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Thirty Years' War

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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 Defenestration of Prague, although relatively trivial in itself, was to become a defining moment. 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 first Diet of Speyer and ended the violence between the Lutherans in Germany and the Catholics.

It stated that:

  • German Princes (about 360 of them) could choose the religion (Lutheranism or Catholicism) of their realms according to their conscience.
  • 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. Spain was interested in the German states, because Philip II of Spain was a Habsburg and had the territories surrounding German states' western border; France was interested in the German states, because it wanted to quell the growing power of the Habsburgs since they surrounded France's eastern border; Sweden and Denmark were interested in the northern German states bordering the Baltic Sea for economic reasons.

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 since converted bishops had not given up their bishoprics; Calvinism was spreading throughout Germany, which added yet another religion to the region; the Catholics of eastern Europe (Poland and Austrian Habsburgs) were trying to restore the power of Catholicism.

The Habsburgs were primarily interested in extending their power, so they were sometimes prepared to work with the Protestants, which made tensions greater. Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, and his successor Matthias did not aggressively champion Catholicism since they were more interested in furthering the power and holdings of the Habsburgs. They were also very tolerant, which allowed the different religions to spread, creating more tension. Sweden and Denmark (who wanted control in German states on the Baltic Sea) were both mostly comprised of Lutherans.

These tensions broke into violence in the German town of Donauworth in 1606. The Lutheran majority barred the Catholic residents of the town from holding a procession, causing a violent riot to break out. This prompted Duke Maximilian of Bavaria (1573-1651) to intervene 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 Frederick IV (1583-1610), the elector of Palatinate (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 Duke Maximilian.

The Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia Matthias died without a biological heir in 1617, but had named his cousin Ferdinand of Styria as his heir. 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 had can be divided into four major periods: the Bohemian Revolt, Danish intervention, Swedish intervention, and the French intervention.

The Bohemian Revolt

Period: 1618-1625

Since the King of Bohemia was an elected office, the Bohemians chose as their preferred leader Frederick V, elector of the Palatinate (successor of Frederick IV, the creator of the League of Evangelical Union). When Ferdinand II sent two Catholic councillors (Martinitz and Slavata) as his representatives to Hradcany castle in Prague in May 1618 to make way for his arrival and kingship, the Bohemian Calvinists seized them and threw them out of a palace window. They survived by landing on a pile of manure.

This event, known as the Defenestration of Prague, began the Bohemian Revolt. Soon the Bohemian conflict erupted in the entirety of Greater Bohemia, effectively Bohemia, Silesia, Lusatia and Moravia, which was already riven by conflict between Catholics and Protestants. This confrontation was to find many facets and mirrors across the continent of Europe with the involvement of France, Sweden, inter alia.

Had the Bohemian rebellion remained a purely Eastern European affair, the Thirty Years War would have been over in fewer than thirty months. However, the weakness of both Ferdinand and of the Bohemians themselves led to the spread of the war to Western Germany. Ferdinand was compelled to call on his cousin, King Philip IV of Spain for assistance.

The Bohemians, desperate for allies against the Emperor, applied to be admitted to the Protestant Union, led by the Calvinist Frederick V, Elector Palatine. The Bohemians hinted that the Palatine Elector would become King of Bohemia if he allowed them to join the Union and come under its protection - however, similar offers were made by other members of the Bohemian Estates to the duke of Savoy, the Elector of Saxony, and Gabriel Bethlen of Transylvania. The Austrians, who seemed to have intercepted every letter leaving Prague, made public these duplicities, and unraveled much support for the Bohemians, particularly in the court of Saxony.

The rebellion initially favoured the Bohemians. They were joined in revolt by much of Upper Austria whose nobility was Lutheran and Calvinist (a fact that would swiftly change in the coming years.) Lower Austria revolted soon after and in 1619, Count Thurn led an army to the walls of Vienna itself. In the East, the Protestant Prince of Transylvania, Gabriel Bethlen, led a spirited campaign into Hungary with the blessings of the Turkish Sultan. The Emperor, who had been preoccupied with the Uzkok War, hurried to reform an army to stop the Bohemians and their allies from entirely overwhelming his country. Count Bucquoy, the commander of the Austrian army, defeated the forces of the Protestant Union at the Battle of Sablat, led by Count Mansfeld, on 10 June 1619. This cut off Count Thurn's communications with Prague, and he abandoned his siege of Vienna at once. Sablat also cost the Protestants an important ally - Savoy, long an opponent of Habsburg expansion, had already sent considerable sums to the Protestants and even troops to garrison fortresses in the Rhineland. The capture of Mansfeld's field chancery revealed the Savoyards' plot, and forced the embarassed duke to leave the war.

