Battle of Breitenfeld
WarThirty Years War
Year1631
LocationGermany
BelligerentsSweden/Protestants vs Holy Roman Empire
About the Battle
Gustavus Adolphus won the greatest Protestant victory of the Thirty Years War. Flexible Swedish brigades and mobile artillery outshot the tercios. The Saxon allies fled early, exposing the flank, yet the Swedes wheeled and won anyway. The Catholic league army was virtually destroyed. Sweden became the dominant power in northern Germany. The king fell at Lutzen the next year.