4/8/26 The 30 years war How a religious conflic thatt killed a third of the population of Germany by Shane Larson 2026 173pg
1555 Peace of Augsburg had been a compromise for Catholics and Protectant to live together. Cuius regio , eius religio Whose realm his religion. Thus the prince of a region could decide of the religion of the state. This peace was to limit the spread of Protestantism. Lutherism had been recognized here but now Calvinism had not had a place in this treaty. Catholic churches had quietly been taken over by Protestantism and this was also an issue. This Peace had postponed the crises that came later.
There were 2 branches of the Habsburg family the rulers of Spain and Austria. France was Catholic but for them the war was not about religion.
1415 In the Reformation Jan Hus had preached in Prague. Here was the first defenestration. The Hussites wars followed 1420 to 1434 to Jan Hus was burned at the stake..
1609 Rudolf II gave a Letter of Majesty that guaranteed the Protestant nobility their rights as 9 out of 10 Bohemians were protestant. However those that followed Rudolf II in 1612 did not feel the same way as the land had technically been Catholic.
1. The Bohemian Phase (1618–1625)
1618 Prague Castle a delegation of armed Protestant Bohemians confronted 2 Catholic regents of the Habsburg crown in an argument over churches. Then seized them and their secretary and threw them out the window. They survived as they fell into a dung heap or the Catholics claimed by they were saved by a choir of angels. This resulted in a series of wars.
Ferdinand II in 1619 became Emperor and was a devout Catholic educated by Jesuits.
In Prague the Emperor was deposed and Frederick V Elector Palatine was chosen as their King. His wife was daughter of King James 1 of England. Fredrich V was named the Winter King because of his short reign. He thought that the Protestant Union would support him but they were not interested in a general war over Bohemia. If Bohemia was officially Protestant the Protestants would now hold 3 of 7 elector votes and the Imperial title would bein danger.
1920 The Battle of White Mountain just outside of Prague, this was a catastrophe. The Emperors army or the Catholic League was led by Tilly who had for years fought against the Dutch and also trained by the Jesuits. After this the Bohemian army ceased to exist and for the Bohemians was followed by centuries of subjugation. The King Fredrich V fled and lived in exile in the Dutch Republic . 27 Protestants leaders were executed and some had their heads displayed on Charles bridge. Protestant nobles lost their estates and Protestant clergy were expelled. The Charles University was handed over to the Jesuits. The Bohemian population had to convert and it became Catholic German dominated.
This war started in Bohemia did not end. Fredrich V electorship was handed over to Catholic Bavaria in 1623.
1621 The 12 year truce with the Dutch ended and the Spanish - Dutch War resumed in full force.
Albrecht von Wallenstein a profiteer of genius, died one of the richest men in Europe by commandeering the largest private army. He had gone to Lutheran schools but converted to Catholicism. He was brilliant with money and understood the relationship between political power and profit. He raised troops at his own expense and fought for the Habsburgs. He profited and lent money to the Emperor and debts that would be repaid in titles, land and command. The towns and province occupied would be made to provide food , fodder, money. 50,000 men billeted across a region and extracted out of it sustenance. War must feed war, the bigger his army the more territory it could control.
Where contribution by a town were refused it was given to looting, rape burning and murder. Peasants fled and harvest went ungathered. Occupations stayed till there was nothing left to take. Eventually Wallenstein's ambition exceeded his loyalty. He recruited both Catholica and protestants into his army and squeezed the Catholic territories as readily as Protestant ones. This war was acquiring a horrible momentum of it own.
2. The Danish Phase (1625–1629)
Christian IV King of Denmark and Duke of Holstein. The battle of Lutter was a thorough defeat for the protestant's. The Protestant position in northern Germany collapsed .
1628 At Straisund on the Baltic coast the city held out supported by supplies from the sea and reinforced by Swedes and Danes who controlled the Baltic coast. Wallenberg's siege failed and in 1629 Christian made peace with the Emperor in the Treaty of Lubeck Christian recovered his Danish and ducal territories intact and Denmark exited the war defeated and humbled, leaving the Protestant cause in ruins.
1629 Edict of restitution. This was Ferdinand 's most ambitious and it turned out to be the most self defeating act of his reign. Since the Treaty of Augsburg 1555 a lot of Church property had passed into Protestant hands. Ferdinand ordered that all the land that had been Catholic before 1552 revert to Catholic control. So Luther's grandchildren faced re-Catholicization. This was an existential threat to all German Protestants as it would undo the reformation. This was a powerful cause to rally around. The hundreds of German princes even Catholic ones feared an Emperor getting too strong.
