Ernst von Mansfeld Biography

Dromo's Den

MANSFELD, Ernst, Count (1580-1626). A German soldier, born in Luxemburg. He was the illegitimate son of Peter Ernst, Count of Mansfeld, and was educated by his godfather, Archduke Ernst of Austria. In return for valuable military services under his half brother in Austria he was legitimized by Rudolph II. The title and estates of his father were, however, withheld from him, and in revenge he joined the enemies of Austria in the Thirty Years' War as a stanch Protestant champion. He fought gallantly in Bohemia and on the Rhine for the Elector Palatine. His efforts failed, but brought him great renown. In 1625, under the leadership of Christian IV of Denmark and aided by English and French subsidies, he again attacked Austria. Wallenstein met and overcame his force at Dessau, April, 1626. But Mansfeld soon gathered a new army of 12,000 men and marched, in the summer of the same year, through Moravia and Hungary to join the forces of Bethlen-Gábor (q.v.) of Transylvania. When the latter made peace with the Emperor, Mansfeld tried to escape to Venice, but died on the way, in Rakowitza, near Serajevo, before the close of the year. Consult: Reuss, Graf Ernst von Mansfeld in böhmischen Krieg, 1618-21 (Brunswick, 1865); Villermont, Ernest de Mansfeld (Brussels, 1866); Grossmann, Des Grafen Ernst von Mansfeld letzte Pläne tend Taten (Breslau, 1876).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XV (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 23.