BATTLE OF BREITENFELD (1642)

The 'Second Battle of Breitenfeld' (October 23, 1642), also known as the "First Battle of Leipzig", took place at Breitenfeld (4 miles north-east of Leipzig), Germany, during the Thirty Years' War eleven years after the first battle there had unbottled the Swedish forces under Gustavus II Adolphus when he'd handed Count-Field Marshal Tilly his first major defeat in fifty years of soldiering on the same plain. Both battles were decisive victories for Swedish led forces in their intervention on behalf of Protestants Princes of The Germanies against the German Catholic League.
The Protestant forces, led by Field Marshal Lennart Torstenson, defeated an army of the Holy Roman Empire, led by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria and his deputy, Prince-General Ottavio Piccolomini, Duke of Amalfi.
The Imperial army had 20,000 casualties, and 5,000 of them were taken prisoner. 46 guns were also seized.
The Imperail army, however, managed to kill or wound 4,000 Swedes; among them, General Torsten Stålhandske, who led the Finnish ''Hakkapeliitta'' Cavalry, received a serious wound.
The battle enabled Sweden to occupy Saxony. His defeat made Emperor Ferdinand III more willing to negotiate peace, and renounce the Preliminaries of Hamburg.

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See also

See also

★ Battle of Breitenfeld (1631)

★ Battle of Leipzig (1813)