1630 the Emperor came to Regensburg and wanted the electors to recognize his son as the next Emperor. Both Catholic and Protestant Electors came with an agenda of their own and the price was Wallenstein. The ruin his troops had brought to Catholic lands. The Emperor yielded. Now the Lion of the North arrived.
3. The Swedish Phase (1630–1635)
Gustavus Adolphus came to the Swedish throne at the age of 16 in 1611 ,inheriting 3 wars against Denmark , Russia and Poland. By 1630 Sweden was no a great power it had a population of 1 and a half million but also had iron copper and timber. Sweden pioneered a system of conscription that registered men by district and rotated them both Swedish and Finnish troops.
For years fighting in Europe the Spanish had developed the tercio and saw where musketeers could reload in cycles , would shoot and the pikemen around them were immune from a cavalry charge. They also had heavy immovable cannons pulled by oxen.
Gustavus developed a method of musketeers crouching and standing and sending a stronger volley as well as light portable 3 pound cannons hauled by a couple of men and a single horse. He had standardized calibers so that ammunition's could be shared. He did not allow rape, burning of churches and Chaplains moved amongst the regiments. To the suffering German's this looked like deliverance.
1631The Treaty of Barwalde France would pay Sweden a large subsidy to keep its army in Germany fighting the Emperor. Cardinal Richelieu was Chief Minister of Catholic France. The Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs encircled France. To Keep the Habsburgs weak. The money flowed and the army stayed and the war that might have ended with the Edict of Restitution Roared back to life. Richelieu wanted a balance of power a permanently divided Germany. However Gustavus did not have an open commitment of Protestant electors and could only clear the Baltic coast and not the heart of German. When Magdeburg was sieged without this support Gustavis could not relieve the city. The Imperial soldiers broke in and the major protestant city was plundered and caught alight and burned to ashes with about 20,000 killed. The horror of this cities fate and the flood of pamphlets made neutrality indefensible and now Gustavus got the support he needed..
Tilly's army needed to be fed and marched only John Georges lands he turned to Gastavus, reacting to this terror. At Breitenfeld with Gustavus different war strategy Tilly's army disintegrated in battle. In one afternoon the Emperors 13years dominance was shattered. Gustavus poured into the heart of Germany taking the Rhineland and cities Wurzburg , Frankfurt, Mainz and his army swelling with recruits. Bavaria the state of the most powerful Catholic prince Maximillian where Munich was taken. Tilly was struck by cannon and mortally wounded.
Wallenburg was now recruited again by the Emperor. Who stood against Gastavus's army at Lutzun and in the heavy fog Gastavus got lost and killed. The Swedes instead of breaking at the loss of their leader, with grief and maddened fury under Bernard of Saxe-Weimer fought on and by nightfall Wallenstein's army withdrew in the darkness abandoning their guns.
Wallenstein started opening conversations with almost every party in the war. Perhaps to make peace or a business deal.
The Bavarians and the imperial court demanded that Wallenstein march and relive Regensberg, that was being threatened by the Swedes. Wallenberg delayed and the city fell in 1633, he wanted to show he was not answerable to anyone. The emperor could no longer trust him with the army. In a conspiracy by the emperor men , those who stood by Wallenberg were killed first and then Wallenberg. The murderers were rewarded handsomely. From then on the monarch would ensure that the army belonged to the state.
1635 the Peace of Prague signed and here Ferdinand agreed to suspend the Edict of Restitution.
4. The French (or French-Swedish) Phase (1635–1648)
The 30 years war that had started as of now became contest between 2 royal houses. The interests for the state over riding moral, religious and personal consideration. Now Richelieu subsidized the Dutch in their long war against Spain, and bending King Louis XIIIs will to his own.
1636 The Spanish army entered northern France, crossed the Somme and entered the town of Corbie, less than100 km from Paris. Paris rallied money and raised a militia and exhorted the population into defense. The overextended Spanish advance was doomed. France had to prepare for a long war against the Habsburgs and formed a more centralized, more taxed state capable of sustaining a long time army. Richelieu encouraged a Catalan revolt against their crown. French subsidies flowed to Sweden but French armies also fought along side the Swedes. France fought mostly on other peoples soil. Richelieu died in 1642 and Louis XIII died in 1643 and a 4 year old boy was the crown. After Richelieu, his trained successor Mazarin carried on and proved able to outlast Spain and secure Frances borders.
