Europe in the Age of the Reformation

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Germany During the Reformation

The Thirty Years War

This was the most devastating European war in history, until World War One arrived and changed the very yardstick by which wars were measured. Unlike earlier extended wars, such as the Hundred Years War, which were marked by truces and lulls, this war was widespread and nearly continual. It took place mainly in Germany, but spilled over into other theatres. With a couple of postscripts, the end of the war also is often used to mark the end of the Reformation era as well.

The Defenestration of Prague

The war began in a fairly ordinary way as a succession dispute. The emperor Rudolph had been incompetent for years and the Habsburg family had been moving steadily against him since about 1600. They couldn't remove him, but they tried to isolate him and limit the damage he could do. As the result of a brief war between Rudolph and his brother Matthias, the Bohemian Estates were granted some fairly extensive rights in a charter known as the "Letter of Majesty" (1609). Among other things, the charter granted religious freedom and installed a council of noblemen called "Defensores" to ensure that the terms of the charter were kept.

Rudolph died in 1612 and his brother Matthias succeeded. Among other things, he was an ardent Catholic and began looking for ways to promote the Catholic religion in Bohemia and to lessen the influence of the Protestants. In 1617 he appointed two new bishops who proceeded to seize the lands on which Protestant churches had been built, claiming a certain interpretation of the Letter of Majesty permitted this.

A number of Bohemian nobles were alarmed, for they worried that this move portended further moves by the Emperor to curtail their rights. They wrote to the Emperor and appealed to the Defensores, but got only delays and negative replies. By May of 1618, the more determined among the nobility had decided that more drastic measures were needed.

The City Council of Prague had so far been fairly loyal to the Emperor. On 23 May, a group of nobles entered the Council chambers, laid hands on three Councilmen, and pitched them out of the window. It was three stories to the ground, and amazingly none of the men died. In Catholic versions of the event, angels appeared to lower the men to safety. In Protestant versions, there was a dungheap below and they fell into that.

The Bohemian Phase

Either way, the nobles had signalled their open defiance of the emperor, and only force of arms would decide the matter. The nobles at once issued an appeal to the Bohemian nation, justifying their actions and calling for support. They declared themselves to constitute the Bohemian Estates. They raised troops, tried to raise taxes, and got a certain amount of money by seizing the lands of Catholics wherever they could. By June, the entire country was in rebellion.

Although Bohemian rebelled, Moravia decided to stay loyal to the Empire. It raised a small army. In command of the infantry was a minor noble by the name of Albrecht Eusebius Wenzel Waldstein, usually appearing in the history books as Wallenstein. We'll hear more about him later. Silesia opted for armed neutrality, though they went over to the Bohemian side in October.

There was still one hope for peace. Emperor Matthias was old and sick and not really running the show at this point. The hand at the helm belonged to Cardinal Khlesl, who favored negotiations. His chief rival was Ferdinand of Styria, nephew to Matthias and next in line to be King of Bohemia. Ferdinand was certain that Khlesl would cave in to the heretics, so on 20 July 1618, he had Khlesl arrested.

Another factor entered in that summer. The Duke of Savoy had raised an army to participate in the War of the Mantuan Succession. That situation got resolved in 1618, though, so Savoy sent the army off to help the Bohemian rebels. The army was commanded by the mercenary, Ernst von Mansfeld.

For his part, Ferdinand raised his army largely with Spanish money and his army was commanded by a Flemish general, Bucquoy.

Already, then, in the first months of the war, we see it spreading. First Styria, then Savoy found reason and opportunity to meddle in the Bohemian revolt. The motivation was partly religious, partly fiscal, partly political, and partly it was simply the workings of Fortune. Note, however, that no one knew how to remove the outside forces once they were introduced. The situation in 1618 Germany was not dissimilar to the situation in 1494 Italy.

The imperial army advanced into Bohemia, having received free passage through Moravia. But Mansfeldt's forces pushed them back and forced them into winter quarters at Budweis. In the same month, November, Mansfeldt captured Pilsen, which had remained loyal to the Emperor.

Matthias died 20 March 1619 and was succeeded as King of Bohemia by Ferdinand of Styria. Ferdinand was not yet Emperor, though. He would have to be chosen by the Electors.

Palatine Phase

The death of Matthias precipitated a mess that was aggravated by decisions made by key individuals.

