“ That the League achieved the successes which it actually did, was to the credit of Tilly and his men rather than to any action of the allied princes. It may be that Tilly cannot be considered as great a soldier as Wallenstein; it should, however, be borne in mind that the League army never possessed the prestige of an imperial force: that Tilly was repeatedly thwarted by political considerations, and that, even so, the hardest part of the task was achieved by the League army. ”

“ In 1602 he became colonel in the imperial army, and raised a regiment of Walloon infantry, which he commanded in the assault on Budapest, receiving a severe wound. In 1604 he was made general of artillery, and handled his new force with conspicuous success; the campaign of this year showed Tilly as a soldier of great capacity, and in 1605 he was made a field-marshal. ”

“ His part in the dissensions in Austria, which preluded the Thirty Years War, was marked by unswerving loyalty and devotion to the emperor and the Catholic religion. In 1610 he left the service of the emperor to enter that of Maximilian, duke of Bavaria, the head of the Catholic League. ”