Battle of Breitenfeld (1631)
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The Battle of Breitenfeld or First Battle of Breitenfeld, was fought at a crossroads near Breitenfeld approximately 8 km north-west of the walled city of Leipzig on 17 September, or 7 September, 1631. A Swedish-Saxon army led by King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden and Saxon Elector John George I defeated an Imperial-Catholic League Army led by Generalfeldmarschall Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly. It was the Protestants' first major victory of the Thirty Years War.
Gustavus Adolphus at the battle of Breitenfeld, painting by J. J. Walther, 1632 painting in the Musée historique de Strasbourg.
Landing of Gustav II Adolf in Pomerania (1630) by an unknown artist.
Contemporary German newspaper image from the 1630s depicting Gustavus Adolplhus forcing Pope Urban VIII, the symbol of the Catholic faith, to surrender all Protestant cities and fortresses in Germany conquered by the Catholics.
Generalfeldmarschall Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial and Catholic League Armies respectively. Engraving by Anthony van Dyck.
Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly was a field marshal who commanded the Catholic League's forces in the Thirty Years' War. From 1620–31, he had 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 death of some 20,000 of the city's inhabitants, both defenders and non-combatants, out of a total population of 25,000.
Bronze statue of Count Tilly in the Feldherrnhalle on Odeonsplatz in Munich
Statue of Tilly in Altötting
Statue of Tilly in the hall of fame of the Museum of Military History, Vienna