The Thirty Years' War 1618-1648

 

 

 

 

 

The Origins of the Conflict (Why did the War Start?)

• The Peace of Augsburg of 1555 had brought a temporary truce in the religious connict in the German states.
• This settlement had recognized only Lutherans and Roman Catholics, but Calvinism had subsequently made gains in a number of states. The Calvinists began to demand recognition of their rights.
• The Thirty Years' War began, however, as a direct result of a conflict in the Hapsburg-ruled Kingdom of Bohemia.

 

The Bohemian Period (1618-1625)

 

• In 1617, the Bohemian Diet elected Ferdinand of Styria as king of Bohemia.
• Ferdinand, a member of the Hapsburg family, became Holy Roman emperor two years later, as Ferdinand II (r. 1619-1637), after his cousin Matthis (HRE) died
• He was an ardent supporter of the Catholic cause. This angered the majority of Bohemians, as they were Protestants and saw him as intolerant of their religious beliefs.

 

 

Defenestration of Prague

• Ferdinand's election alarmed Bohemian Calvinists, who feared the loss of their religious rights.
• In May 1618, the Calvinist revolt began when the rebels threw two Catholic members of the Bohemian royal council from a window some seventy feet above the ground.
• Both councillors fell into a pile of manure, and suffered only minor injuries.

 

Battle of White Mountain

• A few hours after being elected, Ferdinand learned to his horror that rebels in Bohemia had deposed him and elected Frederick, the Calvanist Elector of the Palatinate, as their king.
• Since he did not have an army, Ferdinand had to turn to the Duke of Bavaria, Maximilian I (1573-1651), the leader of Catholic League, who agreed to lend him his support in exchange for the electoral right enjoyed by the Palatinate.
• Troops of the Holy Roman Empire and Bavari commanded by Baron Tilly (1559-1632), invaded Bohemia.
• Tilly won a decisive victory over the forces of Frederick V, near Prague.
• Frederick fled to Holland where he became known as the Winter King, since he held onto the Bohemian throne for only that season. By 1622, he had lost not only Bohemia, but also the Palatinate.

 

Emperor Ferdinand II regained the Bohemian throne,

Maximilian of Bavaria acquired the Palatinate.

 

The Bohemian phase of the Thirty Years' War thus ended with a Hapsburg and Catholic victory.

 

Then why did the war not end in 1622?

1. There were still private armies throughout the Empire that wanted to keep on fighting to make a living.
2. Because of the perceived threat to Germany, outsiders such as the King of Denmark became involved.
3. Both Catholic & Protestant rulers worried that the traditional constitution of the HRE had been dramatically altered when the Palatinate's electoral vote was given to Bavaria.

 

Taking the vote from the Palatinate was deemed an attack on  “German liberties,” or the independence and political rights enjoyed by territories within the HR empire.

 

The Danish Period (1625-1629)

 

• The Danish period of the conflict began when King Christian IV, the Lutheran ruler of Denmark, supported the Protestants in 1625 against Ferdinand.
• King Christian was also the duke of Holstein and a prince of the HRE
• Ferdinand secured the assistance of Albrecht von Wallenstein, who vowed to create a vast mercenary army.
• By 1628, he controlled an army of 125,000 and had won major victories in the north.
• The high-water mark for Habsburg success came with the Edict of Restitution of 1629.

 

Edict of Restitution of 1629

 

• Outlawed Calvinism in the Empire and required Lutherans to turn over all property seized since 1552
• 16 bishoprics
• 28 cities & towns
• 155 monasteries and convents

 

• This led the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, to enter the war in order to defend Protestant rights in Germany.

 

 

The Treaty of Lubeck of 1629 restored Holstein to Christian IV, but the Danish king pledged not to intervene further in German affairs.

 

The Danish period of the war, like the Bohemian period, thus ended with a Hapsburg and Catholic victory.

 

 

 

 

 

The Swedish Period (1630-1635)

 

• The Catholic victories alarmed Protestants almost everywhere. The victories of the emperor endangered the independence of the German princes, while the French Bourbons were concerned about the growth of Hapsburg power.

 

 

 

The new Protestant leader became King Gustavus Adolphus (r. 1611-1632) of Sweden. In the summer of 1630, the Swedes moved into Germany. Later in the year, France and Sweden signed an alliance, and France entered the war against the Hapsburgs

 

 

• The Thirty Years' War had begun primarily as a German conflict over religious issues.
• The conflict now became a wider European war, fought mainly over political issues, as Catholic France and Protestant Sweden joined forces against the Catholic Hapsburgs.
• During the early stages of the conflict, the Swedes won several notable victories. Tilly, the imperial commander, fell in battle in 1632.

 

• Emperor Ferdinand II called on Wallenstein to form a new army. In November 1632, at the Battle of Lutzen, the Swedes defeated Wallenstein, but Gustavus Adolphus was killed in the fighting.
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• When Wallenstein entered into secret negotiations with Sweden and France, he was assassinated a few days later. The emperor's army decisively defeated the Swedes at Nordlingen in southern Germany.

 

 

The Treaty of Prague

 

• The deaths of both Gustavus Adolphus and Wallenstein, together with the exhaustion of both the Holy Roman emperor and the German Protestant princes, brought an end to the Swedish period of the war.
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• The Treaty of Prague, 1635 generally strengthened the Hapsburgs and weakened the power of the German princes.

 

 

The French Period (1635- 1648)

• The settlement reached in the Treaty of Prague was wrecked by the French decision to intervene directly in the war.

• Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642), the chief minister of King Louis XIII of France wanted to weaken the power of the Hapsburgs and take the province of Alsace from the Holy Roman Empire.
• In addition, Richelieu was plotting against Spain and its Hapsburg king, Philip IV
• Both in Germany and in the Franco-Spanish conflict, the fortunes of war fluctuated.
• For a time, the forces of the Holy Roman emperor, aided by King Maximilian of Bavaria and other Catholic princes, more than held their own against the Swedes and German Protestants.
• France's success against Spain enabled the French to send larger forces into Germany. This helped tip the balance in favor of the emperor's foes.

 

 

Emperor Ferdinand II died in 1637 and was succeeded by his son, Ferdinand III.

Peace negotiations began in 1641, but made little progress until the death of Cardinal Richelieu in 1642 and the French occupation of Bavaria in 1646.

 

 

The Peace of Westphalia (1648)

 

 

 

• The Peace of Westphalia of 1648 ended the Thirty Years' War.

• Sweden acquired western Pomerania, Eastern Pomerania was assigned to Brandenburg. France annexed part of Alsace and some nearby territory.
• The settlement formally recognized the independence of the Dutch Republic and Switzerland and granted the German states the right to make treaties and alliances, thereby further weakening the authority of the Holy Roman emperor.
• In religious affairs, the Peace of Westphalia expanded the Peace of Augsburg to include Calvinists, as well as Catholics and Lutherans.
• The Peace of Westphalia ended the Holy Roman emperor's hope of restoring both his own power and the Catholic faith throughout the empire. The empire was now fragmented into a number of virtually independent states.
• The end of the Thirty Years' War left Hapsburg Spain isolated.
• The French war against Spain continued until 1659, when the Treaty of the Pyrenees awarded France part of the Spanish Netherlands and some territory in northern Spain. King Philip IV of Spain agreed to the marriage of his daughter Maria Theresa to King Louis XIV of France.
• Together, the Peace of Westphalia and the Treaty of the Pyrenees established France as the predominant power on the European continent.