216 The Origins of the Thirty Years War and the Revolt in Bohemia, 1618
with the benefit of luck and the mismanagement of his enemies. The
League army caught up with him twelve miles from the city, where with
no camp prepared he would have been forced to fight, but Bucquoy’s
Imperialists were lagging a long way behind, depriving Tilly of numer-
ical superiority so that he had to delay his attack. As evening drew
in on 7 November it was too late, leaving Maximilian fuming at the
lost opportunity, while Anhalt slipped away in time to reach the White
Mountain, just outside Prague, where he arrayed his army during the
night for battle.^30
The White Mountain, Bílá Hora in Czech, is in truth no more than an
area of higher ground on the western outskirts of modern Prague, a tram
ride from the centre and today mostly built up on the city side, although
still open and overlooking the airport on the other. Nevertheless it pro-
vided a good defensive position for an army drawn up along the ridge,
so that even though Anhalt’s numbers were slightly smaller, estimated
at 23,000 men against 25,000 for Tilly and Bucquoy combined, and he
was significantly weaker in both infantry and heavy cavalry, he still had
a clear tactical advantage over his opponents.^31 Not only would they
have to attack uphill, a significant hindrance for men carrying heavy
weapons, as well as for the cavalry horses, but they could not see the
disposition of the opposing forces on the top, so that they knew nei-
ther how strong they were nor exactly where the main formations were
deployed.
Anhalt had intended to strengthen his defensive position further by
digging in along the ridge, but there had not been time, a problem aggra-
vated by the tiredness and reluctance of his men. Instead, as a Bohemian
officer recorded: ‘Our men, weary and exhausted from marching, skir-
mishing and standing watch day after day, as well as suffering from
hunger and thirst due to lack of money, laid themselves down beside
their weapons for a bit of rest.’^32 However there was one further help-
ful feature of the lie of the land for Anhalt, a marshy stream running
across the lower ground in front of the ridge and spanned only by a sin-
gle bridge. Crossing this would be a risky manoeuvre for his opponents,
exposing them to a counter-attack before their full strength was across,
and at the same time cutting off their retreat. Tilly ventured it never-
theless, taking advantage of the foggy morning early on 8 November
without consulting the cautious Bucquoy. His boldness was rewarded,
as although the move was observed and Thurn and others wanted to
strike back at him the equally cautious Anhalt refused, thus allowing not
only Tilly’s League forces but subsequently also Bucquoy’s Imperialists
to cross this obstacle.