1624. Mansfeld, given an army of 12,000 by James I of England, went to relieve the siege of Breda. Prince Maurice refused to let them land. Thousands sickened and died on board the ships. Only about 7,000 finally disembarked, February 1625. Breda fell anyway, on 25 May 1625.

Valtelline

The next scene of action was in the Valtelline. The largely-Catholic natives rebelled in 1620 against their Protestant overlords, the Grisons. When the rebellion was squashed, Spain stepped in, supposedly to help their co-religionists but also to protect the route north to the Netherlands. The Grisons tried to recover the Valtelline in 1622, but failed so badly they had to give up some territory to Austria.

Here, as elsewhere, Habsburg victories created a reaction. France in 1623 signed a treaty with Venice and Savoy to recover the Valtelline. Despite support from the papacy, though, the Spanish could not be dislodged. In 1624 the French succeeded in expelling the papal troops holding the fortresses.

The Danish Phase

Attention now shifted to Christian of Denmark. Gustavus Adolphus was another possibility, but his demands for men and money were considered excessive. When England declined to supply what he wanted, he shrugged and returned to his war with Poland.

That left King Christian, who asked for fewer men and did not demand to be paid in advance. Both his English and his French allies failed him. King James died in April 1625. His son Charles made generous promises, but after a hefty initial payment, Parliament balked and would not grant more. France was preoccupied with a Huguenot war and sent little money and no men. Sweden was already out, and Brandenburg (related by marriage to Gustavus Adolphus) also refused to join the coalition. Christian managed to raise 34,000 men, but he lacked the resourced to keep them for very long. Worse yet, it was at this point that Wallenstein emerged to lead the Imperial armies.

28 July 1625: Tilly crosses the Weser River, officially beginning the Danish Phase of the war. Tilly's troops ravaged the area around Brunswick, and Christian withdrew to Verden, in part because he'd fallen off a wall at Hameln and was badly hurt.

Wallenstein took his army of 20,000 to occupy Halberstadt and Magdeburg, and set up headquarters there. Mansfeld tried to attack on 25 April 1626 over the bridge at Dessau, but was thrown back with heavy losses.

In July Wallenstein split his army, sending part to Tilly to counter the Danes, and taking the rest in pursuit of Mansfeld, who was heading to Hungary to join Bethlen Gabor.

The Danish campaign was brief. Tilly, reinforced by eight regiments from Wallenstein, caught up with Christian at the village of Lutter. The Danish army was routed and broken. The Hungarian campaign came to nothing. Gabor and Wallenstein signed a truce; Mansfeld fell ill and died that winter.

1626 also saw a ferocious peasant revolt in Upper Austria.

By 1627, only the King of Denmark was still in the field for the Protestants. Bohemia was made hereditary in the house of Habsburg, and all Protestants were forced to convert or go into exile. In September, Imperial forces defeated a Protestant army at Heiligenhafen, forcing Christian to flee to the island of Fünen. The Danish mainland was overrun.

Wallenstein conquered Mecklenburg and then Pomerania. Wismar resisted and was conquered. Stralsund resisted. The steady march of the Habsburg alarmed Sweden, which signed an alliance with Christian on 8 May 1628. Stralsund held out, first against General Arnim, then against Wallenstein himself, for the Imperialists had no navy. The siege of Stralsund, begun in April, was lifted in August. The city was garrisoned by Scottish troops in Swedish pay. The were commanded by Alexander Leslie.

Barely a month later, Christian was again defeated. He had invaded Pomerania and was defeated near Wolgast. He fled to Denmark and began negotiations for peace. By the Peace of Lübeck he kept his kingdom but was required to give up all claim to bishoprics in Germany.

The Habsburgs were firmly in control. Ferdinand now took a step that hardened opposition to him everywhere: the Edict of Restitution, 6 March 1629. All properties seized by Protestants since 1552 were to be returned. A special commission was created to oversee the process. The Edict also permitted the expulsion of Protestants from Catholic lands. No Calvinist state would be tolerated. And the commissioners had the right to raise troops to enforce their rulings.

The Edict was nothing short of revolutionary, for it would destroy some states and turn many others topsy-turvy. The Edict trampled all over princely rights. Reaction to it was swift and strong. Over the next few years, Catholics recovered five bishoprics, thirty cities, a hundred monasteries. Thousands of Protestants were driven into exile or were forced to convert.

