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The Battle of Nördlingen ((スペイン語:Batalla de Nördlingen); (ドイツ語:Schlacht bei Nördlingen); (スウェーデン語:Slaget vid Nördlingen)) was fought on 27 August (Julian calendar) or 6 September (Gregorian calendar), 1634 during the Thirty Years' War. The Roman Catholic Imperial army, bolstered by 18,000 Spanish and Italian soldiers, won a crushing victory over the combined Protestant armies of Sweden and their German-Protestant allies (Heilbronn Alliance). After the failure of the tercio system in the first Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631, the professional Spanish troops deployed at Nördlingen proved the tercio system could still contend with the deployment improvements devised by Maurice of Orange and the late Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. ==Prelude== The Battle of was part of the Thrity Years War, fought from 1618 to 1638. The chief belligerents were the Catholic Hapsburg dynasties consisting of an Austrian and Spanish branch and their allies on one side. (The Austrian king also held the title of Holy Roman Emperor. For this reason, the Austrian Hapsburgs are frequently referred to as the Imperialists..) Opposed to them were the Protestant nations comprising the Dutch, Denmark, Sweden, various German principalities and later, Catholic France. After the Protestant victory at the Battle of Lützen two years before, the Swedes failed to follow up due to the death of their king, Gustavus Adolphus. As a result, the imperial forces began to regain the initiative. In 1634 Protestant German and Swedish forces moved south and invaded Bavaria, threatening a major Hapsburg ally. In response, the Austrian Hapsburg commander, Ferdinand of Hungary (and son of the Austrian Hapsburg, Ferdinand II, who was Holy Roman Emperor) advanced west from Bohemia (today, the Czech Republic) threatening to cut across the supply lines of the Protestant armies. Consequently, the Protestant commanders quickly reversed course and headed north. They were aware that Spanish reinforcements under Ferdinand of Hungary's cousin, the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, were en route from their dominions in Northern Italy. The Spanish army had marched through the Stelvio Pass trying to open a new "Spanish Road", and take their Commander to his Governorship in the Spanish Low Countries. The Protestant commanders decided they could not ignore the threat of a union between the two enemy forces and combined their two largest armies near Augsburg on 12 July which included the Swabian-Alsatian Army under Gustav Horn and the so-called Franconian Army under Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar. Both armies were named after their main operation area and belonged to the Heilbronn Alliance (Sweden's German-Protestant allies under the directorate of the Swedish chancellor Axel Oxenstierna). These forces mostly consisted of German recruits. Among them were ("the Blue brigade") and some Scottish allies ("the Green brigade") with a few national Swedish/Finnish regiments (mostly cavalry) and one national Swedish infantry brigade ("the Yellow brigade").〔Julius Mankell. ''Uppgifter rörande swenska krigsmaktens styrka, sammsättning och fördelning'', Stockholm 1865 p.198-202〕〔Peter Engerisser, Pavel Hrncirik (2009). ''Nördlingen 1634'' p.252〕 The Protestants proved unable to prevent the fall of Regensburg to Ferdinand of Hungary and desperately pursued him westwards in an effort to prevent the merger of the two Hapsburg armies. On 16 August the Cardinal-Infante crossed the Danube at Donauwörth. Despite their best efforts the Protestant armies were still behind when Ferdinand of Hungary set down to besiege the town of Nordlingen in Swabia and await the Cardinal-Infante who arrived before the city on 2 September - three days before the Protestants.〔The Thirty Years' War, C.V. Wedgewood.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Nördlingen (1634)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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