HISTORY. Paper No. : Paper - V The Rise of Modern West. Topic No. & Title : Topic 1 European Renaissance (1330 AD 1530 AD)

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1 History of Europe 1 HISTORY Subject : History (For under graduate student) Paper No. : Paper - V The Rise of Modern West Topic No. & Title : Topic 1 European Renaissance (1330 AD 1530 AD) Lecture No. & Title : Lecture - 8 The 30 Year s War ( ) Script The Thirty Year s War ( ) The Thirty Year s War may be seen as an episode in the age old conflict between the Emperor and princes. On the other hand it can also be seen as an extension of the international wars of religion between Catholicism & Protestantism; & at another level it can also be seen as an important stage in a continental power struggle between the supporters and opponents of Archduke Ferdinand. It mushroomed in four distinct phases.

2 C. Veronica Wedgewood wrote in The Thirty Year s War that, Almost all (the combatants) were actuated by fear rather than by lust of conquest or passion or faith. They wanted peace and they fought for thirty years to be sure of it. They did not learn then and have not learned since, that war only breeds war. The Bohemian phase ( ) began on 23 rd May, 1618, when a delegation of Czech nobles entered the Hradcany Castle in Prague and threw the Hapsburg governors, Jaroslav von Martinez and Wilhelm von Salvata, out of the high window into a dung heap. They were protesting against recent attacks on Protestant churches, against Archduke Ferdinand s assumption of the Bohemian throne without an election & against the alleged relations of the Royal Charter of Toleration, the Majestats brief of (This Defenestration of Prague was a deliberate imitation of the incident that had sparked off the Hussite War 200 years earlier). At this time, Ferdinand was campaigning for the imperial succession and the religious peace in Germany was 2

3 History of Europe 3 wavering. The Lutheran princes were watching uneasily as the Evangelical Union led by Frederick, Elector Palatine, measured up to the Catholic League of Maximilian, Elector of Bavaria. The Bohemian rebels started a revolt in Austria. In 1619, when Ferdinand succeeded to the Empire, they formally deposed him as the king of Bohemia, choosing the Calvinist Elector Palatine in his place. This meant open war. The Catholic League, some 30,000 strong marched into Austria under the command of Maximilian s general. Count von Tilly, a brilliant soldier and a diehard devotee to the Catholic cause. Tilly forced the Austrian estates to abandon their alliance with the Bohemian rebels & then took over the government in the name of Maximilian. From Austria he pressed forward into Bohemia linking up with the imperial forces already fighting there and marched towards Prague. At the great Battle of Bilahora, near Prague on 7 th November, 1620, the Bohemian army was crushed by the imperialists. Then in a terrible revenge: Bohemia s native nobility was suppressed by

4 execution or confiscation. Czech society was literally decapitated. The country was systematically Catholicized & Germanized. The Calvinists were expelled. The Winter King, Fredrick fled, never to see his kingdom again. His lands in the Palatinate were invaded from the Spanish Netherlands and seized by the Bavarians. The imperial general, Count Tilly, victor of Prague, stormed Heidelberg (1622) and crisscrossed northern Germany in pursuit of the Protestant forces headed by Count von Mansfeld. The unprovisioned locusts. armies lived off the land like hordes of The Danish phase ( ) began when Christian IV of Denmark, superior of the imperial Circle of Lower Saxony entered the fray in defence of his hard pressed Protestant confreres. He was assisted by the English, French and Dutch subsidies and had to contend with the imperial forces under the command of a Catholic nobleman from Bohemia, Albert von Waldstein or Wallenstein, a man of 4

5 History of Europe 5 great ambition, who had no clear principles or objectives other than his own advancement. For the campaigning season of 1626 the Protestant allies planned a double thrust,- one by Mansfeld into Bohemia and the other by Christian IV into central and Southern Germany. Mansfeld hoped to ship round Wallenstein, who was quartered in Magdeburg, but Wallenstein was ready for him & in a sharp engagement at Dessau in April 1626, beat back his attempt to cross the Elbe. Mansfeld had to retreat to Brandenburg where he regrouped his forces and took the circuitous northern route through Brandenburg territory into Silesia. Tilly guessed his plans and sought reinforcements from Wallenstein, who sent several thousand men. Christian realized the strength of his opponents and began to withdraw but in August 1626, Tilly caught up with him in & wiped out half of his army. Wallenstein overran Brunswick, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg, Schleswig, Holstein, Jutland and the Baltic Coast u[to the outskirts of Stralsund, declaring himself Generalissimo of the Baltic & the Ocean Seas. Meanwhile Mansfeld had recovered Silesia but was too late to link it

