Catholic marshal of the Thirty Years' War (1559?1632)
Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly
(
Dutch
:
Johan t'Serclaes Graaf van Tilly
;
German
:
Johann t'Serclaes Graf von Tilly
;
French
:
Jean t'Serclaes de Tilly
; February 1559 ? 30 April 1632) was a field marshal who commanded the
Catholic League
's forces in the
Thirty Years' War
. From 1620?31, he had an unmatched and demoralizing string of important victories against the Protestants, including
White Mountain
,
Wimpfen
,
Hochst
,
Stadtlohn
and the
Conquest of the Palatinate
. He destroyed a Danish army at
Lutter
and
sacked the Protestant city of Magdeburg
, which caused the death of some 20,000 of the city's inhabitants, both defenders and non-combatants, out of a total population of 25,000.
Tilly was then crushed at
Breitenfeld
in 1631 by the
Swedish
army of King
Gustavus Adolphus
. A Swedish
arquebus
bullet wounded him severely at the
Battle of Rain
, and he died two weeks later in
Ingolstadt
. Along with Duke
Albrecht von Wallenstein
of
Friedland
and
Mecklenburg
, he was one of two chief commanders of the
Holy Roman Empire
’s forces in the first half of the war.
Early years
[
edit
]
Johann Tserclaes was born on February 1559 in
Castle Tilly
,
Walloon Brabant
, now in
Belgium
, then the
Spanish Netherlands
. Johann Tserclaes was born into a devoutly
Catholic
Brabantine
family; and, after having received a
Jesuit
education in
Cologne
, he joined the
Spanish Army
at age fifteen and fought under
Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma
in his campaign against the Dutch forces rebelling in the
Eighty Years' War
and participated in the successful
Siege of Antwerp
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 marshal
in only five years. When the Turkish Wars ended in 1606, he remained in the service of Rudolf II in Prague until he was appointed commander of the
Catholic League
forces by
Bavaria
under
Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria
in 1610.
Campaign in Bohemia
[
edit
]
As commander of the forces of the Catholic League he fought against the
Bohemian
rebels following the
Defenestration of Prague
, by which time he had trained his soldiers in the Spanish
Tercio
system, which featured
musketeers
supported by deep ranks of
pikemen
. A force of 25,000 soldiers, including troops of both the Catholic League and the Emperor scored an important victory against
Christian of Anhalt
and
Count Thurn
at the decisive
Battle of White Mountain
west of
Prague
on 8 November 1620. Half of the enemy forces were killed or captured, while the Catholic League lost only 700 men. This victory was vital in crushing resistance to the Emperor in Bohemia, as it allowed Prague to be captured several days later.
Campaign in Germany
[
edit
]
Next he turned west and marched through
Germany
, but was defeated at the
Battle of Mingolsheim
on 27 April 1622. He then joined with the Spanish general Duke
Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba
? not to be confused with the famous Spanish general of the same name from the Italian Wars in Italy at the end of the 15th century ? and was victorious at the
Battle of Wimpfen
against
George Fredrick
,
Margrave of Baden-Durlach
on 6 May; this victory occurred after the enemies’ ammunition
tumbril
was hit by cannon fire and exploded.
He was successful again at the
Battle of Hochst
on 20 June 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 19 September.
Christian the Younger of Brunswick
, whom he had already defeated at Hochst, 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. Together with the complete surrender of Bohemia in 1623, this ended virtually all resistance in Germany. This caused King
Christian IV of Denmark
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 besieged and captured
Munden
on 30 May 1626, whereupon local and refugee Protestant ministers were thrown into the river Werra, but could not lay a siege to
Kassel
.
[3]
Tilly fought the Danes at the
Battle of Lutter
on 26?27 August 1626, in which his highly disciplined infantry charged the enemy lines four times, breaking through. This led him to win decisively, destroying
[
clarification needed
]
more than half the fleeing Danish army, which was uncharacteristic of the warfare of the time. Denmark was forced to sue for peace at the
Treaty of Lubeck
. 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 of Sweden
, who had been trying to dominate the
Baltic
for the previous ten years in wars with
Poland
, then a continental
power
of note.
Sack of Magdeburg
[
edit
]
While Gustavus Adolphus landed his army in
Mecklenburg
and was in
Berlin
, trying to make alliances with the leaders of Northern Germany, Tilly laid siege to the city of
Magdeburg
on the
Elbe
, which promised to support Sweden.
The siege began on 20 March 1631 and Tilly 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 an der Oder
to the Swedes, Pappenheim finally convinced Tilly, who had brought reinforcements, to storm the city on 20 May with 40,000 men under the personal command of Pappenheim. The assault was successful and the walls were breached, but the commanders supposedly lost control of their soldiers. A massacre of the populace ensued in which roughly 20,000 of the 25,000 inhabitants of the city perished by sword and the fire which destroyed most of the city, then one of the largest cities in Germany and about the size of
Cologne
or
Hamburg
.
