A Short History of Europe: From Charlemagne to the Treaty of Europe by Gordon Kerr

Author:Gordon Kerr [Kerr, Gordon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe
ISBN: 9781842436660
Amazon: B006ZPNW0Y
Publisher: Pocket Essentials
Published: 2011-12-19T00:00:00+00:00

The Thirty Years’ War

The Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), a conflict about religion, fought in Germany by mercenary armies, involved most of the European powers and bankrupted a great many of them. It was hugely destructive, killing about 30 per cent of the population of Germany and destroying thousands of castles, villages and towns.

The 1555 Peace of Augsburg, signed by Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, had been intended to end the conflict between Catholics and Lutherans, allowing Protestants freedom to worship. Unfortunately, it merely represented a temporary halt in hostilities. Religious differences remained great and the spread of Calvinism in Germany added another faith that had no place in the Peace of Augsburg. Moreover, Germany’s neighbours had an interest – Spain because the Spanish Netherlands was a close neighbour; France because, caught between the two Habsburg states of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, she saw an opportunity to take action against the German states and would side with the Protestants in the war. Meanwhile, Sweden and Denmark had long cast hungry glances at the northern German states on the Baltic coastline.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Rhine lands and those south of the Danube were Catholic; those to the north were dominated by Lutherans, with some areas of Calvinist pre-eminence. Tensions persisted until they overflowed in Bohemia in 1618. The Holy Roman Emperor, Matthias (ruled 1612–19), had no heir and his lands would be inherited on his death by his cousin, Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria (ruled 1619–37), who had been elected Crown Prince of Bohemia in 1617. Ferdinand was a fervent Catholic and was very unpopular in Protestant Bohemia which favoured the Elector of the Palatinate, the Calvinist Frederick V (ruled 1619–20). With the support of foreign allies, Bohemia revolted, launching hostilities that would continue for three decades.

Ferdinand solicited help from his nephew, Philip IV of Spain (ruled 1621–65), while the Bohemian nobles applied for membership of the Protestant Union which was led by Frederick V, promising him the throne of Bohemia. Unfortunately, similar offers were made to the Duke of Savoy, the Elector of Saxony and Prince of Transylvania. When these were made public by the Austrians, support for Bohemia faltered. The conflict escalated quickly, fighting breaking out in Lower Austria and Hungary. Vienna was put to siege by the leading Bohemian nobleman, Count Thurn (1567–1640) and, in 1619, the Protestants suffered defeat by imperial troops at the Battle of Sablat. Upper and Lower Austria signed an alliance with Bohemia in August 1619 and, in that same month, Ferdinand was deposed and replaced by Frederick. The imperial armies, meanwhile, were driven out of Hungary. At this point, Spain entered the conflict, dispatching an army to provide support for the Emperor. They also persuaded the Saxons to invade Bohemia. The army of the Catholic League took Lower Austria and defeated Frederick at the Battle of White Mountain towards the end of 1620, marking the end of Bohemian independence. It would become Catholic and remain under Habsburg control for the next three centuries.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.