In spite of Sablat, Count Thurn's army continued to exist as an effective force, and Mansfeld managed to reform his army further north in Bohemia. The Estates of Upper and Lower Austria, still in revolt, signed an alliance with the Bohemians in early August, and on the 22nd Ferdinand was officially deposed as King of Bohemia, replaced by the Palatine Elector, Frederick V. In Hungary, even though the Bohemians had reneged on their offer of their crown, the Transylvanians continued to make surprising progress, driving the Emperor's armies from that country by 1620.

The Spanish sent an army from Brussels under Ambrosio Spinola to support the Emperor, and the Spanish ambassador in Vienna, Don Inigo Onate, persuaded Protestant Saxony to intervene against Bohemia in exchange for control over Lusatia. The Saxons invaded, and the Spanish army in the West prevented the Protestant Union's forces from assisting. Onate conspired to transfer the electoral title from the Palatinate to the Duke of Bavaria in exchange for his support and that of the Catholic League. Under the command of General Tilly, the Catholic League army (which included Rene Descartes in its ranks) pacified Upper Austria, while the Emperor's forces pacified Lower Austria; united, the two moved north into Bohemia. Ferdinand II decisively defeated Frederick V at the Battle of White Mountain, near Prague in 1620. Bohemia would remain in Habsburg hands for three hundred years.

That defeat caused the dissolution of the League of Evangelical Union and the destruction of Frederick V's holdings. Frederick V was outlawed from the Holy Roman Empire and his territories, the Rhenish Palatinate, were given to Catholic nobles, while his title of elector of the Palatinate was given to his distant cousin Duke Maximilian of Bavaria. Frederick V, although landless, made himself a prominent exile abroad, and tried to curry support for his cause in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.

It was a serious blow to Protestant ambitions in the region. The rebellion effectively collapsed and widespread confiscations of property and suppression of the pre-existing Bohemian nobility ensured that the country would return to the Catholic fold after more than a century of Hussite and other heresy. The Spanish, seeking to outflank the Dutch in preparation for the soon-to-be-renewed Eighty Years' War, took Frederick's lands, the Rhine Palatinate. The first phase of the war in Eastern Germany was fully ended when Gabriel Bethlen of Transylvania signed a peace with the Emperor in January 1622, gaining a number of territories in Eastern Hungary.

Some historians regard the period from 1621-1625 as a separate phase of the Thirty Years War, calling it the Palatinate phase. The catastrophic defeat of the Protestant army at White Mountain and the departure of Gabriel Bethlen meant the pacification of eastern Germany. The war in the West, focused on occupying the Palatinate, consisted of much smaller battles than the Bohemian and Hungarian campaigns saw, and a much greater use of siege. Mannheim and Heidelberg fell in 1622, and Frankenthal in 1623. The Palatinate was in the hands of the Emperor.

The remnant Protestant army, led by Mansfeld, made an attempt to reach the Dutch border. Tilly outmanoeuvered them at Stadtlohn on 6 August 1623 and only a third of Mansfeld's force of 21,000 managed to escape the battle. Out of supplies, manpower, and money, Mansfeld's army dispersed in 1624.

Danish Intervention

Period: 1625-1629

The Danish Period began when Christian IV of Denmark (1577-1648) the King of Denmark, himself a Lutheran, helped the Germans by leading an army against the Holy Roman Empire, fearing that Denmark's sovereignty as a Protestant nation was being threatened. Christian IV had profited greatly from his policies in northern Germany (Hamburg had been forced to accept Danish suzerainty in 1621, and in 1623 the Danish heir apparent was made bishop of Bremen-Verden.) As an administrator, Christian IV had done remarkably well, obtaining for his kingdom a level of stability and wealth that was virtually unmatched elsewhere in Europe, paid for by tolls on the Skaggerak and extensive war reparations from Sweden. The only country in Europe with a comparably strong financial position was, ironically, Bavaria. It also helped that the French regent Cardinal Richelieu was willing to pay for a Danish adventure in Germany. Christian invaded at the head of a mercenary army of 20,000 men, paid for almost entirely by his own personal fortune.

