalry they were supported by small battalions of musketeers another thing wallenstein copied from the swedes some accounts report that he had some camp followers stand behind his lines to create the illusion of a cavalry reserve on his left while this is entirely possible we can't say for certain in any case the left was indeed the weak link in walenstein's defense but this would be remedied when poppenheim arrived the swedes woke up two hours before dawn somewhere between ripach and lutsen some primary sources mention thick fog others report that it was a bright morning or even a sunny day except for litzen where one could not see more than a pistol shot the whole time this is not to dispute the infamous luds and fog but it's not clear whether it was fog or rather smoke of the burning town which limited the site peter wilson noted quote so much about the battle is as murky as these weather reports end quote this is a good metaphor to highlight that many parts of the battle are still controversial while the abysmally bad visibility clouded the sight of the fighting man at the time conflicting first-hand accounts and the fact that protestant and catholic reports often contradict each other clout the perception of modern observers so we will point out controversies where we feel it is needed the swedes meanwhile had advanced towards litzen and at 8 am they made exactly what valenstein had predicted refraining from a frontal assault on the fortified town they marched south to cross the stream there the swedes had to cross the flossgrauben from the south by means of a few improvised bridges because of this the crossing took some time but every hour that passed brought poppenheim closer to the battlefield after the swedes crossed the stream they deployed in two lines gustavus was on the right bernard of saxe weimar on the left wing niels brahe commanded the first echelon of infantry brigades while the veteran kneepausen led the second line there was not enough space to deploy parallelly to the imperials so the swedish right was forced to deploy much more closely to their enemies than their left some were even placed on the other the eastern side of the flossgraben stream around 10 30 am the swedes were finally ready to attack about half an hour later gustavus had already reached the southern bend of the highway swedish accounts blame the sunken road for the delay of gustavus inner cavalry units but it might also have been caused by the imperial 7-gun battery that fired at them the swedes could only cease the position when the two swedish veteran infantry brigades the yellow and the swedish brigade moved in the imperial gunners had to run for cover behind the next of their infantry battalions around 11 45 gustavus finally crossed the road with three cavalry regiments while the other cavalry units pushed north hoping to turn the imperial flank meanwhile the swedish brigade was attacked by an imperial curacair unit which tried to stop them from turning the 7-gun battery around but the imperial cavalry was driven off by combined fire from the regimental cannons and the musketeers eventually the swedish brigade turned to heavy cannons and started to fire at the imperial infantry which was now facing its own guns now the old blue brigade came up next to yellow covering the imperial center by this time the swedish left flank had already made contact with the detached imperial musketeers stationed in the outskirts of litzen while the green brigade marched directly at the windmill hill battery shortly after bernard's cavalry tried to push into the gap between lutzen and the imperial cavalry however the green brigade was in a difficult position and was most likely unable to take the windmill hill by itself without its support a cavalry push into the gap was risky for the time being the fight on the left was reduced to a mutual candidate valenstein seems to have been confident that he could hold his right he sent a few cavalry units to support his left where the threat of the swedish horseman who still attempted to turn his flank was much more pressing around midday the imperials launched a counter-attack against the swedish right flank the komargo battalion a veteran unit led the charge against the swedish brigade while the broiner battalion engaged the yellow brigade meanwhile the barton battalion from the second line moved to the front to help out the camargo battalion against the swedish brigade now the battle approached a first decisive moment as gustavus led a cavalry unit across the road into the dense smoke while the first of poppenheim's troops arrived north of lutsen the imperials were ready to strike back [Music] the komodo battalion engaged the swedish brigade frontally supported by the gods curaciers the piccolomini archaebasiers and the baud and battalion the two cavalry units outflanked the swedes to their right suddenly the swedish brigade saw itself attacked from front and side it is likely that the piccolomini and god's cavalry squadrons used the caracal skirmish tactic against the swedish pikeman this is to say they rode up to the swedish units in waves fired their pistols and then retreated just to repeat the whole thing this would have made a lot of sense in the dense fog and smoke and would explain the immense casualties among the pikemen of the swedish brigade in total they lost half their strength and had to fall back the yellow brigades advance was first halted by musket fire by the broiner battalion they then approached each other with lowered pikes while still keeping off their musket and pistol fire after 15 minutes of gruesome and costly fighting yellow had to fall back as well around 1 15 pm the old blue brigade 