Battle of Lutter

Battle of Lutter
Part of the Thirty Years' War
The Battle of Lutter
Date 27 August 1626 Location Lutter am Barenberge (present-day Germany) Coordinates: 51°58′00.948″N 10°14′18.78″E / 51.96693000°N 10.2385500°E / 51.96693000; 10.2385500 Result Decisive Imperial victory
Belligerents
Denmark Lower Saxon Circle	Holy Roman Empire Catholic League
Commanders and leaders
King Christian IV	Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly
Strength
20,000	20,000
Casualties and losses
6,000 dead and 2,500 captured	200 dead or wounded

The Battle of Lutter (Lutter am Barenberge) took place during the Thirty Years' War, on 27 August 1626 (17 August 1626 in the old Julian calendar), between the forces of the Lower Saxon Circle, combining mostly Protestant states, and led by its Circle Colonel Christian IV of Denmark, and the forces of the Catholic League. Lutter am Barenberge lies to the south of the modern town of Salzgitter, then within the Imperial Circle of Lower Saxony, and now in northwest Germany.

The battle resulted in a heavy defeat of Christian IV's troops by those of Emperor Ferdinand II, led by the Catholic League general Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly.

Before the Thirty Years' War hostilities reached the Lower Saxon Circle, the chiefs of state of its members were alarmed and prepared for the worst. So in 1625 they elected from their midst the Lutheran Duke Christian IV of Holstein, simultaneously King of Denmark, the new Lower Saxon Circle Colonel, i.e. the commander in chief of the joint circular forces. In this function Christian IV allied with Ernst von Mansfeld in a military campaign and planned to start in Thuringia in Middle Germany, and then take to its south. His intention was to bring relief to German Protestants, who had been severely defeated a few weeks earlier in the Battle of Dessau Bridge.

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