Phases of the Thirty Years War:1618-1648
Summary	The Thirty Years War was a series of wars involving major political powers in Europe. On the one hand were the House of Hapsburg of the Holy Roman Empire (Ferdinand I and Ferdinand II) and Philip IV of Spain against the Danish, the Dutch, France, and Sweden. German was split into civil war by the divided loyalties of the German people. It was also a religious war between Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists. The Hapsburgs were in part motivated by the Jesuits and the Counter-Reformation. The great religious and social movements that were turned loose by the Reformation seemed to all contend during these years, and the battleground was Germany
Back-ground	The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 provided for freedom for both Lutherans and Catholics, with each German ruler able to decide for his own land which faith would be established. Calvinists were not under the Peace. Church lands continued to be taken over by Protestants. When some of the rulers became Calvinists, it proved to be the catalyst to war.
Bohemian Phase 1618-1621	The land of John Huss [c1371-1415] rose in revolt against Ferdinand their ruler in 1518. He was a fanatical Romanist and persecuted his Protestant subjects without mercy. The election of emperor in 1519 provided fuel for a larger conflagration. Of the electors, four were Catholic [including Ferdinand], Saxony was Lutheran, Brandenberg and the Palatinate were Calvinist. The Palatinate attempted to delay the election, but finally the election was unanimous for Ferdinand [Ferdinand II], but Frederick V of the Palatinate was trying to put together allies for Bohemia. He was head of the Protestant League, an alliance of German Protestant Princes. In 1619 Bohemia declared Ferdinand deposed as King of Bohemia and crowned Frederick V of the Palatinate as king of Bohemia [the “Winter King”]. The Protestant League essentially did nothing, and the rebellion in Bohemia was crushed, in spite of help from the Calvinist ruler of Hungary. The final treachery was from the French who arranged a treaty between the Hapsburgs and the Protestant League neutralizing the Protestant princes, but leaving Spain freedom to crush the rebellion. The Protestant forces were thoroughly defeated near Prague, at the Battle of White Mountain in November, 1620. Frederick was stripped of all his territories and declared an outlaw. Spain invaded and subdued the Palatinate, except for a few isolated places that were secured by English, Dutch, and German volunteers, among them Heidelberg. [Footnote: The Hanovers of England were descended from Frederick V].
Palatinate Phase 1621-1624	Frederick fled west, tried to get help from Sweden, and finally lived in misery as the guest of the Dutch and the House of Orange. The Protestant League dissolved, having done nothing worthy. The Spanish controlled the lower Palatinate, the Emperor the upper. Frederick raised three armies, but the generals could not work together and they were defeated one at a time. Frederick was left depending upon the diplomacy of his father-in-law, James I of England. The remnants of his armies broke through into Holland and joined the Dutch armies. James I was able to put together a peace conference at Brussels in 1622. He intended to settle all the matters in Germany, and get a Spanish bride for his son Charles [who later was beheaded by Cromwell and the Puritans]. If Frederick would renounce the Bohemian throne, he could keep his lands, the Spanish would remain in the Palatinate and pursue their war with the Dutch, and Charles would someday marry a Spanish wife. It all fell through.
Danish Phase 1625-1630	Neither the French, the English, the Dutch, or practically anyone else could favor the tremendous increase of power that the Hapsburgs gained in their victories in Germany. The French, English and Dutch formed a league to oppose the Empire. Dissensions among them, nullified their efforts to raise and army. Gustavas Adolphus of Sweden demanded much too high a price to fight the Empire, so the allies turned to Christian IV of Denmark, who was also Duke of Holstein, a Prince of the Empire. The League of the Hague was negotiated, and Christian would send his army into Germany, subsidized by the Dutch and English, also receiving assurances that Gabor would create a diversion in the East. Charles I was now king of England, embroiled with Parliament, and never paid his previous or the new subsidies to the Danes. The support of Gabor fell through when the Ottomans were defeated by the Persians at Baghdad and could not pay their customary support, and he withdrew from the war. The Imperial General Tilly defeated Christian’s army at Lutter-am-Bamberg in 1626. The Peace of Lubeck ensued and the Edict of Restitution, which required all lands taken from the church since the Peace of Augsburg. Denmark lost all her lands on the Continent, Christian fled to the Danish Islands. Wallenstein created an army of one hundred thousand, planned to build a navy, to assist the Emperor and the Spanish to extirpate Protestantism. He was answerable to no one but the Emperor. Meanwhile Gustavus Adolphus prepared for war with Germany and made peace with Poland to free his hands. The Diet of Regensburg in 1630 stripped Wallenstein of his army, which was then reduced to one-third its size and refused to elect Ferdinand’s son a Emperor of the Romans. They greatly feared the huge expansion of the Imperial power. The Protestants could not afford to lose the huge wealth of the confiscated church lands.
