Thirty Years' War, in brief description, is a conflict in the center of Europe between the Catholic and Lutheran (Protestant) princes of Germany. For three decades - from 1618 to 1648. - military clashes alternated with brief, unstable truces, religious fanaticism was mixed with political ambitions, the desire to enrich themselves through war and the seizure of foreign territories.
The Reformation movement, which began, let us briefly recall, in the 16th century, divided Germany into two irreconcilable camps - Catholic and Protestant. Supporters of each of them, not having an unconditional advantage within the country, sought support from foreign powers. And the prospects for the redistribution of European borders, control over the richest German principalities and strengthening in the arena of international politics prompted influential states of that time to intervene in the Thirty Years' War.
The impetus was the curtailment of the broad religious privileges of Protestants in Bohemia, where Ferdinand II ascended the throne in 1618, and the destruction of houses of worship in the Czech Republic. The Lutheran community turned to Great Britain and Denmark for help. The nobility and knighthood of Bavaria, Spain and the Pope, in turn, briefly promised full assistance to the Catholic-minded princes, and at first the advantage was on their side. The Battle of the White Mountain in the vicinity of Prague (1620), won by the allies of the Roman emperor in a confrontation that became thirty years old, practically eradicated Protestantism in the Habsburg lands. Not satisfied with the local victory, a year later Ferdinand moved troops against the Lutherans of Bohemia, gaining another advantage in the war.
Britain, weakened by internal political differences, could not openly take the side of the Protestants, but supplied weapons and money to the troops of Denmark and the Dutch Republic. Despite this, by the end of the 1620s. The imperial army took control of almost all of Lutheran Germany and most of Danish territory. In short, the Act of Restitution, signed by Ferdinand II in 1629, approved the full return of the rebellious German lands to the fold of the Catholic Church. It seemed that the war was over, but the conflict was destined to become thirty years old.
Only the intervention of Sweden, subsidized by the French government, revived hope for the victory of the anti-imperial coalition. In short, the victory near the town of Breitenfeld gave rise to the successful advance into German territory of forces led by the King of Sweden and Protestant leader Gustav Adolf. By 1654, having received military support from Spain, Ferdinand's army pushed the main Swedish forces beyond the borders of southern Germany. Although the Catholic coalition put pressure on France, surrounded by enemy armies, Spanish from the south and German from the west, it entered into a thirty-year conflict.
After this, Poland also took part in the struggle, Russian empire, and the Thirty Years' War, in short, turned into a purely political conflict. From 1643 on, the French-Swedish forces won one victory after another, forcing the Habsburgs to agree to an agreement. Given the bloody nature and a lot of destruction for all participants, the final winner of the long-term confrontation was never determined.
The Westphalian Accords of 1648 brought long-awaited peace to Europe. Calvinism and Lutheranism were recognized as legitimate religions, and France achieved the status of European arbiter. The independent states of Switzerland and the Netherlands appeared on the map, while Sweden was able to expand its territory (Eastern Pomerania, Bremen, the mouths of the Oder and Elbe rivers). The economically weakened monarchy of Spain was no longer a “thunderstorm of the seas,” and neighboring Portugal declared sovereignty back in 1641.
The price paid for stability was enormous, and the greatest damage was suffered by German lands. But the thirty-year conflict ended the period of wars on religious grounds, and the confrontation between Catholics and Protestants ceased to dominate among international issues. The beginning of the Renaissance allowed European countries to gain religious tolerance, which had a beneficial effect on art and science.
THIRTY YEARS' WAR (1618–1648) - war of the Habsburg bloc (Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs, Catholic princes of Germany, papacy) with the anti-Habsburg coalition (Protestant princes of Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Holland and France). One of the first pan-European military conflicts, which to one degree or another affected almost all European countries (including Russia), with the exception of Switzerland. The war began as a religious clash between Protestants and Catholics in Germany, but then escalated into a struggle against Habsburg hegemony in Europe.
Prerequisites:
Great power policy of the Habsburgs (Since the time of Charles V, the leading role in Europe belonged to the House of Austria - the Habsburg dynasty).
The desire of the papacy and Catholic circles to restore the power of the Roman Church in that part of Germany where in the first half of the 16th century. Reformation won
Existence of disputed regions in Europe
1. The Holy Roman Empire of the German nation: contradictions between the emperor and the German princes, religious schism.
2. Baltic Sea (struggle between Protestant Sweden and Catholic Poland for territory)
3. Fragmented Italy, which France and Spain tried to divide.
Causes:
The unstable balance established after the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, which sealed the split of Germany along religious lines, was threatened in the 1580s.
At the very end of the 16th – beginning of the 17th centuries. Catholic pressure on Protestants intensified: in 1596, Archduke Ferdinand of Habsburg, ruler of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, forbade his subjects to profess Lutheranism and destroyed all Lutheran churches; in 1606, Duke Maximilian of Bavaria occupied the Protestant city of Donauwerth and converted its churches into Catholic ones. This forced the Protestant princes of Germany to create in 1608 the Evangelical Union, headed by Elector Frederick IV of the Palatinate, to “protect the religious world”; they were supported by the French king http://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/istoriya/GENRIH_IV.html Henry IV. In response, in 1609 Maximilian of Bavaria formed the Catholic League, entering into an alliance with the main ecclesiastical princes of the Empire.
In 1609, the Habsburgs, taking advantage of the dispute between two Protestant princes over the inheritance of the duchies of Jülich, Cleve and Berg, tried to establish control over these strategically important lands in northwestern Germany. Holland, France and Spain intervened in the conflict. However, the assassination of Henry IV in 1610 prevented war. The conflict was resolved by the Xanten Agreement of 1614 on the division of the Jülich-Cleves inheritance.
In the spring of 1618, an uprising broke out in Bohemia against the rule of the Habsburgs, caused by the destruction of several Protestant churches and the violation of local liberties; On May 23, 1618, the townspeople of Prague threw three representatives of Emperor Matthew (1611–1619) from the windows of Prague Castle (Defenestration). Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia joined the rebellious Bohemia. This event marked the beginning of the Thirty Years' War.
Sides:
On the side of the Habsburgs: Austria, most of the Catholic principalities of Germany, Spain united with Portugal, the Papal Throne, Poland (traditional conservative forces). The Habsburg bloc was more monolithic; the Austrian and Spanish houses maintained contact with each other, often conducting joint military operations. Richer Spain provided financial support to the emperor.
On the side of the anti-Habsburg coalition: France, Sweden, Denmark, the Protestant principalities of Germany, the Czech Republic, Transylvania, Venice, Savoy, the Republic of the United Provinces, England, Scotland and Russia (strengthening national states) provided support. There were major contradictions between them, but they all receded into the background before the threat of a common enemy.
Periodization:
(There were several separate conflicts outside of Germany: the Spanish War with Holland, the War of the Mantuan Succession, the Russo-Polish War, the Polish-Swedish War, etc.)
1. Czech period (1618-1625)
Emperor Matthew of Habsburg (1612–1619) tried to reach a peace agreement with the Czechs, but negotiations were interrupted after his death in March 1619 and the election of the implacable enemy of the Protestants, Archduke Ferdinand of Styria (Ferdinand II), to the German throne. The Czechs entered into an alliance with the Transylvanian prince Bethlen Gabor; his troops invaded Austrian Hungary. In May 1619, Czech troops under the command of Count Matthew Thurn entered Austria and besieged Vienna, the residence of Ferdinand II, but were soon defeated by the invasion of Bohemia by the imperial general Buquois. At the General Landtag in Prague in August 1619, representatives of the rebel regions refused to recognize Ferdinand II as their king and elected in his place the head of the Union, Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate. However, by the end of 1619 the situation began to develop in favor of the emperor, who received large subsidies from the pope and military assistance from Philip III of Spain. In October 1619, he concluded an agreement on joint actions against the Czechs with the head of the Catholic League, Maximilian of Bavaria, and in March 1620 - with Elector Johann Georg of Saxony, the largest Protestant prince in Germany. The Saxons occupied Silesia and Lusatia, and Spanish troops invaded the Upper Palatinate. Taking advantage of the disagreements within the Union, the Habsburgs obtained from it an obligation not to provide assistance to the Czechs.
