The
Battle of Lund was fought on December 4, 1676 in an area north of the city of
Lund in
Scania in southern
Sweden, between the invading
Danish army and the army of
Charles XI of Sweden. It was part of the
Scanian War. The Danish army of about 12,300 was under the personal command of 31-year-old King
Christian V of Denmark and aided by General
Carl von Arensdorff, and the Swedish army, which numbered about 8,000, was commanded by Field Marshal
Simon Grundel-Helmfelt and the 21 year old Swedish king
Charles XI.
Events leading up to the battle
After the Swedish defeat at
Fehrbellin and a number of Danish triumphs at sea, the Swedish military was occupied in retaining the tenuous hold on dominions in
Brandenburg and
Pomerania.
The Danes saw this as an opportunity to regain control over the
Scanian lands, which had fallen to Sweden with the 1658
Treaty of Roskilde. The Danes invaded via
Helsingborg in late June 1676 with an army of 14,000 men, and found themselves supported by the local peasantry. This made it impossible for the outnumbered Swedish troops to effectively defend the recently gained province. In a month's time only the fortified town of
Malmö remained under Swedish control.
In August, a Danish detachment tried to advance North, but Swedish King Charles XI had prepared a new army in the province of
Småland, and the Danish advance was halted at the
Battle of Halmstad. The Swedes had gathered 14,000 men by October, of which three-fourths were...
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