Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Tilly, Johann Tserclaes

TILLY, Johann Tserclaes, Count of (1559–1632), a famous general, was born in February 1559 at the chateau of Tilly in Brabant. It was originally intended that he should become a priest, and he was strictly educated by the Jesuits. He preferred, however, the life of a soldier, and began his military career in the Netherlands, under Alessandro Farnese, in the Spanish service. Afterwards he joined the imperial army, and as lieutenant -colonel under Duke Philip Emmanuel of Lorraine greatly distinguished himself in Hungary in the war against the Turks. For his brilliant achievements he was raised to the rank of field-marshal. In 1610 he was put by Maximilian I. at the head of his Bavarian army; and soon after the out break of the Thirty Years War he was made commander-in-chief of the troops of the Catholic League. In this position he displayed qualities which placed him among the foremost generals of the age. After the battle of Prague (the White Hill) in 1620 he thoroughly subdued Bohemia, and in 1622 conquered the Palatinate, a ser vice for which Ferdinand II. gave him the title of count. In 1623 he defeated Christian of Brunswick at Stadtlohn in Westphalia, and in 1626 Christian IV. of Denmark at Lutter in Brunswick. The consequence of the latter victory was that Tilly and Wallenstein were able to cross the Elbe; but, as Tilly was wounded before Pinneberg in Schleswig-Holstein, the task of finally compelling the king of Denmark to accept terms of peace had to be left to Wallenstein alone. When Wallenstein was obliged in 1630 to withdraw for a while into private life, Tilly added to the functions he already discharged those of commander of the imperial forces. From this time the only important success achieved by him was the storming of Magdeburg (May 1631), a success accompanied by frightful cruelties, for which he was at least in part responsible. Gustavus Adolphus had now come forward as the champion of Protestantism, and Tilly, with all his genius and tenacity, was not a match for the Swedish king. Four months after the capture of Magdeburg Tilly was defeated at Breitenfeld in Saxony, and was himself so severely wounded that he escaped from the field with difficulty. In March 1632 he drove the Swedes from Bamberg and placed himself in an entrenched camp at Rain to prevent them from passing over the Lech. Gustavus Adolphus crossed the stream, and in the fight which ensued Tilly was mortally wounded. He died in April 1632 at Ingolstadt, and was buried at Alt-Oetting in Bavaria.

Tilly was of medium height, reserved in manner, and wholly indifferent to external marks of honour. The Roman Church never had a more devoted servant, and he gave evidence of the essential simplicity of his character by declining the offer of the emperor to make him a prince and to grant to him the principality of Calenberg. As he was not married, his title and estates descended to his nephew.

See Klopp, Tilly im dreissigjährigen Kriege, Stuttgart, 1861, and Villermont, Tilly, Tournay, 1859.