Choosing as his base of operations the town of Meppen, on the Münster-East Frisian frontier, he raised a force of 4,000 men using English gold.

Alongside Charles Louis were his brother Prince Rupert and a company of English gallants dedicated to the Winter Queen, including Lord Craven,[4] and the Earl of Northampton.

[3] The next day this approaching force was detected by Palatine-Swedish vedettes who estimated it to be 8,000 strong, so their commanders decided to raise the siege and retreat to the Swedish fortress at Minden.

The Palatines had two possible routes to Minden, they chose to take the road to Vlotho, which was shorter, but also meant that they remained on the same side of the river Weser as the Hatzfeldt.

Their major problem was that whatever route they took, unless they abandoned their artillery and baggage train, Hatzfeldt's unencumbered force was going to catch up with them.

[2] King's subordinate Hans von Königsmarck suggested that rather than wait for their infantry, they could send their cavalry forward up a narrow valley which would act as a defile and prevent Hatzfeldt from concentrating his forces against them.

The third regiment was commanded by Prince Rupert who, in an early example of a manoeuvre he would become famous for in the English Civil War, ordered a flat out charge.

It is clear from the correspondence in the Swedish archives that Lieutenant General King had managed to extract Charles Louis and his remnant forces from the field and had them under his protection in Minden throughout October and November, a matter that caused much consternation to Field Marshal Baner who sowed rumours about King preferring the Elector's to Swedish service.