Battle of Nyborg, 1659: the victory that freed Funen

Two years before the Battle of Nyborg, Denmark had almost ceased to exist as an independent power. The Swedish king Charles X Gustav had marched across the frozen sea, taken Denmark's eastern provinces by treaty and come back for the rest. At Nyborg, on the island of Funen, a Danish army and its allies destroyed the Swedish army on the island. The museum at Nyborg Castle calls it the victory that restored the Danish state, though not its lost provinces.²

A kingdom across the ice

The Karl Gustav Wars, as Danish historians call them, were two linked wars with Sweden, in 1657 to 1658 and 1658 to 1660. King Frederick III declared war in June 1657, hoping to win back earlier losses while Sweden was tied down in Poland. Charles X Gustav broke off his Polish war, overran Jutland, and in the hard winter of 1658 led his army across the frozen Little Belt to Funen and on over the ice to Zealand. The Treaty of Roskilde of 26 February 1658 cost Denmark Scania, Halland, Blekinge and Bornholm, and Norway lost Bohuslän and Trøndelag.³

Charles had barely left Denmark before he decided to finish the job. In August 1658 he landed on Zealand again and besieged Copenhagen. This time Denmark had help. Polish and Brandenburg troops drove the Swedes out of Jutland, a Dutch fleet beat the Swedish navy in the Sound in October and broke the blockade of the capital, and on the night of 10 to 11 February 1659 the Swedish storm of Copenhagen ended in a bloody defeat. After the failed assault, the Nyborg Castle museum notes, Charles withdrew large parts of his army to Funen to gain a respite.⁴

The allies cross to Funen

In the autumn of 1659 the allies attacked Funen from two sides with the help of the Dutch fleet. From Jutland came a Danish, Polish and Brandenburg army under the German field marshal Ernst Albrecht von Eberstein; from Copenhagen a Danish and Dutch army under Field Marshal Hans Schack. On 14 November 1659 the combined army reached Nyborg and took up positions outside the town, which the Swedes held.⁵

Among the commanders of the Swedish army on Funen was Field Marshal Gustaf Otto Stenbock, who had made his career in the army in the Thirty Years' War and Charles X Gustav's wars and had been the first Swedish governor general of Scania.⁶

Between Lake Hjulby and Juelsberg

The battle was fought on the country west of Nyborg, between Lake Hjulby and the Juelsberg estate, where a main road and a motorway cross the landscape today. The Swedes lost and fell back on the town. On the morning of 15 November the Danish and Dutch fleet began to bombard Nyborg. The bombardment forced the Swedish army to surrender unconditionally, and about 3,000 Swedes are believed to have laid down their arms. For Stenbock it was a total defeat, though his career survived it: in 1664 he became Admiral of the Realm.⁷

Much of what is known about the ground comes from recent archaeology. From 2008 to 2014 Østfyns Museer and the Odense City Museums studied the battlefield, together with the many accounts, letters and other written sources about the battle. A team led by the archaeologist Jesper Olsen located several events described in the sources and developed new methods of battlefield archaeology. Visitors can walk a battlefield trail of about 4.5 kilometers past Lake Hjulby.⁸

Peace and a new balance

Nyborg ended Swedish hopes of conquering all of Denmark and Norway. Charles X Gustav died on 13 February 1660, and the regency for his young son Charles XI wanted peace. The Treaty of Copenhagen of 27 May 1660, shaped by the interests of England, France and the Dutch Republic, returned Bornholm and Trøndelag to Denmark and Norway, while Scania, Halland and Blekinge stayed Swedish for good. In the words of Den Store Danske, a military and political balance had been restored in the North.⁹

The victory came too late to undo Roskilde, but it saved the kingdom. In Poland the same Second Northern War is remembered as the Deluge, and one of its battles on Polish soil was Filipów in 1656.