Battle of Lund

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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