Pappenheim, Gottfried Heinrich, Graf Zu

Related Category: German History: Biographies

(gôt´frēt hīn´rĭkh gräf ts pä´pənhīm), 1594–1632, German military leader, imperial field marshal in the Thirty Years War. A convert to Roman Catholicism, he became a counselor in the service of the Holy Roman emperor, but soon abandoned this position for a military career. In the early stages of the Thirty Years War he fought with Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria and the Catholic League, and he distinguished himself against the Protestant Union under Frederick the Winter King at the battle of White Mt. (1620). He entered the imperial service in 1623. On May 20, 1631, he led the assault against the Protestant city of Magdeburg, which was sacked and virtually destroyed by his troops. Pappenheim was defeated (September) with Baron von Tilly by the Swedish king, Gustavus Adolphus (Gustavus II), at Breitenfeld, but his cavalry was later effective in raids on small bands of Swedish troops. Fighting under the imperial commander Albrecht von Wallenstein, he was mortally wounded at Lutzen.