Battle of Stralsund (1628)

Siege of Stralsund
Part of Thirty Years' War
Contemporary colored engraving
Date May to 4 August 1628 Location Stralsund (present-day Germany) Result Allied victory: Withdrawal of Imperial troops
Belligerents
Stralsund  Denmark  Sweden	Holy Roman Empire (Imperial Army)
Commanders and leaders
Heinrich Holk Alexander Seaton Alexander Lindsay (commanding Mackay's) Robert Munro Alexander Leslie	Albrecht von Wallenstein

The Siege of Stralsund was a siege laid on Stralsund by Albrecht von Wallenstein's Imperial Army during the Thirty Years' War, from May to 4 August 1628. Stralsund was aided by Denmark and Sweden, with considerable Scottish participation. The siege ended Wallenstein's series of victories, and contributed to his downfall. The Swedish garrison in Stralsund was the first on German soil in history. The battle marked the de facto entrance of Sweden into the war.

Christian IV of Denmark had declared war on the Holy Roman Empire in 1625. He had then invaded the empire with an army commanded by Ernst von Mansfeld to oppose the Catholic League's army commanded by Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly. In response, Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, had Albrecht von Wallenstein raise an additional army to support Tilly. Wallenstein defeated Mansfeld in the Battle of Dessau Bridge in 1626. The remnants of Mansfeld's army left Central Germany, and turned to Silesia and Hungary to regroup with Gabriel Bethlen's forces.

After Tilly had defeated Christian IV in the Battle of Lutter am Barenberge in August 1626, and Bethlen was neutralized in the (third) Peace of Pressburg in December, Tilly and Wallenstein were able to subsequently expel Christian IV from the North German plain, organized in the Lower Saxon and Upper Saxon imperial circles, and pressure him even in Danish Jutland. The internally divided Upper Saxon circle, to which the Duchy of Pomerania with Stralsund belonged, was uncapable of self-defense and had formally declared neutrality.

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