TILLY, JOHANN TSERRLAES. Count of (1559 A Catholic general in the Thirty Years' War. He was horn at the Castle of Tilly. in Bra bant, in 1559. He received his military training in the Spanish armies, fought against the Turks in Hungary, and in 1610 was selected by Duke Maximilian of Bavaria to reorganize his army. At the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War (q.v.) he was placed in command of the forces of the Catholic League and on November 8, 1620, won the battle of the White Hill, near Prague, which put an end to the short reign of Frederick of the Palatinate in Bohemia. Ile then carried on the struggle in the Palatinate, was defeated by Mans feld and the Margrave of Baden-Durlach at \Vies loch (April 27, 1622), but gained a decisive vic tory over the latter at Wimpfen (May 6th) and defeated Christian of Brunswick at Ilochst (1622) and Stadtlohn (1623). For these ser vices he was created a count of the Empire. He defeated Christian 1V. of Denmark at Lutter (August 27, 1626), and cooperated with Wal lenstein in bringing about the complete triumph of the Catholics in this second phase of the Thirty Years' War. When the influence of the League
secured Wallenstein's retirement (1630), Tilly succeeded to the command of the imperial forces, and took by storm the town of Magdeburg (May 20, 1631). The atrocities which the Croats and lYalloons of his army perpetrated on this oc casion form a stain upon a character that was remarkable in that age for honesty and loyalty to conviction. The capture of Magdebnig was Tilly's last tritunph. Gustavus Adolphus com pletely routed him at Breitenfeld (September 17, 1631), In April. 1632, the Swedish King forced the passage of the river Lech in Tilly's front after a desperate conflict, in which Tilly was mortally wounded. He was removed to Ingob stadt. where he died. Consult : Villermont, Tilly (Tournay, 1S59) ; Klopp, Tilly im Dreissig jahrigen Kriege (Stuttgart, 1861), both written from the Catholic point of view; and Wittieh, .11aydebury, Gustav Adolf und Tilly (Berlin, 1874).