Battle of Mühlberg

The Battle of Mühlberg by Luis de Ávila y Zúñiga (1550)

Date	24 April 1547
Location	Mühlberg, Saxony, Holy Roman Empire (present-day Germany)
Result	Decisive Imperial-Spanish victory

Belligerents

Schmalkaldic League:

Electorate of Saxony

Hesse

Electorate of the Palatinate

Bremen

Lübeck

Brunswick-Lüneburg
Other German territories

Empire of Charles V:

Commanders and leaders

John Frederick I (POW)

Philip I of Hesse (POW)

Charles V

Duke of Alba

Ferdinand I

Strength

12,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry (15 guns)

25,000 infantry and 4,500 cavalry (20 guns)

Casualties and losses

7,000 dead or wounded
1,000 prisoners

200 dead or wounded

Schmalkaldic League:

Empire of Charles V:

The Battle of Mühlberg was a large battle at Mühlberg in the Electorate of Saxony in 1547, during the Protestant Reformation. 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 Imperial-Spanish forces were commanded by Emperor Charles V and his commander-in-chief in Germany, Don Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba. The Schmalkaldic League's commanders could not agree on any military actions on the battlefield, thereby allowing Charles' forces to run through the league's defences.

The Emperor was 47 years old at the time, and suffering from gout. He was therefore carried to the battle in a litter, rather than on the great warhorse in modern armour depicted by his court painter, Titian.

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