Lars Kagg

Lars kagg 1623

Lars Kagg (born May 1595 in Västergötland , Sweden , † November 19, 1661 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish field marshal and politician .

Early years

His father Chamberlaine Nils Matthisson Kagg owned the Fjällskrafts estate .

Lars Kagg came to the court of the Swedish King Karl IX at the age of 14 . and from 1611 became the chamber page of the seventeen-year-old Crown Prince Gustav Adolf, who became King of Sweden as Gustav II Adolf in the same year after the death of his father . In 1618/1620 Lars Kagg took part in the journey that Gustav Adolf undertook under false names through Germany in order to get to know the conditions there.

After gaining first insights into the military system from the famous general Moritz von Oranien in 1616 , he began his military career in Sweden in 1626.

Fight in Lower Saxony

When a Swedish army with 13,000 men landed on Usedom under King Gustav Adolf in July 1630 , Lars Kagg was involved as commander of a regiment made up of 8 companies of foot soldiers. In January 1632 he and his regiment in the army of the Swedish general Johan Banér participated in the occupation of Magdeburg . In February 1632, when the Swedish army under Gustav Adolf began the move south, Lars Kagg remained stationed in Lower Saxony on instructions from Gustav Adolf as the commander of an army of 6000 men with the title of Lüneburg Major General. There, together with Duke Georg von Lüneburg , Landgrave Wilhelm von Hessen and Field Marshal Åke Tott, he was supposed to assert the state of Lower Saxony against the Catholic troops of the Bavarian General Feldzeugmeister Graf Gronsfeld . In the battle of Hessisch Oldendorf in the summer of 1633, the Swedish Army Group under Major General Lars Kagg played a decisive role and secured the outcome of the battle in favor of the Protestant troops.

Fights in Franconia and Bavaria

At the beginning of October 1633, Lars Kagg received an instruction from the commander of the Swedish army in Bavaria, Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar , to move from Lower Saxony via Franconia to the Danube in order to support the planned attack on the Upper Palatinate and downstream on the city of Regensburg . Kagg arrived in Franconia in mid-October 1633 with 38 companies on horseback and 34 companies on foot (a total of approx. 4,500 men) and initially camped near Schweinfurt. Kagg himself commanded the "Yellow Regiment" (former body regiment of Gustav Adolf) consisting of 1,100 men in 16 companies. His soldiers were indisciplined, tyrannized the population and set entire villages on fire in the diocese of Fulda. The march was continued via Haßfurt, Windsheim and Ansbach to Gunzenhausen, where the union with the troops from Taupadel took place, while the main Swedish army under Duke Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar stood south near Neuburg an der Donau . Both Swedish armies could not prevent the Willibaldsburg near Eichstätt, which lies geographically between them and was held by Swedish troops, from being recaptured at the same time by Bavarian troops under Colonel Johann von Werth .

At the end of October 1633 the Swedish army's campaign continued down the Danube to Regensburg. The campaign was the climax of the fighting for Regensburg and ended after a short siege on November 15 with the surrender of the city of Regensburg and the withdrawal of the Bavarian occupation troops under the city commandant Troibreze . Lars Kagg was appointed as the new city commander and was given the task of fortifying and holding the conquered city with new fortifications against the counterattack by imperial and Bavarian troops expected from the north from Bohemia, while Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar himself went down the Danube towards Straubing moved on.

Soon after the conquest of the city, Kagg received an order from Duke Bernhard to conquer Donaustauf Castle , which is located in the immediate vicinity of Regensburg , because its Bavarian occupation repeatedly attacked food and salt transports that were sent from Straubing to Regensburg. Several loss-making attempts at conquest failed by the troops of Kagg before a reinforcement unit ordered by Bernhard under Colonel Claus Hastver mastered the task and completely destroyed the castle.

Construction of fortifications in Stadtamhof

After Duke Bernhard left, Kagg immediately began building fortifications on the north bank of the Danube. The areas affected were the Bavarian towns of Stadtamhof , Weichs , Steinweg and Reinhausen, which had previously been spared destruction, and the Danube islands of Oberer Wöhrd and Unterer Wöhrd on which jumps were built. In Stadtamhof, the northern bridgehead of the stone bridge was additionally protected by a hornwork . The Regen River , which flows into the Danube near Reinhausen, formed a natural barrier for access to the Stone Bridge. This barrier was reinforced with additional jumps. The bridge over the Regen was left as access to the town of Reinhausen, but was secured on the east bank near Reinhausen with a bridgehead reinforced by a hornwork. With the exception of the entrenchments on the Upper Wöhrd, all of the fortifications built by Kagg proved to be very effective in the later battles around Regensburg and could not be overcome despite multiple attacks, so that the imperial armies soon began to cross the Danube and the city too to attack from the south. Kagg became the Swedish commander in the battle for Regensburg. The fight lasted until the end of July 1634 and ended with the loss of the city after a two-month siege by the imperial Bavarian army under the command of the Crown Prince and later Emperor Ferdinand III. In cooperation with the city council, Kagg was able to negotiate a transfer contract that was favorable for the Swedes and especially for the city of Regensburg, which brought the city under imperial and not under Bavarian administration.

Military career and end of life

Despite the defeat at Regensburg, Kagg's position as major general was confirmed in 1635 in order to pay tribute to his unsuccessful but brilliant defensive battle.

In 1636 Kagg was appointed to the Swedish War Council and in 1641 to the Imperial Council, in 1648 he was promoted to Field Marshal. Under the later King of Sweden Karl X. Gustav Kagg took part in his Polish campaign and in 1659 also in the daring and successful attack against Denmark.

Lars Kagg died in Stockholm on November 19, 1661. His widow had a burial chapel built for her deceased husband in the church Floda kyrka (Södermanland) .

literature

• Peter Engerisser: From Kronach to Nördlingen. The Thirty Years' War in Franconia, Swabia and the Upper Palatinate 1631–1635. Späthling, Weißenstadt 2004, ISBN 3-926621-32-X , pp. 198-210.