42 The Origins of the Thirty Years War and the Revolt in Bohemia, 1618
Friedrichs notes that ‘many different situations could trigger an urban
conflict: a religious dispute, a financial crisis, a power struggle with
some outside authority’, and often they may ‘have been linked to the
determination of an economically dynamic group to acquire politi-
cal power consistent with its emerging economic status’.^31 This latter
point is particularly pertinent to Aachen, where the economically
dynamic group initially excluded from political power comprised largely
immigrant refugees from the Netherlands. That they were also predomi-
nantly Calvinist added the religious dimension which became the most
noted feature of the dispute, both politically at the time and in later
historiography, but economic and social factors were also at work.
Religious disputes were not necessarily inter-confessional. Thus when
the council of the Protestant city of Schwäbisch Hall suspended the
chief preacher in 1602 mass protests broke out, and the situation esca-
lated until eventually a number of outside interventions were required
to restore order. In other cases religion had little or nothing to do with
the issue, as in two firmly Protestant cities where dissatisfied burghers
confronted the council oligarchy. In the small free Imperial city of
Wetzlar such a dispute developed between 1612 and 1614, leading
both sides to look for outside help, and at one point the Landgrave of
Hessen-Darmstadt occupied the city with a large force of soldiers, before
imposing a settlement in his capacity as the appointed Imperial com-
missioner. Matters ended peaceably then, but the dissension continued
for more than a hundred years afterwards.^32
One of the best-known disturbances was in the much larger and more
important Protestant city of Frankfurt am Main, the Fettmilch upris-
ing, also in 1612 to 1614. ‘Here the issues that precipitated the uprising
were strictly internal. The burghers accused the magistrates of keeping
the city’s privileges secret, of mismanaging the city’s finances, and of
favouring Jewish residents over Christian citizens.’ Again an Imperial
commission was appointed, and as the dissidents, by then in control,
grew increasingly radical it was finally decided to bring in troops to
crush the revolt, but before this could happen Fettmilch and the other
leaders were arrested by a group of more moderate citizens, and they
were eventually executed.^33
Such conflicts continued later in the century, not only in smaller
places such as Erfurt but also in the major city of Cologne, in both
of which the issues were likewise political with no significant religious
aspects. The former case, which started in 1648, involved no less than
four successive Imperial commissions, and was not finally resolved until
1664, when the archbishop of Mainz sent in troops and incorporated the