Thirty Years' War

The Thirty Years' War was a conflict fought between the years 1618 and 1648, principally in the Central European territory of the Holy Roman Empire, but also involving most of the major continental powers. It occurred for a number of reasons. Although it was from its outset a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, the self-preservation of the Habsburg dynasty was also a central motive.

Origins of the war

The Peace of Augsburg (1555) confirmed the result of the 1526 Diet of Speyer and ended the violence between the Lutherans and the Catholics in Germany.

Related Topics:
Peace of Augsburg - 1555 - 1526 - Diet of Speyer - Lutherans

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It said that;

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• German Princes (numbering 225) could choose the religion (Lutheranism or Catholicism) for their realms according to their conscience (the principle of cuius regio eius religio).
• Lutherans living in an ecclesiastical state (under the control of a bishop) could remain Lutherans.
• Lutherans could keep the territory that they had captured from the Catholic Church since the Peace of Passau (1552).
• The ecclesiastical leaders of the Catholic Church (bishops) that converted to Lutheranism had to give up their territory (archbishoprics/bishoprics).

Political and economic tensions grew among many of the powerful nations of Europe in the early 17th century.

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• Spain was interested in the German states, because it held the territories of the Spanish Netherlands on the western border of the German states;
• France was interested in the German states, because it wanted to quell the growing power of the Habsburgs, whose realms surrounded France on land;
• Sweden and Denmark were interested in gaining control over northern German states bordering the Baltic Sea.

Religious tensions were growing throughout the second half of the 16th Century as well. The Peace of Augsburg was unraveling throughout the second half of the century as some converted bishops had not given up their bishoprics; as Calvinism was spreading throughout Germany, adding a third major religion to the region; and as certain Catholic rulers in Spain and Eastern Europe sought to restore the power of Catholicism in the region.

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Much to the consternation of their Spanish ruling cousins, the Habsburg emperors who followed the tolerant Charles V (especially Ferdinand I and Maximilian II, but also Rudolf II, and his successor Matthias) were supportive towards their subjects' religious choices, being aware of the deathly evils and turmoil England had suffered due to official religious intolerance starting in 1534 under King Henry VIII and his successors. They avoided religious wars within the empire by allowing the different religions to spread there, which upset those who wanted religious uniformity. Sweden and Denmark, meanwhile, were both Lutheran kingdoms and sought to assist the Protestant cause in the empire as well as to gain political and economic influence.

Related Topics:
Charles V - Ferdinand I - Maximilian II - Rudolf II - Matthias - 1534 - Henry VIII - Protestant

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These tensions broke into violence in the German free city of Donauwörth in 1606. The Lutheran majority barred the Catholic residents of the Swabian town from holding a procession, causing a violent riot to break out. This prompted foreign intervention by Duke Maximilian of Bavaria (1573-1651) on behalf of the Catholics. After the violence ceased, the Calvinists in Germany (who were still in their infancy and quite a minority) felt the most threatened, so they banded together in the League of Evangelical Union, created in 1608 under the leadership of the Palatine elector Frederick IV(1583-1610), (whose son, Frederick V, married Elizabeth Stuart, the daughter of James I of England). He had control of the Rhenish Palatinate, one of the very states along the Rhine River that Spain wanted to acquire. This provoked Catholics to band together in the Catholic League (created in 1609) under the leadership of the afore-mentioned Duke Maximilian.

Related Topics:
Free city - Donauwörth - 1606 - Swabia - Maximilian of Bavaria - League of Evangelical Union - 1608 - Palatine - Elector - Frederick IV - James I of England - Catholic League - 1609

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Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, died without descendents in 1619, and his lands went to his nearest male relative, his cousin Ferdinand of Styria. Ferdinand, who became King of Bohemia and Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, was a staunch Catholic who had been educated by the Jesuits and who wanted to restore Catholicism. He was therefore unpopular in mainly Calvinist Bohemia, whose rejection of Ferdinand launched the Thirty Years' War, which can be divided into four major phases: the Bohemian Revolt, Danish intervention, Swedish intervention, and the French intervention.

Related Topics:
1619 - Styria - Bohemia - Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor - Jesuits

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