Count Tilly on a portrait by van Dyck

Bronze statue of Count Tilly in the Feldherrnhalle in Munich

Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly (Nivelles,February 1559 - Ingolstadt, April 30, 1632) was a General (Field Marshal) who commanded the Imperial and Holy Roman Empire's forces in the Thirty Years' War, he had a string of important victories against the Bohemians, Germans and later the Danish, but was then defeated by forces led by the King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. Along with Duke Albrecht von Wallenstein of Friedland and Mecklenburg, he was one the two chief commanders of the Holy Roman Empire’s forces. Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly on a contemporary painting by van Dyck From the Swedish wiki The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100... Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly on a contemporary painting by van Dyck From the Swedish wiki The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100... Self Portrait With a Sunflower Sir Anthony (Antoon) van Dyck (*March 22, 1599 - December 9, 1641) was a Flemish painter — mainly of portraits — who became the leading court painter in England. ... Nivelles (Dutch: Nijvel) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. ... Events January 15 - Elizabeth I of England is crowned in Westminster Abbey. ... Ingolstadt is a city in the Federal State of Bavaria, Germany. ... April 30 is the 120th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (121st in leap years), with 245 days remaining. ... See also: 1632 (novel) Events February 22 - Galileos Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published July 23 - 300 colonists for New France depart Dieppe November 8 - Wladyslaw IV Waza elected king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after Zygmunt III Waza death November 16 - Battle of Lützen... Note: This article is about the military usage of the word marshal. For other usages, see the end of this article. ... The Holy Roman Empire and from the 16th century on also The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was a political conglomeration of lands in Central Europe in the Middle Ages and the early modern period. ... Combatants Anti-Imperialists (Protestants): Sweden Bohemia Denmark Dutch Republic France Scotland England and smaller German states Imperialists (Catholics): Catholic League Holy Roman Empire Spain Austria Bavaria, and smaller German states Commanders Frederick V Gustav II Adolf † Cardinal Richelieu Christian IV of Denmark Johann Georg I of Saxony Johann Tzerclaes, count... Bohemian F.C. (Irish: An Cumann Peile Bóithéimeach) is an Irish football club playing in the Football League of Ireland. ... Gustav II Adolph Gustav II Adolph (December 9, 1594 - November 6, 1632) (also known as Gustav Adolph the Great, under the Latin name Gustavus Adolphus or the Swedish form Gustav II Adolf) was a King of Sweden. ... Albrecht von Wallenstein Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein (also Waldstein, Czech: Albrecht Václav Eusebius z ValdÅ¡tejna), September 24, 1583 – February 25, 1634) was a Bohemian soldier and politician who gave his services (an army of 30,000 to 100,000 men) during the Danish Period of the Thirty... Friedland is the name of several locations the city Friedland in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany the city Friedland in Brandenburg, Germany the municipality Friedland in Lower Saxony, Germany the old German name of the city Pravdinsk in former East Prussia (now Kaliningrad Oblast) This is a disambiguation page — a... The coat of arms of Mecklenburg-Western-Pommerania Mecklenburg is a geographical area located in Northern Germany. ... The Holy Roman Empire and from the 16th century on also The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was a political conglomeration of lands in Central Europe in the Middle Ages and the early modern period. ...

Early years

Johann Tserclaes was born in February 1559 in Castle Tilly near Nivelles, now in Belgium, then the Spanish Netherlands, (composed of the modern countries of the Netherlands and Belgium). Johann Tserclaes was born into a Catholic Brabantine family and after receiving a Jesuit education in Cologne, he joined the Spanish army at age fifteen and fought under Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza in his campaign against the Dutch forces rebelling in the Eighty Years' War and participated in the successful Siege of Antwerp (1584-1585) in 1585. After this he joined in the Holy Roman Empire’s campaign against the Ottoman Turks in Hungary and Transylvania as a mercenary in 1600 and through rapid promotion became a Field Marshall in only five years. Caernarfon Castle, Wales. ... Nivelles (Dutch: Nijvel) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. ... This article or section should be merged with Seventeen Provinces The Spanish Netherlands was a portion of the Low Countries controlled by Spain from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. ... Brabant is a former duchy in the Low Countries, and a former province of Belgium. ... The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu), commonly known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic religious order. ... Köln redirects here. ... Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza (1545 - 1592) was the son of Duke Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma and Margaret, the illegitimate daughter of the Habsburg Emperor Charles V. Thus Alessandro was the nephew of Philip II of Spain and of Don John of Austria. ... Combatants Dutch rebels Spanish Empire The Eighty Years War, or Dutch Revolt or Revolt of the Netherlands (1566[1]–1648), was the revolt of the Seventeen Provinces in the Netherlands against the Spanish (Habsburg) empire. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The Ottoman Turks were the ethnic subdivision of the Turkish people who dominated the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire. ... Map of Romania with Transylvania in yellow Transylvania (Romanian: or Transilvania; Hungarian: ; German: ; Serbian: or Erdelj / Ердељ) is a historical region in the center of Romania. ... A mercenary is a soldier who fights or engages in warfare primarily for private gain, usually with little regard for ideological, national, or political considerations, however, when the term mercenary is used to refer to a soldier of a national, regular army, it usually is an insult, epithet or pejorative. ... Note: This article is about the military usage of the word marshal. For other usages, see the end of this article. ...