Under the command of General Tilly, the Catholic League army pacified upper Austria while Imperial troops restored order in lower Austria. Then, united, they moved to the Czech Republic, bypassing the army of Frederick V, who was trying to fight a defensive battle on the distant frontiers. The battle took place near Prague (Battle of the White Mountain) on November 8, 1620. The Protestant army suffered a crushing defeat. As a result, the Czech Republic remained in the hands of the Habsburgs for another 300 years. The first phase of the war Eastern Europe finally ended when Gábor Bethlen signed peace with the emperor in January 1622, gaining himself vast territories in eastern Hungary.
Results: Habsburg victory
1. The collapse of the Evangelical Union and the loss of all his possessions and titles by Frederick V. Frederick V was expelled from the Holy Roman Empire.
2. The Czech Republic fell, Bavaria received the Upper Palatinate, and Spain captured the Palatinate, providing a springboard for another war with the Netherlands.
3. A push for closer unity of the anti-Habsburg coalition. On June 10, 1624, France and Holland concluded the Treaty of Compiegne. It was joined by England (June 15), Sweden and Denmark (July 9), Savoy and Venice (July 11).
2. Danish period (1625-1629)
The Habsburgs' attempt to establish themselves in Westphalia and Lower Saxony and carry out a Catholic restoration there threatened the interests of the Protestant states of Northern Europe - Denmark and Sweden. In the spring of 1625, Christian IV of Denmark, supported by England and Holland, began military operations against the emperor. Together with the troops of Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick, the Danes launched an offensive in the Elbe basin.
To repel it, Ferdinand II granted emergency powers to the new commander-in-chief, the Czech Catholic nobleman Albrecht Wallenstein. He gathered a huge mercenary army and on April 25, 1626 defeated Mansfeld near Dessau. On August 27, Tilly defeated the Danes at Lutter. In 1627, the Imperials and Ligists captured Mecklenburg and all mainland possessions of Denmark (Holstein, Schleswig and Jutland).
But plans to create a fleet to capture the island part of Denmark and attack Holland failed due to opposition from the Hanseatic League. In the summer of 1628, Wallenstein, trying to put pressure on the Hansa, besieged the largest Pomeranian port of Stralsund, but failed. In May 1629, Ferdinand II concluded the Peace of Lübeck with Christian IV, returning to Denmark the possessions taken from it in exchange for its obligation not to interfere in German affairs.
The Catholic League sought to regain the Catholic possessions lost in the Peace of Augsburg. Under her pressure, the emperor issued the Edict of Restitution (1629). Wallenstein's reluctance to implement the edict and the complaints of the Catholic princes about his arbitrariness forced the emperor to dismiss the commander.
Results:
1. Peace of Lübeck between the Empire and Denmark
2. The beginning of the policy of restoration of Catholicism in Germany (Edict of Restitution). Complications in the relationship between the emperor and Wallenstein.
3. Swedish period (1630-1635)
Sweden was the last large state, capable of changing the balance of power. Gustav II Adolf, King of Sweden, sought to stop Catholic expansion as well as establish his control over the Baltic coast of northern Germany. Before this, Sweden was kept from war by the war with Poland in the struggle for the Baltic coast. By 1630, Sweden ended the war and gained Russian support (Smolensk War). The Swedish army was armed with advanced small arms and artillery. There were no mercenaries in it, and at first it did not rob the population. This fact had a positive effect.
Ferdinand II had been dependent on the Catholic League since he disbanded Wallenstein's army. At the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631), Gustavus Adolphus defeated the Catholic League under Tilly. A year later they met again, and again the Swedes won, and General Tilly died (1632). With Tilly's death, Ferdinand II again turned his attention to Wallenstein. Wallenstein and Gustav Adolf fought in a fierce battle at Lützen (1632), where the Swedes barely won, but Gustav Adolf died.
In March 1633, Sweden and the German Protestant principalities formed the League of Heilbronn; the entirety of military and political power in Germany switched to an elected council headed by the Swedish chancellor. But the absence of a single authoritative military leader began to affect the Protestant troops, and in 1634 the previously invincible Swedes suffered a serious defeat in the Battle of Nördlingen (1634).
On suspicion of treason, Wallenstein was removed from command and then killed by soldiers of his own guard at Eger Castle.
Results: Peace of Prague (1635).
Cancellation of the “Edict of Restitution” and the return of possessions to the framework of the Peace of Augsburg.
The unification of the army of the emperor and the armies of the German states into one army of the “Holy Roman Empire”.
A ban on the formation of coalitions between princes.
Legalization of Calvinism.
This peace, however, could not suit France, since the Habsburgs, as a result, became strong
4. Franco-Swedish period (1635-1648)
Having exhausted all diplomatic reserves, France entered the war itself. With her intervention, the conflict finally lost its religious overtones, since the French were Catholics. France brought its allies in Italy into the conflict. She managed to prevent a new war between Sweden and the Republic of Both Nations (Poland), which concluded the Truce of Stumsdorf, which allowed Sweden to transfer significant reinforcements from across the Vistula to Germany. The French attacked Lombardy and the Spanish Netherlands. In response, in 1636, a Spanish-Bavarian army under the command of Prince Ferdinand of Spain crossed the Somme River and entered Compiegne, and the imperial general Matthias Galas attempted to capture Burgundy.
In the summer of 1636, the Saxons and other states that signed the Prague Peace turned their troops against the Swedes. Together with the imperial forces, they pushed the Swedish commander Baner north, but were defeated at the Battle of Wittstock. In 1638, in East Germany, Spanish troops attacked the superior forces of the Swedish army. Having avoided defeat, the Swedes spent a difficult winter in Pomerania.
The last period of the war took place in conditions of exhaustion of both opposing camps, caused by colossal tension and overexpenditure of financial resources. Maneuvering actions and small battles predominated.
In 1642, Cardinal Richelieu died, and a year later King Louis XIII of France also died. Five-year-old Louis XIV became king. His regent, Cardinal Mazarin, began peace negotiations. In 1643, the French finally stopped the Spanish invasion at the Battle of Rocroi. In 1645, Swedish Marshal Lennart Thorstenson defeated the Imperials at the Battle of Jankov near Prague, and the Prince of Condé defeated the Bavarian army at the Battle of Nördlingen. The last prominent Catholic military leader, Count Franz von Mercy, died in this battle.
In 1648, the Swedes (Marshal Carl Gustav Wrangel) and the French (Turenne and Condé) defeated the Imperial-Bavarian army at the Battle of Zusmarhausen and Lens. Only the imperial territories and Austria proper remained in the hands of the Habsburgs.
Results: In the summer of 1648, the Swedes besieged Prague, but in the midst of the siege, news arrived of the signing of the Peace of Westphalia on October 24, 1648, which put an end to the Thirty Years' War.
Peace of Westphalia.
The Peace of Westphalia refers to the two peace agreements in Latin, Osnabrück and Munster, signed in 1648 and was the result of the first modern diplomatic congress and marked the beginning of a new order in Europe based on the concept of state sovereignty. The agreements affected the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, France, Sweden, the Netherlands and their allies in the person of the princes of the Holy Roman Empire. Until 1806, the provisions of the Treaties of Osnabrück and Munster were part of the constitutional law of the Holy Roman Empire.
Participants' goals:
France - break the encirclement of the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs
Sweden - achieve hegemony in the Baltic
Holy Roman Empire and Spain - achieve smaller territorial concessions
Conditions
1. Territory: France received Southern Alsace and the Lorraine bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun, Sweden - Western Pomerania and the Duchy of Bremen, Saxony - Lusatia, Bavaria - Upper Palatinate, Brandenburg - Eastern Pomerania, the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and the Bishopric of Minden
2. Dutch independence was recognized.
The war between France and Spain continued for another eleven years and ended with the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659.
Meaning: The Peace of Westphalia resolved the contradictions that led to the Thirty Years' War
1. equalized the rights of Catholics and Protestants, legalized the confiscation of church lands, abolished the previously existing principle of “whose power is his faith,” instead of which the principle of religious tolerance was proclaimed, which subsequently reduced the importance of the confessional factor in relations between states;
2. put an end to the Habsburgs’ desire to expand their possessions at the expense of the territories of states and peoples Western Europe and undermined the authority of the Holy Roman Empire: from that time on, the old hierarchical order of international relations, in which the German emperor was considered senior in rank among the monarchs, was destroyed and the heads of the independent states of Europe, who had the title of kings, were equal in rights to the emperor;
3. according to the standards established by the Peace of Westphalia, the main role in international relations, previously owned by monarchs, passed to sovereign states.
