Ernst von Mansfeld was a German military commander in the Thirty Years War. Although he fought for the Protestant cause, Mansfeld was a Roman Catholic. He was considered one of the most dangerous opponent of the Catholic League. He was born in 1580 as the illegitimate son of Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld-Vorderort and Dorothea von Solms- Lich. In 1594 he served under Archduke Leopold. Then, in 1610 he joined Frederick V and the Protestant Union. At the age 36 he led his first regiment of 2000 men. He fought for the Protestant Union until he died from illness in November, 1626.
In the Bohemian Phase of the Thirty Years’ War Mansfeld led an army of 2000 men, raised by the Duke of Savoy, to aid the