2 had lost two-thirds of its strength and was in full retreat in all three engagements losses were high and many experienced men of up to eight years service were killed william guthrie an expert on the 30 years war offers another explanation for the heavy losses of these regiments he thinks the pikemen stay to cover the retreating musketeers against the enemy cavalry depending on the scholar these fights are either cited to exemplify that the imperials successfully adopted swedish infantry tactics or that the swedes were never superior to the imperials to begin with around the same time gustavus adolphus was positioned slightly to the right of the infantry fight he led a squadron of small under cavalry but for some reason lost them we do not know why much of what happened now is clouded not only in the lutzen fog but also in the historiographical mists that surround gustavus it is a fact that gustavus was short-sighted and hot-tempered he might have led the cavalry into the fog to outflank the infantry fight and turn the imperial flank or he might simply have lost his way in the fog eventually he was left with only his entourage when a musket ball pierced the fog and shattered his left elbow a bit later he blundered into imperial curious curacao's from the gut's regiment gustavus was hit a second time the pistol ball hit him in the back and penetrated his lungs depending whether you trust the pro-swedish or pro-catholic accounts the head of gustavus entourage duke franz albrecht either ran away or was simply unable to keep gustavus alive when the king's foot was caught in a stirrup and his horse ran off and dragged him away further into the fog franz albrecht is a shady figure who later joined the imperials and was accused of having led the swedish king into an ambush in any case the injured king was found all by his own by three imperials of the piccolomini archibazir regiment shortly after one of them allegedly asked to torn up man who he was he answered i was the king of sweden the corpse was plundered and multiple personal items of the king were found in the possession of different imperials and swedes after the battle most contemporary accounts placed the king's death at around 1pm this was about the time when poppenheim finally was ready to launch his charge against the swedish cavalrymen who were still attempting to outflank the imperial left wing the ground must have trembled under the beating hoofs of poppenheim's cavalry force around 1pm he had pulled up he sent his light cavalry south along both sides of the flossgraben around the swedish right flank while he himself led from the front stalhansky the swedish commander of the right wing had once abandoned his attempt to outflank the imperials and retreated further south he organized and steadied his man it appears that the swedes greeted the imperial charge with their standard tactics light regimental guns and musketeer platoons were placed between the blocks of cavalry and fired a thunderous volley at the attacking riders the volley hit the mark the charge of the imperials faltered some outright flat the field but more importantly poppenheim was hit by what is described as a wire ball which ripped off his right hip he was soon engulfed by the swedish counter-charge which was launched only after the volley had hit the imperial alliance papanim's trumpeter conrad eringer only just managed to move his commander to safety poppenheim however wanted to return to the fight allegedly he cried out is there no one left who will fight loyally for the emperor eventually though he was dragged to his coach and left for leipzig he died of blood loss either on the way to or in leipzig naturally poppenheim's troops were discouraged by his injury some of them moved to the rear refusing to follow guts and piccolomini to continue the fight anyways guts and piccolomini threw the swedes back over the highway by themselves meanwhile the other imperials had met the swedish counter-charge head-on and soon drove them back as well poppenheim's light cavalry around the flossgraben was also successful and surprised the swedes stationed east of the flossgraben but there was no major fight the croats did what they did best and attacked the swedish baggage train this was a successful distraction as the swedes east of the flosgraven had to regroup and call for backup from the swedish second line to drive the croats off the baggage train which probably took them over an hour this illustrates nicely how light cavalry can be effective in battle even when they do not engage the enemy head on over a thousand swedish cavalry men were tied down and could not join the desperate fight on the swedish right at the same time as poppenheim was launching his charge bernard renewed his attack on the swedish left flank two further swedish brigades turn and mitslov moved up to support the green brigade the last two infantry brigades also moved up in support the renewed swedish efforts were facilitated by the fact that the swedes finally managed to take the lutheran gardens which meant their flank was not as open anymore moreover the yellow and old blue brigade had retreated which allowed the swedish artillery to fire at the windmill hill battery the barrage was too much for the imperial gunners who took cover behind the mill this cleared the way for the swedes bernard's cavalry attacked the imperial right driving them back and exposing the flank of the imperial foot behind the windmill meanwhile the green brigade charged a windmill battery head-on while it was still suppressed by the swedish artillery they captured the imperial guns and turned them around to fire at the imperial soldiers stationed further to the