The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)
• 1555--The Peace of Augsburg did not extend
recognition to non-Lutheran Protestants
• First continent-wide war in modern history
– Fought mostly in Germany
• Culmination of 16th century religious wars
• Political goals
– German princes sought autonomy from HRE
– France sought to limit the Hapsburg power in
Germany
– Sweden and Denmark wanted Baltic region
Warfare and Gunpowder
• Devastation of the enemy’s land became the
rule—pillage and torture
• Armies grew from 40,000 of the Spanish in
1600 to 400,000 in the French army by 1700
• Technology and gunpowder required more
soldiers to sustain sieges of cities
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
• Germany360 autonomous political entities
– Many different religious and political sects looking
for power
– Equally divided between Protestants and Catholics
– Equally divided between Lutherans and Calvinists
• Lutherans feared Catholic payback following
the Council of Trent
• Lutherans felt the Palatine Calvinists
threatened the Peace of Augsburg and the
existence of Lutheran themselves
Phases of the Thirty Years’ War
Bohemian Period (Leaders)
• Frederick V of Palatine
(Protestant)
• Ferdinand II (Habsburg)
and Holy Roman
Emperor
Bohemian Period (1618-1625)
• Bohemians (Czechs) were largely Calvinist
• 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 up Ferdinand II who defeats
Frederick’s troops at the Battle of White
Mountain thereby taking over Bohemia and
Palatine
Bohemian Period (Results)
• Catholic forces emerged victorious as
Bavaria, leader of the Catholic League,
took over much of the Electorate Palatine
• All the lands of Protestant nobles in
Bohemia and the Palatinate were given
away
Danish Period (Leaders)
• King Christian IV of
Denmark
• Albrecht von
Wallenstein—leader of
imperial forces
Danish Period
• Christian IV, a Lutheran, entered the war to
bolster Protestant position in Germany
• 1626--Emperor Ferdinand II gains an ally in the
mercenary Protestant Albrecht of Wallenstein
who raises an army and breaks Protestant
resistance
• 1629—Ferdinand II orders the Edict of
Restitution denying the Peace of Augsburg to
Protestants
Danish (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 (Leaders)
• King Gustavus Adolphus
of Sweden
• Cardinal
Richelieu—
advisor to
Louis XIII who
brought France
into war to
reduce power
of Habsburgs
Swedish Period of the Thirty Years’
War
• Cardinal Richelieu, concerned by the gains of the Habsburgs in
Germany, offered financial assistance to the Swedes against
the Habsburgs
• Gustavus Adolphus II of Sweden with help from the French
and Dutch turn the tide of the war with a smashing victory at
Breitenfield
• 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
Swedish (Results)
• 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Peace of Augsburg restored
• the war however continues elsewhere
Franco-Swedish (Leaders)
• Philip IV of Spain—continued to use Spain’s
resources to fight the French
The Swedish-French Period
• Most violent phase of the war
• France, Holland, and Savoy enter the war on the
Swedish side against the Habsburgs and Spanish
• Germany suffered looting and warring for the next 13
years
• Battle of Rocroi (Spanish-Netherlands), French defeat
Spanishthe rise of France as a major military
power
Swedish-Franco (Results)
• All sides were exhausted
• 1644—peace talks begin in Westphalia in
Germany
Treaty of Westphalia of 1648
• ends the war by which time had killed one-third of
Germany’s population – the Treaty did the following:
• reinstated Peace of Augsburg including Calvinism
• rescinded the Edict of Restitution--Protestants took
back lands taken from them by Catholics
• Blocked the Counter-Reformation
• Switzerland and Netherlands become independent
from Hapsburgs
• Stronger powers emergeFrance, 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.