Battle of Vlotho

Battle of Vlotho

Part of: Thirty Years War

date	October 17, 1638
place	Vlotho , East Westphalia-Lippe
output	Imperial victory
consequences	Count Palatine Ruprecht is taken prisoner

Parties to the conflict
Imperial Electoral Saxon Army	Swedish - Electorate of the Palatinate Army, Scottish mercenaries
Commander
Field Marshal Melchior Graf von Hatzfeldt	Elector Karl I. Ludwig von der Pfalz Count Palatine Ruprecht General James King
Troop strength
8000	7700
losses
low, unknown	1000 dead over 1000 prisoners

Timeline for the Thirty Years War

The Battle of Vlotho or also known as the Battle of Valdorf was a battle in the Thirty Years' War during the Swedish-French War (1635-1648). It took place on October 17, 1638 , near the Eiberg in today's North Rhine-Westphalia in today's Vlotho district of Valdorf / Beerenkämpen.

Prehistory of the battle

In 1638, Elector Karl I Ludwig von der Pfalz, accompanied by his brother Ruprecht, moved with an army of 1,700 men, financed with English money, from the Swedish-occupied city of Minden to Stadtlohn to meet with the Swedish General James King and to unite with his army of 6,000 men. The generals decided to besiege and occupy the city of Lemgo , approx. 20 km south of Vlotho, together. Lemgo was reached on October 4th and the guns brought from Minden were appropriately positioned for the planned siege. At the same time, Field Marshal Melchior Graf von Hatzfeldt gathered an imperial army on the opposing side near Düsseldorf , which, according to the Peace of Prague, consisted of imperial and Electoral Saxon troops and had a strength of around 8,000 men. With this army, Hatzfeldt marched to Lemgo to relieve the city.

Course of the battle

Already at Bielefeld, approx. 25 km west of Lemgo, there were first skirmishes between cavalry scouting troops of the two enemy armies, in which the Swedish-Palatinate cavalry remained victorious. But after the advancing imperial army had strengthened itself with further cavalry troops under Colonel Count Westerholt , the Swedish-Palatinate siege army was strongly threatened. In order to find a more favorable starting position for the foreseeable battle, the siege of Lemgo was called off on October 16. James King and Karl Ludwig, however, stuck to the assumption that Hatzfeld would advance with the imperial army to Lemgo and set the Swedish artillery and the convoy north to retreat to Minden with the instruction to march the Gohfelder Werrebrücke on the way to Minden - to cross approx. 5 km west of Vlotho. But Hatzfeld had sent his cavalry under Westerholt directly to Gohfeld in order to destroy the Werre bridge and prevent the Swedish retreat to the Minden base. This meant that the train of the Swedish army could not cross the Werre and was blocked.

When the Swedish-Palatinate army arrived the next day around two in the afternoon, a little south of Vlotho at the church of Valdorf it was not only facing the imperial cavalry under Westerholt, but also the entire imperial-Saxon army, set up in full battle order . The following three-hour battle was opened with a very effective gunfire of the imperial-Saxon troops, which the Swedish-Palatinate army could not oppose. The Swedish-Palatinate mercenaries were able to repel the first attack of the imperial army, but without being able to establish their own battle order. After two further waves of attack by the Imperial Saxon troops, the Swedish Palatinate army disintegrated in the swampy area and was driven back to the Weser near Vlotho when the mercenaries ran out of ammunition . Many mercenaries drowned while trying to swim across the Weser. The Palatinate Elector Karl I. Ludwig, who wanted to cross the Weser in a six-horse carriage, saved himself by swimming while the coachman and horses drowned. Together with the Swedish General King, he fled to Minden on foot.

Consequences of the battle

• The losses of the imperial army were given as very small. Irish Colonel Tirrel was among the losses.
• The commander of the imperial left wing, Sergeant General Peter von Götzen - a brother of Johann von Götzen - was killed by a cannonball at the beginning of the battle.
• During the fighting, the church in Valdorf was badly damaged and partially collapsed.

Memorial stone on the Eiberg

• The campaign ended catastrophically for Elector Karl Ludwig, because his army was completely crushed. His brother Ruprecht was captured, as were Lieutenant General Ferentz and two English counts as well as numerous officers and over 1,000 soldiers.
• The Palatinate Chancellery, the English Order of the Garter of the Count Palatine and the paymaster's car with 30,000 thalers were lost.
• The rescued mercenaries of Karl Ludwig's army were incorporated into other Swedish regiments.
• With the loss of the army, Karl Ludwig lost the opportunity to recapture his home countries. Only after the Peace of Munster (1648) did he get some of his possessions back. The Upper Palatinate, however, fell to Bavaria.

memories

On the Eiberg in Valdorf there is a monument that was erected in 1913 and commemorates the Battle of Vlotho and the Battle of Leipzig in 1813.

Note on the name

In the literature, the battle can be found under different names:

• Battle of Valdorf
• Battle of Vlotho

literature

• Karl Grossmann: History of the community of Valdorf and its farmers. 1955 ed. Valdorf municipality
• Friedrich Vormbaum: The county of Ravensberg and the city and former Abbey of Herford. Digitized
• Friedrich Rudolf von Rothenburg: Battles, sieges and skirmishes in Germany and the neighboring countries. P. 583, digitized
• History of Vlotho [1]

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ch. Beyer et al.: 750 years of the church in Valdorf, series of contributions to local history. Ed. Geschichtswerkstatt Exter, Vlotho 2008, ISSN  1619-7828 , pp. 18/19
2. ^ Karl Großmann: History of the community Valdorf and its peasant communities. Valdorf, 1955, p. 166 ff.
3. ↑ Friedrich Schiller: History of the Thirty Years War ( Memento from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 52 ° 7 '59 "  N , 8 ° 50' 50.9"  E