6 with the trans-livonian ally. Bethlen Gabor (with his troops deserting him because on non-payment), wandered aimlessly down into the Balkans and reached Sarajevo, where he died in November By the Treaty of Lubeck (1629) the Danes were persuaded to retire on the return of their lost possessions. Now that the Emperor Ferdinand was the master of Germany he felt free to impose his will. In March, 1629, therefore he issued the Edict of Restitution, ordering that all land which had been taken from Catholic Church since 1555 should be restored to it. This affected two secularized archbishoprics (Bremen & Magdeburg), twelve bishoprics and over a hundred religious houses, as well as a number of towns. In Augsburg, which was almost entirely Protestant, the practice of the Lutheran faith was banned and ministers were exiled. The dislocation entailed in this forcible re-distribution of German territory was enormous and thousands of protesters had to choose between expulsion and conversion. 6

7 History of Europe 7 The significance of the Edict was not confined to the sphere of religion. Most of the secularized bishoprics were in North West Germany, where the Emperor s power had been at its weakest. Now by appointing imperial administrators to take them over, he established his authority in the heartland of German Protestantism. The manner in which the Edict was issued, without consultation with the princes or approval of the Diet was an affront to all German rulers, whatever their religion. If the Emperor could re-distribute land in this way, no prince could ever feel secure. Yet there was little that could be done to impose the imperial will given the Emperor s position of authority at that time. The Swedish phase, , began when Gustavus Adolphus sent a contingent to hold Stralsund. In 1630, fortified by the Treaty of Barwalde with France, he landed with the main Swedish army and proceeded to restore Protestant fortune with vigour. In 1631, he failed to relieve Magdeburg before it was mercilessly sacked by the imperialists; but at Breitenfeld he crushed Tilly and moved into the Palatinate. He was joined by John

8 George, Elector of Saxony, a Lutheran who had previously lacked the Emperor. In 1632, he entered Bavaria, Munich and Nuremberg opened their gates. With the Swedes preparing to march on Vienna and the Saxons in Prague, a desperate Emperor was forced to recall Wallenstein, whom he had earlier dismissed as the latter had objections regarding the Edict of Restitution. At the furious Battle of Lutzen near Leipzig (16 th Nov 1632), the Swedes prevailed but Gustavius fell; his naked body was discovered under a heap of dead, a bullet hole through his head, a dagger thrust in his side, another bullet ominously in his back. Although the Swedes had lost their king, they did not abandon his policies. The Swedish forces found new leaders in Horn & Bernard of Weimar, while the civil administration was taken over by Gustavus s chancellor and close friend, Axel Oxenstierna. In the spring of 1633 Oxenstierna called representatives of the four circles under Swedish occupation Swabia, Upper & Lower Rhine & Tranconia to a conference at Heilbronn, where he persuaded them to set up a defensive league. Saxony 8

9 History of Europe 9 refused to join the League of Heilbronn, since John George was determined to make peace with the Emperor, but a Protestant coalition as had been envisaged by Gustavus had at least come into being. The Protestant cause was thus revived once more. In 1634, Wallenstein opened negotiations, only to be placed for his pains under the ban of the Empire and assassinated. After the imperial success at Nordlingen, an ailing Emperor made peace with the Lutheran princes at Prague. The Edict of Restitution was revoked. One day in 1631, the Bavarian town of Rothenburg ob der-tauber was invested by the imperial army. According to tradition, General Tilly ordered that the town be put to sack unless one of the citizens could drink up an enormous flagon of wine. Whereon the Burgermeister, Heinrick Toppler, drained the flagon, saved the town and fell down dead. His feat is commemorated in a play. Der Meistertrunk, which is performed to this day every Whit Monday in the Kaisersaal of the Rathaus.