Consequences
1. The Thirty Years' War was the first war to affect all segments of the population. In Western history, it remained one of the most difficult European conflicts among the predecessors of the World Wars of the 20th century.
2. The immediate result of the war was that over 300 small German states received full sovereignty under nominal membership of the Holy Roman Empire. This situation continued until the end of the first empire in 1806.
3. The war did not lead to the automatic collapse of the Habsburgs, but it changed the balance of power in Europe. Hegemony passed to France. The decline of Spain became obvious. In addition, Sweden became a great power, significantly strengthening its position in the Baltic.
4. The main result of the Thirty Years' War was a sharp weakening of the influence of religious factors on the life of European states. Their foreign policy began to be based on economic, dynastic and geopolitical interests.
5. It is customary to count the modern era in international relations with the Peace of Westphalia.
Causes of the Thirty Years' War
Emperor Matthew (1612–1619) was as incapable of a ruler as his brother Rudolf, especially given the tense state of affairs in Germany, when an inevitable and cruel struggle between Protestants and Catholics threatened. The struggle was accelerated by the fact that the childless Matthew appointed his cousin Ferdinand of Styria as his successor in Austria, Hungary and Bohemia. Ferdinand's steadfast character and Catholic zeal were well known; Catholics and Jesuits rejoiced that their time had come; Protestants and Hussites (Utraquists) in Bohemia could not expect anything good for themselves. Bohemian Protestants built themselves two churches on the monastic lands. The question arose: do they have the right to do this or not? The government decided that it was not, and one church was locked up and the other was destroyed. Defenders, granted to the Protestants with the “Charter of Majesty”, gathered and sent a complaint to Emperor Matthew in Hungary; the emperor refused and forbade the defenders to gather for further meetings. This irritated the Protestants terribly; they attributed such a decision to the imperial advisers who ruled Bohemia in the absence of Matthew, and were especially angry with two of them, Martinitz and Slavata, who were distinguished by their Catholic zeal.
In the heat of irritation, the Hussite deputies of the state Bohemian officials armed themselves and, under the leadership of Count Thurn, went to Prague Castle, where the board met. Entering the hall, they began to talk loudly with the advisers and soon moved from words to action: they grabbed Martinitz, Slavata and the secretary Fabricius and threw them out the window “according to the good old Czech custom,” as one of those present put it (1618). With this act, the Czechs broke with the government. The officials seized the government into their own hands, expelled the Jesuits from the country and fielded an army under the leadership of Turnus.
Periods of the Thirty Years' War
Czech period (1618–1625)
The war began in 1619 and began happily for the insurgents; Ernst von Mansfeld, the daring leader of the ragtag squads, joined Thurn; the Silesian, Lusatian and Moravian ranks raised the same banner with the Czechs and drove the Jesuits away from them; the imperial army was forced to cleanse Bohemia; Matthew died, and his successor, Ferdinand II, was besieged in Vienna itself by the troops of Thurn, with whom the Austrian Protestants allied.
In this terrible danger, the steadfastness of the new emperor saved the Habsburg throne; Ferdinand held on tightly and held out until bad weather, lack of money and food supplies forced Turnus to lift the siege of Vienna.
Count Tilly. Artist Van Dyck, c. 1630
In Frankfurt, Ferdinand II was proclaimed emperor, and at the same time the ranks of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia broke away from the House of Habsburg and chose as their king the head of the Protestant union, Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate. Frederick accepted the crown and hurried to Prague for the coronation. The character of the main rivals had an important influence on the outcome of the struggle: against the smart and firm Ferdinand II stood the empty, uncontrollable Frederick V. In addition to the emperor, the Catholics also had Maximilian of Bavaria, strong in personal and material means; on the Protestant side, Maximilian was matched by Elector John George of Saxony, but the correspondence between them was limited to material means alone, for John George bore the not very honorable name of the beer king; there was a rumor that he said that the animals that inhabited his forests were dearer to his subjects; finally, John George, as a Lutheran, did not want to have anything to do with the Calvinist Frederick V and leaned towards Austria when Ferdinand promised him the land of the Lusatians (Lusation). Finally, the Protestants had no capable commanders alongside their incapable princes, while Maximilian of Bavaria accepted into his service the famous general, the Dutchman Tilly. The fight was unequal.
Frederick V came to Prague, but from the very beginning he mismanaged his affairs; he did not get along with the Czech nobles, not allowing them to participate in the affairs of government, obeying only his Germans; alienated the people with his passion for luxury and amusements, as well as with Calvin’s iconoclasm: all the images of saints, paintings and relics were removed from the Prague cathedral church. Meanwhile, Ferdinand II concluded an alliance with Maximilian of Bavaria, with Spain, attracted the Elector of Saxony to his side, and brought the Austrian ranks into obedience.
The troops of the Emperor and the Catholic League under the command of Tilly appeared near Prague. In November 1620, a battle took place at White Mountain between them and Frederick’s troops; Tilly won. Despite this misfortune, the Czechs did not have the means to continue the fight, but their king Frederick lost his spirit completely and fled from Bohemia. Deprived of a leader, unity and direction of movement, the Czechs could not continue the struggle, and in a few months Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia were again subdued under the power of the House of Habsburg.
The fate of the vanquished was bitter: 30,000 families had to leave their fatherland; instead of them, a population alien to the Slavs and Czech history appeared. Bohemia was thought to have 30,000 inhabited places; after the war only 11,000 remained; before the war there were more than 4 million inhabitants; in 1648 no more than 800,000 remained. A third of the lands were confiscated; The Jesuits rushed to prey: in order to break the closest connection between Bohemia and its past, in order to deal the heaviest blow to the Czech people, they began to destroy books on Czech language as heretical; one Jesuit boasted that he had burned more than 60,000 volumes. It is clear what fate was to await Protestantism in Bohemia; two Lutheran pastors remained in Prague, whom they did not dare expel, fearing to arouse the indignation of the Saxon Elector; but the papal legate Caraffa insisted that the emperor give the order to expel them. “The issue,” said Caraffa, “is not about two pastors, but about freedom of religion; as long as they are tolerated in Prague, not a single Czech will enter the bosom of the Church.” Some Catholics and the Spanish king himself wanted to moderate the legate’s jealousy, but he did not pay attention to their ideas. “The intolerance of the House of Austria,” said the Protestants, “forced the Czechs to be indignant.” “Heresy,” said Caraffa, “ignited rebellion.” Emperor Ferdinand II expressed himself more strongly. “God himself,” he said, “prompted the Czechs to indignation in order to give me the right and means to destroy heresy.” The Emperor tore up the “Charter of Majesty” with his own hands.
The means to destroy heresy were the following: Protestants were forbidden to engage in any kind of craftsmanship, it was forbidden to marry, make wills, bury their dead, although they had to pay the Catholic priest the costs of burial; they were not allowed into hospitals; soldiers with sabers in their hands drove them into churches; in the villages, peasants were driven there with dogs and whips; The soldiers were followed by Jesuits and Capuchins, and when a Protestant, in order to save himself from the dog and the whip, announced that he was turning to the Roman Church, he first of all had to declare that this conversion was made voluntarily. The imperial troops allowed themselves terrible cruelties in Bohemia: one officer ordered the killing of 15 women and 24 children; a detachment consisting of Hungarians burned seven villages, and all living things were exterminated; the soldiers cut off the hands of babies and pinned them to their hats in the form of trophies.
After the battle of White Mountain, three Protestant princes continued to fight the league: Duke Christian of Brunswick, Ernst Mansfeld, already known to us, and Margrave Georg Friedrich of Baden-Durlach. But these defenders of Protestantism acted in exactly the same way as the champions of Catholicism: unfortunate Germany now had to experience what Russia had experienced shortly before in Time of Troubles and France once experienced in its troubled times under Charles VI and Charles VII; the troops of the Duke of Brunswick and Mansfeld consisted of combined squads, completely similar to our Cossack squads of the Time of Troubles or the French Arminacs; people of different classes, who wanted to live cheerfully at the expense of others, flocked from everywhere under the banners of these leaders, without receiving salaries from the latter, lived by robbery and, like animals, raged against the peaceful population. German sources, when describing the horrors that Mansfeld’s soldiers allowed themselves, almost repeat the news of our chroniclers about the ferocity of the Cossacks.
