Thirty Years' War
Pre-War, Bohemian & Danish Periods (1618-1648)
Summary
Cause
Treaty of Lubeck
Ferdinand II
Ferdinand II was a member of the House of Habsburg, was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, and King of Hungary. He was a devout Catholic who was sent to the Jesuits college to study away from Lutheran nobles. Ferdinand II wanted to restore the Catholic Church as the only religion in the Empire and wanted to wipe out any form of religious dissent. It was Ferdinand II actions against Protestantism that cause the war to engulf the whole Roman Empire.
Christian IV
Christian IV was King of Denmark-Norway and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein from 1588 to 1648. His 59 year reign is the longest of the Danish and Scandinavian monarchs. He became king at 19 and is remembered as one of the most popular, ambitious, and proactive Danish kinds having initiated many reforms. He engaged Denmark in numerous war, including the Thirty Years’ War, which devastated much of Germany, undermined the Danish economy, and cost Denmark some of its conquered land.
Maximilian I
Maximilian I, sometimes called “the Great”, ruled as Duke of Bavaria from 1597. He reign was marked by the Thirty Years’ War which he is where he obtained the title of Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire at the 1623 Diet of Regensburg. A devout Catholic, he was one of the leaders of the Counter-Reformation and founder of the Catholic League of Imperial Princes.
Outcome
-Bohemian Phase: Battle of White Mountain
-Danish Phase: Denmark King invaded
At the end of each of the phases the Catholics were victorious. They won the Battle of White Mountain and when the King of Denmark invaded, him and his troops were beaten badly and he retreated back to his country.
Significance
When the war ended it altered Western Europe in significant religious, political, and social ways. It had a lot of impact in these ways:
-dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire
-fall of the Hapsburg powers
-took central power from the Catholic Church
-quelled religious struggles with the Peace of Westphalia
-decimated large portion of German population and crops
-obliterated German economy