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• Germany360 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 FerdinandPeace 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

Spanishthe 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 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.