Campaign in Bohemia

Following this he was appointed commander of the Catholic League forces in by Bavaria under Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria in 1610 and fought against the Bohemian rebels in 1620, by which time he had spent training his soldiers in the Spanish Tercio system, which featured musketeers supported by deep ranks of pikemen. With 25,000 soldiers, he moved north and scored an important victory against Frederick V, Elector Palatine at the decisive Battle of White Mountain north of Prague on November 8 1620, in which half of the enemy forces were killed or captured, losing only 700 men, because his men were well trained so they required only two hours of fighting to break the enemy line. This was vital in crushing resistance to the emperor in what is now the Czech Republic as it allowed Prague to be captured several days later, delaying the Czechs’ independence for 300 more years. This article is about the 17th century German union. ... The Free State of Bavaria  (German: Freistaat Bayern), with an area of 70,553 km² (27,241 square miles) and 12. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... // Events January 7 - Galileo Galilei discovers the Galilean moons of Jupiter. ... Events September 6 - English emigrants on the Mayflower depart from Plymouth, England for the future New England and arrive at the end of the year. ... Tercio was a term used by the Spanish army to describe a mixed infantry formation of about 3,000 pikemen and musketeers, sometimes referred to by other nations as a Spanish Square. ... A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth-bore long gun. ... A pike is a pole weapon once used extensively by infantry principally as a counter-measure against cavalry assaults. ... Frederick is also called the Winter King of Bohemia because he reigned for less than three winter months in 1620 after he was installed by a rebellious Protestant faction. ... The Battle of White Mountain, November 8, 1620 (Bílá hora is the name of White Mountain in Czech) was an early battle in the Thirty Years War in which an army of 20,000 Bohemians and mercenaries under Christian of Anhalt were routed by 25,000 men of the... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... November 8 is the 312th day of the year (313th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 53 days remaining. ...

