Swedish invasion of Brandenburg

Background

After the War of Devolution, Louis XIV sought retribution against the States-General and worked to isolate Holland diplomatically. In June 1672, Louis XIV invaded the States-General, beginning the Franco-Dutch War. The Elector of Brandenburg supported the Dutch with 20,000 men in August 1672. In December 1673, Brandenburg-Prussia and Sweden signed a ten-year defensive alliance, with both sides reserving freedom to choose alliances in war.

Despite this alliance, Frederick William did not expect Sweden to enter the war on the French side. On 23 August 1674, a 20,000-strong Brandenburg army marched toward Strasbourg, accompanied by the Elector and Electoral Prince Charles Emil. John George II of Anhalt-Dessau was appointed Governor of Brandenburg. France then persuaded Sweden, through bribes and promised subsidies, to enter the war against Brandenburg.

The Swedish court feared that a French defeat would isolate Sweden politically. Sweden's goal was to occupy undefended Brandenburg and force Brandenburg-Prussia to withdraw its troops from the Upper Rhine and Alsace.

Preparations for war

Sweden began assembling an invasion force in Swedish Pomerania. From September 1674, reports of troop movements reached Berlin. The Governor of Brandenburg informed the Elector in early September of a conversation with the Swedish envoy Wangelin, who announced that about 20,000 Swedish troops would be available in Pomerania before the end of the month. In the second half of October, the arrival of Swedish commander-in-chief Carl Gustav Wrangel in Wolgast was reported.

Wrangel did not answer and refused another attempt at dialogue. By mid-November, the governor had received assurance of an impending invasion, but the exact causes remained unclear in Berlin. Frederick William himself did not believe an invasion was imminent, writing to the governor on 31 October 1674 that he considered the Swedes better than that. The assembled Swedish invasion army in Swedish Pomerania before entering the Uckermark at the end of December 1674 consisted, according to contemporary sources, of 7,620 infantry, 6,080 cavalry, and 15 cannon.

Invasion

On 15/25 December 1674, Swedish troops marched through Pasewalk and invaded the Uckermark without a formal declaration of war. According to a message from Field Marshal Carl Gustav Wrangel to the Brandenburg envoy Dubislav von Hagen on 20/30 December 1674, the Swedish Army would leave the Mark of Brandenburg as soon as Brandenburg ended its state of war with France. A complete break of relations was not intended. The initial strength of the army, almost half of which would consist of Germans by spring, varies in sources between 13,000 and 13,700 men and 15 guns.

To support the over-60-year-old Wrangel, who was often bedridden with gout, field marshals Simon Grundel-Helmfelt and Otto Wilhelm von Königsmarck were appointed alongside him, but this unclear assignment prevented clear orders and slowed army movements. Sweden's entry into the war attracted European attention; the military glory of the Thirty Years' War made Sweden seem overpowering. German mercenaries offered their services, and some German states—Bavaria, the Electorate of Saxony, Hanover, and the Bishopric of Münster—joined the Swedish–French alliance.

The Swedish Army established headquarters at Prenzlau, joined by another department from Swedish Bremen-Verden under General Dalwig. Meanwhile, after the imperial Brandenburg defeat at the Battle of Turckheim on 26 December 1674, the main Brandenburg army marched to winter quarters around Schweinfurt, reaching the area on 31 January 1675. The Elector decided not to deploy his main army immediately due to wintry weather and losses, and a sudden withdrawal would have alarmed Brandenburg's allies, achieving Sweden's goal of forcing Brandenburg to withdraw from the war with France.

Literature

Anonym: Theatrum Europaeum. Vol. 11: 1672–1679. Merian, Frankfurt am Main, 1682. Frank Bauer: Fehrbellin 1675.

Brandenburg-Preußens Aufbruch zur Großmacht. Vowinckel, Berg am Starnberger See and Potsdam, 1998. Samuel Buchholz: Versuch einer Geschichte der Churmark Brandenburg von der ersten Erscheinung der deutschen Sennonen an bis auf jetzige Zeiten. Vol. 4.

Birnstiel, Berlin, 1771. Friedrich Ferdinand Carlson: Geschichte Schwedens. Vol. 4: Bis zum Reichstage 1680. Perthes, Gotha, 1855.

Friedrich Förster: Friedrich Wilhelm, der grosse Kurfürst, und seine Zeit. Eine Geschichte des Preussischen Staates während der Dauer seiner Regierung; in biographischen. In: Preußens Helden in Krieg und Frieden. Vol. 1.1 Hempel, Berlin, 1855.

Curt Jany: Geschichte der Preußischen Armee. Vom 15. Jahrhundert–1914. Vol. 1: Von den Anfängen bis 1740. 2nd expanded edition.

Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück, 1967. Paul Douglas Lockhart: Sweden in the Seventeenth Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke etc., 2004. Maren Lorenz: Das Rad der Gewalt.

Militär und Zivilbevölkerung in Norddeutschland nach dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg (1650–1700). Böhlau, Cologne, 2007. Martin Philippson: Der große Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg. Part III [1660 to 1688] In: Elibron Classics, Adamant Media Corporation, Boston, MA, 2005.

Michael Rohrschneider: Johann Georg II. von Anhalt-Dessau (1627–1693). Eine politische Biographie.

Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, 1998. Ralph Tuchtenhagen: Kleine Geschichte Schwedens. 1.

Auflage, In: Beck’sche Reihe, Vol. 1787, Beck, Munich, 2008. Matthias Nistahl: Die Reichsexekution gegen Schweden in Bremen Verden, in Heinz-Joachim Schulze, Landschaft und regionale Identität, Stade, 1989. Brandenburg.

Did You Know?

• By 7 July, the Swedish army had shrunk to 7,000 men from 11,000–12,000 at the start of the spring offensive.
• The Swedes lost about 4,000 men since June, of which 1,100–1,500 were inflicted in combat.
• Brandenburg losses were between 600 and 1,000 combat losses.