284Chapter 15
The Thirty Years’ War
The resolution of the French wars and the death of
Philip II in 1598 marked the end of a political cycle.
The Netherlands continued to struggle under the
leadership of William’s son, Maurice of Nassau
(1567–1625), until a ten years’ truce was concluded in
1608, but it was a truce, not a treaty. Though Spain was
financially exhausted, it still refused to recognize the
Dutch state. War was expected to break out again when
the truce expired in 1618. The war, when it came, was
much more than a resumption of the Dutch Revolt. It
involved all of the European states and turned central
Europe into a battleground from 1618 to 1648.
The first phase of the Thirty Years’ War began with
a struggle for the crown of Bohemia. In 1555 the Peace
of Augsburg had established the principle cuius regio, eius
religio;that is, princes within the empire had the right to
determine the religious beliefs of their subjects. Calvin-
ists, however, were excluded from its provisions, and is-
sues regarding the disposition of church properties and
the conversion of bishops were left in dispute. Since
then, two electoral principalities, the Palatinate and
Brandenburg, had turned Calvinist, and several bishops
had converted to Protestantism while retaining posses-
sion of their endowed lands. Violent quarrels arose over
these issues and by 1610 the empire was divided into
two armed camps: the Protestant Union and the
Catholic League.
The Bohemian controversy arose because Matthias,
king of Bohemia in 1618, was also Holy Roman em-
peror, a Catholic Hapsburg, and uncle of the future em-
peror Ferdinand II of Austria (1578–1637). Matthias
was determined to preserve Bohemia for the faith and
for his family, and in 1617 he secured the election of
Ferdinand as his successor to the throne of Bohemia.
This election was opposed by many of the Bohemian
gentry and lesser nobility. They were, for the most part,
Calvinists or Hussites and feared persecution from the
devout Ferdinand and his Jesuit advisers. On May 23,
1618, an assembly of Bohemians threw three of the
Hapsburg’s regents from a window of the Hradschin
palace, appointed a provisional government, and began
to raise an army.
The “Defenestration of Prague” was an act of war.
Revolt spread to the hereditary lands, threatening not
only Bohemia but also the basic integrity of the Haps-
burg state. Worse yet, the king of Bohemia was an elec-
tor of the empire. If the Bohemians elected a Protestant,
the Protestants would have a majority of electors just as
a new imperial election appeared imminent. Matthias
was in poor health and Ferdinand hoped to succeed
him as king of Bohemia as well as emperor. Ferdinand
needed time to muster support, but in June 1619 he in-
vaded Bohemia with the army of the Catholic League,
drawn largely from his ally, Bavaria. The Bohemians re-
sponded by offering the crown to a Calvinist prince,
Frederick V (1596–1632), elector palatine and son-in-
law of James I of England.
Frederick accepted, after the death of Matthias and
the election of Ferdinand as emperor on August 28. It
was a tragic mistake. He was supported by only a part
of the Protestant Union. James I refused to help, and a
diversionary attack on Hungary by Bethlen Gabor
(1580–1629), the Calvinist prince of Transylvania, was
eventually contained by the Hapsburgs. Finally, on No-
vember 8, 1620, Frederick and his Protestant allies were
soundly defeated at the White Mountain near Prague.
Frederick’s cause was now hopeless. The Spanish truce
with the Netherlands had expired, and the palatinate
lay squarely across the route by which Spanish troops
and supplies were sent to the Low Countries. While
Frederick’s forces fought to preserve his claim to Bo-
hemia, a Spanish army invaded his ancestral lands.
A second phase of the war began in 1625 when
Christian IV of Denmark (1577–1648) emerged briefly
as the champion of Protestantism. Christian’s
Lutheranism was reinforced by his territorial ambitions
in north Germany, but he was no match for the imper-
ial generals. By 1629 he was out of the war. His place
was taken by the formidable Gustav Adolph of Sweden
(1594–1632). Since the reign of Erik XIV, from 1560 to
1568, Swedish policy had aimed at control of the
Baltic. Wars with Russia and Poland had taught Gustav
the art of war and given him all of Livonia, a territory
roughly equal to present-day Estonia, Latvia, and
Lithuania. He now sought to defend his fellow Protes-
tants and to establish Swedish control over Mecklen-
burg and Pomerania on the north German coast. His
brilliant campaigns, financed in part by France, came to
an end when he died victorious on the battlefield at
Lützen on November 16, 1632.
The last phase of the war (1535–1648) continued
the Franco-Swedish alliance, but with France acting
openly as the leader of the anti-imperial forces.
Henry IV had died at the hands of an assassin in 1610,
leaving the queen, Marie de Médicis, as regent for the
nine-year-old Louis XIII (1601–43). Her regency was
unpopular, but the disasters of 1560 were not repeated.
Louis seized power from his mother in 1617 and, after
1624, entrusted much of his government to Armand de
Plessis, cardinal duke of Richelieu (1585–1642). One
of the ablest statesmen of the age, Richelieu was
alarmed by the Spanish-Imperial alliance and returned