Danish period (1625–1629)
The Protestant partisans could not resist Tilly, who was triumphant everywhere, and Protestant Germany showed a complete inability to defend itself. Ferdinand II declared Frederick V deprived of the electorate, which he transferred to Maximilian of Bavaria. But the strengthening of the emperor, the strengthening of the House of Austria should have aroused fear in the powers and forced them to support the German Protestants against Ferdinand II; at the same time, the Protestant powers, Denmark, Sweden, intervened in the war, in addition to political ones, and for religious reasons, while Catholic France, ruled by the cardinal of the Roman Church, began to support the Protestants for purely political purposes, in order to prevent the House of Habsburg from becoming dangerously strong.
The first to intervene in the war was Christian IV, the Danish king. Emperor Ferdinand, who until now was dependent on the league, triumphed through Tilly, the commander of Maximilian of Bavaria, now put up his army, his commander, against the Danish king: it was the famous Wallenstein (Waldstein) Wallenstein was a Czech of humble noble origin; Having been born a Protestant, he, as a young orphan, entered the house of his Catholic uncle, who converted him to Catholicism, gave him upbringing to the Jesuits, and then enrolled him in the service of the Habsburgs. Here he distinguished himself in Ferdinand's war against Venice, then in the Bohemian War; Having made a fortune for himself in his youth through a profitable marriage, he became even richer by buying up confiscated estates in Bohemia after the Battle of Belogorsk. He proposed to the emperor that he would recruit 50,000 troops and support them, without demanding anything from the treasury, if he was given unlimited power over this army and rewarded from the conquered lands. The emperor agreed, and Wallenstein fulfilled his promise: 50,000 people actually gathered around him, ready to go wherever there was booty. This huge Wallenstein squad brought Germany to the last degree of disaster: having captured some area, Wallenstein’s soldiers began by disarming the inhabitants, then indulged in systematic robbery, sparing neither churches nor graves; Having plundered everything that was in sight, the soldiers began to torture the inhabitants in order to force an indication of the hidden treasures, they managed to come up with tortures, one more terrible than the other; Finally, the demon of destruction took possession of them: without any benefit to themselves, out of one thirst for destruction, they burned houses, burned dishes, and agricultural tools; they stripped men and women naked and set hungry dogs, which they took with them for this hunt, at them. The Danish War lasted from 1624 to 1629. Christian IV could not resist the forces of Wallenstein and Tilly. Holstein, Schleswig, Jutland were desolate; Wallenstein had already announced to the Danes that they would be treated like slaves if they did not elect Ferdinand II as their king. Wallenstein conquered Silesia, expelled the Dukes of Mecklenburg from their possessions, which he received as fief from the emperor, and the Duke of Pomerania was also forced to leave his possessions. Christian IV of Denmark, in order to preserve his possessions, was forced to make peace (in Lübeck), pledging not to interfere anymore in German affairs. In March 1629, the emperor issued the so-called Edict of Restitution, according to which the Catholic Church returned all its possessions seized by Protestants after the Treaty of Passau; except for the Lutherans of the Augsburg Confession, the Calvinists and all other Protestant sects were excluded from the religious world. The Edict of Restitution was issued to please the Catholic League; but soon this league, that is, its leader Maximilian of Bavaria, demanded something else from Ferdinand: when the emperor expressed a desire for the league to withdraw its troops from there to relieve Franconia and Swabia, Maximilian, in the name of the league, demanded that the emperor himself dismiss Wallenstein and dissolve him an army that, with its robberies and cruelties, seeks to completely devastate the empire.
Portrait of Albrecht von Wallenstein
The imperial princes hated Wallenstein, an upstart who from a simple nobleman and the leader of a huge band of robbers became a prince, insulted them with his proud address and did not hide his intention to put the imperial princes in the same relation to the emperor as the French nobility was to their king; Maximilian of Bavaria called Wallenstein "the dictator of Germany." Catholic clergy hated Wallenstein because he did not care at all about the interests of Catholicism, about its spread in the areas occupied by his army; Wallenstein allowed himself to say: “A hundred years have already passed since Rome was last sacked; he must now be much richer than in the time of Charles V.” Ferdinand II had to give in to the general hatred against Wallenstein and took away his command of the army. Wallenstein retired to his Bohemian estates, waiting for a more favorable time; he didn't wait long.
Swedish period (1630–1635)
Portrait of Gustav II Adolf
France, ruled by Cardinal Richelieu, could not indifferently see the strengthening of the House of Habsburg. Cardinal Richelieu first tried to oppose Ferdinand II to the strongest Catholic prince of the empire, the head of the league. He represented to Maximilian of Bavaria that the interests of all German princes required resistance to the increasing power of the Emperor, that the best means for maintaining German freedom was to take the Imperial crown from the House of Austria; The cardinal urged Maximilian to take the place of Ferdinand II and become emperor, vouching for the help of France and its allies. When the head of the Catholic League did not succumb to the cardinal’s seductions, the latter turned to the Protestant sovereign, who alone wanted and could enter into the fight against the Habsburgs. It was the Swedish king Gustav Adolf, son and successor of Charles IX.
Energetic, gifted and well-educated, Gustavus Adolphus from the very beginning of his reign waged successful wars with his neighbors, and these wars, developing his military abilities, strengthened his desire for a role greater than the modest role played in Europe by his predecessors. With the Peace of Stolbovo beneficial to Sweden, he ended the war with Russia and considered himself entitled to announce to the Swedish Senate that the dangerous Muscovites had been pushed away from the Baltic Sea for a long time. On the Polish throne sat his cousin and mortal enemy Sigismund III, from whom he took Livonia. But Sigismund, as a zealous Catholic, was an ally of Ferdinand II, therefore, the power of the latter strengthened the Polish king and threatened Sweden with great danger; Gustav Adolf's relatives, the Dukes of Mecklenburg, were deprived of their possessions, and Austria, thanks to Wallenstein, established itself on the shores of the Baltic Sea. Gustav Adolf understood the basic laws of European political life and wrote to his chancellor Oxenstierna: “All European wars constitute one huge war. It is more profitable to transfer the war to Germany than to later be forced to defend yourself in Sweden.” Finally, religious convictions imposed on the Swedish king the obligation to prevent the destruction of Protestantism in Germany. That is why Gustav Adolf willingly accepted Richelieu’s proposal to act against the House of Austria in alliance with France, which meanwhile tried to settle peace between Sweden and Poland and thus freed Gustav Adolf’s hands.
In June 1630, Gustavus Adolphus landed on the shores of Pomerania and soon cleared this country of imperial troops. The religiosity and discipline of the Swedish army represented a striking contrast to the predatory nature of the army of the league and the emperor, therefore the people in Protestant Germany received the Swedes very cordially; of the princes of Protestant Germany, the Dukes of Luneburg, Weimar, Lauenburg and the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel took the side of the Swedes; but the Electors of Brandenburg and Saxony were very reluctant to see the Swedes enter Germany and remained inactive to the last extreme, despite the admonitions of Richelieu. The cardinal advised all German princes, Catholics and Protestants, to take advantage of the Swedish war, unite and force a peace from the emperor that would ensure their rights; if they now divide, some will stand for the Swedes, others for the emperor, then this will lead to the final destruction of their fatherland; having the same interest, they must act together against a common enemy.
