The New International Encyclopædia/Thirty Years’ War
THIRTY YEARS’ WAR. The name given to the great European struggle (1618–48) which marked the climax of the Reformation (q.v.), closing the period of distinctively religious politics and opening that in which secular statecraft took the place of ecclesiastical. The Religious Peace of Augsburg (1555) afforded no permanent settlement of the questions that had been stirred up by the Protestant revolution. Its terms recognized only Lutherans and Catholics, and meanwhile the Calvinists had grown strong, and, unfortunately for the Protestant cause, the most violent enmity existed between them and the Lutherans. The relations of the Emperor and the German princes were ill-defined and such adjustment as had been reached was hardly tenable. France had already separated her natural interests from the affiliations of religion and aided the German Protestant princes in their insubordination toward their Imperial Catholic head. The Reformation, by overthrowing the idea of Christ’s unity in the Church, broke down the theory of a Holy Roman Empire and put forward in its place the Germanic idea of autonomy for individual States. In the turmoil of sixteenth-century Europe it was inevitable that the solvent for these and many collateral issues should be found in a general war. The outbreak came in an unexpected way. The liberal reign of Maximilian II. (1564–76) was favorable to the growth of Protestantism in the Austrian dominions. His successor, Rudolph II. (1576–1612), brought in the reactionary Jesuit influence and allowed full play to the forces of the Counter-Reformation. Open interference with the practice of the Protestant religion was permitted and numbers of Protestant churches were destroyed. In 1607 Maximilian I., the Catholic Duke of Bavaria, made himself master of the free Imperial city of Donauwörth, whose inhabitants were mainly Protestants. A number of Protestant princes and cities founded in 1608 the Evangelical Union for the defense of their interests and their faith, and this was met by the formation of the Catholic League under the leadership of Maximilian of Bavaria in 1609. In that year the Emperor was forced to publish his Majestätsbrief, by which the Protestants of Bohemia were guaranteed the free exercise of their religion. At this time the political state of the Empire was further unsettled by the Jülich-Cleves war of succession. (See Jülich.) In 1612 the Emperor Rudolph II. died and was succeeded by his brother Matthias, to whom the Archduchy of Austria, Moravia, Hungary, and Bohemia had previously been transferred as a result of Rudolph’s reckless rule. In 1617 the Bohemian estates were called upon to crown, as their prospective King, Duke Ferdinand of Styria, the Hapsburg heir presumptive, in accordance with a custom which had become established. Ferdinand had made himself prominent by the relentless manner in which he had rooted out Protestantism in his paternal Styrian dominions. His attitude encouraged the Catholic Church in Bohemia in its aggressions, and soon a dispute regarding the interpretation of the Majestätsbrief brought on an open conflict. On May 23, 1618, a body of Protestants, led by Count Thurn, entered the royal palace at Prague, and hurled two odious representatives of the Crown, Martinitz and Slavata, from its windows. This ‘defenestration,’ the victims of which escaped with their lives, inaugurated a struggle which was to convulse Europe for thirty years.
The Bohemians rose in arms under Thurn, and the insurrection spread into the adjoining Hapsburg dominions. A body of troops of the Union, under Count Mansfeld, appeared on the scene, and Bethlen Gábor, Prince of Transylvania, prepared to make war on Austria. Matthias was wholly unprepared to meet the onslaught. Spain alone came to his aid, but the Spanish force was too weak to stay the advance of the enemy. The Emperor died in March, 1619, and Ferdinand, who succeeded him as the head of the House of Hapsburg, found himself beleaguered in Vienna by the victorious Thurn. Through his indomitable firmness he succeeded in averting the fall of his capital, and made his way to Frankfort, where he was elected Holy Roman Emperor as Ferdinand II. (August, 1619). The Bohemians, having declared their throne vacant, placed their crown upon the head of the Elector Palatine Frederick V., the son-in-law of James I. of England. Ferdinand, whose capital was in the meanwhile again threatened, this time by the Prince of Transylvania, was enabled to attack Frederick by means of the forces of the Catholic League, whose leader, Maximilian of Bavaria, was offered a rich indemnity. John George, the Lutheran Elector of Saxony, eager for territorial acquisitions, entered the field against the Bohemians, while the Spaniards invaded the Lower Palatinate. The Protestant Union dared not move, and James I. kept aloof from Frederick. On November 8, 1620, a battle was fought at the White Hill, before the walls of Prague, in which the army of the League, under Tilly, was completely victorious. Frederick fled from Bohemia, which was chastised in a fearful manner by the Emperor, and forced back into the fold of the Catholic Church. The dissolution of the Evangelical Union ensued. The cause of the Elector Palatine, however, whose hereditary dominions, the Upper and the Lower Palatinate, were assailed, found independent and intrepid champions in Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick, lawless partisan leaders. George Frederick, the Margrave of Baden-Durlach, also took up arms for Frederick, and he and Mansfeld gained a victory over Tilly at Wiesloch on April 27, 1622. On May 6th, however, the former was vanquished by Tilly at Wimpfen, and on June 20th a like disaster befell Christian of Brunswick at Höchst. On August 6, 1623, Christian of Brunswick sustained a second defeat at the hands of Tilly at Stadtlohn. Frederick was stripped of his possessions. The Upper Palatinate and the electoral dignity were conferred on Maximilian of Bavaria.
