Who commanded the Catholic League forces at the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631?

Johann Tilly commanded the Catholic League forces at the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631. His full name was Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, and he was the leading field commander of the Catholic League during the early decades of the Thirty Years’ War.

At Breitenfeld, fought near Leipzig on 17 September 1631, Tilly led a combined Imperial and Catholic League army against a Swedish-Saxon force commanded by Gustavus Adolphus and John George I of Saxony. Tilly’s subordinate Gottfried Heinrich zu Pappenheim commanded the cavalry on the army’s left wing, but he was not the overall commander.

The battle ended in a decisive Swedish-Saxon victory and badly damaged the Catholic League’s military position. Tilly’s army suffered thousands of casualties and prisoners, while the defeat demonstrated the effectiveness of Gustavus Adolphus’s mobile artillery and coordinated infantry-cavalry tactics. Tilly survived Breitenfeld but was fatally wounded at the Battle of Rain in April 1632. Maximilian I of Bavaria was the political leader of Bavaria, not the battlefield commander at Breitenfeld.