Tilly, who now commanded the troops of the league and the emperor together, spoke out against the Swedes. In the fall of 1631, he met with Gustav Adolf near Leipzig, was defeated, and lost 7,000 of his best troops and retreated, giving the winner an open road to the south. In the spring of 1632, there was a second meeting between Gustavus Adolphus and Tilly, who fortified himself at the confluence of the Lech and the Danube. Tilly could not protect the crossings across the Lech and received a wound from which he soon died. Gustav Adolf occupied Munich, while Saxon troops entered Bohemia and captured Prague. In such extremity, Emperor Ferdinand II turned to Wallenstein. He forced himself to beg for a long time, finally agreed to create an army again and save Austria on the condition of unlimited disposal and rich land rewards. As soon as the news spread that the Duke of Friedland (Wallenstein's title) had begun his activities again, seekers of prey rushed towards him from all sides. Having driven the Saxons out of Bohemia, Wallenstein moved to the borders of Bavaria, fortified himself near Nuremberg, repulsed a Swede attack on his camp and rushed into Saxony, still like locusts devastating everything in its path. Gustav Adolf hurried after him to save Saxony. On November 6, 1632, the Battle of Lützen took place: the Swedes won, but lost their king.
The behavior of Gustav Adolf in Germany after the Leipzig victory aroused suspicion that he wanted to establish himself in this country and receive imperial dignity: for example, in some areas he ordered residents to swear allegiance to him, did not return the Palatinate to its former Elector Frederick, and persuaded the German princes to join Swedish service; He said that he was not a mercenary, he could not be satisfied with money alone, that Protestant Germany must separate from the Catholic one under a special head, that the structure of the German Empire was outdated, that the empire was a dilapidated building, fit for rats and mice, and not for humans.
The strengthening of the Swedes in Germany especially alarmed Cardinal Richelieu, who, in the interests of France, did not want Germany to have a strong emperor, Catholic or Protestant. France wanted to take advantage of the current turmoil in Germany to increase its possessions and let Gustav Adolph know that it wanted to regain the heritage of the Frankish kings; to this the Swedish king replied that he came to Germany not as an enemy or a traitor, but as a patron, and therefore could not agree that even one village should be taken from her; he also did not want to allow the French army to enter German soil. That is why Richelieu was very happy about the death of Gustav Adolphus and wrote in his memoirs that this death saved Christianity from many evils. But by Christianity we must here mean France, which really benefited a lot from the death of the Swedish king, having gained the opportunity to more directly intervene in the affairs of Germany and get more than one village from it.
After the death of Gustav Adolf, the rule of Sweden, due to the infancy of his only daughter and heir Christina, passed to the State Council, which decided to continue the war in Germany and entrusted its conduct to the famous statesman Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna. The strongest Protestant sovereigns of Germany, the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, shied away from the Swedish union; Oxenstierna managed to conclude an alliance in Heilbronn (in April 1633) only with the Protestant ranks of Franconia, Swabia, Upper and Lower Rhine. The Germans instilled in Oxenstierna a not very favorable opinion of themselves. “Instead of minding their own business, they just get drunk,” he told one French diplomat. Richelieu in his notes says about the Germans that they are ready to betray their most sacred obligations for money. Oxenstierna was appointed director of the Heilbronn League; command of the army was entrusted to Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar and the Swedish General Horn; France helped with money.
Meanwhile, Wallenstein, after the Battle of Lützen, began to show much less energy and enterprise than before. For a long time he remained inactive in Bohemia, then he went to Silesia and Lusatia and, after minor battles, concluded a truce with the enemies and entered into negotiations with the Electors of Saxony, Brandenburg and Oxenstierna; These negotiations were conducted without the knowledge of the Viennese court and aroused strong suspicion here. He freed Count Thurn, an implacable enemy of the House of Habsburg, from captivity, and instead of expelling the Swedes from Bavaria, he again settled in Bohemia, which suffered terribly from his army. It was clear from everything that he was looking for the death of his irreconcilable enemy, Maximilian of Bavaria, and, knowing the machinations of his enemies, he wanted to protect himself from a second fall. Numerous opponents and envious people spread rumors that he wanted With with the help of the Swedes to become an independent king of Bohemia. The emperor believed these suggestions and decided to free himself from Wallenstein.
Three of the most significant generals in the army of the Duke of Friedland conspired against their commander-in-chief, and Wallenstein was killed at the beginning of 1634 in Jäger. This is how the famous chieftain of a rabble gang died, which, fortunately for Europe, no longer appeared in it after the Thirty Years' War. The war, especially at the beginning, was of a religious nature; but the soldiers of Tilly and Wallenstein did not rage out of religious fanaticism at all: they exterminated Catholics and Protestants alike, both their own and others. Wallenstein was a complete representative of his soldiers, he was indifferent to faith, but he believed in the stars and diligently studied astrology.
After Wallenstein's death, the emperor's son Ferdinand took over the main command of the imperial army. In the fall of 1634, the imperial troops united with the Bavarian troops and completely defeated the Swedes at Nördlingen; Horn was captured. The Elector of Saxony concluded a separate peace with the emperor in Prague, Brandenburg and other German princes followed his example; Only Hesse-Kassel, Badei and Wirtemberg remained in the Swedish union.
Franco-Swedish period (1635–1648)
France took advantage of the weakening of the Swedes after the Battle of Nördlingen to clearly intervene in the affairs of Germany, restore balance between the fighting parties and receive rich rewards for this. Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, after the defeat of Nördlingen, turned to France with a request for help; Richelieu concluded an agreement with him, according to which Bernhard’s army was to be maintained at the expense of France; Oxenstierna went to Paris and received a promise that a strong French corps would act in concert with the Swedes against the emperor; finally, Richelieu entered into an alliance with Holland against the Spaniards, allies of the emperor.
In 1636, military fortune again passed to the side of the Swedes, who were commanded by General Baner. Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar also fought happily on the Upper Rhine. He died in 1639, and the French took advantage of his death: they captured Alsace, which they had previously promised to Bernhard, and took his army as a hired army. The French army arrived in southern Germany to act here against the Austrians and Bavarians. On the other hand, the French operated in the Spanish Netherlands: the young Prince of Condé began his brilliant career with a victory over the Spaniards at Rocroi.
Peace of Westphalia 1648
Meanwhile, Emperor Ferdinand II died in February 1637, and under his son, Ferdinand III, peace negotiations began in Westphalia in 1643: in Osnabrück between the emperor and Catholics on the one hand, and between the Swedes and Protestants on the other; in Munster - between Germany and France. The latter was then more powerful than all the states of Europe, and its claims aroused fair fears. The French government did not hide its plans: according to Richelieu’s thoughts, two essays were written (by Dupuis and Cassan), which proved the rights of the French kings to various kingdoms, duchies, counties, cities and countries; it turned out that Castile, Arragonia, Catalonia, Navarre, Portugal, Naples, Milan, Genoa, the Netherlands, England should belong to France; Imperial dignity belongs to the French kings as the heirs of Charlemagne. The writers reached the point of being ridiculous, but Richelieu himself, without demanding Portugal and England, interpreted to Louis XIII about "natural boundaries" France. “There is no need,” he said, “to imitate the Spaniards, who always try to expand their possessions; France must think only about how to strengthen itself, it must establish itself in Mena and reach Strasbourg, but at the same time it must act slowly and carefully; one can also think about Navarre and Franche-Comté.” Before his death, the cardinal said: “The goal of my ministry was to return to Gaul its ancient borders assigned to it.” nature, to equalize the new Gaul in everything with the ancient one.” It is not surprising, therefore, that during the Westphalian negotiations, Spanish diplomats began to curry favor with the Dutch, even deciding to tell the latter that the Dutch waged a just war against Spain, because they defended their freedom; but it would be extremely unwise on their part to help France strengthen itself in their neighborhood. The Spanish diplomats promised the two Dutch commissioners 200,000 thalers; The French king wrote to his representatives asking whether it was possible to win the Dutch over to his side with some gift.
In October 1648, negotiations ended. France received the Austrian part of Alsace, Sundgau, Breisach, preserving for the imperial cities and owners their previous relations to the empire. Sweden received most of Pomerania, the island of Rügen, the city of Wismar, the bishoprics of Bremen and Verden, also preserving their previous relations with Germany. Brandenburg received part of Pomerania and several bishoprics; Saxony - lands of the Lusatians (Lausitz); Bavaria - Upper Palatinate and retained the electorate for its duke; The Lower Palatinate, with the newly established eighth electorate, was given to the son of the unfortunate Frederick. Switzerland and the Netherlands were recognized as independent states. Regarding Germany, it was decided that legislative power in the empire, the right to collect taxes, declare war and make peace belongs to the Diet, consisting of the emperor and members of the empire; the princes received supreme power in their possessions with the right to enter into alliances with each other and with other states, but not against the emperor and the empire. The imperial court, which resolved disputes between officials and their subjects, was to consist of judges of both confessions; At the Diets, the imperial cities received equal voting rights with the princes. Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists were given complete religious and liturgical freedom and equal political rights.