10 The experience of one village must stand as an example of thousands of others. In January 1634 twenty Swedish soldiers rode into Linden in Franconia, demanding food & wine. They broke into one of the thirteen cottages, belonging to George Rosch, raped his wife & took what they wanted. Shortly afterwards they were ambushed by the villagers, stripped of their clothes, loot & horses. The next day they returned with a constable, who arrested four men for assaulting the Swedes. He then made a report to General Horn, naming one of the soldiers, a Finn as Fran Rosch s rapist. What happened is not very clear but shortly afterwards the village was registered as uninhabited. Its inhabitants didn t return before The French phase began when France became the protector of the League of Heilbronn, whose remaining Calvinist members were excluded from the Peace of Prague. Richelieu s strategy now came out into the open. France declared war on Spain, took the Swedes into its pay and invaded Alsace. The war developed on three fronts in the Netherlands, on the Rhine and in Saxony. In 1636, the Spaniards advanced towards Paris. 10

11 History of Europe 11 There was much panic in Paris but French resistance stiffened unexpectedly and this along with problems of supply for the Spanish force, forced the latter to withdraw. Nevertheless the prestige of the French had been diminished and this was clearly demonstrated in the autumn of 1636, when the Electors again meeting at Regensburg, agreed to Ferdinand s request that his son, the victor of Nordlingen should be elected king of the Romans. It was a timely gesture, for in February 1637, Ferdinand died and his son succeeded him as Ferdinand III. The military balance gradually tilted against the Habsburgs. In the late summer of 1636 the Swedes defeated a combined imperial and Saxon force at Wittstock in Bradenburg and occupied much of northern Germany. They were driven back into Pomerania in 1637 but recovered in the following year, struck into the heart of Bohemia & reached the suburbs of Prague also saw Bernard triumphant over imperial troops at Rheinfelden, on the Rhine. From there they advanced to Breisach a vital link in the Spanish land route from Italy,

12 which was being besieged by the French General Turenne. By December Breisach had fallen and the Spanish life line had been severed. Bernard went on to occupy Alsace. He however died of fever in July His army now came under the control of French generals. The French fortunes continued to mount and the arrival of the youthful Due d Englien, Prince de Coude gave them the finest general in Europe. His stunning victory at Rocrei in the Ardenned (1643) ended the Spanish military supremacy which had lasted since Pavia in From 1644, the diplomats were hard at work, shutting between the Protestant delegates at Osnabruck and the Catholic delegates at Munster. Whilst they argued, the French and the Swedes ravaged Bavaria. The Treaty of Westphalia (Oct. 1648) The Treaty of Westphalia, which was arranged simultaneously in two parts, - at Osnabruck & Munster, set the ground of the international order in central Europe for the next century and more. It registered both 12

13 History of Europe 13 the ascendancy of France and the subordination of the Habsburgs to the German princes. On the religious issue, it ended the strife in Germany by granting the same rights to the Calvinists as to the Catholics and Lutherans. It fixed 1624 as the date for ecclesiastical restitution; and it made provision for denominational changes except in the Upper. Palatinate and in the hereditary lands of the House of Austria, which were reserved for the Catholic faith. On the constitutional issue, it greatly strengthened the Princes by granting them the right to sign foreign treaties and by making all imperial legislation conditional to the Diet s approval. It proposed that both Bavaria & the Palatinate be made electorates. On the numerous territorial issues, it attempted to give something to all the leading claimants. Switzerland & the limited Provinces both received their independence. The Dutch succeeded in their demand that the Scheldt be closed to traffic. France received a lion s share sovereignty over Metz, Toul & Verdun; Pinerelo; the Sundgan in Southern Alsace; Breisach; garrison rights in Philippsburg; the Lamdvogtei or Advocacy often further Alsatian lites. Sweden received Bremen & Verden & Western Pomerania