Swedish Phase 1630- 1634	Gustavus invaded Pomerania in June, 1630, and controlled the whole territory by July. Although without allies when he invaded Germany, he soon made allies either by negotiation or by force among the discontented in Germany, with France, with Bavaria. Gustavus’s had great success, winning Menklenburg and other fortresses by March 1630. The Imperial general Tilly besieged and sacked the Lutheran city of Magdeburg, alarming all the Lutheran princes, resulting a call to arms. Gustavus marched to Berlin, whose ruler soon saw the benefits of a Swedish alliance. When Tilly marched into Saxony, demanding that Saxony feed his starving army, Saxony allied with the Swedes. At the battle of Breitenfield, the Imperial forces were completely destroyed. Gustavus Adolphus was now master of Germany. The Saxons moved East, the Swedes moved South. Prague fell in November 1631 without a blow. The French were in a tough spot. Gustavus did as he pleased, paying no respect to the German rulers or the rights of church lands. Ferdinand II turned to Wallenstein, and paid a heavy price to get him to return to Imperial service. He began to raise troops. When Tilly renewed hostilities in Bavaria, Gustavus responded swiftly and Tilly was routed and slain at the Battle of the River Lech. Meanwhile, Wallenstein had retaken Bohemia, and joined battle with Gustavus at the Battle of Lützen in November, 1632. Wallenstein was routed, but Gustavus died on the field of battle. He was the greatest hero in the history of Sweden.
French Phase 1634- 1648	After the death of Gustavus the Swedish position in German declined. Soldiers were not paid and their allies were proving unreliable. There was a long standoff. Wallenstein sought to secure himself from the Emperor who regretted the great power given to him. The result was the deposition of Wallenstein, the abandonment of him by the army, and his assassination. The French garrisoned the Rhineland and declared war on Spain in 1635, a war that continued until 1659. Meanwhile negotiations between the Emperor and the Electors resulted in the abandonment of the Edict of Restitution and the Peace of Prague, May, 1635. Most of the Germans signed, and Sweden and France were left alone. Sweden retained Mecklenburg and Pomerania. The French made massive assaults on Holland, Spain, and Italy. They were soundly defeated everywhere. It got worse in 1636. Northern France was invaded by Imperial troops and Paris trembled. Ferdinand of Hungary was elected Emperor, Ferdinand III. Shortly after, his father died, 1636. There was a long standoff.
1648	The Peace of Westphalia. The end of the Thirty Years War. Provisions: 1. Sweden received a large cash indemnity, control over western Pomerania, and some other things. 2. France received rights over Alsace [it is unknown what those rights were]. 3. German rulers: The emperor’s rights were reduced to nothing. 4. In Germany private exercise of non-conforming religion was permitted. Government was neutral religiously. 5. Protestant lands neutralized in 1624 remained so. “They made a desert, and called it peace.” More than one-third of the population of Germany was slain during this religious war. Germany would remain fragmented until united under Otto von Bismarck, German Chancellor 1862-1890. The German Reformed population was almost destroyed. Many came to America.
Bob Gross-Mann writes: Outline History of the Reformed Church in the United States, 1995 Elector Publications	a. The Thirty Years war …left the Palatinate ravaged, first by a Spanish invasion under Spinola in 1621, and later by the French who practiced upon the Palatinate Reformed on their way to Bavaria where they burned and destroyed in their campaign against Catholic rival Austria. b. The Palatinate was also given to the rule of the Roman Catholic Maximillian of Bavaria who hade been installed as its elector after Frederick V, grandson of Frederick the Pious, was put under the ban after his loss to Imperial forces under Tilly in the battle of Prague (Nov. 8, 1620). Frederick V had been instrumental in re-reforming the Palatinate after the death of his father Lewis, a high Lutheran. Unfortunately he accepted the crown of Bohemia and was forced to defend Prague against the superior Imperial army of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand [II]. After a brief return to Protestant rule, the Palatinate again fell under Roman Catholic rule from 1685 onward. c. Further depredations came with the invasions by Louse XIV in 1689 and again 1693[sic] (Louis was reputed to have put 2000 villages to the torch). Again between 1701 and 1713 the Palatinate became a battleground marched over repeatedly by the rivals engaged in the wars of the Spanish succession. d. It is then no wonder that thousands of Palatines left, and became refugees without a homeland. In 1710 some 15, 000 of them were living outside of London in great squatter villages. e. A Mohawk Indian chief on a tour of England was so impressed with their misery that he gave them the Schoharie valley in New York. f. However, even with the great kindness of the English who provided relief to them and sent them to the New Word, they found living t in their first destination, New York, uncomfortable because of desires to Anglicanize them and because of economic difficulties.