MANSFELD  , the name of an old and illustrious

German family which took its name from Mansfeld in Saxony, where it was seated from the 11th to the 18th century . One of its earliest members was Hoyer von Mansfeld (d . 1115), a partisan of the emperor Henry V. during his struggles with the Saxons; he fought for Henry at Warnstadt and was killed in his service at Welfesholz . Still more famous was Albert, count of Mansfeld (148o-156o), an intimate friend of Luther and one of the earliest and staunchest supporters of the Reformation . He helped to crush the rising of the peasants under Thomas Munzer in Thuringia in 1525; he was a member of the league of Schmalkalden, and took part in all the movements of the Protestants against Charles V . With Albert was associated his brother Gebhard, and another member of the family was Johann' Gebhard, elector here he died on the 25th of November 1626 . He was buried at Spalato . See F . Stieve, Ernst von Mansfeld (Munich, 1890); R . Reuss, Graf Ernst von Mansfeld im behmischen Kriege (Brunswick, 1865); A . C. de Villermont, Ernest de Mansfeldt (Brussels, 1866); L . Graf Uetterodt zu Schaffenberg, Ernst Graf zu Mansfeld (Gotha; 1867); J .

Grossmann,

Des Grafen Ernst von Mansfeld letzte Plane and Thaten (Breslau, 187o) ; E . Fischer, Des Mansfelders Tod (Berlin, 1873) ; S . R . Gardiner, History of England, vols. iv. and v . (1901) ; J., L . Motley, Life and Death of John of Barneveld (ed . 1904; vol. ii.) .