The war might have ended with this local struggle, but the outrageous treatment to which the Protestant States of North Germany were subjected pressed the conflict on to its second phase. Christian IV. of Denmark, aided by a British subsidy, went to the aid of his German co-religionists in 1625, and being joined by Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick, advanced into Lower Saxony, while the Emperor, hampered by the political jealousy of the Catholic League, was at first unable to oppose him. It was at this juncture that Wallenstein came forward and placed a great army, raised by himself, at the disposal of Ferdinand. This army acted in coöperation with that of the Catholic League under Tilly. Mansfeld was completely defeated by Wallenstein at Dessau (April 25, 1626), and the forces of Christian IV. were routed by Tilly at Lutter (August 27, 1626). Wallenstein marched as far as Hungary in pursuit of Mansfeld, who died in November, 1626. The combined Imperialists and Leaguers overran North Germany and Wallenstein penetrated into the heart of Denmark. The Imperialist commander conceived the design of making Austria a power on the Baltic, but his career in this direction was checked by the heroic defense of Stralsund (1628). King Christian was forced to conclude the humiliating peace of Lübeck (May 12, 1629). Inflamed by his success, Ferdinand had, on March 6, 1629, issued the Edict of Restitution, by which the Protestant titles to all ecclesiastical lands acquired after 1552 were declared void. Thus closed the second period of the war, with the Protestant States infuriated by the edict and the proud city of Magdeburg alone in arms to resist its execution.
Richelieu (q.v.), developing the anti-Hapsburg policy of Henry IV., had promoted, as far as the internal affairs of France would allow, the dissensions in Germany. He now succeeded in bringing into the struggle the able and ambitious Protestant King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus (q.v.). This ruler, desirous of promoting Protestantism and of securing the control of the Baltic, took the field, and the Swedish phase of the war began with the landing of the Swedes on the coast of Pomerania in the summer of 1630. Just at this time the princes of the Catholic League, exasperated by the overbearing conduct of Wallenstein and the excesses of his soldiery, forced the Emperor to dismiss him, Tilly being made commander-in-chief of the Catholic forces. Gustavus Adolphus, who in January, 1631, entered into a subsidiary alliance with France, advanced southward into Germany. The electors of Saxony and Brandenburg at first remained neutral, but finally were forced to join him. The obstacles in his path delayed him until it was too late to rescue Magdeburg, which on May 20, 1631, was stormed by Tilly and Pappenheim, whose troops burned the town and massacred the inhabitants. On September 17 (old style, September 7), 1631, the Swedish King, strengthened by the Saxon army under Arnim, overwhelmed Tilly at Breitenfeld, near Leipzig, a victory which completely restored the Protestant cause. He then victoriously traversed the Main and Rhine valleys; forced the passage of the Lech in front of the army of Tilly, who was mortally wounded (April 15, 1632); entered Munich, and threatened the Hapsburg dominions. Wallenstein, meanwhile, had been recalled to raise and command the Imperialist armies to meet this formidable enemy. He compelled the Swedes by skillful strategy, to return to Saxony. There the Swedes won the battle of Lützen (q.v.), November 16 (old style, November 6), 1632, after an obstinate engagement in which Gustavus was killed. His death was a severe blow to the Protestant cause, but the energy and ability of the Swedish Chancellor, Oxenstierna (q.v.), and the brilliant talents of the Swedish generals, preserved the advantages that had been gained. After the battle of Lützen Wallenstein remained long inactive, engaging in endless negotiations. Bernhard (q.v.) of Saxe-Weimar, one of the ablest of the Protestant leaders, overran Bavaria, and on November 14, 1633, stormed Ratisbon. The behavior of Wallenstein, after a display of activity, inaugurated by a victory over the Swedes at Steinau, October 13, 1633, finally left no doubt in the mind of Ferdinand II. that his general was meditating treason. He was deposed from his command and was assassinated at Eger in Bohemia, on February 25, 1634. His virtual successor, Gallas, inflicted a crushing defeat on Bernhard of Weimar and the Swedish general, Horn, at Nördlingen (September 6, 1634) which again restored to the Emperor a preponderating influence in Germany. Saxony now made peace at Prague (May 30, 1635), the Elector securing important territorial gains. Other Lutheran States withdrew from the conflict, the Calvinists being left to their fate.
