View source for Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly

{{Short description|Catholic marshal of the Thirty Years' War (1559–1632)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Refimprove|date=March 2012}}
{{Infobox military person
| name          = Johann Tserclaes
| honorific_suffix = Count of Tilly
| image         = Johann Tserclaes count of Tilly.jpg
| image_size    = 
| caption       = Count Tilly on a portrait
| nickname      = ''The Monk in Armor''
| birth_date    = February 1559
| birth_place   = [[Villers-la-Ville|Castle Tilly]], [[Duchy of Brabant]], [[Spanish Netherlands]], [[Holy Roman Empire]]
| death_date    = 30 April 1632 (aged 73)
| death_place   = [[Ingolstadt]], [[Electorate of Bavaria|Electoral Bavaria]], [[Holy Roman Empire]]
| placeofburial = [[Altötting]]
| allegiance    = {{flagicon|Spain|1506}} [[Habsburg Spain|Spain]]<br>{{flag|Holy Roman Empire}}<br>{{flag|Bavaria}}
| branch        = [[Army of Flanders]]<br>Army of the [[Catholic League (German)]]<br>[[Imperial Army (Holy Roman Empire)]]
| serviceyears  = 1574–1632
| rank          = ''[[Generalfeldmarschall]]''
| unit          = 
| commands      = 
| battles       = {{Tree list}}
* '''[[Eighty Years' War]]'''
** [[Fall of Antwerp]]
* '''[[Long Turkish War]]'''
*'''[[Thirty Years' War]]'''
** [[Battle of White Mountain]]
** [[Battle of Mingolsheim]]
** [[Battle of Wimpfen]]
** [[Battle of Höchst]]
** [[Siege of Heidelberg (1622)|Siege of Heidelberg]]
** [[Capture of Mannheim]]
** [[Battle of Stadtlohn]]
** [[Battle of Lutter]]
** [[Sack of Magdeburg]]
** [[Battle of Werben]]
** [[Battle of Breitenfeld (1631)|Battle of Breitenfeld]]{{WIA}}
** [[Battle of Bamberg]]
** [[Battle of Rain]]{{DOW}}
{{Tree list/end}}
| awards        = 
| relations     = 
| laterwork     = 
}}
[[File:Tilly Feldherrnhalle Munich.jpg|thumb|upright|Bronze statue of Count Tilly in the [[Feldherrnhalle]] on Odeonsplatz in [[Munich]]]]
[[File:Altoetting Tilly.JPG|thumb|upright|Statue of Tilly in [[Altoetting|Altötting]]]]
[[File:AT 7797 Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Feldherrenhalle - Statuen-0286 7 8 9.jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of Tilly in the hall of fame of the [[Museum of Military History, Vienna]]]]
[[File:Nicolaas van der Horst - Portrait of Johan 't Serclaes, Count of Tilly.jpg|thumb|upright|''Portrait of Johann Tserclaes'' after [[Nicolaas van der Horst]]]]

'''Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly''' ({{langx|nl|Johan t'Serclaes Graaf van Tilly}}; {{langx|de|Johann t'Serclaes Graf von Tilly}}; {{langx|fr|Jean t'Serclaes de Tilly}} ; February 1559 – 30 April 1632) was a field marshal who commanded the [[Catholic League (German)|Catholic League]]'s forces in the [[Thirty Years' War]]. From 1620 to 1631, he won an unmatched and demoralizing string of important victories against the Protestants, including [[Battle of White Mountain|White Mountain]], [[Battle of Wimpfen|Wimpfen]], [[Battle of Höchst|Höchst]], [[Battle of Stadtlohn|Stadtlohn]] and the [[Palatinate campaign|Conquest of the Palatinate]]. He destroyed a Danish army at [[Battle of Lutter|Lutter]] and [[Sack of Magdeburg|sacked the Protestant city of Magdeburg]], which caused the deaths of some 20,000 of the city's inhabitants, both defenders and non-combatants, out of a total population of 25,000. 

However, Tilly's army was eventually crushed at [[Battle of Breitenfeld (1631)|Breitenfeld]] in 1631 by the [[Sweden|Swedish]] army of King [[Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden|Gustavus Adolphus]]. A bullet from a Swedish [[arquebus]] [[mortally wounded]] him at the [[Battle of Rain]] on 15 April 1632, and he died two weeks later in [[Ingolstadt]] on 30 April 1632, at the age of 73. Along with Duke [[Albrecht von Wallenstein]] of [[Duchy of Friedland|Friedland]] and [[Mecklenburg]], he was one of two chief commanders of the [[Holy Roman Empire]]’s forces during the first half of the Thirty Years' War.