To fight him off, Ferdinand II employed the military help of Albert of Wallenstein, a Bohemian nobleman who had made himself rich off the confiscated estates of his countrymen. Wallenstein pledged his army of between 30,000 and 100,000 soldiers to Ferdinand II in return for the right to plunder the captured territories. Christian, who knew nothing of Wallenstein's existence when he invaded, was forced to retire before both he and Tilly annihilated his army. Christian's poor luck struck him again when all the allies he thought he had were forced aside: both England and France were in civil war, Sweden was at war with Poland, and neither Brandenburg nor Saxony felt like doing anything at all of it would disturb the tenuous peace in eastern Germany. Wallenstein defeated Mansfeld's army at the Battle of the Bridge of Dessau (1626) and General Tilly defeated the Danes at the Battle of Lutter (1626). Mansfeld died some months later of illness, exhausted and ashamed of the battle which had cost him half his army.

Wallenstein's army marched north, occupying Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and ultimately Jutland itself. However, he was unable to take the Danish capital on the island of Zealand without a fleet, and neither the Hanseatic ports nor the Poles would allow an Imperial fleet to be built in the Baltic. He pressed a siege against Stralsund, the only belligerent port on the Baltic which had the facilities to build a fleet the like of which could take the Danish islands. However, the cost of continuing to support Wallenstein was exorbitant, particularly compared to what could possibly be gained from the war with Denmark.

This led to the Treaty of Lübeck (1629), in which Christian IV abandoned his support for the Protestants in order to keep his control over Denmark. In the following two years more land was subjugated by Catholic powers.

The Thirty Years' War could have ended with the Danish Period, but the Catholic League persuaded Ferdinand II to take back the Lutheran holdings that were, according to the Peace of Augsburg, rightfully the Catholic Church's; described in the Edict of Restitution (1629) these included two Archbishoprics, sixteen bishoprics, and hundreds of monasteries. Nobles and peasants alike left their lands in Bohemia and Austria rather than convert. Mansfeld and Gabriel Bethlen, the first officers of the Protestant cause, were dead in the same year. Only the port of Stralsund held out against Wallenstein and the Emperor, abandoned by all her allies.

 
Gustavus Adolphus at the Battle at Breitenfield (1631)
 
The death of King Gustavus Adolphus on 16 November 1632 at the Battle of Lützen.

Swedish Intervention

Period: 1630-1635

Some persons within Ferdinand II's court believed that Wallenstein wanted to take control of the German Princes and restore the power of the Emperor over Germany under his control. Ferdinand II dismissed Wallenstein in 1630. He was to later recall him after the Swedes, led by Gustavus Adolphus, attacked the Empire and prevailed in a number of significant battles.

Gustavus Adolphus, like Christian IV before him, came to aid the German Lutherans, to forestall Catholic aggression against their homeland and to obtain economic influence in the German states around the Baltic Sea. Also like Christian IV, Adolphus was subsidized by Richelieu, the Chief Minister of King Louis XIII of France, and by the Dutch. From 1630-1634, they drove the Catholic forces back and regained much of the occupied Protestant lands.

Ferdinand II depended on the Catholic League since he had dismissed Albert of Wallenstein. At the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631), Adolphus defeated the Catholic League led by General Tilly. A year later, they met again, and this time General Tilly was killed (1632). With General Tilly dead, Ferdinand II turned to the aid of Wallenstein and his large army.

Wallenstein and Adolphus clashed in the battle of Lützen (1632), where the Swedes prevailed, but Adolphus was killed. In 1634 the Swedes were defeated at the battle of Nördlingen.

Ferdinand II's suspicions of Wallenstein flared up again in 1633, when Wallenstein attempted to arbitrate the differences between the Catholoic and Protestant sides. Ferdinand II may have feared that Wallenstein would switch sides and arranged for his arrest after removing him from command. One of Wallenstein's soldiers killed him as he attempted to contact the Swedes (February 24 1634).

After that, the two sides met for negotiations, and they ended the Swedish Period with the Peace of Prague (1635), which:

  • Reestablished the date that the Peace of Augsburg established to be the date (1552) from which the landholdings of the Protestants (Lutherans) and Catholics was to remain the same from 1552 to 1627, effectively nullifying the Edict of Restitution.
  • United army of the emperor and armies of german states to one army of the Holy Roman Empire.
  • Forbided german princes to hold alliances between them.
  • Legalised Calvinism.
  • Effectively resolved the religious issues of the Thirty Years' War.

This treaty failed, however, to satisfy the French, because the Habsburgs remained powerful. The French then launched the last period of the Thirty Years' War, called the French Period.

French Intervention

Period: 1636-1648

France, although a Catholic country, was a rival of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, and now entered the war on the Protestant side. Cardinal Armand Richelieu, the Chief Minister of King Louis XIII, thought that the Habsburgs were still too powerful, since they held a number of territories on France's eastern border and had influence in the Netherlands.

