Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly

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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	Altötting
Allegiance	Spain  Holy Roman Empire  Bavaria
Service / branch	Army of Flanders Army of the Catholic League (German) Imperial Army (Holy Roman Empire)
Years of service	1574–1632
Rank	Generalfeldmarschall
Battles / wars	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 Capture of Mannheim Battle of Stadtlohn Battle of Lutter Sack of Magdeburg Battle of Werben Battle of Breitenfeld (WIA) Battle of Bamberg Battle of Rain (DOW)

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.