Bílá Hora

(White Mountain), a mountain to the west of Prague, where on Nov. 8, 1620, during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), a battle between Czech troops (the Protestant Union) and the Imperial Bavarian Army (the Catholic League) occurred. The Czech troops (numbering 33,000), under the command of Christian of Anhalt, had occupied a defensive position on Bflá Hora and were attacked by the imperial troops (commanded by J. Tilly) and the Bavarian troops (under Maximilian of Bavaria), numbering 48,000 in all and under the general command of L. Bucquoy. The Czechs were defeated after a stubborn battle. The feudal-Catholic reactionary forces avenged themselves cruelly on the Czech national uprising. Bohemia lost its independence, and for 300 years it remained under the domination of the Austrian Hapsburgs.