MANSFELD (manslelt), COUNTS OF, an old German noble family (founded about 1060), whose ancestral castle stood at the E. end of the Harz Moun tains, 14 miles N. W. of Halle. COUNT PETER ERNEST I., afterward elevated to the rank of a prince, was born July 15, 1517. Having taken part in Charles V.'s expedition against Tunis, and distin guished himself afterward at the siege of Landrecies, he was made by the em peror governor of the duchy of Luxem burg. But in 1552, while raiding in Champagne, he was taken prisoner by the French, and not ransomed till 1557. He fought against them again at St. Quentin. On the outbreak of the revolt in the Low Countries he made a name as one of the cleverest generals in the Spanish service. In 1597 he retired to Luxemburg, where he had gathered a valuable collection of antique art, and died there May 22, 1604. His illegiti mate son, PETER ERNEST II., usually called COUNT ERNEST VON MANSFELD, was born at Luxemburg in 1580 and served his apprenticeship to war in the Austrian service in Hungary and in the Juliers dispute. As part of his reward he was promised his father's possess ions; but finally they were refused to him. He thereupon went over to the side of the Protestant princes. He assisted the Duke of Savoy against the Spaniards (1613-1617), and in 1618 was dispatched to Bohemia to aid the Count-Palatine Frederick, and captured Pilsen and other strongholds. But the disaster of the
Weissenberg compelled him to retreat to the Palatinate, from which he car ried on for nearly two years a semi predatory war on the imperialists, de feating Tilly at Wiesloch (April, 1622). When Frederick abandoned the struggle, Mansfeld fought his way through the Spanish-Austrian forces to take service for the United Netherlands, beating Cor dova at Fleurus. At the bidding of his new masters Mansfeld chastised the Count of East Friesland, and then, dis missing his army, retired into private life at The Hague. But in 1624 he re sumed active work again at the solici tation of Richelieu. With an army of 12,000 men, raised mostly in England, he renewed the struggle on the Lower Elbe, till in 1626 he was crushingly de feated by Wallenstein at the bridge at Dessau. Once more raising a force of 12,000 in Brandenburg, with these and 5,000 Danes he marched by way of Si lesia to join hands in Moravia and Hun gary with Bethlen Gabor of Transyl vania. But the French and English sub sidies failing, he was making his way to Venice with a few officers to raise fresh moneys when he fell sick and died, at Racowitza, near Serajevo in Bosnia, Nov. 29, 1626.