A permanent state of armed misery had settled over central Europe, neither side could land a knock out blow. The country the armies marched through could no longer feed it. Campaign led to search for not yet plundered districts where troops could find food. Fighting had outlived its purpose. The armies were mostly not national forces fighting for king and country but Commercial Enterprises, military contractors and held together by paid wages or expectation of plunder. This was organized banditry that could not be disbanded. Soldiers took everything, food livestock fodder fuel clothing and money by extortion. consuming in weeks what had taken a year to produce leaving famine behind. Armies of both friend a foes did the same damage. Survivors left spreading the diseases with them. Nobody had been left to plow , sow, harvest , tend to animals maintain dykes ,mills , roads. currency had been debased to pay armies. Forests regrew on agricultural land and Wolves returned,.there were even reports of cannibalisms.
Sweden under Tortensson stuck repeatedly into Hapsburg lands , bringing destruction to Bohemia and the gates of Vienna. Spain was over extended across too many wars against France, the Dutch, Catalans and Portuguese. 1635 the Peace of Prague failed to end the war. 1643 after the death of Louis X111 a Spanish army invaded France. At Rocroi the flower Spanish your was destroyed in an afternoon by the French army under Louis XIV bringing an end to the myth of Spanish invincibility.
Westphalia 2 towns 4 years of negations took place. The Catholics were at Munster while the Protestant envoys led by Sweden at Osnabruck. This was a slow process as the redesign of religious balance had to be worked out. The Franco- Spanish War was left out of and it dragged on for another decade. Brandenburg was arising power adn became the foundation of what later became Prussia. Calvinists became recognized as a legitimate confession. Now 3 faiths would coexist. 1624 was the year taken to freeze the religious map, between Catholics adn Protestantism. This also ended the 80 years war with Spain recognizing the independence of the Dutch Republic.
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The 30 years War 1618-1648 by Samuel Rawson Gardiner 1874 100pg
The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was chosen by 3 ecclesiastical electors Archbishops of Mentz, Treves and Cologne and 4 lay electors. Elector Palatine, the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg and King of Bohemia. In theory they were the successors of Julius and Constantine. Voltaire said it was not Holy nor Roman nor and Empire. By 16 C is was split between Catholic and Protestants. It was lands in Germany and central Europe, and it was a loose group of Principalities.
Before Protestantism was 50 years old of 90% of Germany was Protestant.
Wars conclusion and effects.
The last great battle of the war was fought in Zusmarshausen in 1648 May , The Bavarians were defeated. Calvinism was to be placed on the same footing as Lutherism. Whatever was in Catholic benefices was to remain in Catholic hands and the same with Protestant. Maximillian permanently united the Upper Palatinate to his duchy of Bavaria. The Eastern part of Pomerania she surrendered to Brandenburg.
France retained her conquest and kept the Austrian Alsace with Strasburg becoming a free city. France as well as Switzerland and the Netherland were formally separated from the Holy Roman Empire and practically independent.
The Peace of Westphalia drew a final demarcation between the 2 religions which divided Europe. It was not yet decided how much Germany was a nation as the central government was not strong enough to enforce it will on the territorial governments, who each decided on their religion.
1555 Peace of Augsburg Protestantism was on the rise and this was a vain attempt to shut the tide. By 1648 the strong desire on both sides for proselyting had been extinguished.
On both sides what remained was misery and death as it cost less to enroll a new soldier than to cure an old one. Losses in the civil population were incredible. Two centuries later the loses suffered had hardly recovered. In all ranks life was meaner, poorer harder and that it had been at the beginning of the century.
In Germany power moved into the hands of princes. Protestantism had been saved and intellectual giants like Goth , Schilling ,Lessing and Kant, Stein and Humboldt sprung up in Protestant Germany. For France in 1648 the war was Germany was over but she had Spain to fight. Spain could now sent troops by sea to Flanders. In France Mazarin's government appeared firmly rooted.
In England under Cromwell a powerful military state.
1660 Spain was reduced to seek peace in the Treaty of the Pyrenees put an end to the long war.
In France Richelieu 's power had been based upon tolerance at home and moderation abroad. A great Statesman Colbert reduced taxation Tolls on movement of goods were diminished. However Louvois took over and became a tyrant and bully of Europe
Richelieu's Edict of Nantes of 1598 under Henry IV was revoked and intolerance and persecution became law in 1685 and now Huguenots had to flee.
1568 to1648 The 80 years war was between the Spanish Empire and the Netherland Provinces. It also ended with the Peace of Westphalia.
The Palatines (1709–1710): Thousands of German farmers fleeing poverty and religious strife arrived in New York, North Carolina (New Bern),
Other possible books on the subject
