Battle of Willstätt

The Battle of Willstätt was fought during the Swedish phase of the Thirty Years' War near the Free city of Strasbourg, in the Holy Roman Empire. Having dealt a heavy defeat on the Swedish army at the Battle of Nördlingen in September, the armies of the Emperor, Spain and the Catholic League overran much of the Swedish-held southern Germany. At Wilsttätt, the armies of the Emperor and the Catholic League, led by Duke Charles IV of Lorraine and general Johann von Werth, defeated a Swedish force assembled by the Germans the Rhingrave of Salm-Kyrburg-Mörchingen, the Duke of Württemberg and the Margrave of Baden-Durlach. The battle lasted for three hours and ended with 2,000 Swedish soldiers dead on the battlefield and a bigger number in the rout. The Rheingrave Otto saved himself inside Strasbourg.

After the battle of Nördlingen, which saw the destruction of the main Swedish field army at Germany and the capture of its commander, Gustav Horn, the Catholic armies gathered for the battle divided again and advanced northwards to the lands occupied by the Swedish or held by their German allies. While the bulk of the Imperial and Spanish armies advanced upon Franconia, where Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, commander of the German Protestant forces, had withdrawn to defend the province following his defeat, Duke Charles IV of Lorraine invaded the duchy of Württemberg, a wealthy country where his troops could recover from the battle, and the commander of the German Catholic League, Johann von Werth, invaded and took control of Swabia.

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