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Battle of Rheinfelden

When
1638
Where
Rheinfelden
Episodes
1

In early 1638, a French-allied mercenary army under Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar engaged Imperial forces near Rheinfelden. After an initial setback, Bernhard defeated the joint Bavarian and Imperial army, capturing commanders Johann von Werth and Federico Savelli.

Episodes

  1. 28 February – 3 March 1638 · RheinfeldenDual Battles

    Bernhard lost the first engagement but defeated the Imperial army in the second, capturing Werth and Savelli.

Background and detail

Strategic Context. Following the Swedish defeat at Nördlingen in 1634, Bernhard's mercenary forces entered French service. Stationed in Alsace during 1635, the army remained largely inactive until 1636, when it helped repel an Imperial invasion of France led by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand and Matthias Gallas.

The Battle. The conflict consisted of two engagements north and south of Rheinfelden. Bernhard's force, comprising 6,000 men and 14 guns, advanced to the Rhine in February 1638. Imperial commanders Johann von Werth and Federico Savelli moved through the Black Forest to intercept Bernhard and relieve the town.

Result. Bernhard was defeated in the first battle but reversed the situation in the second. He successfully defeated the joint Bavarian and Holy Roman Empire army, resulting in the capture of Imperial leaders Johann von Werth and Federico Savelli.

People involved

Sources

  1. Battle of Rheinfelden Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-22

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.