One might think the Catholics would be delighted with their victory. In fact, they behaved like wolves at a kill. The pope argued that the commissioners must be papal rather than imperial appointees. The monastic orders competed with one another for lands. Even the emperor and the duke of Bavaria had a falling out over who should get the bishoprics of Magdeburg and Halberstadt.

The Catholic princes had good reason to fear the growth of imperial power. They hated Wallenstein, who was Ferdinand's chief source of military power. In March 1628, Wallenstein became duke of Mecklenburg, despite the claims of the legitimate rulers. First with the Palatinate and now with Mecklenburg, Ferdinand demonstrated he would be an autocrat. With his army a hundred thousand strong, open resistance was risky, but dissatisfaction ran deep.

The situation changed because of two forces that now entered the fray in earnest: France and Sweden.

The Swedish Phase

La Rochelle surrendered in October 1628, marking an end to decades of serious Huguenot rebellion. Cardinal Richelieu, now firmly in control, aimed at securing an improved eastern border, focusing particularly on Metz and Strassburg. A second aim was to oppose Spain in Italy. With the Huguenot question settled, Richelieu now had men, money, and time to spend on his foreign policy goals.

Louis XIII moved in March 1629, invading Savoy. The so-called Mantuan War tied up Spanish troops and forced the emperor to send troops to Italy instead of keeping them in Germany.

In the north, French ambassadors mediated a peace between Sweden and Poland (Treaty of Altmark, 26 September 1629), freeing Gustavus Adolphus to return his attention to Germany. His goal for Sweden was simply to secure control of port towns along the southern Baltic shore. He landed in Pomerania at Peenemünde on 6 July 1630, marking the beginning of the Swedish phase of the war.

The extent of dissatisfaction with Ferdinand was manifested at the Diet of Regensburg. Saxony and Brandenburg refused to attend. The Diet refused Ferdinand's requests for campaigns in Italy and Holland. It refused to elect Ferdinand's son as king of the Romans. It asked for the resignation of Wallenstein. French agents were busy throughout. Ferdinand, hoping to shore up allegiances, dismissed Wallenstein on 13 August 1630.

Gustavus Adolphus quickly ran the Imperial troops out of Pomerania and by Christmas had established a headquarters at Bärwalde. His only ally when he landed was the city of Stralsund. Saxony and Brandenburg, obvious allies, remained neutral. Magdeburg soon joined him, but no one else. Negotiations had been opened with France, but Richelieu wanted Bavaria to lead the anti-Habsburg alliance (Bavaria was Catholic), while Gustavus Adolphus expected Saxony to take the lead. John George, however, remained adamantly neutral. That left Sweden.

Gustavus Adolphus' strong showing in 1630 led to a conference at Leipzig in February 1631. The month before, the king had signed an alliance with France that left him a free hand. Leipzig, however, was a disappointment and brought little result. On the Protestant as on the Catholic side, unity proved impossible for the Germans.

The lack of unity brought tragedy to the city of Magdeburg. Pappenheim had besieged the city in November 1630, and Gustavus Adolphus had promised to relieve the city, fully expecting to receive support from Brandenburg (his brother-in-law) and Saxony. The city held fast, but in April Pappenheim was joined by Tilly. Gustavus Adolphus could risk an attack only if he had a secure line of retreat, and even this John George refused. The king finally had decided to march anyway, a terrible risk, when word reached him of the city's fall on 20 May 1631.

The fall of Magdeburg horrified Europe. The city had been starved and then was bombarded unmercifully. The artillery shelling grew so bad, the town caught on fire. Over 20,000 of the citizens perished in the siege and the cataclysm that ended it. The city itself was burned to the ground. The cruel and pointless devastation marked a new low, an act abhorred by a generation well accustomed to horrors. The city had been taken, but the Catholic cause, Tilly, and the Habsburgs had suffered significant damage to their reputations.

The failure of the German princes, especially of Saxony, to step forward in such an obvious crisis disgusted Gustavus Adolphus. He decided only Sweden could defend the Protestant cause. His allies would have to accept his leadership. His best allies were Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, and William of Hesse.

