Religious Peace To The Holy Roman Empire example essay topic

The Thirty Years War started as a religious struggle, but transformed into a dynastic war for power in Europe. It all began with the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, which was formed to bring religious peace to the Holy Roman Empire. The Peace of Augsburg stated that "the faith of the rulers is the faith of the ruled". Under this agreement, Lutheran and Catholic princes could dictate the religion of their entire population.

However, it did not include Calvinists. The Holy Roman Empire consisted of one-half Catholic and one-half Protestant. Of the Protestants, three-fourths were Lutheran and one-fourth were Calvinist, thus making the Calvinists one-eighth of the overall population. The Peace of Augsburg worked well at first and Calvinists were basically free to practice their religion. However, when Ferdinand II was elected in 1618, things began to change. Ferdinand was a devoted Catholic, as well as a powerful Hapsburg, and decided to reconvert Bohemia from Calvinist to Catholic.

Ferdinand sent representatives to Bohemia to inform them of the news. When the representatives arrived, they were thrown out a window. This act was known as the Defenestration of Prague. The Bohemians had made an open sign of rebellion and the Thirty Years War had begun. The first phase of the war, known as the Bohemian Phase, was a huge Catholic victory. The Bohemians decided to pick an emperor of their own, Frederick of Palatinate, in hopes of gaining help from other nations.

Frederick, grandson of William of Orange and husband of Elizabeth (daughter of James I of England), was an ambitious and wealthy Calvinist. However, Ferdinand easily crushed the uprising at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620. Prague was sacked and Jesuits were brought in to reconvert the Calvinists. It seemed as if the war was over, but with this victory, the Hapsburgs became even more powerful and the Danes felt they needed to take it away. In 1625, King Christian IV led a Protestant counter-attack to take back some of the gains made by the Holy Roman Empire. The Danes were, like the Bohemians, easily beaten by Ferdinand, and withdrew from the war in 1629.

Ferdinand II felt like he could defeat any army and decided to put out the Edict of Restitution in 1629. This stated that all property seized from the Catholic faith since 1555 must be returned. The Edict of Restitution united Calvinists and Lutherans together in a fight for survival. In 1630 the Swedes joined the Protestants under the great monarch Gustavus Adolphus.

The Swedes wanted to aid German Lutherans, but also wanted to gain territories in the Baltic. Gustavus Adolphus built a disciplined army with standardized uniforms, for the first time in history. The Swedes defeated the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Lutzen in 1632, but it was a pyrrhic victory, and came at a high price. Gustavus Adolphus was killed in the battle and Sweden began to decline as the leading power of the Baltic.

The French, who had secretly been aiding the Swedish in the war, openly came out in 1634. Cardinal Richelieu wanted to weaken the Hapsburgs in hopes of becoming the supreme power in Europe. Richelieu was forced to issue heavy taxes to finance the war, and he was hated more and more. General Conde led the French military to victory and defeated to Hapsburgs in 1648.

However, Richelieu died in 1642 and was unable to see France emerge as the supreme power in Europe. After the war, the Treaty of Westphalia was formed. It broke up the Holy Roman Empire in to 300 separate and almost independent states. Each state had its own currency and internal tariffs. The title "Holy Roman Emperor was still used, but it had no real meaning anymore. The Netherlands and Switzerland were both recognized as independent countries.

The Peace of Augsburg had been reaffirmed, and this time the Calvinists were included. At the end of the war, the German states were devastated, and it would take them over 100 years to repopulate.