The Battle of White Mountain

JAN 01 1620 · 12:00

Pieter Snayers, The Battle of White Mountain. The Catholic League and Imperial forces under Tilly and Bucquoy break the Bohemian army in under two hours on the chalky plateau west of Prague. Place: Bílá hora, the chalk plateau west of Prague Figures: Christian of Anhalt, Protestant commander · Maximilian I of Bavaria, Catholic League · Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly · Frederick V, the Winter King, dining at the castle when it began The Protestant army of the Bohemian Estates and Frederick V (Elector Palatine, elected king of Bohemia in November 1619 in defiance of the Habsburgs) takes the ridge of the White Mountain on the morning of 8 November 1620. Christian of Anhalt commands twenty-one thousand men, ill-paid, mostly Bohemian and German Protestant, with some Hungarian and Dutch contingents. They have built a thin earthwork. They expect the Catholic army to assault uphill. Tilly and Maximilian arrive with twenty-five thousand men of the Catholic League and the imperial army, well-paid and recently confessed. Around midday Maximilian, against Tilly's caution, orders the attack. The Bohemian center collapses in the first volley. The Hungarian cavalry flees. The Moravian infantry, alone, stands and is annihilated. The battle lasts under two hours.