Gustavus Adolphus moved quickly. He had to: the Peace of Cherasco ended the Mantuan War in March 1631 and freed up 54,000 Imperial troops. The king captured Greifswald, completing the conquest of Pomerania, then finished off Mecklenburg and restored the dukes there. Tilly meanwhile invaded Saxony, forcing John George finally to ally with Sweden.

The two armies met at Breitenfeld on 17 September. Gustavus Adolphus had about 42,000 men, rather weary and worn after a year of hard campaigning. Tilly had only 35,000 but they were fresher. Gustavus Adolphus lost his numeric advantage early as the 18,000 Saxons broke and fled. There followed five hours of hard fighting that demonstrated Gustavus Adolphus' military innovations to good effect. The Swedes lost about 2,100 men. The Imperialists lost over 20,000 plus another 3,000 captured.

It was a brilliant victory and cemented Gustavus Adolphus' reputation as a great commander. In a single day about a third of the total Imperial might had been destroyed. Protestant propaganda compared with king of Sweden to the warrior kings of the Bible.

He now decided to ignore Tilly and to head for the Rhine. It was a momentous decision, for it gave Tilly a chance to recover, and the advance to the Rhine made France extremely nervous. Relations between the two countries turned icy and did not warm up again.

Meanwhile, the emperor at first panicked and made plans to flee to Italy. It soon became apparent that the Swedes were not marching on Austria, though, and soon enough Ferdinand was planning a counter-attack. Toward this end he recalled Wallenstein on 10 December 1631.

Wallenstein had spent two years in supposed retirement on his estates in Bohemia, but he had been engaged in dealings that were strange and probably treasonous. In July 1631, for example, he had approached Gustavus Adolphus, asking for ten thousand men, to be commanded by Count Thurm, for the liberation of Bohemia. In November 1631, Wallenstein was in negotiations with General Arnim, to whom he offered up Prague. These and other dealings caused almost everyone to distrust the man and caused a wide range of interpretations by modern historians.

Gustavus Adolphus' march to the Rhine was nearly unopposed. He entered Würzburg in mid-October and Frankfurt-am-Main on 27 November and Mainz on 22 December. Every one of these cities could have presented a serious obstacle had they been defended. Meanwhile, Hans Georg von Arnim entered Prague in November 1631, despite the king's orderd to stay put in Brandenburg.

Tilly laid siege to Bamberg and Gustavus Adolphus marched to its relief in March 1632. Tilly retreated to the Upper Palatinate. The king turned his attentions to Bavaria. He crossed the Danube and Donauwörth on 8 April 1632. He had 37,500 men. Tilly opposed him with 22,000, taking up a position on the east bank of the Lech River. The king forced the river crossing on 15 April, winning another great victory. Tilly was wounded and died two weeks later. Maximilian of Bavaria retreated to Ingolstadt, scorching the countryside to deny food to the Swedes.

Meanwhile, Arnim and Wallenstein had been negotiating. On 21 May, John George broke off negotiations and called on Gustavus Adolphus for help. The Swedish king honored his agreement and went to the rescue. He never should have had to, if Arnim had stayed in Brandenburg as he'd been told.

Wallenstein entered Prague on 25 May. Gustavus Adolphus went to Nuremberg, where he outlined his grand plans to a Diet. Before he could deal with the future, though, he had to deal with the present: the combined armies of Wallenstein and Maximilian were headed to Nuremberg. The Imperialists had 48,000 while the king had only 20,000. He fortified the city and summoned reinforcements. Wallenstein and Maximilian set up a fortified camp and prepared to drive the Swedes out.

Two months later, Oxenstierna arrived with 30,000 men. Gustavus Adolphus attacked the Imperial camp (called Alte Veste) but was driven back on 3 September. It was the Swedish army's first defeat. The troops were demoralized and many deserted. The situation was worsened by disease. The king was forced to leave Nuremberg on 18 September.

Wallenstein now had the initiative. He entered Leipzig on 2 October, but he now blundered badly. Thinking Gustavus Adolphus was south, on the Danube or beyond, Wallenstein began sending his troops into winter quarters. In fact, the king was only a few miles away.

Gustavus Adolphus moved with about 19,000 men on 15 November, hoping to catch Wallenstein and Pappenhim by surprise. The march was discovered by chance and three cannon shots were fired in warning. The Imperialists at once gathered what they could, also about 19,000 men. The two armies met the next day near the town of Lützen, about fifteen miles west of Leipzig.

