Overseas Conquest and Religious War to 1648285to the anti-Hapsburg policies of Francis I. He pursued
the war through surrogates until the death of Gustav
Adolph forced him into the open. The Spanish were
by this time in irreversible decline, and their defeat by
the French at Rocroi (1643) marked the end of their
military power. Bavaria was ravaged by a Franco-
Swedish force in 1648, and peace was at last concluded
on October 24 of that year.
The Treaties of Westphalia brought the Thirty
Years’ War to an end, leaving France the dominant
power in Europe (see map 15.2). The Netherlands,
which had fought Spain in a series of bitter actions on
land and sea, was at last recognized as an independent
state, while the German principalities, many of which
had been devastated, were restored to the boundaries of
- Bohemia reverted to the Hapsburgs, but imperial
authority as a whole was weakened except in the Haps-
burg lands of southeastern Europe. It was a meager re-
turn for three decades of unparalleled violence.
The English Civil War
England did not participate in the Thirty Years’ War be-
cause the early Stuart monarchs, James I (reigned
1603–25) and Charles I (reigned 1625–49), were
caught in a political dilemma from which they could
not escape. Like Denmark and Sweden, England was a
“domain” state: the regular revenues of the crown came
not from taxes, which could be levied only by Parlia-
ment, but from the royal domain. This was not neces-Mediterranean SeaAtlantic
Ocean
North
SeaBaltic
SeaCreteSicilyCorsicaSardiniaBalearicIslands
SPAINPORTUGALFRANCEENGLANDSCOTLAND
DENMARKNORWAY
SWEDENFINLANDPOLANDHUNGARYAUSTRIASAXONYBRANDENBURGBOHEMIASILESIAPRUSSIASPANISH
NETHERLANDSSWISS
CONFEDERATIONSAVOY
GENOA
TUSCANYPAPAL
STATESREPUBLICBAVARIAUNITED
PROVINCESKINGDOM OF
DENMARK
AND NORWAYMILANKINGDOM OF SWEDEN ESTONIA
LIVONIAPALATINATEVENICEOFMadridLisbonParisLondonToulVerdun MetzAmsterdam
BerlinWarsawDanzigBergenStockholmVienna
BudapestRome
NaplesAugsburgPragueHamburgLübeck
BremenWestphaliaAlsaceRocroi1643 Nördlingen (^1634) White Mtn.
1620
Lützen
1632
Ebro R.
Seine
R.
Rhi
ne
R.
R.
Danu
be
R
Danube
Vistul
a
R.
Pyren
eesMts.
Alp
s
Mts.
Kingdom of Denmark
and Norway
Brandenburg
Kingdom of Sweden
Hapsburg—Austrian
Hapsburg—Spanish
Republic of Venice
Holy Roman Empire
boundary
Battle site
0 200 400 Miles
0 200 400 600 Kilometers
MAP 15.2
The Thirty Years’ War