Results of the Thirty Years' War
The consequences of the Thirty Years' War were important for Germany and for the whole of Europe. In Germany, imperial power completely declined, and the unity of the country remained only in name. The empire was a motley mixture of heterogeneous possessions that had the weakest connection with each other. Each prince ruled independently in his domain; but since the empire still existed in name, since there was a general power in name, which was obliged to take care of the good of the empire, and meanwhile there was no force that could force the assistance of this general power, the princes considered themselves entitled to postpone any care for the affairs of the common fatherland and have learned to take its interests to heart; their views, their feelings became shallow; They could not act separately due to powerlessness, the insignificance of their means, and they completely lost the habit of any general action, not being very accustomed to it before, as we saw; as a result, they had to bow before all power. Since they had lost consciousness of the highest government interests, the only goal of their aspirations was to feed themselves at the expense of their possessions and to feed themselves as satisfyingly as possible; for this, after the Thirty Years' War, they had every opportunity: during the war they were accustomed to collecting taxes without asking the ranks; They did not abandon this habit even after the war, especially since the terribly devastated country, which required a long rest, could not put up forces with which it was necessary to reckon; During the war, the princes organized an army for themselves, and it remained with them after the war, strengthening their power. Thus, the limitation of princely power by ranks that existed before disappeared, and the unlimited power of the princes with the bureaucracy was established, which could not be useful in small estates, especially according to the above-mentioned character adopted by the princes.
In general, in Germany, material and spiritual development was stopped at known time the terrible devastation caused by the gangs of Tilly, Wallenstein and the Swedish troops, who, after the death of Gustavus Adolphus, also began to be distinguished by robberies and cruelties, which our Cossacks did not invent in the Time of Troubles: pouring the most disgusting sewage into the throats of the unfortunate was known under the name of the Swedish drink. Germany, especially in the south and west, was a desert. In Augsburg, out of 80,000 inhabitants, only 18,000 remained; in Frankenthal, out of 18,000, only 324 remained; in the Palatinate, only a fiftieth of the total population remained. In Hesse, 17 cities, 47 castles and 400 villages were burned.
Regarding the whole of Europe, the Thirty Years' War, having weakened the House of Habsburg, fragmented and completely weakened Germany, thereby raised France and made it the leading power in Europe. A consequence of the Thirty Years' War was also that Northern Europe, represented by Sweden, took an active part in the fate of other states and became an important member of the European system. Finally, the Thirty Years' War was the last religious war; The Peace of Westphalia, by proclaiming the equality of the three confessions, put an end to the religious struggle generated by the Reformation. The dominance of secular interests over spiritual ones is very noticeable during the Peace of Westphalia: spiritual possessions are taken away from the Church in large numbers, are secularized, pass to secular Protestant rulers; It was said that in Münster and Osnabrück diplomats played with bishoprics and abbeys, like children play with nuts and dough. The Pope protested against the world, but no one paid attention to his protest.
The war began as a religious clash between the Protestants and Catholics of the empire, but then escalated into a struggle against Habsburg hegemony in Europe. The conflict became the last significant religious war in Europe and gave birth to the Westphalian system of international relations.
Prerequisites:
Since the time of Charles V, the leading role in Europe belonged to the House of Austria - the Habsburg dynasty. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Spanish branch of the house also owned, in addition to Spain, Portugal, the Southern Netherlands, the states of Southern Italy and, in addition to these lands, had at its disposal a huge Spanish-Portuguese colonial empire. The German branch - the Austrian Habsburgs - secured the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor and were kings of the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Croatia. While the Habsburgs tried to further expand their control over Europe, other major European powers sought to prevent this. Among the latter, the leading position was occupied by Catholic France, which was the largest of the European nation states of that time.
The Habsburgs were supported by: Austria, most of the Catholic principalities of the Holy Roman Empire, Spain united with Portugal, the Papal Throne of Poland. On the side of the “anti-Habsburg coalition: the Protestant principalities of the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia, Transylvania, Venice, Savoy, the Republic of the United Provinces, Sweden, Denmark, France, supported by England, Scotland and the Kingdom of Moscow.
The Peace of Augsburg of 1555, signed by Charles V, temporarily ended the open rivalry between Lutherans and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire, and in Germany in particular. Under the terms of the peace, the German princes could choose a religion (Lutheranism or Catholicism) for their principalities at their own discretion, according to the principle: “Whose power, his faith” (lat. Cuius regio, eius religio). However, by the beginning of the 17th century, the Catholic Church, relying on the support of the Habsburg dynasty, was regaining its influence and waging an active struggle against the Protestants.
To resist Catholic pressure, the Protestant princes of the Holy Roman Empire united in 1608 in the Evangelical Union. The Union sought support from states hostile to the Habsburg dynasty. In response, Catholics united in 1609, the Catholic League of Maximilian I of Bavaria.
In 1617, the ruling Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Czech Republic, Matthew, who had no direct heirs, forced the Czech Sejm to recognize his cousin Ferdinand of Styria as heir. Ferdinand was a passionate Catholic, raised by the Jesuits, and extremely unpopular in the largely Protestant Czech Republic. Against this background, a conflict occurred in Prague between representatives of the Czech aristocracy and the royal governors.
Periods: The Thirty Years' War is traditionally divided into four periods: Czech, Danish, Swedish and Franco-Swedish. There were several separate conflicts outside of Germany: the Spanish-Dutch War, the War of the Mantuan Succession, the Russo-Polish War, the Polish-Swedish War, etc.
Participants: On the side of the Habsburgs were: Austria, most of the Catholic principalities of Germany, Spain united with Portugal, the Papal Throne, and Poland. On the side of the anti-Habsburg coalition - France, Sweden, Denmark, the Protestant principalities of Germany, the Czech Republic, Transylvania, Venice, Savoy, the Republic of the United Provinces, provided support: England, Scotland and Russia. Overall, the war turned out to be a clash between traditional conservative forces and the growing nation states. The Habsburg bloc was more monolithic; the Austrian and Spanish houses maintained contact with each other, often conducting joint military operations. Richer Spain provided financial support to the emperor.
1.Czech period: 1618-25
In June 1617, the childless Holy Roman Emperor Matthew (King of the Czech Republic under the name Matthias II) passed through the General Sejm a decision to declare his nephew Archduke Ferdinand of Styria as heir to the Czech throne. Raised by Jesuits, Ferdinand was a fanatical adherent of the Catholic Church and was famous for his intolerance towards Protestants. In the Czech Republic, most of whose population was Protestant, unrest intensified. Archbishop Jan III Logel forced the entire population to convert to Catholicism and ordered the destruction of the newly built Protestant church. In March 1618, the burghers and opposition Protestant nobles, at the call of Count Thurnom, gathered in Prague and appealed to the emperor, who had left for Vienna, demanding the release of prisoners and an end to the violation of the religious rights of Protestants. In addition, another, more representative congress was punished in May. The emperor responded by banning this congress and announcing that he was going to punish the instigators. On May 23, 1618, the participants of the congress that gathered, despite the resistance of the Catholics, threw the royal governors Vilem Slavata and Jaroslav of Martinice and their scribe Philip Fabritius into the ditch from the windows of the Czech Chancellery. Although all three survived, the attack on the emperor's representatives was seen as a symbolic attack on the emperor himself.
In the autumn of the same year, a 15,000-strong imperial army led by Count Buqua and Count Dampierre entered the Czech Republic. The Czech directory formed an army led by Count Thurn. In response to the Czechs' appeal to the Evangelical Union, the Elector of the Palatinate, Frederick V, and the Duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel I, sent a 20,000-strong mercenary army under the command of Count Mansfeld to help them. Under the onslaught of Turnus, Catholic troops were forced to retreat to Ceske Budejovice, and Mansfeld besieged the largest and richest Catholic city of Pilsen.