back this boosted the morale of the swedish right who consequently managed to regain the seven-gun battery at this very moment valenstein's presence was crucial he inspired his man and led from the front during the imperial counter-charge valenstein was shot in the hip but the ball had lost his energy and did not penetrate his skin after that he threw himself so deep into the melee that he had to be rescued by hulk [Music] there are multiple reports about discharge so we know some gritty details for example adam trackhawk one of the imperial commanders had his shoe soul shut off while a cousin of valenstein was not as lucky and had his entire foot shut off general coloredo was shot in the head but continued to fight the fight raged on for half an hour with the imperials coming out on top consequently the swedes had to give way at the windmill battery too around 2 to 3 p.m the swedish center ride was also driven back by the imperial counter-attack while kenny poweson managed to hold on to the 7-gun battery for the time being at this moment both the swedes and the imperials were depleted many of the troops of the initial first lines had suffered so many losses that they were incapable of further fighting likewise so many officers had died that it was increasingly difficult to coordinate the soldiers effectively for now the fight was reduced to artillery fire and occasional long-range musketry shortly after 3pm gustavus body was found prior to that the only sign of gustavus death had been the sight of his horse strife galloping riderless out of the smoke and fog it is unlikely that the news of his death had spread among the man before 3 pm up to now many officers and regimental chaplains insisted that gustavus was only wounded the latin phrase rex vonaratus est the king his wounded was circulated the royal chaplain fabricus later claimed he had studied the man all on his own by seeing the psalm sustain us by thy mighty words but numerous other officers are reported to have helped as well meanwhile gustavus's body was brought to moyjan now it was undeniable the king was dead kniephausen and bernard used the pause of the fight to discuss further action krippausen an old cautious veteran argued they could still disengage and save the army bernard had none of it he was young and ambitious for him defeat was not an option and he won the argument instead of holding back the news of gustavus death he released it to the man anger infused the soldiers with new energy and bernard fanned their fury in order to get them to charge one more time the swedes would win or die trying the smoke thickened again as the swedish battery and the seven gun battery renewed their bombardments once more the swedes charged the imperial line anger and fury the thirst for revenge and retribution drove them forward green mitslov and kniephausen carried the windmill hill at their first rush bernard attacked the imperial right with his cavalry putting them under severe pressure which was only eased by filling in further imperial reserve units bit by bit most likely all remaining reserve units were committed to the fight at this point the swedish center formed one long line as the rear battalions moved forward it was a bitter struggle after having run out of ammunition the musketeers started to clap each other to death neither side wanted to give way by 5 pm when it was already dark the sights disengaged but skirmishing continued for another two hours the imperials drew back their right abandoning the windmill hill most of the swedes were well south of the road and many of them were so exhausted that they fell asleep on the wide open field amidst the corpses of their friends and comrades the sheer morbidity of this fight reveals the true face of war poppenheim's infantry finally arrived on the field but waldenstein who feared that further protestant troops were about to arrive had already made up his mind he retreated to leipzig while poppenheim's infantry and the croats remained on the field until 10 pm to cover them the swedes kept well out of the way only securing the guns at windmill hill although the carnage at lutsen was horrifying the reported casualty numbers are a product of propaganda from both sides peter wilson cautiously estimates that the imperials that 3 000 dead on the field 1160 were abandoned or died on the way to leipzig and another 1 000 were wounded but were able to escape swedish casualties totaled at around 6 thousand peculiarly both parties claimed victory the swedes because they remained on the field the imperials because they had captured many field signs during the action and later because of gustavus death strategically speaking gustavus had achieved his objective the swedes were not cut off from the baltic tactically speaking it seems apparent that the imperials had well caught up with the swedes but it's worth keeping in mind that in the midst of battle it was often courage and resolution that carried the day and not tactics per se lutson was a special battle because two committed sides engaged each other neither of which was willing to give way the result was a gruesome and bloody carnage if lutson illustrates anything then it is how destructive the 30 years war actually was

Channel: SandRhoman History

Views: 237,368

Keywords: battle of lützen, thirty years war, gustavus adolphus, swedish intervention thirty years war, battle of breitenfeld, battle of lützen 1632, battle of lützen gustavus, battle of lutzen, wallenstein, wallenstein history, gustavus adolphus history, education, educational, documentary, history, sandrhoman

Id: Dd3lT5Jiev8

Length: 31min 18sec (1878 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 04 2021