France therefore allied itself with the Dutch and Sweden. Spain, in retaliation, ravaged France's provinces of Champagne (17th) and Burgundy (17th) and even threatened Paris in 1636 (imperial general Johann von Werth and spanish commander cardinal Ferdinand Hapsburg). Finally, duke Bernard of Saxony-Weimar defeated Imperialists and threatened them to evacuate from France in the battle at Compiegne. Many battles ensued, but neither side could gain a clear advantage.

In 1642, Cardinal Richelieu died. In 1643, Louis XIII of France died, and Louis XIV, then only four years old, came to power. His regent, Cardinal Mazarin, began to work toward a restoration of peace.

In 1645 swedish marshal Lennart Torstensson defeated imperial army at Jankau near Prague and duke Conde defeated bavarian army at Nördlingen. Last talented commander of the Catholics, count Franz Mercy, died in the battle.

On March 14, 1647 Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden signed the Truce of Ulm. In 1648 Swedes (marshal Karl Gustaf Wrangel) and French (Turenne, Conde) defeated imperial army at Zusmarhausen and Lens. Whole territory of the Holy Roman Empire except Austria was conquered by them.

The Peace of Westphalia

Main article: Peace of Westphalia

A French General Henri Turenne defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Rocroi in 1643, which led to negotiations. At the negotiations were Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, the French, the Spanish, the Dutch, the Swiss, the Swedes, the Portuguese and representatives of the Pope. The Peace of Westphalia of 1648 was the result of these negotiations.

The major tenets of the Peace of Westphalia were:

  • The Peace of Prague was incorporated into the Peace of Westphalia (which incorporated the Peace of Augsburg, though its landholdings date that was reestablished by the Peace of Prague was again reestablished from 1627 to 1624, which aided the Protestants. The Calvinists were thus recognized internationally, and the Edict of Restitution was again rescinded. The first Diet of Speyer was accepted internationally).
  • There were also territorial adjustments:
    • France got the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, Verdun, and all of Alsace except Strasbourg and Mulhouse. They also acquired a vote in the Imperial German Diet.
    • Sweden got Western Pomerania and the bishoprics of Bremen and Stettin. They also got control of the mouth of the Oder, Elbe, and Weser Rivers. They also got acquired a vote in the Imperial German Diet.
    • Bavaria acquired a vote in the Imperial Council of Electors (which elected the Holy Roman Emperor).
    • Brandenburg (Prussia) got Eastern Pomerania, and the bishopric of Magdeburg.
    • Switzerland was recognized as a fully independent nation.
    • Holland (Protestant Netherlands) was recognized as an independent nation (before its rebellion a century ago, it had been a possession of Spain and thus a property of the Habsburg family).
    • The German states (about 360) were given the right to exercise their own foreign policy, but they could not wage war against the Holy Roman Emperor. The Empire as a whole still could wage wars and sign treaties.
    • the election of Roman emperor vivente imperatore (election of next emperor before the death of the one who actually rules) was banned.
    • The Palatinates (Pfalzgraviates of the Rhein) was divided between the re-established Elector Palatine Charles Louis (son and heir of Frederick V) and Elector-Duke Maximilian of Bavaria (thus it was split between the Protestants and the Catholics). Charles Louis obtained the Lower Palatinate (Rhenish Palatinate) and Maximilian kept the Upper Palatinate.

Consequences

The devastation caused by the war has long been a subject of controversy among historians. Estimates of mass civilian casualties of up to thirty percent of the population of Germany are now treated with caution. It is almost certain that the war caused serious dislocation to the economy of central Europe, but may have done no more than seriously exacerbate changes in the terms of trade caused by other factors.

The immediate result of the war, however, which was to endure for around two centuries, was the enshrinement of a Germany divided among many territories, all of which, despite their continuing membership of the Empire up to it's formal dissolvement in 1806, had de facto sovereignty. It has been speculated that this weakness was a long-term underlying cause of later German militarism.

The Thirty Years' War rearranged the previous structure of power. Spain's decadence became truly visible. While Spain was preoccupied with France during the French Period, Portugal declared itself independent (it was under Spanish control since Philip II had taken control through a weak claim for it after its king had died without an heir). The Braganza family became the new leaders of Portugal and produced King John IV of Portugal as its leader. France was now seen to be the dominating power in Europe.

During the last years of the Thirty Years' War Sweden was involved in a conflict with Denmark between 1643-1645, called the Torstenson War. The favourable outcomes of that conflict and the conclusion of the great European war at the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 helped establish post-war Sweden as a great power in Europe.

List of Battles in the Thirty Years' War

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