Battle of Nördlingen (1634)

Battle of Nördlingen
Part of the Thirty Years' War
The Battle of Nördlingen by Cornelis Schut. Oil on canvas.
Date 5–6 September 1634 Location Imperial city of Nördlingen, Swabia (present-day Bavaria, Germany) Result Decisive Imperial-Spanish victory
Belligerents
Sweden Heilbronn League	Holy Roman Empire Spain Bavarian League
Commanders and leaders
Gustav Horn af Björneborg  (POW) Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar Johann Philipp Kratz von Scharffenstein  (POW)	Ferdinand of Hungary Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand
Strength
16,300 infantry and 9,300 cavalry (62 guns)	21,000 infantry and 13,000 cavalry (32 guns)
Casualties and losses
8,000 dead or wounded 4,000 captured	2,400 dead or wounded

The Battle of Nördlingen (German: Schlacht bei Nördlingen; Spanish: Batalla de Nördlingen; Swedish: Slaget vid Nördlingen) was fought on 27 August (Julian calendar) or 6 September (Gregorian calendar), 1634 during the Thirty Years' War. The Roman Catholic Imperial army, bolstered by 18,000 Spanish and Italian soldiers, won a crushing victory over the combined Protestant armies of Sweden and their German-Protestant allies (Heilbronn Alliance).

After the failure of the tercio system in the first Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631, the professional Spanish troops deployed at Nördlingen proved the tercio system could still contend with the deployment improvements devised by Maurice of Orange and the late Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in their respective troops.

The Battle of Nördlingen was part of the Thirty Years' War, fought from 1618 to 1648. The chief belligerents were the Catholic Habsburg dynasties consisting of an Austrian and Spanish branch and their allies on one side. (The Austrian archduke also held the title of Holy Roman Emperor. For this reason, the Austrian Habsburgs are frequently referred to as the Imperialists..) Opposed to them were the Protestant nations comprising the Dutch, Denmark, Sweden, various German principalities and later, Catholic France.

After the Protestant victory at the Battle of Lützen two years before, the Swedes failed to follow up due to the death of their king, Gustavus Adolphus. As a result, the Imperial forces began to regain the initiative.

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