Campaign in Germany

Next he turned west and marched through Germany, but was defeated at the Battle of Mingolsheim on April 27, 1622, after which he joined with the Spanish general Duke Gonzalo de Cordoba (not to be confused with the famous Spanish general of the Italian Wars), and was victorious at the Battle of Wimpfen against Georg Fredrick, Margrave of Baden-Durlach on May 6th, this victory occurred after the enemies’ ammunition tumbril was hit by cannon fire and exploded. He was successful again at the Battle of Höchst on June 20 and was made a Count (Graf in German) for this victory. These three battles in two months allowed him to capture the city of Heidelberg following an eleven-week siege on September 19. Christian of Brunswick, whom he had already defeated at Höchst raised another army, but again lost to him at the Battle of Stadtlohn where 13,000 out of his army of 15,000 were lost, including fifty of his high ranking officers, and ending virtually all resistance in Germany, and there was a complete surrender of Bohemia in 1623. This event caused Denmark’s king Christian IV to enter the Thirty Years' War in 1625 to protect Protestantism and also in a bid to make himself the primary leader of Northern Europe. Count Tilly, Johann Tserclaes then fought the Danish at the Battle of Lutter on August 26–August 27, 1626 in which his highly disciplined infantry charged the enemy lines four times whereupon they broke through, leading him to win decisively, and destroying more than half the fleeing Danish army; as was uncharacteristic of warfare of the times. Because of this and other victories by Wallenstein, Denmark was forced to sue for peace at the Treaty of Lübeck, but this disrupted the balance of power in Europe resulting in Swedish involvement in 1630 under their redoubtable leader, the brilliant King and Field General Gustavus Adolphus who had been attempting to dominate the Baltic for the previous ten years in wars with Poland, then a continental power of note. April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 248 days remaining. ... Events January 1 - In the Gregorian calendar, January 1 is declared as the first day of the year, instead of March 25. ... Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Prince of Maratra, (1585–1635) was a Spanish military leader during the Thirty Years War. ... Combatants Protestants Holy Roman Empire, Catholic League Commanders Friedrich of Baden Count of Tilly, Gonzales de Córdoba Strength 14000 app. ... Baden was a state in the southwest of Germany, primarily consisting of territory along the right bank of the Rhine opposite Alsace and the Palatinate. ... May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (127th in leap years). ... The Battle of Höchst was fought on June 22, 1622 between Catholics and Protestants. ... June 20 is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 194 days remaining. ... Look up Count in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Countess redirects here. ... A view of the city from the castle (Schloss) The castle (Schloss) above the town Shopping district Heidelberg and the other cities of the Neckar valley View from the so called alley of philosophers (Philosophenweg) towards the Old Town, with Heidelberg Castle, Heiliggeist Church and the Old Bridge Heidelberg is... September 19 is the 262nd day of the year (263rd in leap years). ... Brief Summary Younger brother of the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel. ... Combatants Protestants Catholic League Commanders Christian of Brunswick Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly Strength 15000 app. ... Events August 6 - Pope Urban VIII is elected to the Papacy. ... An image of Christian IV. Christian IV (1577–1648), king of Denmark and Norway, the son of Frederick II, king of Denmark and Norway, and Sophia of Mecklenburg, was born at Frederiksborg castle in 1577, and succeeded to the throne on the death of his father (April 4, 1588... Combatants Anti-Imperialists (Protestants): Sweden Bohemia Denmark Dutch Republic France Scotland England and smaller German states Imperialists (Catholics): Catholic League Holy Roman Empire Spain Austria Bavaria, and smaller German states Commanders Frederick V Gustav II Adolf † Cardinal Richelieu Christian IV of Denmark Johann Georg I of Saxony Johann Tzerclaes, count... Events March 27 - Prince Charles Stuart becomes King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland. ... Protestantism is one of three main groups currently within Christianity. ... Northern Europe is marked in dark blue Northern Europe is a name of the northern part of the European continent. ... The Battle of Lutter (Lutter am Barenberge) took place during the Thirty Years War on 27th August 1626 between the forces of the Protestant Christian IV of Denmark and those of the Catholic League. ... August 26 is the 238th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (239th in leap years). ... August 27 is the 239th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (240th in leap years), with 126 days remaining. ... Events September 30 - Nurhaci, chieftain of the Jurchens and founder of the Qing Dynasty dies and is succeeded by his son Hong Taiji. ... Events February 22 - Native American Quadequine introduces Popcorn to English colonists. ... Gustav II Adolph Gustav II Adolph (December 9, 1594 - November 6, 1632) (also known as Gustav Adolph the Great, under the Latin name Gustavus Adolphus or the Swedish form Gustav II Adolf) was a King of Sweden. ... Population density in the wider Baltic region. ... In the context of international relations and diplomacy, power (sometimes clarified as international power, national power, or state power) is the ability of one state to influence or control other states. ...

