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30 Years Wars

The Thirty Years War, 1618-1648

A.) The Situation leading to the War

Emperor Charles V. had striven hard to reconcile the German Protestant community and the Roman Curia; the unwillingness of both the Council of Trent and the German Protestants to make major concessions had lead to a confrontation of both camps; the Schmalkaldic War, as an attempt to pressure the Protestant camp into taking a more conciliatory attitude, was of only temporary success and was counteracted by Duke-Elector Maurice's Expedition against Innsbruck in 1552, resulting in the Religious Peace of Augsburg, regarded by Germany's protestant princes as a guarantee of their territorial creed, by the Emperor as a document forced upon him under humiliating conditions.
Neither the Council of Trent nor the Papal Curia were willing to accept the Religious Peace of Augsburg; Counterreformation agitation tried to undermine it. The Cologne Stift Feud of 1583 provided an opportunity; Emperor Rudolf II. sided with counter-bishop Ernst of Bavaria. Emperor Rudolf II. (1575-1612) clearly supported the Counterreformation; Germany's protestants, in 1583 reluctant to support Cologne Archbishop Truchsess von Waldburg, were concerned. The case of the free Imperial city of Donauwörth, which was occupied by Bavarian troops in 1607 (and the Counterreformation enforced) without the Emperor taking action, caused the protestant princes to form the PROTESTANT UNION (1608). In 1609 the CATHOLIC LEAGUE was formed. Emperor Rudolf, as King of Bohemia, cancelled the religious toleration protestants enjoyed in Bohemia (1609). Thus the stage was prepared for a showdown.

B.) The Spark that ignited the War

In 1618 the Bohemian Estates deposed Emperor Matthias (as King of Bohemia) in the Defenestration of Prague. They went on to establish a Bohemian nobles' republic following the model of Poland-Lithuania and elected Frederick Count Palatinate King of Bohemia. However, Bohemia held one of the seven electorates...