The attack began at 11 in the morning, having been delayed by morning fog. In the initial cavalry clash, Pappenheim was mortally wounded. The Swedes were closing in when the fog descended again.

On the Swedish left, Bernard of Saxe-Weimar was in trouble. Gustavus Adolphus was leading reinforcements in a charge when he was shot in the left arm. A bone shattered. He was being led away by his men when another shot struck him in the back. The king fell from his horse. A third shot hit him in the head, and he died on the spot.

Bernard led a desperate counterattack that finally carried the day. At sundown, Wallenstein withdrew to Leipzig. The Swedes were too badly mauled (five to six thousand casualties) to pursue.

Lützen was a great victory for the Protestant cause. Wallenstein's grand offensive was stopped cold and he retreated to Bohemia. But the death of the Swedish king was an even greater loss for the Protestants, for they had no other leader as capable. The heir to the Swedish throne was Christina, age six. not only was Sweden in the hands of a regency, so was the Protestant war effort. In practice, this meant Axel Oxenstierna, who was extremely capable but who lacked Gustavus Adolphus' charisma.

One of his early acts was to call a meeting of the leading princes, at Heilbronn on 18 March 1633. The League of Heilbronn was his creation, but the ideal of a Protestant league for conduct of the war had been outlined by Gustavus Adolphus the previous year at Nuremberg. France tried once again to influence proceedings and to gain concessions along the Rhine, but again without success.

With Tilly and Pappenheim dead, new military leaders began to emerge on the Imperial side: Archduke Ferdinand, the emperor's son and already crowned king of Hungary and Bohemia; and Ferdinand of Spain, younger brother to Philip IV and already a cardinal. The distinguish the two, the German was often called simply the King of Hungary, while the Spaniard was called the Cardinal-Infant (younger royal siblings in Spain were called infant or infanta).

As these young men emerged (both were in their twenties), they were natural rivals to Wallenstein, and those who hated the Bohemian naturally flocked to them. The military strategy in 1633 was for the Cardinal-Infant to lead a Spanish army up the Rhine, joined along the way by the King of Hungary. The aim was the United Provinces, but en route they would deal with French and Swedish positions in the Rhine valley. Wallenstein viewed this campaign as being more in the interest of Spain than of Germany, and he opposed it.

His was a sensible position, but his own activities, along with Swedish attacks and other events, seriously undermined his reputation. The Swedish general Horn laid siege to Breisach, which could seriously hinder the Spanish lines of communication, should it fall to the Protestants. Bernard of Saxe-Weimar captured the important city of Regensburg on 14 November 1633. About the same time, the peasants of Bavaria rebelled. All the while, Wallenstein not only took little action, he was engaged in negotiations that at best showed poor judgment and at worst were sheer treason.

Wallenstein compounded error upon error. He engaged in behavior toward his troops that was increasingly arbitrary and cruel, ordering executions for trivial reasons. he was nervous, excessively sensitive to ordinary noises, though the sound of cannon and warfare did not bother him. Erratic, neurotic, even demented behavior in a general can be tolderated, but only so long as his men love him and he brings victory. He was rapidly losing their love, and he was winning no victories. The upper nobility had long hated him, but they now had new champions. When it was discovered that he was in secret negotiations with the exiled rulers of Bohemia, Wallenstein's fate was sealed, for if the younger Ferdinand were driven from the throne, who else but Wallenstein would replace him?

The emperor began private talks with Wallenstein's commanders. On 12 January 1634, Wallenstein required his officers to swear personal loyalty to him. This information was at once sent to the emperor, who issued secret orders for Wallenstein's arrest, dead or alive (24 January). The order was not made public until 18 February, giving the plotters plenty of time to prepare an ambush.

Wallenstein at once sent out pleas for help, but no one stepped forward. Everyone abandoned him except for a small body of troops. Ill in body and mind, Wallenstein made it as far as Eger on the Saxon border. There he was invited to a banquet along with four of his officers. He was too sick to attend. The officers were murdered at the banquet. The assassins then went to the inn and murdered Wallenstein in his bed.

