 |
Iogann TillyCount, German commander, field marshal (1605).
Country:
 Germany |
Biography of Johann Tserclaes Tilly
Johann Tserclaes Tilly (1559-1632) was a German count, military commander, and field marshal. He served as the chief commander of the Catholic League from 1610 and later the Imperial Army from 1630 during the Thirty Years' War. Tilly achieved several victories throughout the war but suffered a defeat at the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631. He was fatally wounded in a battle on the Lech River.
Tilly was born in the Spanish Netherlands and grew up in his family's ancestral castle. He received his education in Germany and at a Jesuit school, which instilled in him a deep religious fanaticism. He began his military service at the age of 15 as an ordinary soldier. For the first ten years, he served the Spanish Duke of Parma and participated in the siege of Antwerp during the war against Spanish rule in the Netherlands. Tilly displayed great bravery, extraordinary piety, and unwavering loyalty to the military flag during this war.
In 1600, Tilly left the service of the Spanish king and joined the Austrian Imperial Army, which was then fighting the Turks in Hungary. As a volunteer, he quickly advanced through the ranks and was recognized as a talented military commander and master of infantry warfare. He developed his own system of infantry formation called "tercio," which consisted of pikemen and soldiers armed with arquebuses. This infantry had advantages over the Turkish foot soldiers. In 1605, Johann Tserclaes Tilly was appointed a field marshal of Austria.
In 1610, Field Marshal Tilly switched his allegiance to the Bavarian Duke Maximilian. The duke appointed the already renowned commander as the chief commander of his army, granting him unlimited authority. By the start of the Thirty Years' War in 1618, Tilly led a well-trained and disciplined army. In 1620, he invaded Bohemia at the head of the Catholic League forces.
On June 22, 1622, a battle took place near Höchstädt between a 33,000-strong Imperial Army of the Habsburgs and their Catholic allies under Field Marshal Tilly and a 20,000-strong Palatinate army under Duke Christian of Brunswick. The Palatinate army suffered heavy losses, with approximately 12,000 killed, wounded, or captured. The Catholic forces suffered fewer losses, despite being on the offensive. In 1623, Tilly achieved another victory against the Protestants. On August 9, in the Battle of Stadtlohn, he defeated the combined forces of German Protestant monarchs under Duke Christian of Brunswick, whom he had previously encountered on the battlefield.
In 1630, a meeting of electors – the Catholic monarchs of German states within the Holy Roman Empire – was held in Regensburg. Wallenstein was removed from the position of chief commander of the Imperial Army, and at Emperor Ferdinand II's suggestion, Field Marshal Johann Tserclaes Tilly was appointed in his place. This was prompted by Sweden's entry into the Thirty Years' War, which posed a significant threat to the Catholic League. The first clashes with the Swedes revealed that the military leader of the Catholic League now had a formidable opponent.
On July 22, 1631, with his 25,000-strong army, Tilly attacked the fortified Swedish camp at Werben, commanded by King Gustavus Adolphus. However, the advancing Imperial forces could not withstand the fire from the Swedish batteries and the attack of the royal cavalry, and they retreated. After the initial failure, Tilly planned to launch another assault on the camp but learned that a 9,000-strong Swedish detachment was approaching Werben. He withdrew his army from the battlefield.
Prior to this, Tilly embarked on an unsuccessful campaign from Frankfurt an der Oder to Pomerania to relieve Catholic garrisons besieged by the Swedes in the strongholds of Kolberg and Demmin. However, the Imperial commander failed to reach them in time, and the fortresses surrendered to King Gustavus Adolphus. Tilly then attacked the Swedish camp near Schwedt but was unsuccessful. After this defeat, he turned his army and marched along the Elbe River towards Magdeburg. The garrison of Magdeburg consisted of only 2,000 soldiers and officers, excluding armed citizens. Tilly began a siege of the fortified city according to the rules of military art, constructing siege trenches up to the city walls. During the bombardment, one of the fortress towers collapsed. Soon, the besieged ran out of gunpowder, and their artillery fell silent. At the beginning of the assault, the Magdeburg commander, Falkenberg, was killed, leaving the garrison without a leader to resist the enemy.
The commander of the Holy Roman Empire earned the nickname "The Butcher of Magdeburg." This was his last victory in the Thirty Years' War. Tilly's fanatical cruelty as a Catholic soldier knew no bounds. After capturing the city of Neubrandenburg in March 1631, Catholic forces conducted a bloody massacre of the surrendering Swedish garrison. In response, King Gustavus Adolphus, after capturing the city of Frankfurt an der Oder, where Tilly left an 8,000-strong garrison for its defense, allowed his Protestant soldiers to pillage the city for three hours, surrendering to their rage and madness.
Then, Field Marshal Johann Tserclaes Tilly led a punitive campaign with his 25,000-strong Catholic army through Saxony. In early September 1631, he positioned his army and fortified a camp near Leipzig. By that time, Tilly had not yet suffered a single defeat, although he had often withdrawn his forces from the battlefield without engaging the enemy.
On September 17, two great European commanders, who had never been defeated before, clashed in the Battle of Breitenfeld near Leipzig. Tilly believed in his victory when the troops pursuing the retreating Saxons returned to the battlefield. However, they were unexpectedly attacked by the Swedes and pushed back into the forest. The clash was so fierce that only four Imperial regiments managed to hold their positions in the woods. This offensive surge by the royal soldiers changed the course of the battle.
King Gustavus Adolphus outplayed Field Marshal Count Tilly in the Battle of Breitenfeld. The reorganized Swedish army encircled the combined forces of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic League by the evening. The Catholics lost 7,000 men killed and 6,000 captured, while the Swedes only lost 700 out of a total of 2,700 casualties. After suffering such a heavy defeat, the Imperial commander managed to replenish his shattered army. He decided to halt the Swedish advance into Bavaria at the Lech River. All bridges across the river were destroyed. The Elector of Bavaria brought his available forces to Tilly's camp near the fortress of Rain. The approaching Swedish army, under the cover of fire from 72 cannons set up on the higher opposite bank of the Lech, began constructing a bridge. Gustavus Adolphus ordered the burning of wet wood and straw to conceal the construction work from the enemy behind a smokescreen.
Tilly, disregarding his own safety, motivated the Bavarian soldiers. During this time, a hostile falconet shot shattered his leg, and he soon succumbed to his wounds, despite receiving medical attention from the Swedish king's personal surgeon in the city of Ingolstadt. The Bavarian army retreated from its positions on the Lech River. The Swedes crossed the river without opposition.
With the death of Field Marshal Johann Tserclaes Tilly, the Imperial Army and the Catholic League lost an irreplaceable military leader in the Thirty Years' War. The Catholic Church also lost one of its most zealous advocates.
