Das Tillylied - Thirty Years’ War Song

The Tillylied - or “Tilly Song“ was written in the aftermath of the Siege of Magdeburg, and became quite popular with the forces of the Catholic League, led by Johann Tserclaes, the Count of Tilly, the “Iron Monk“. The Thirty Years War was a long-lasting clash of mainly Catholic and Protestant forces that struggled for the status of religion within the Holy Roman Empire. It later involved other forces that tried to exploit the political instability for their own gains, such as France, Sweden, Russia and the Ottoman Empire helping the Protestants. A popular motto spread in the Protestant side, both in the context of Turkish support and in the conquest of Turkish expansion: “Better Turkish than Papist“, coincidentally similar to the Orthodox motto “Rather the Turkish Turban than the Papal Tiara“. The War eventually ended in a stalemate, with both forces not willing to drag it on for longer, and with religious peace being declared in the Holy Roman Emp