Many historians consider it unlikely that he ordered the city torched. Magdeburg was a strategically vital city of the Elbe and was needed as a resupply center for the looming fight against the Swedes. Although extremely opposed to the Reformation movement, Tilly was an experienced commander and would have recognized the strategic importance of the city. Additionally, he sent a proposal of surrender to Magdeburg days before the final assault, after the capture of the Toll
redoubt
. However, the city's mayor rejected the offer, expecting a Swedish relief force to arrive soon. When the slaughter began, and no escape was possible, the children of the city were formed in procession and marched across the marketplace singing Luther's hymn
Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort
whose opening verse translates as "Lord keep us steadfast in thy Word, Curb Pope and Turk who by the sword, would wrest the kingdom from thy Son, and set at naught all he hath done." The children were slain without mercy, but whether by order from Tilly or not remains debated in some quarters.
[4]
Tilly afterwards reportedly wrote to the Emperor,
Never was such a victory since the storming of Troy or of Jerusalem. I am sorry that you and the ladies of the court were not there to enjoy the spectacle.
[5]
Campaign against the Swedes and death
[
edit
]
Following Magdeburg, Tilly engaged the army of Gustavus Adolphus at the
Battle of Breitenfeld
on 17 September 1631, near the city of
Leipzig
, which he had reached after laying waste to
Saxony
. In the battle he was outmaneuvered by King Gustavus Adolphus and suffered 27,000 casualties. The Swedes’ maneuvering and accurate, rapid artillery fire caused his troops to break and flee. He withdrew, and political rivalries prevented
Wallenstein
from coming to his aid, so he turned to defence. He defeated the Swedes at
Bamberg
on 9 March 1632. While attempting to prevent the Swedes from crossing into
Bavaria
over the
Lech
near
Rain am Lech
, he was wounded early in the
Battle of Rain
on 15 April by a 90-gram
arquebus
bullet
[6]
(not, as erroneously reported, by a
culverin
cannon ball), which shattered his right thigh, and died of
osteomyelitis
(bone infection) fifteen days later in
Ingolstadt
at the age of 73 on 30 April 1632. His tomb is in
Altotting
,
Upper Bavaria
.
Descendants
[
edit
]
Fraternal descendants include
Antonio Octavio Tserclaes de Tilly
(1646?1715) and
Claude Frederic t'Serclaes, Count of Tilly
(1648-1723). Antonio was a general and nobleman in service of Spain, while his younger brother Claude fought in service of the
army of the Dutch Republic
. A sister or daughter, Albertina, of this Prince Antonio Octavio, would be the first root for the Spanish ducal title, Dukes of Tserclaes, bestowed in July 1856 by Queen
Isabella II of Spain
to members of the Perez de Guzman family, living in
Jerez
and
Seville
, Spain.
[
citation needed
]
Fictional appearances
[
edit
]
- Tilly is mentioned in
Bertolt Brecht
's
Mother Courage and Her Children
: in the scene in which his funeral is held,
Mother Courage
famously says "I don't care if this funeral is a historical event, to me the mutilation of my daughter's face is a historical event."
- Tilly and the sack of Magdeburg are mentioned in the novel
The Hangman's Daughter
.
- Tilly is depicted in First Breitenfeld and in the Battle of Rain in the novel
1632
.
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Willigerod, Geschichte von Munden (Gottingen, 1808).
- ^
C. L. Herm Fick (1854). "Die Magdeburger Schulkinder".
Die Martyrer der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche, Volume 1
. p. 144.
- ^
Samuel Gardiner; Charles Horne (1919). "The "Defeenestration" at Prague, The Thirty Years War". In Johnson, Rossiter (ed.).
The Great Events by Famous Historians, vol XI, A.D. 1609-1660
. The National Alumni. p. 72.
- ^
In his work
Magnus Tillius Redivivus
(1632), the Jesuit priest Jakob Balde incorrectly reported that a "one-pound cannon ball [...] from a Swedish gun, a so-called
Falken
", by which he means a culverin, caused the injury. However, in a letter dated 15 April 1632, Elector Maximilian I correctly stated that Tilly had his thigh "shot into two pieces with an arquebus." (Albert Beierlein:
Die Schlacht bei Rain am Lech 14. und 15. April 1632
, page 50 in Reichenau (ed.):
Schlachtfelder zwischen Alpen und Main
, Munich 1938). An examination of the skeleton during a Tilly exhibition in Altotting in 2007 confirmed the arquebus wounding. The ultimately deadly 90-gram bullet had been laid in the coffin with the corpse, but was apparently lost during the
Second World War
. Cf. Marcus Junkelmann, Historical Association Alt-Tilly, et al.
Der du gelehrt hast meine Hande den Krieg: Tilly ? Heiliger oder Kriegsverbrecher?
, Altotting 2007 (publication accompanying the exhibition by the Historical Association Alt-Tilly and the Bavarian Army Museum in Altotting, 1 May to 30 July 2007) page 38;
Bericht des Jesuitenpaters Jakob Balde
, page 96; commentary on Fig. 59 (photograph of the skeleton's shattered thigh) page 173.
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Titles of nobility
|
New title
|
Count of Tilly
1622 - 1632
|
Succeeded by
|
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
People
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|