Bremen-Verden campaign

Bremen-Verden Campaign
Part of the Scanian War and Franco-Dutch War

Duchies of Bremen and Verden in 1655
(1655 copperplate by Frederick de Wit)
Date15 September 1675 – 13 August 1676
Location
Duchies of Bremen and Verden
Result Allied victory
Belligerents
 Swedish Empire
Commanders and leaders
Henrik Horn Christoph Bernhard von Galen
George William
Strength
November 1675
5,600 Swedes in Stade
800 Swedes in Carlsburg[1]		 1675
4,000 Münster troops[2]
2,800–3,100 Brandenburg troops[3]
2,500 Danes[4]
3,000 Lüneburg troops
1676
12,000 men[5]

The Bremen-Verden Campaign (German: Bremen-Verdener Feldzug) was a conflict during the Northern Wars in Europe. From 15 September 1675 to 13 August 1676[6] an anti-Swedish coalition comprising Brandenburg-Prussia, the neighbouring imperial princedoms of Lüneburg and Münster, and Denmark-Norway, conquered the Duchies of Bremen and Verden.

Bremen-Verden, a remote outpost of Sweden's Baltic Sea empire, was the third Swedish imperial fief in North Germany granted under the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, alongside Swedish Pomerania and the Barony of Wismar. Following its conquest it remained in allied hands until the end of the war in 1679, but was then fully returned to Sweden in the wake of the Treaties of Nijmegen. For the major warring parties of Sweden, Brandenburg and Denmark, this theatre of war in northwest Germany was only of secondary significance.

  1. ^ The Swedish forces comprised so-called "national Swedish", German mercenaries and subordinated prisoners of war
  2. ^ 10,000 men according to Theatrum Euroaeum. Henning Eichberg gives the numbers as 4,000 on p. 503.
  3. ^ of which 2,000–2,300 men were under Freiherr von Spaen as part of the Allied Army. The figures vary. E.g. Curt Jany states 2,300, Henning Eichberg gives 2,000 men.
  4. ^ Henning Eichberg, p. 503.
  5. ^ Figure from Danish sources. According to Swedish sources there were over 20,000, Henning Eichberg, p. 506.
  6. ^ Note: at that time, Sweden was operating under the Julian Calendar. Unless otherwise stated this article uses the Gregorian Calendar for all dates.