Battle of Fleurus (1622)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Battle of Fleurus

Date	August 29, 1622
Location	Fleurus, present-day Belgium
Result	Spanish victory

Combatants

Margravate of Baden-Durlach
Brunswick
Electoral Palatinate

Spain
Catholic League

Commanders

Graf von Mansfeld
Christian of Brunswick

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba

Strength

6,000 infantry
2,300 cavalry
11 guns

5,500 infantry
4,500 cavalry

Casualties

6,000 dead, wounded, or captured

1,000 dead or wounded

The Battle of Fleurus of August 29, 1622 was fought between a Catholic army, led by Spain, and the Protestant Powers of the Holy Roman Empire in the Thirty Years' War. The bloody struggle left the Protestants mangled and the Spanish masters of the field, but did not prevent Graf von Mansfeld from racing his army to the relief of Bergen op Zoom.

While an allied Catholic army of Spanish and Bavarian troops prepared to fully occupy the Palatinate, a second Spanish army under the command of Ambrosio Spinola besieged the town of Bergen op Zoom, a town on the estuary of the Schelde River. Hearing of the Catholic advance, the armies of Count Ernst von Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick marched out of Alsace toward the Spanish Netherlands. From the east, troops under Fernández de Córdoba moved to intercept the Protestant armies. At Fleurus in the south-west tip of present-day Belgium, Córdoba threw up a roadblock. The Protestants reached the town on August 29, and Christian immeadiately assaulted the Spanish positions. After four unsuccessful assaults that were repelled with horrific carnage, the fifth succeeded in breaking the Spanish lines and allowed the Protestants to march through towards the siege, which was relieved in early October. Through his reckless tactics, Christian's cavalry broke through at the expense of most of his infantry, he himself lost an arm in the action.

Thirty Years' War
Plzeň – Záblati – Dolní Věstonice – White Mountain – Wiesloch – Wimpfen – Höchst – Fleurus – Stadtlohn – Dessau Bridge – Lutter am Barenberge – Stralsund – Wolgast – Frankfurt – Magdeburg – Werben – 1st Breitenfeld – Rain – Fürth – Alte Veste – Lützen – Oldendorf – Nördlingen – Wittstock – Rheinfelden – Breisach – Chemnitz – Honnecourt – 2nd Breitenfeld – Rocroi – Tuttlingen – Freiburg – Jüterbog – Jankov – Mergentheim – Nördlingen – Zusmarshausen – Prague – Lens – Arras – Valenciennes – Dunes