Sides

Protestant• France• Sweden• Dutch• Danes• German States

– Palatinate (SW Germany)– Bohemia

Catholic• Spain• Holy Roman Empire• German States

– Bavaria

Problems for The Thirty Years War• fragmented Germany – Germany was an almost ungovernable land

of 360 autonomous political entities• after Council of Trent , Protestants were afraid that Catholics

will attempt to recreate Catholic Europe of pre-Reformation times

• religious divisions in the Holy Roman Empire • between the equally numbered Catholics and Protestants• between Lutherans and Calvinists

• Calvinism Rule of the Palatinate • Calvinism unrecognized as a legal religion by the Peace of

Augsburg• Lutherans felt the Palatine Calvinists threatened the Peace of

Augsburg and the existence of Lutheran themselves• Maximilian I of Bavaria counters the Palatine with the Catholic

League

Phases of the Thirty Years’ War

Bohemian Period of the Thirty Years’ War

• Catholics name Ferdinand II as Holy Roman Emperor, who immediately revokes religious freedom to Bohemian Protestants

• Bohemians defiantly name Frederick V, the Palatine king, the king of Bohemia as well

• Defenestration of Prague• Spain joins Maximilian who defeats Frederick’s troops at

the Battle of White Mountain thereby taking over Bohemia and Palatine

• Results: Catholic forces emerged victorious as Bavaria, leader of the Catholic League, took over much of the Electorate Palatine

Danish Period of the Thirty Years’ War

• Maximilian humiliates Protestant forces in Germany under Lutheran king Christian V and forces them to return to Denmark

• Emperor Ferdinand gains an ally in the mercenary Protestant Albrecht of Wallenstein breaks Protestant resistance and orders the Edict of Restitution denying the Peace of Augsburg

• Results: Under the Edict of Restitution, all confiscated Church lands since 1517 had to be returned to the Catholic Church. The Habsburgs appeared to be trying to centralized power in central Europe

Swedish Period of the Thirty Years’ War

• Gustavus Adolphus II of Sweden with help from the French and Dutch turn the tide of the war with a smashing victory at Breitenfield– Cardinal Richelieu, advisor to Louis XIII, brought France

into the war to help reduce the power of the Habsburgs• Adolphus is killed by Wallenstein’s forces at the Battle of

Lutzen, but then Wallenstein is assassinated himself by Ferdinand who was afraid of his independence

• despite religious convictions, the assassination of Wallenstein proved it was more a war of greed and politics

• Peace of Prague – German Protestant states reach a compromise with Ferdinand, the war however continues elsewhere

Fourth and Final Period: The Swedish-French Period

• Most violent phase of the war• French, Swedish, and Spanish troops for the next

thirteen years attack and loot Germany simply for the sake of warring itself

• Battle of Rocroi (Spanish-Netherlands), French defeat Spanishthe rise of France as a major military power– Philip IV of Spain used Spain’s dwindling resources to fight

against the French, despite facing internal rebellions• Results: All sides were exhausted.

Spain and France

• Spain and France continue to war until 1659, when France emerges victorious

• France becomes Europe’s dominant power, while Hapsburg Spain never recovers

Treaty of Westphalia of 1648

• ends the war by which time had killed one-third of Germany’s population – the Treaty did the following:

• rescinded the Edict of Restitution and put back the Peace of Augsburg

• Calvinists officially recognized• Protestants took back lands taken from them by Catholics• Blocked the Counter-Reformation• Switzerland, the Netherlands and Bavaria become

independent• Stronger powers emergeFrance, Sweden, Prussia

(Germany) and the Netherlands• Last of wars primarily over religion

Summary Question #1

• After reviewing the Thirty Years War, what do you consider to be the religious and political goals of the war?

Summary Question #2

• In what respect did Cardinal Richelieu’s involvement in the Thirty Years’ War serve as an omen of the future direction of European civilization?

While Gustavus Adolphus originally entered the war to support the preservation of Lutheranism, the entrance of Richelieu in the French phase of the war changed the focus to dynasties in a secular world. Richelieu’s objective was to make France and the Bourbon dynasty the dominant power in Europe.