Battle of Lund - Events Leading Up To The Battle

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 mounted, and felt confident enough to march south. They slowly fought their way in an attempt to break the siege of Malmö. Swedish supply lines were thin due to frequent interceptions by local peasants under the command of Danish officers.

In early November, the Danish king and his army had taken post at Lund, south of the Kävlinge River. The Danes controlled all the river crossings, and the Swedish army was forced to camp on the North side. For one month this situation endured, but in late November snow arrived and the river surface began to freeze. On the morning of December 3 the Swedish General of Fortifications Erik Dahlberg reported to the king that the ice would carry. The Danes assumed that the Swedes had gone into winter camp and that they would not attack until spring.