Meanwhile, after the victory in the Battle of Sablat, the Habsburgs achieved certain diplomatic successes. Ferdinand was supported by the Catholic League, and the king of France promised to promote Ferdinand's election as emperor, using his influence on the Elector of Trier. On August 19, Bohemia, Lusiatia, Silesia and Moravia refused to recognize Ferdinand as their king. On August 26, Frederick V was elected king of the Czech Republic. On August 28, 1619, in Frankfurt, where news from Bohemia had not yet reached, Ferdinand was elected emperor. On October 31, Frederick arrived in Prague and on November 4 was crowned in St. Vitus Cathedral. The Emperor gave the newly-crowned King of the Czech Republic an ultimatum: he had to leave the Czech Republic by June 1, 1620. As a result, the battle took place on the White Mountain of Prague on November 8, 1620. The 15,000-strong Protestant army suffered a crushing defeat from the 20,000-strong Catholic army. Prague capitulated without firing a shot. Frederick fled to Brandenburg.
The defeat caused the collapse of the Evangelical Union and the loss of all his possessions and titles by Frederick V.
On April 9, 1621, the truce between Spain and the United Provinces expired. The Dutch Republic provided Frederick V with asylum and financial assistance. in the spring of 1622, three armies were ready to fight against the emperor - Mansfeld in Alsace, Christian of Brunswick in Westphalia and George Friedrich in Baden.
The first period of the war ended with a convincing victory for the Habsburgs. The Czech Republic fell, Bavaria received the Upper Palatinate, and Spain captured the Elder Palatinate, providing a springboard for another war with the Netherlands. This served as an impetus for closer unity of the anti-Habsburg coalition. On June 10, 1624, France and Holland concluded the Treaty of Compiegne. It was joined by England (June 15), Sweden and Denmark (July 9), Savoy and Venice (July 11).
2. Danish period: 1625-29.
Tilly's army advanced to the north of Germany and began to cause growing concern among the Scandinavian countries. The German princes and cities, who had previously seen Denmark as a threat to their influence in the North and Baltic Seas, began to treat the Lutheran king of Denmark, Christian IV, more like a patron as Tilly approached. England, France and Holland promised to support him financially. Having learned that Denmark's longtime enemy, King Gustav Adolf of Sweden, was going to help the Protestants in Germany, Christian IV decided to act quickly and already in the spring of 1625 he opposed Tilly at the head of a mercenary army of 20 thousand soldiers.
To fight Christian, Ferdinand II invited the Czech nobleman Albrecht von Wallenstein. Wallenstein proposed to the emperor a new principle for the formation of troops - to recruit a large army and not spend money on its maintenance, but feed it at the expense of the population of the theater of military operations. On April 25, 1625, Ferdinand appointed Wallenstein commander-in-chief of all imperial troops. Wallenstein's army became a formidable force, and in different time its number ranged from 30 to 100 thousand soldiers.
Wallenstein's army occupied Mecklenburg and Pomerania. The commander received the title of admiral, which indicated the emperor’s big plans for the Baltic. However, without a fleet, Wallenstein could not capture the Danish capital on the island of Zealand. Wallenstein organized a siege of Stralsund, a large free port with military shipyards, but failed. This led to the signing of the peace treaty in Lübeck in 1629. Another period of war ended, but the Catholic League sought to regain the Catholic possessions lost in the Peace of Augsburg.
3. Swedish period: 1530-35
Both Catholic and Protestant princes, as well as many from the emperor’s entourage, believed that Wallenstein himself wanted to seize power in Germany. Perhaps that is why in 1630 it was decided to refuse the services of Wallenstein.
At that time, Sweden remained the last major state capable of changing the balance of power. Gustav II Adolf, King of Sweden, like Christian IV, sought to stop Catholic expansion as well as to establish his control over the Baltic coast of northern Germany. Like Christian IV, he was generously subsidized by Cardinal Richelieu, first minister of Louis XIII, King of France. Before this, Sweden was kept from war by the war with Poland in the struggle for the Baltic coast. By 1630, Sweden ended the war and gained Russian support (Smolensk War). The Swedish army was armed with advanced small arms and artillery.
Ferdinand II had been dependent on the Catholic League since he disbanded Wallenstein's army. At the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631), Gustavus Adolphus defeated the army of the Catholic League under the command of Tilly. A year later they met again, and again the Swedes won, and Tilly died (1632). With Tilly's death, Ferdinand II again turned his attention to Wallenstein.
Wallenstein and Gustav Adolf fought in a fierce battle at Lützen (1632), where the Swedes barely won, but Gustav Adolf died. On April 23, 1633, Sweden, France and the German Protestant principalities formed the League of Heilbronn (English)Russian; all military and political power in Germany passed to an elected council headed by Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna.
Ferdinand II's suspicions again gained the upper hand when Wallenstein began his own negotiations with the Protestant princes, the leaders of the Catholic League and the Swedes (1633). In addition, he forced his officers to take a personal oath to him. On suspicion of treason, Wallenstein was removed from command, and a decree was issued to confiscate all his estates.
After this, the princes and the emperor began negotiations, which ended the Swedish period of the war with the Peace of Prague (1635). Its terms provided:
Cancellation of the “Edict of Restitution” and the return of possessions to the framework of the Peace of Augsburg
The unification of the army of the emperor and the armies of the German states into one army of the “Holy Roman Empire”
Prohibition on the formation of coalitions between princes
Legalization of Calvinism.
This peace, however, did not suit France, since the Habsburgs became stronger as a result.
4. Franco-Swedish period 1635-48.
Having exhausted all diplomatic reserves, France entered the war itself (war was declared on Spain on May 21, 1635). With her intervention, the conflict finally lost its religious overtones, since the French were Catholics. France involved its allies in Italy - the Duchy of Savoy, the Duchy of Mantua and the Venetian Republic - into the conflict. The French attacked Lombardy and the Spanish Netherlands. In response, in 1636, the Spanish-Bavarian army under the command of Prince Ferdinand of Spain crossed the Somme River and entered Compiegne.
In the summer of 1636, the Saxons and other states that signed the Prague Peace turned their troops against the Swedes. Together with the imperial forces, they pushed the Swedish commander Baner north, but were defeated at the Battle of Wittstock.
The last period of the war took place in conditions of exhaustion of both opposing camps, caused by colossal tension and overexpenditure of financial resources. Maneuvering actions and small battles predominated.
In 1642, Cardinal Richelieu died, and a year later King Louis XIII of France also died. Five-year-old Louis XIV became king. His minister, Cardinal Mazarin, began peace negotiations.
In 1648, the Swedes (Marshal Carl Gustav Wrangel) and the French (Turenne and Condé) defeated the Imperial-Bavarian army at the Battle of Zusmarhausen and Lens. Only the imperial territories and Austria proper remained in the hands of the Habsburgs.
Peace of Westphalia: Back in 1638, the Pope and the Danish king called for an end to the war. Two years later, the idea was supported by the German Reichstag, which met for the first time after a long break.
The congress turned out to be the most representative meeting in the history of Europe: it was attended by delegations from 140 subjects of the empire and 38 other participants. Emperor Ferdinand III was ready to make large territorial concessions (more than he had to give in the end), but France demanded a concession that he initially did not think about. The Emperor had to refuse support for Spain and not even interfere in the affairs of Burgundy, which was formally part of the empire. National interests took precedence over dynastic ones. The emperor actually signed all the terms separately, without his Spanish cousin.
The peace treaty concluded on October 24, 1648 simultaneously in Münster and Osnabrück went down in history under the name of the Treaty of Westphalia.
The United Provinces, as well as Switzerland, were recognized as independent states. The only thing that remained unsettled was the war between Spain and France, which lasted until 1659.
Under the terms of the peace, France received Southern Alsace and the Lorraine bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun, Sweden - the island of Rügen, Western Pomerania and the Duchy of Bremen, plus an indemnity of 5 million thalers. Saxony - Lusatia, Brandenburg - Eastern Pomerania, the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and the Bishopric of Minden. Bavaria - Upper Palatinate, the Bavarian Duke became Elector.
Consequences:
The greatest damage was caused to Germany, where, according to some estimates, 5 million people died. Many regions of the country were devastated and for a long time remained deserted. A crushing blow was dealt to the productive forces of Germany. The Swedes burned and destroyed almost all metallurgical and foundry plants, ore mines, as well as a third of German cities. Epidemics, constant companions of war, raged in the armies of the opposing sides. The constant movement of soldiers, as well as the flight of civilians, led to the fact that diseases spread far from the centers of the disease.