==Early years==

Johann Tserclaes was born on February 1559 in [[Tilly, Villers-la-Ville|Castle Tilly]], [[Walloon Brabant]], in the [[Spanish Netherlands]], in what is now [[Belgium]], to a devoutly [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[Duchy of Brabant|Brabantine]] family. After receiving a [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] education in [[Cologne]], he joined the [[Spanish Army]] at the age of fifteen and fought under [[Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma]] in his campaign against the rebellious Dutch forces during the [[Eighty Years' War]], participating in the successful [[Siege of Antwerp (1584–1585)|Siege of Antwerp]] in 1585. After this he joined the [[Holy Roman Empire]]'s campaign against the [[Ottoman Turks]] in [[Royal Hungary|Hungary]] and the [[Principality of Transylvania (1570–1711)|Transylvania]] as a [[mercenary]] during the [[Long Turkish War]] in 1600, and through rapid promotion became a [[field marshal]] in only five years. When the Turkish War ended in 1606, he remained in the service of [[Rudolf II]] in [[Prague]] until he was appointed commander of the [[Catholic League (German)|Catholic League]] forces by [[Duchy of Bavaria|Bavaria]] under [[Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria]] in 1610.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Campaign in Bohemia==
As commander of the forces of the Catholic League, Tilly fought against the [[Kingdom of Bohemia|Bohemian]] rebels following the [[Defenestrations of Prague|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 [[Jindřich Matyáš Thurn|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.{{sfn|Spahn|1913}}

==Campaign in Germany==
{{moresources|section|date=April 2017}}
Next, Tilly turned west and marched through [[Kingdom of Germany|Germany]], but was defeated at the [[Battle of Mingolsheim]] on 27 April 1622. He then joined with the Spanish general Duke [[Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (1585–1645)|Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba]] – 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 [[Georg Friedrich, Margrave of Baden-Durlach|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 Höchst]] on 20 June and was made a [[count]] (''Graf'' in [[German language|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 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. 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 [[Hann. Münden|Münden]] on 30 May 1626, whereupon local and refugee Protestant ministers were thrown into the river Werra, but could not lay a siege to [[Kassel]].<ref name="Munden">Willigerod, Geschichte von Münden (Göttingen, 1808).</ref> 

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 {{clarify|date=April 2017}} 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 Lübeck]]. This disrupted the balance of power in Europe resulting in [[Sweden|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 region|Baltic]] for the previous ten years in wars with [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Poland]], then a continental [[power (international)|power]] of note.{{sfn|Spahn|1913}}

==Sack of Magdeburg==
{{main|Sack of Magdeburg}}
While Gustavus Adolphus landed his army in [[Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin|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 (Oder)|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 Tilly ordered the city to be 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.<ref>{{cite book|author1=C. L. Herm Fick|title=Die Märtyrer der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche, Volume 1|date=1854|page=144|chapter=Die Magdeburger Schulkinder}}</ref> Tilly afterwards reportedly wrote to the Emperor, {{quote|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.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Samuel Gardiner|author2=Charles Horne|editor1-last=Johnson|editor1-first=Rossiter|title=The Great Events by Famous Historians, vol XI, A.D. 1609-1660|date=1919|publisher=The National Alumni|page=72|chapter=The "Defeenestration" at Prague, The Thirty Years War}}</ref>}}

==Campaign against the Swedes and death==
Following Magdeburg, Tilly engaged the army of Gustavus Adolphus at the [[Battle of Breitenfeld (1631)|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 [[Albrecht von Wallenstein|Wallenstein]] from coming to his aid, so he turned to defence. He defeated the Swedes at [[Battle of Bamberg|Bamberg]] on 9 March 1632. While attempting to prevent the Swedes from crossing into [[Electorate of Bavaria|Bavaria]] over the [[Lech (river)|Lech]] near [[Rain, Swabia|Rain am Lech]], he was wounded early in the [[Battle of Rain]] on 15 April by a 90-gram [[arquebus]] bullet<ref>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 Altötting 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 Hände den Krieg: Tilly – Heiliger oder Kriegsverbrecher?'', Altötting 2007 (publication accompanying the exhibition by the Historical Association Alt-Tilly and the Bavarian Army Museum in Altötting, 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.</ref> (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 [[Altötting]], [[Upper Bavaria]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Descendants==
Fraternal descendants include [[Antonio Octavio Tserclaes de Tilly]] (1646–1715) and [[Claude Frédéric 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 [[Dutch States Army|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 Pérez de Guzmán family, living in [[Jerez de la Frontera|Jerez]] and [[Seville]], Spain.{{cn|date=October 2021}}

==Fictional appearances==
* 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 (novel)|''1632'']].

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite CE1913|wstitle=Johannes Tserclæs, Count of Tilly|first=Martin|last=Spahn}}
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Tilly, Johann Tzerclaes, Count of}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Johan t'Serclaes, Count of Tilly}}
* [[:de:Schlacht bei Wiesloch (1632)|German-Page >Battle of Wiesloch]]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tilly, Johann Tserclaes, Count Of}}
[[Category:1559 births]]
[[Category:1632 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Villers-la-Ville]]
[[Category:People from the Duchy of Brabant]]
[[Category:South Netherlandish people of the Thirty Years' War]]
[[Category:T'Serclaes|Johann]]
[[Category:Flemish nobility]]
[[Category:Spanish generals]]
[[Category:Imperial Army personnel of the Thirty Years' War]]
[[Category:Field marshals of the Holy Roman Empire]]
[[Category:Infectious disease deaths in Germany]]