Battle of Höchst The Battle of Höchst was fought on June 20 , 1622 , between the combined army led by Johan Tzerclaes , Count of Tilly and Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba against Protestant forces led by Christian of Brunswick . It was a strategic Roman Catholic victory . Background . In April 1622 , Tilly had lost the Battle of Mingolsheim to Ernst von Mansfeld and Georg Friedrich of Baden - Durlach . He withdrew his weakened army towards Würzburg , and the Electorate of the Palatinate remained unprotected by the Catholic forces . Christian wanted to use the situation for a crucial strike against the Catholic League . With 12 , 000 infantrymen , nearly 5 , 000 cavalrymen and three guns he moved from Westphalia along the Weser River shoreline , and through Hesse towards the Main to unify his troops with armies of Mansfeld and Baden - Durlach , at Darmstadt . Continuing their mission of blocking a rendezvous between Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick , the Catholic forces reached the river at Höchst on June 20 to find Christian ' s army already crossing the river . Battle . On June 15 , Christian reached the territory of the Archbishopric of Mainz at Oberursel . He sent " Colonel von Kniephausen " with an advance guard of 1 , 500 men against Höchst to take the town in a coup de main and to safeguard the Main crossing point . However , the Höchst municipal troops successfully defended the town . Kniephausen besieged Höchst . On June 16 , Kniephausen ' s troops finally stormed and plundered Höchst . Two days later the Protestants started building a pontoon bridge across the Main . Meanwhile Christian moved with his troops towards Höchst and destroyed the villages of Oberusel , Eschborn and Sulzbach . At the same time the Catholic troops approached in forced marches from Würzburg with 20 , 000 infantrymen , 6 , 000 cavalrymen and 18 guns . They arrived on June 19 at the Nidda River between Nied and Sossemheim late at night . When the bridge was completed in the morning of June 20 , Christian ' s baggage started to cross the river . Christian formed his troops to fight the Catholics at Sossenheim . Meanwhile Tilly ' s troops were reinforced by an army under General Franz von Hövelberg . They planned to force Christian ' s troops back to the Höchst walls and the Main . Hence , Christian ordered his troops to withdraw over the pontoon bridge towards Kelsterbach , but under the Catholic artillery fire the withdrawal turned into a headlong flight . The bridge broke and many of Christian ' s soldiers drowned in the Main . According to old chronicles , the Protestants lost more Lansquenets from drowning than in the battle itself . Christian ' s entire baggage train and guns became Catholic loot . While the League troops lost only 100 soldiers , nearly 2 , 000 of Christian ' s soldiers died . However , Christian succeeded in escaping with 3 , 000 cavalrymen , 8 , 000 infantrymen , his war chest and eventually united with Mansfeld ' s army . Aftermath . Córdoba and Tilly claimed a strategic victory because they had fewer losses , despite the fact that Christian of Brunswick had achieved his operational goal of uniting his army with Mansfeld ' s . Höchst was the final battle for the Electorate of the Palatinate and the impending actions of Mansfeld and Christian signalled the end for " The Winter King " Frederick V . Shortly after the battle , the combined Protestant forces , now numbering 25 , 000 strong , compared to the Catholics in numbers , positioned themselves on the western bank of the Rhine River . Heidelberg came under siege and despite an 11 - week resistance , fell on September 19 , 1622 . With this news , the token English forces under Sir Horace Vere evacuated Mannheim and moved to the fortress of Frankenthal , which served as a final outpost for Protestant resistance in this area . It fell the following year . Illustrations of the battle . The Swiss engraver Merian depicted the battle and the bridging of the Main in an engraving . Another contemporary engraving of an unknown artist shows the battle in a large panorama . The Flemish painter Pieter Snayers portrayed the battle in a monumental painting that today is on exhibition in a museum in Brussels . Neither of these artists had been an eye witness of the event .