Prelude
The Danish army that landed at Helsingborg in Scania in late June 1676 managed to conquer almost the whole province in less than a month. The Swedish army had to retreat north to Växjö.
In early August, General Jakob Duncan with about 4,000 Danish troops was sent north, to the province of Halland, to take Halmstad and if possible advance further north to join General Ulrik Frederick Gyldenløve, who had reached Gothenburg with a Norwegian army and was threatening to besiege the city.
On August 11, King Charles XI and his small army headed west to intercept Duncan. At noon August 17 the Swedish army had reached the only road from Scania to Halmstad and Duncan was trapped. The Swedes torched the bridge leading south and headed north.
The day before the battle, Duncan had been informed about Swedish troops heading in his direction but as he assumed that it was just a smaller unit under General Ascheberg, he made no haste when he decided to leave Halmstad and return south to Scania.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Halmstad
Famous quotes containing the word prelude:
““We’re all friends here” is a prelude to fraud. “I am sincere” is a prelude to lying.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“I got a little secretarial job after college, but I thought of it as a prelude. Education, work, whatever you did before marriage, was only a prelude to your real life, which was marriage.”
—Bonnie Carr (c. early 1930s)