BANER (BANNER, BANIER), JOHAN (1596-1641), Swedish general in the Thirty Years' War, was born at Djursholm Castle on June 23, 1596. As one of the chief subordinates of Gustavus Adolphus, Baner served in the campaign of north Germany (163o), and at the first battle of Breitenfeld he led the right wing of Swedish horse. When Gustavus marched towards Liitzen, his general was left in command in the west, where he was op posed to the imperial general Aldringer. In 1634, as a Swedish field-marshal, Baner, with 16,000 men, entered Bohemia, and, combined with the Saxon army, marched on Prague. But the complete defeat of Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar in the first bat tle of Nordlingen stopped his victorious advance. After this event the peace of Prague placed the Swedish army in a very precarious position, but the victories won by the united forces of Baner, Wrangel and Torstensson, at Kyritz and Wittstock Oct. 4, 1636, restored the paramount influence of Sweden in central Germany. Even the three combined armies, however, were decidedly inferior in force to those they defeated, and in 1637 Baner was completely unable to make headway against the enemy. Rescuing with great difficulty the beleaguered garrison of Torgau, he retreated beyond the Oder into Pomerania. In 1639, however, he again overran northern Germany, defeated the Saxons at Chemnitz and invaded Bohemia itself. The winter of 164o-4i Baner spent in the west. His last achievement was an audacious coup de main on the Danube. Breaking camp in mid-winter (a very rare event in the i 7th century) he united with the French under the Comte de Guebriant and surprised Regensburg, where the diet was sitting. Only the break-up of the ice prevented the capture of the place. Baner thereupon had to retreat to Halberstadt. Here, on May io, 1641, he died, after designating Torstensson as his successor. He was much beloved by his men, who bore his body with them on the field of Wolfenbuttel. Baner was regarded as the best of Gustavus's generals, and tempting offers (which he refused) were made him by the emperor to induce him to enter his service. See also THIRTY YEARS' WAR.
See Lundblad, Johan Baner (1823) ; Ardwisson, Trittioariga Krigets maerkvaerdigaste personer (1861) ; B. P. von Chemnitz, Koniglichen Schwedscher in Deutschland gef uhrten Kriegs; Martin Veibull, Sveriges Storhedsted (1881) ; Boners Bref till Axel Oxenstjerna (1893) .