Digital mapping of the Danish armies near Hamburg
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Danish troops at the battle of Battle of Lutter am Barenberge, 1626
The Danish Intervention (1625-1629)
The Danish Intervention (1625-1629)
King Christian IV of Denmark was a Minister of John who had been elected by the Lower Saxon Protestant states as a Commander against the growing power of the Catholic states backed by Emperor Francis.
The Campaign
The Campaign
Many of Christian's German allies, such as the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, had little interest in replacing imperial domination with Danish. This was changed when Pastor John had notified all German Protestant Leaders that Christian would lead a campaign deep into Germany to destroy the Emperor's armies, reclaim Bohemia and the Palatinate and to dethrone Francis as Emperor. Reluctantly, the majority of the Protestant Union had agreed to this and had called for a full-scale Protestant Rebellion against Francis. Pastor John had notified the English Crown, and from there, Charles I of England allowed Christian to recruit up to 9,000 Scottish mercenaries in an aid to help him defeat Francis to secure the Protestant position in Germany. Francis had heard of this and immediately had deployed Generalissimo Albrecht von Wallenstein to counter King Christian's invasions. Christian's Scottish Mercenaries were unable to halt the Austrian offenses, By the end of 1627, Francis had conquered Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and Jutland, and began making plans to construct a fleet capable of challenging Danish control of the Baltic.
The Destruction of Copenhagen
The Destruction of Copenhagen
On 13 May 1628, Emperor Francis had deployed Hans Georg von Arnim-Boitzenburg to command the fleet that would be blockading Copenhagen and the surrounding Danish islets. King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden had decided to intervene, but his ships were sunk by the Imperial fleet under von Arnim. Adolpus then, out of anger, was reported to have pinned Pastor John down during a service, and had raped and impregnated him while he was giving a sermon to his Ministers and Princes in Germany.
On 22 June 1628, the Imperial blockade had finally subsided and Francis had ordered the city to be destroyed shortly after the small Danish garrison had surrendered. After weeks of siege, nearly 2,000 militiamen in the city had been killed or had died of disease. Almost 25,000 civilians had been slaughtered, raped and tortured by Wallenstein's troops and Francis had removed Denmark from the war, with Christian IV and Francis signing Treaty of Lübeck in June of 1629.
Mounted Croats under the command of Albrecht von Wallenstein encircle the Danes at the Battle of Wolgast, 1628
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