Another result of the war was that over 300 small German states received actual sovereignty, while nominally submitting to the Holy Roman Empire. This situation continued until the end of the first empire in 1806.
The war did not automatically lead to the collapse of the Habsburgs, but it changed the balance of power in Europe. Hegemony passed to France. The decline of Spain became obvious. In addition, Sweden became a great power for about half a century, significantly strengthening its position in the Baltic.
Adherents of all religions (Catholicism, Lutheranism, Calvinism) gained equal rights in the empire. The main result of the Thirty Years' War was a sharp weakening of the influence of religious factors on the life of European states. Their foreign policy began to be based on economic, dynastic and geopolitical interests.
Meaning: The Thirty Years' War was a reflection in the international sphere of the deep processes of the genesis of capitalism in the depths of feudal Europe; it turned out to be closely connected with socio-political crises and revolutionary movements this transitional era from the Middle Ages to modern times.
In the first half of the 17th century, some European countries were involved in a war that lasted as long as thirty years. This historical event, spanning 1618-1648, is currently known as the Thirty Years' War. One of historical events What damaged the political reputation of the Habsburg dynasty in Europe was precisely this 30 Years' War, since the end of this war was characterized by the suppression of power Habsburgs. One of the main manifestations of this was the transformation of the Holy Roman Empire, led by the Habsburgs, into a politically divided and fragmented country. As a rule, historians distinguish four main periods of the Thirty Years' War, including the Czech (1618-1623), Danish (1625-1629), Swedish (1630-1635) and Franco-Swedish (1635-1648) periods.
The Thirty Years' War is considered one of the major military clashes of the late Middle Ages. This war showed the diplomatic and military preparedness of European states, the complexity of international relations and the fact that religious hatred is a complex and pressing issue. Along with this, the war that engulfed all of Europe was distinguished by its scale. Military actions took place for the most part on territory belonging to the Holy Roman Empire. The essence of this war was the confrontation between such Protestant countries as Sweden, Denmark, and along with them Catholic France and the Habsburgs. The Thirty Years' War began on the soil of modern Czech Republic or medieval Bohemia. Religious clashes became the impetus for the outbreak of hostilities. Thus, as a result of aggravated relations between Catholics and Protestants, warring Europe was divided into two sides. Indeed, in the run-up to the 30 Years' War, public policy developed in close connection with religion. In general, religion occupies a special place in the history of Europe. However, the 30-year war continued not only to solve religious problems; on the contrary, several European states used the clashes between Catholics and Protestants for their own purposes. For example, religious conflicts or aggravations served as a reason for the possession of the dominant and strategically significant territory of Europe. In research papers recent years Several opinions are given regarding the main causes of the war, which lasted 30 years. Some researchers associate the causes of the war with religion, while others propose to consider this issue in close connection with political and economic problems.
The Thirty Years' War was the first war on a pan-European scale. Many states participated in it, directly or indirectly. Collided in war two lines of political development Europe: Medieval Catholic tradition and a single pan-European Christian monarchy. Austria and Spain on the one hand and England, France, Holland, Sweden, with another.
Internal struggle in Germany. 1608-1609 – 2 military-political unions of German princes on a confessional basis (Evangelical Union and Catholic League), this conflict turned into an international one.
Confrontation between France and the coalition of Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs, who claimed a special role in European politics. (plus old disputed territories - Alsace and Lorraine)
4 periods:
Czech, Danish, Swedish, French-Swedish
Religious reasons. There is no doubt that the beginning of the 30 Years' War is closely connected with religion. The relationship between Catholics and Protestants in the Holy Roman Empire changed greatly due to the rise to power of Ferdinand II. Ferdinand of Styria, confirmed as heir to the Czech throne on June 9, 1617, took power into his own hands with the help of the Spaniards. Along with this, he was known as the heir to the head of the Holy Roman Empire. Protestants were alarmed by the fact that Ferdinand pursued policies that pursued the interests of the Germans and Catholics. He was entirely converted to the Catholic faith and did not take into account the interests of Protestants at all. Ferdinand II provided various privileges to Catholics, limiting the rights of Protestants in every possible way. Through such actions, he turned the people against himself, and he also established increased religious control. Catholics were attracted to all available government positions, while Protestants began to be persecuted. Freedom of religion was limited; moreover, as a result of violence, many Protestants were forced to convert to Catholics. Of course, those who did not give in to this were arrested or fined. Strict prohibitions were also imposed on the performance of any Protestant religious rituals. The goal of all these measures was the complete eradication of Protestantism as a faith within the empire and the separation of Protestants from society. In this regard, Protestant churches in the cities of Brumov and Grob were toppled and destroyed. The consequence of all this was that religious clashes began to become more frequent in the empire, and a group was formed that was opposed to the adherent of the merciless religious policy of Ferdinand II and the Catholics, which led to a major uprising of the Protestant population of the empire on May 23, 1618. It was the uprising that occurred on this day that was the beginning of the 30 Years' War, which means that its origin was due to religious reasons. However, after the defeat of such Protestant states as Sweden and Denmark, the transition of Catholic France to the Protestant side called into question the religious reasons for the creation of such a protracted war. This indicates other, particularly important political reasons.
Political reasons. Along with the discontent of ordinary Protestant residents, at the same time, actions against Ferdinand by representatives of the ruling circles began. In connection with Ferdinand's rise to power, several political figures were deprived of their positions, among whom was Heinrich Matthew Thurn, who organized the protest ordinary people against the actions of Ferdinand. One of the individuals who contributed to the Protestant uprising against the government was Frederick V, at that time he served as Elector of the Palatinate. By the beginning of the war, the Protestants proclaimed Frederick V king among themselves. All these actions of the Protestants only intensified the already aggravated situation. Such political steps were another reason for the war. The 30-year war, which began on Czech soil, was marked by victory within three years. However, hostilities did not stop there; they continued during the Danish, Swedish and Franco-Swedish periods. The war, which began for religious reasons, began to acquire a purely political character over time. Denmark and Sweden, which were supposed to protect the interests of Protestants, through the war pursued the goal of correcting their socio-economic situation and strengthening their political authority. Along with this, having defeated the Habsburgs, they aimed to gain major political power in Central Europe. Catholic France, which feared the excessive strengthening of the political authority of the Habsburgs, went over to the side of the Protestants. This means that we can conclude that the war, which began due to religious reasons, acquired a political character. Of course, states involved in war for political reasons also pursued their own economic interests.
Economic reasons. The Habsburg dynasty, which did not take into account the interests of Protestants, was the head of the Holy Roman Empire, and the empire, located in Central Europe, possessed several strategically significant territories. The northern regions are located close to the Baltic coast. If the Habsburg dynasty became the leader of Europe, they would definitely fight for possessions on the Baltic coast. Therefore, Denmark and Sweden opposed such an imperial policy, since they put interests on the Baltic coast above all else. By defeating the Habsburg dynasty, they aimed to bring into their territory the territories of the empire of European states located near the Baltic Sea. Of course, this action was due to their economic interests. Along with this, the natural and other riches of the state generated enormous interest from foreign countries; moreover, from a simple warrior to a commander with the rank of commander, they were looking for benefits from this war. During the war, commanders through local residents retained their troops, moreover, at the expense of the residents, they increased the number of soldiers. As a result of the robbery, the troops solved their socio-economic problems; moreover, with the help of the robbery of the wealth of the empire, the commanders replenished the state treasury. In general, a war that took place at any time can generate not only an economic crisis, but can also serve as a primitive example of replenishing the state treasury.
These are the main reasons for the 30 Years' War, which covered the period from 1618 to 1648. From the information provided, one can make the observation that the 30-year war began as a result of religious aggravations. However, throughout the war itself, the religious problem acquired an additional character, the main purpose of which was to pursue state interests. Defending the rights of Protestants was only the main reason for the start of the 30-year war. In our opinion, the war, which dragged on for 30 years, was the result of a deep political and economic crisis. The war ended on October 24, 1648 with the adoption of a peace agreement in the cities of Münster and Osnabrück. This agreement went down in history as the Peace of Westphalia.