Final success now appeared to demand only one more strenuous effort on the part of Austria; but Oxenstierna was determined to preserve to Sweden her German acquisitions, and Richelieu saw that the time had come for France to throw herself into an active struggle against both Austria and Spain. The conflict advanced into its final and most extended phase. At first the Hapsburg side was enabled to make a show of strength, France being invaded by a combined force of Spaniards, Imperialists, and Lotharingians, but with such commanders on their side as Bernhard of Weimar and the Swedish general Banér, the tide soon set in strongly in favor of the Protestants. The victory of Banér over the Imperialists and Saxons at Wittstock (October 4, 1636) restored to Sweden the advantage lost two years before. Bernhard of Weimar, in the pay of France, fought with energy and success, ambitious to found a State for himself. In 1638 he won a victory at Rheinfelden and succeeded in reducing the fortress of Breisach, but in the following year he met with an untimely death. In February, 1637, the Emperor Ferdinand II. died and was succeeded by his son, Ferdinand III. After the death of Banér, in 1641, the Swedish arms were led to fresh triumphs by Torstenson, a general famous for the rapidity of his movements. He defeated the Archduke Leopold William and Piccolomini at Breitenfeld on November 2, 1642; in 1644 he overran Denmark, whose ruler, Christian IV., had been induced to take up arms against Sweden; in the same year he defeated Gallas at Jüterbock; and on March 6, 1645, he won a great victory over the Imperialists, under Hatzfeld, at Jankau, in Southern Bohemia. His repeated invasions carried devastation and ruin into the territories, even to the gates of Vienna, until the Austrians hardly dared appear to the north of the Danube. In the meanwhile, in the west and south, the French were waging war with varying success. In January, 1642, they were successful at Kempen, near Düsseldorf, and in May, 1643, the Duke d’Enghien (the future Condé) won a signal victory over the Spaniards at Rocroi, but on November 24, 1643, the French-Weimar forces suffered a great defeat at Tuttlingen, in Swabia, at the hands of Johann von Werth and Mercy. Condé and Turenne restored the fortunes of the French by a victory at Allersheim, near Nördlingen, August 3, 1645. The Emperor was now deserted by all his allies except the Duke of Bavaria, whose territories were already mostly in the hands of Turenne and the Swedish general Wrangel; and a combined invasion of Austria from the west and north was on the point of being executed, when the diplomatic representatives of the different governments, who had been at work for seven years at Münster, in Westphalia, and at Osnabrück, agreed upon terms of peace which closed the struggle. See Westphalia, Peace of.
Aside from the political disintegration of Germany which resulted from the war, the thirty years’ struggle had brought desolation upon the country. Scarcely any part of the Empire had escaped the horrors of the conflict, and the people had been made the victims of an unbridled and licentious soldiery whose excesses have remained in popular memory to the present day. Whole regions were laid waste, prosperous towns were wiped out, commerce and industry were destroyed. Germany lost half of her population and two-thirds of her wealth, while in some regions the decrease in population rose to two-thirds, as in Bohemia, or even higher. Religion and morality sank to a low ebb, and the loss entailed on the intellectual side was one which it took generations to make good. Consult: Gardiner, The Thirty Years’ War (London, 1874), a convenient and reliable brief account; Gindely, Geschichte des dreissigjährigen Kriegs (Prague, 1869–80), trans. by Ten Brook (New York, 1884), by a recognized authority, a Bohemian, who made this his life study. Consult also references under Gustavus Adolphus; Richelieu; Wallenstein, etc.