 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2012) |
Johann Tserclaes Count of Tilly | |
|---|---|
 Count Tilly on a portrait | |
| Nickname(s) | The Monk in Armor |
| Born | February 1559 Castle Tilly, Duchy of Brabant, Spanish Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire |
| Died | 30 April 1632 (aged 73) Ingolstadt, Electoral Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance |  Spain Holy Roman Empire Bavaria |
| Service | Army of Flanders Army of the Catholic League (German) Imperial Army (Holy Roman Empire) |
| Years of service | 1574–1632 |
| Rank | Generalfeldmarschall |
| Battles / wars | |
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 to 1631, he won an unmatched and demoralizing string of important victories against the Protestants, including White Mountain, Wimpfen, Höchst, Stadtlohn and the Conquest of the Palatinate. He destroyed a Danish army at Lutter and 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 Breitenfeld in 1631 by the Swedish army of King 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 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.