The Bohemian phase of the Thirty Years War took place in the years 1618 through 1621. Faced with increasing pressure from the Habsburgs, the Bohemians rose in revolt. They deposed the Habsburgs and crowned Frederick V of the Palatinate as their King. Initially, the revolt seemed destined for success. However, Ferdinand II struck back, subsidised by his Spanish relatives and in alliance with the Catholic League and with Lutheran Saxony. The Bohemians were utterly defeated near Prague at the White Mountain. At the same time the Spanish had invaded and conquered the Lower Palatinate, Frederick’s territories on the Rhine. This enabled the Spanish to secure the land route from their territories in Northern Italy to their lands in modern-day Belgium.
The Palatinate era of the Thirty Years War was laid down in the period 1621 to 1624. Frederick V of the Palatinate and other Protestant rulers sought to regain the Rhenish Palatinate from the Spanish and the Catholic League. These efforts were supported by the Dutch who had been battling the Spaniards for independence since 1568. A strong Spanish presence on the Rhine was a strategic peril they could not ignore. All of these efforts were dismal failures with no other outcome to this period but a reversal to the start and calls all round for peace
The Danish juncture of the Thirty Years War embraced the years 1625 to 1630. Foreign powers opposed to the Habsburgs could not look with patience on the developments in Germany. The French, English and Dutch formed a league to oppose the Habsburgs. They found their champion in Christian IV of Denmark, who also had far-reaching domains in northern Germany. Christian invaded, but was
“…crushingly defeated by the army of the Catholic League and a new Imperial force under the enigmatic Bohemian condottiere Wallenstein.”
Encouraged by victory, the Emperor issued the Edict of Restitution, requiring the return of all lands expropriated from the Roman church since the 1550’s. Fearing Wallenstein’s power, the territorial rulers forced the Emperor to remove him from power and reduce the size of the Imperial army.
The Swedish chapter of the Thirty Years War encompassed the years 1630 through 1634. Concerned by growing Habsburg power along the Baltic, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden invaded northern Germany. He was not welcomed by his fellow Lutherans: his sole significant allies were the French, who financed his army. After the Swede’s allied city of Magdeburg was destroyed by an Imperial army, the Protestants grew concerned and began to arm.
“When the Imperial forces moved against Saxony, the Elector of Saxony threw in his lot with the Swedes.”
The Swedish army met the Imperials at Breitenfeld near Leipzig and decimated them. The Swedes promptly took over most of southwest Germany. The Emperor had no choice but to recall Wallenstein. The Swedes and Wallenstein’s new army met near Leipzig at Lützen. The battle was a draw, but Gustavus was killed. Fearing Wallenstein’s power, and concerned by his intrigues with hostile powers, the Emperor had him killed. The Imperial and Spanish armies joined and inflicted a crushing defeat on the Swedes at Nördlingen. All the Swedish gains in southern Germany were lost.
The French period of the Thirty Years War included the years 1634 through 1648. After Nördlingen most of the German territorial rulers made their peace with the Emperor. Under the resultant Peace of Prague most of the church lands in Protestant hand in 1627 were allowed to remain so. The French declared war on Spain and increased the magnitude of their interventions in the Empire. Gradually the Imperial forces were weakened. France took control of Alsace and much of the Rhineland while the Swedes took over or neutralized northern Germany and carried the war into Bohemia.
Over the last four years of the war, the parties were actively negotiating at Osnabrück and Münster in Westphalia. On 24 October, 1648 the Peace of Westphalia was signed, ending the Thirty Years War. The Swedes received a large cash indemnity and control over western Pomerania, Bremen and Verden. The French received rights (their nature being unclear) over Alsace. However, as Parker says
“… the control of the Emperor over the German territorial rulers was reduced to a nullity.”
Within the German portion of the Empire, private exercise of non-conforming religion was permitted and the organs of government were rendered religiously neutral. Lands secularized by the Protestants in 1624 were generally allowed to remain so. However, in the Habsburg territories of Bohemia and Austria the Emperor was given a nearly free hand to re-impose Catholicism.
Although a maze of bloody battles and feuds the Thirty Years War’s issues come down to few main points. During the Thirty Years War the opponents were, on the one hand, the House of Austria: the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperors Ferdinand II and Ferdinand III together with his Spanish cousin Philip IV. During the long course of the Thirty Years War the Habsburgs were opposed by various international opponents of House of Austria: the Danish, Dutch and, above all, France and Sweden. In addition to its international dimensions the Thirty Years War was a German civil war. The principalities which made up Germany took up arms for or against the Habsburgs or, most commonly, both at different times during the war’s 30 years. The Thirty Years War was also, at least in part, a religious war among Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists. Ferdinand II and, to a lesser degree, his primary ally Maximillian I represented the re-Catholicizing energy of the Jesuit Counter-reformation, while Frederick V of the Palatinate represented the equally militant forces of Calvinism.
Bibliography
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The Cambridge Modern History, Volume IV, The Thirty Years' War; Ward, Sir A.W.; Prothero, Sir G.W.; Leathes, Sir Stanley KCB, Cambridge University Press.
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The Thirty Years War: The Holy Roman Empire and Europe, 1618-1648, Asch, Ronald G, St. Martins’s Print, Inc. (1997).
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Europe in Crisis 1598-1648, Parker, G., London (1980).
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Seventeenth Century Europe 1598-1700, Munck, T., London (1986).
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European Warfare 1600-1815, Black, J., London (1994).
- A History of Modern War, Townsend, C. (ed.), Oxford (2000).