Ferdinand of Hungary now commanded the Imperial troops. He captured Ratisbon on 22 July 1634. He moved on to lay siege to Nördlingen, where he was joined by the Cardinal-Infant. Horn and Bernard marched to the relief of the city. A sharp battle was fought outside the city on 6 September. The Imperials won a great victory, capturing Horn. The Swedes lost over ten thousand men.

After Nördlingen, the Imperials swept southern Germany all the way to the Rhine. Nördlingen led to a truce and to the neutralization of Sweden as a force in German politics. It also led to the arrival of France as a direct participant in the Thirty Years' War.

30 May 1635, Peace of Prague. William of Hesse and Bernard of Saxe-Weimar refused to sign. The treaty proposed to return matters to 1627, which would have been disastrous for the Protestant princes. But the real problem was that the stricking Catholic victory was really a Habsburg-Spanish victory, and this was not acceptable to France.

Richelieu at once began seeking to support anyone who would oppose the Habsburgs. France also occupied much of Alsace and Lorraine. The collapse of Sweden had opened a very large door, however; large enough for the habsburgs to move as well. Imperial armies were on the Rhine and Spanish troops raided Trier. These immediate threats spurred Richelieu to further measures. In February 1635 he allied with the Dutch to conquer the Spanish Netherlands, and late in April he made a new alliance with Sweden. On 19 May, France declared war on Spain and on the Cardinal-Infant, who was governor of the Spanish Netherlands. This inaugurated the French phase of the war.

French Phase

The war now became essentially a Habsburg-Valois war, for France's allies were small and weak. The new nature of the war is evident from the first military actions: France in Italy and the Netherlands. A French army was victorious at Liège (1636), but the army itself dissolved because of no pay and few supplies. The Italian campaign of that year produced nothing.

Meanwhile, a Spanish army invaded Picardy, and an Imperial army invaded Franche-Comté and Burgundy. By mid-August, the Spanish, under the command of the Cardinal-Infant, was at Corbie near Amiens, and the Imperial army was at Compiègne. Paris was threatened on two fronts. At this crisis, Richelieu did not panic, even though mobs were rioting in Paris and everyone blamed him for the fiasco. Louis, too, kept his calm, taking personal command of the home army.

It wasn't much, but it was enough. The Imperialists were stopped at a little town called Saint-Jean-de-Losne, whose garrison fought so stoutly that the town was renamed Saint-Jean-Belle-Defense. In the north, the Spanish lines were over-extended. The Cardinal-Infant pulled back, and Louis recaptured Corbie.

There was also fighting in Pomerania and Brandenburg that year, with the Swedes initially successful. In 1637, though, Imperial reinforcements turned the tide, and by the end of the year the Swedes had been pushed back to Pomerania again.

The key to the war, though, was France. It was by far the richest, most populous kingdom in Europe, but it still had difficulty fielding, supplying and paying large armies. After the reverses of 1635-36, Richelieu devoted himself to these shortcoming, with notable success. He also brought along promising commanders, for France had none of any great skill and a good many poor ones. He was fortunate in finding two of exceptional talent: the Vicomte de Turenne, and the Duc d'Enghien (later prince de Condé).

In 1638 France and Sweden made a new treaty in which both vowed not to make a separate peace. Richelieu had much difficulty, though, with Bernard of Weimar. That baron defeated and captured the Bavarian general Werth in March 1638, then captured the important town of Breisach. Following this victory, he claimed all Alsace as his own. Richelieu could never accept that, but neither could he risk an open break with so accomplished a general among the anti-Habsburgs in Germany. The result was tension--and little cooperation--between France and Bernard. The duke died the following year, though, resolving the problem.

Also in 1638, in October, the Dutch recaptured Breda, severely limiting the ability of Spainn to send troops into Germany. In October 1639 the Dutch destroyed a Spanish fleet off the coast of Dover. In 1640, Catalonia rebelled and chose Louis XIII as duke of Barcelona. Portugal also rebelled, and restored the house of Braganza. Spain was on the verge of imploding and could be of no further help in Germany.

The Swedes benefitted from the new circumstances. Swedish armies reached as far south as Prague and as far west as Erfurt. But Sweden was not strong enough to capitalize and nothing permanent was gained from 1639-40.

