Before Freedom of Religion: The Battle of Muhlberg in 1547

Recently I was studying the Age of Religious Wars in Europe, which lasted from about 1550 to 1650. In particular, I was wondering: what was the first full-scale battle between Catholics and Protestants? I think it was the Battle of Muhlberg in 1547....

The Catholic leader in this battle was Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and also the king of Spain. Must be nice! The Protestant leader was John Frederick I of Saxony.

John Frederick knew the emperor was coming for him so he was on his way to his stronghold in Wittenberg. On the way he set up camp at a town on the Elbe River called Muhlberg. John actually had a larger force than the emperor at first, but he sent many of his troops to Bavaria hoping to encourage a Protestant uprising there. With those troops gone, the emperor had the larger army.

John left only a few guards along the Elbe because he thought it was too wide for Charles to cross. Charles reached the river on the evening of April 23, 1547 and, against the advice of his commanders, decided to attack the Protestants at Muhlberg.

At dawn on April 24, 1547, in a dense fog, some Spanish and Italian soldiers in the emperor’s army were able to swim across the river and eliminate the Saxon guards. At the same time a local farmer helped the Imperial troops find a place where they could ford the river. In a great stroke of luck for Charles his cavalry found a pontoon bridge the Saxons had made and then failed to destroy so they crossed on that.

John was so sure he was safe that he was actually sending some of his commanders to religious services at the very time the bulk of Charles's army was crossing the river. When he finally realized an enemy force was approaching, his first thought was to head for safety at Wittenberg but he decided it was too late to get his army moving. He thought, or hoped, it was only Charles's advance guard attacking him so he decided to fight.

John lined up his army, which was mostly made up of peasant soldiers with little experience, along the edge of a forest. He hoped this would make it difficult for the enemy cavalry to encircle him and also give his troops a safe escape route if they should need it.

Charles arranged his larger and more experienced force with infantry in the center and cavalry on both wings. The Saxons fought reasonably well and repelled the initial assaults. After that the larger numbers and greater experience of the emperor’s army began to tell and John's force was essentially battered to pieces. John himself was in the thick of the battle and received a slashing wound to the face before he was captured.

There are different accounts about the numbers of casualties in this battle. In general, accounts seem to agree that John's Protestant army had thousands killed, wounded, or captured. The Catholic army of the emperor had only about 50 killed.

After the battle John Frederick I was condemned as a heretic and sentenced to death. His sentence was soon commuted to life in prison and he was actually released after five years. He returned to his home territories and died a couple of years later.

Ten years after John died, Charles V, worn out from being an Emperor, retired to a monastery and died a year later.

I think the Battle of Muhlberg was the first full-scale battle between Catholics and Protestants. There would be many more battles in the 100 years of religious wars that followed.

If we just look at the Battle of Muhlberg the Catholics won a crushing victory. If look at the whole bloody Age of Religious Wars... nobody won. Everybody lost.

Finally, in the second half of the 1600s the best thinkers in Europe started to wonder: what if we just have freedom of religion? What if we just let everybody follow whatever religious beliefs they choose for themselves? Maybe we should try that!

That was a good idea!

Read more about the battle here: The Battle of Muhlberg

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