Sack of Magdeburg

Main article: Sack of Magdeburg

While Adolphus landed his army in Mecklenburg and was in Berlin, trying to make alliances with the leaders of Northern Germany, Johann Tserclaes laid siege to the city of Magdeburg in central Germany on the Elbe River, which promised to support Sweden. The siege began on March 20, 1631 and he put his subordinate Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim in command while he campaigned elsewhere. After two months of laying siege, and after the fall of Frankfurt (Oder) to the Swedish, Pappenheim finally convinced Tilly, who brought reinforcements to storm the city on May 20 with 40,000 men under the personal command of Pappenheim. The assault was successful and the city was breeched, but after the commanders lost control of their soldiers a massacre of the populace ensued in which 25,000 of the 30,000 inhabitants of the city perished while fires destroyed much of the city. This is a highly controversial event in Johann Tserclaes’ career. It still remains unclear how much responsibility he bears for what happened. Many of his enemies quickly blamed him, claiming that the massacre was ordered and used it as justification to enact similar killings. But many historians now see it as unlikely that he ordered the massacre. Magdeburg is a strategically vital city in the Elbe River region and was needed as a resupply center for the looming fight against the Swedes. Johann Tserclaes was a very experienced commander and would have recognized the strategic importance of the city. Additionally, Tserclaes sent a proposal of surrender to Magdeburg days before the final assault, after the capture of Toll redoubt. This could indicate that he was more interested in capturing Madgeburg intact than in slaughtering the inhabitants. It must also be remembered that such acts of violence were quite common in the era. Sectarian passions ran deep, and mercenary-swollen army ranks could sometimes not be relied upon to maintain discipline. During the Thirty Years War the city of Magdeburg was besieged by the Holy Roman Empires Imperial Army from November 1630 to 20 May 1631 in the Sack of Magdeburg. ... The coat of arms of Mecklenburg-Western-Pommerania Mecklenburg is a geographical area located in Northern Germany. ... Berlin is the capital city and one of the sixteen federal states of Germany. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Elbe River (Czech Labe, Sorbian/Lusatian Łobjo, Polish Łaba, German Elbe) is one of the major waterways of central Europe. ... March 20 is the 79th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (80th in Leap years). ... // Events February 5 - Roger Williams emigrates to Boston. ... Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim Pappenheim Letter of Wallenstein, asking for help Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim (May 29, 1594 – November 17, 1632), imperial field marshal in the Thirty Years War, was born at the little town of Pappenheim on the Altmühl, in Bavaria, the seat of a free... Frankfurt (Oder) ( Sorbian/Lusatian: Frankobord ) is a city in Brandenburg, Germany located on the Oder River, on the German-Polish border directly opposite the city of SÅ‚ubice. ... May 20 is the 140th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (141st in leap years). ... The word massacre has a number of meanings, but most commonly refers to individual events of deliberate and direct mass killing, especially of noncombatant civilians or other innocents, that would often qualify as war crimes or atrocities. ... The introduction of this article does not provide enough context for readers unfamiliar with the subject. ...

Campaign against the Swedish

Following Magdeburg, Johann Tserclaes engaged Gustavus Adolphuus at the Battle of Breitenfeld on September 17, 1631, near the city of Leipzig, which Johann Tserclaes had reached by laying waste to Saxony. In the battle he was outmaneuvered by King Gustavus Adolphus and lost 13,000 soldiers in a hard-fought battle. The Swedes’ maneuvering and accurate, rapid artillery fire caused his troops to panic and flee. He withdrew, and political rivalries prevented Wallenstein from coming to his aid, so he turned to defense. While attempting to prevent the Swedish from crossing into Bavaria over the Lech River near the city of Rain am Lech, he was wounded by a cannon ball early in the Battle of Rain and died of tetanus fifteen days later in Ingolstadt at the age of 73 on April 30, 1632. There were two Battles of Breitenfeld, Battle of Breitenfeld (1631) Battle of Breitenfeld (1642) both in Germany during the Thirty Years War, between the Swedish Army and the Holy Roman Empire. ... September 17 is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years). ... // Events February 5 - Roger Williams emigrates to Boston. ... [] (Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk) is the largest city in the Federal State (Bundesland) of Saxony in Germany. ... The Free State of Saxony (German: Freistaat Sachsen; Sorbian: Swobodny Stat Sakska) is a federal state of Germany. ... Categories: 1583 births | 1634 deaths | Assassinated people ... The Free State of Bavaria  (German: Freistaat Bayern), with an area of 70,553 km² (27,241 square miles) and 12. ... The river Lech, in the background the city of Landsberg The river Lech in Augsburg The Lech (Licus, Licca) is a river in Austria and Germany. ... A small cannon on a carriage, Bucharest. ... On April 5, 1632, Swedish troops under Gustavus Adolphus crossed the Lech river near the city Rain, Bavaria after a short battle against Tillys army during the Thirty Years War. ... Tetanus is a serious and often fatal disease caused by the neurotoxin tetanospasmin which is produced by the Gram-positive, obligate anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani. ... Ingolstadt is a city in the Federal State of Bavaria, Germany. ... April 30 is the 120th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (121st in leap years), with 245 days remaining. ... See also: 1632 (novel) Events February 22 - Galileos Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published July 23 - 300 colonists for New France depart Dieppe November 8 - Wladyslaw IV Waza elected king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after Zygmunt III Waza death November 16 - Battle of Lützen...

Fictional appearances

Tilly plays a minor supporting role in Eric Flint's 1632 series of science fiction/alternate history novels. Count Tilly also appears in David Weber's Honor Harrington series as the name of the flagship of Rear Admiral Lester Tourville, in the seventh novel of the series "In Enemy Hands". Eric Flint (born California, USA, 1947) is an American science fiction and fantasy author and editor. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Honor Harrington from Honor Among Ememies cover, by David Mattingly. ... Honor Harrington is a fictional character, the eponymous heroine of a series of books set in the Honorverse, written by David Weber and published by Baen Books. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Johan t'Serclaes, Count of Tilly