The effect on the Emperor of these setbacks was profound. He called a Diet—the first since 1608—to meet at Ratisbon on 13 September 1640. Despite his straightened circumstances, Ferdinand could probably have dominated and directed proceedings but for one new factor: Frederick William, the Elector of Brandenburg. His father, George William, had been a weak ruler, ready to make accomodations for peace. Frederick William was hard-nosed and hard-line, and he seized control of the Diet at Ratisbon. He refused to accept the Peace of Prague as a basis for a permanent settlement. In July 1641, he signed a treaty with Sweden. Opposition to Ferdinand coalesced around the man who eventually would be known as the Great Elector.

Major battles in the 1640s

19 May 1643: Rocroi

Battle of Freiburg, the Three Day Battle, August 4, 5 and 9. Werth and Mercy capture the city.

Mercy killed in battle, 1645

3 August 1645, Second Battle of Nördlingen

July 1646 Turenne and Wrangel invade Bavaria

17 May 1648 Turenne and Wrangel defeat Maximilian at Zusmarshausen, near Augsburg

20 August 1648 Enghien defeats Archduke Leopold at Lens

Waging Peace

Each of the combatants had at one time or another sought a way to end the conflict. Toward the end of the 1630s, the efforts became more serious and involved France, Sweden and the Empire. On Christmas Day 1641 this activity resulted in an agreement on where and how actual peace talks might begin. There would actually be two talks: one at Münster, mediated by the pope and Venice, would have the Emperor negotiate with France and its allies. The other talks would be at Osnabrück (only about 30 miles away), where the Emperor would negotiate with Sweden, with Denmark as the mediator. Serious talks did not being until December 1644, but when they did, they went forward according to this format.

Both France and Sweden insisted on negotiating with the German Estates as well as with the Emperor. This demand held matters up until the summer of 1645. Of the various German states, the Protestants went to Osnabrück and the Catholics went to Münster.

The negotiations were complex. They should be thought of not as two enemies negotiating a peace, but rather as several poker players around a table, each interesting in minimizing losses while winning what they could from the other guy. It then becomes easier to understand why Maximilian of Bavaria sided with France: he'd been promised lands in the Palatinate and confirmation of his title as Elector. Similarly, Ferdinand supported Sweden's claim to Pomerania because he did not want Brandenburg to have it.

The complexity can be seen also in the details of the treaties, which were long and contain much ambiguity and even contradictions. Alsace proved especially difficult, with ill-defined rights being granted to France in one part of the treaty and to Habsburg rulers in another part. In the north, territories--especially bishoprics--were parcelled out between Sweden and Brandenburg. Sweden got its foothold on the southern Baltic, one of the main reasons for entering the war in 1628, but Brandenburg was the big winner. At the end of 1648, only the Emperor himself was a greater landowner.

The treaties, especially at Münster, confirmed the princes in their effective independence. It was also decided that the German Diet in discussing religious matters should divide into a Catholic and a Protestant house, and that unanimity was required on any such issue. The Diet, already largely ineffectual, was rendered even more so. It could talk forever (and did!), but it could rarely act.

Both Münster and Osnabrück were in the territory of Westphalia; for this reason, the documents collectively are called the Treaty of Westphalia. The treaty marked the official recognition of Calvinism as a faith. All other faiths were still illegal. The holding of church lands was to be fixed at 1624 rather than 1627, which was much to the benefit of the Protestants. Minority religions in any one state were supposed to be tolerated, but the prince had the right to expel them. Dissidents were allowed five years to settle their affairs and were allowed to take with them their movable wealth. There was to be no more enriching the prince by converting to a new religion and seizing the property of the now-illegal churches.

The Winter King (Frederick V) had a son, Charles Lewis. The treaty gave him the Lower Palatinate (Maximilian of Bavaria got the Upper) and an eighth Electorate was created. Ferdinand granted full restitution of lands to those who had taken up arms after 1630, but not to those from before. This condition allowed him to keep Bohemia.

The final signings were driven by events. France was enduring civil war--the Fronde--and Mazarin had to spend money and troops at home. Without France, Sweden could not go on. Ferdinand might have pressed his advantage, but he suffered major defeats that year, and after Rocroi, Spain could no longer help.

The final treaties were signed on 24 October 1648.

Effects

40% population loss in the countryside; 33% in the cities

Swiss Confederation and the United Provinces officially recognized

The first European state system, it lasted until Napoleon.

Marks the end of the Reformation