The Battle of Mühlberg took place near Mühlberg in the Electorate of Saxony in 1547, during the Schmalkaldic War. The Catholic princes of the Holy Roman Empire led by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V decisively defeated the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League of Protestant princes under the command of Elector John Frederick I of Saxony and Landgrave Philip I of Hesse.
The Battle of Mühlberg by Luis de Ávila y Zúñiga (1550)
Titian's Equestrian Portrait of Charles I of Spain and V of the Holy Roman Empire (1548) celebrates Charles' victory at Mühlberg
Battle of Mühlberg 1547 and imprisonment of elector Johann Friedrich of Saxony (painting from 1630, Deutsches Historisches Museum)
The Schmalkaldic League was a military alliance of Lutheran princes within the Holy Roman Empire during the mid-16th century. It received its name from the town of Schmalkalden, which is located in modern Thuringia.
Schmalkaldic League military treaty, extended in 1536
Portrait of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse
John Frederick I of Saxony by Lucas Cranach the Younger
Charles V, enthroned over his defeated enemies (from left): Suleiman the Magnificent, Pope Clement VII, Francis I, the Duke of Cleves, the Landgrave of Hesse, and the Duke of Saxony. Giulio Clovio, mid-16th century.