14 including Stettin. Bavaria took the Upper Palatinate; Saxony took Lusatia; Bradenburg took the greater part of eastern Pomerania up to the Polish frontier, the former bishoprics of Halberstadt, Minden & Kammin, & the candidacy of Magdeburg. Mecklenburg Schwerin, Brunswick Luneburg & Hesse Cassel were each thrown a morsel. The final signatures were penned on 24 th October The end came slowly. In Prague, where the war had begun, fighting continued. Monks, students & townsmen continued to man the Charles against an expected Swedish assault. Then the news of the Peace arrived. But the troops didn t go home. A second Congress had to be held at Nuremburg in 1650 to settle the indemnities claimed by the armies. The Spaniards kept their garrison in the Palatinate till 1653, when the Emperor offered them Besancon in exchange. The last Swedish soldiers did not depart until Delegates at Westphalia had already started calling it the Thirty Years War. The Pope, Innocent X, was outraged. A 14

15 History of Europe 15 lifelong enemy of Cardinal Mazarin, who had attempted to veto his election, he was offended at the concessions made to France & the Protestants; & he ordered the nuncio to denounce the settlements. In his brief Zelus domus Dei (1650), he described the Treaty as null, void, invalid, iniquitous, damnable, reprobate, inane and devoid of meaning for all time. Behind his anger lay the realization that the hopes for a united Christendom were dashed forever. After Westphalia, people would no longer bear to talk of Christendom but talk instead of Europe. The settlement of 1648 did not bring with it a general European peace, since the war between France and Spain continued. But it did put an end to the fighting in central Europe and gave the inhabitants of this unhappy region a breathing space in which to re build their homes and reestablish a more normal pattern of living. There is no agreement among historians about the economic effects of the Thirty Years War. The traditional view is that it resulted in a trail of desolation and despair. Germany was ravaged. The population had fallen from twenty one million to about thirteen million. Between a third and a

16 half of the people lay dead. Whole cities like Magdeburg lay in ruins. Whole districts lay stripped of their inhabitants, their livestock, livelihood & supplies. Trade had virtually ceased. A whole generation of pillage, famine, disease and social disruption had wreaked such havoc that in the end the princes were forced to reinstate serfdom, to curtail municipal liberties and to nullify the progress of a century. The manly exploits of Spanish, Swedish, Croat, Flemish & French soldiers had changed the racial composition of the people. A more modern view is that the German economy was already in decline in 1618 & that the war had relatively little longterm effect upon this. It merely confirmed & perhaps accelerated, what would have happened in any case. German culture was so traumatized that art & literature passed entirely under the spell of foreign, especially French factions. Germany s strategic position was greatly weakened. The French now held the middle Rhine. The mouths of Germany s three great rivers Rhine, Elbe & Oder were held respectively by the Dutch, Danes & the Swedes. The common interest of the Empire was subject 16

17 History of Europe 17 to the separate interests of the larger German states: Austria, Bavaria, Saxony and Brandenburg, Prussia. Some historians have seen it as the soil of despair which alone can have fed the seeds of virulent German pride that sprouted from the recovery of a later age. Austria, which had begun the period as the wonder of the age was reduced to being just one German state among many. In the years after 1648, however, Germany was not alone in its misery. Spain was struggling over the revolts of Portugal and Catalonia. England was in the throes of the war & the troubles of Ireland & Scotland. France was racked by the Troudes. Poland Lithuania was torn apart by the Cossack revolt, the Swedish Deluge and the Russian wars. These catastrophies had led to the supposition of a general seventeenth century crisis. Those who believe in the existence of an all European feudal system tend to argue in favour of an all European socio-political revolution caused by the growing pains of an all-european Capitalism. Some argue in contrast, in favour of a crisis of the modern state; where the

18 peripheries reacted violently against the rising demands of the centre. Others suspect that it may all have been a coincidence. The Czech historian J.V.Polisenshy opined that Throughout much of central Europe (the war) was in fact incalculably deleterious, setting back the development of communities by nearly a century; and the American historian T.K.Rabls has pointed out that while the war in some cases accelerated a decline that was already taking place, in others it put an abrupt end to a period of growth & development. Whatever the long term effects of the war, therefore, its direct, immediate effects were destructive. At best, the Thirty Years War started a general decline that had not previously existed; at worst, it replaced prosperity with disaster. 18

The Thirty Years' Wars &

The Thirty Years' Wars & The Thirty Years' Wars 1618-1648 & 1733-1763 Most textbooks refer to two different series of events as the "Thirty Years' War. One occurs in the first half of the 17th century and the other in the middle