The European Wars of Religion had been progressively raging for two centuries, gradually
growing in intensity. From the Hussite Wars of the early fifteenth century to the French
Wars of religion in the late sixteenth century, it
seemed as though a decisive conflagration was inevitable.
The Thirty’ Years War concluded as one of the most devastating conflicts in the history
of the world, but began as a local religious conflict.
By its end Europe, its religion and its borders had
been forever changed, and upwards of eight million people had perished. What is the story
of this cataclysmic conflict and how did it begin?
We shall begin our series on the Thirty Years’ War
with the Bohemian Revolt, and the Battle of White Mountain.
The first Bohemian unrest against Catholic rule, the Hussite Revolt, concluded in 1434
at the Battle of Lipany, delaying the reformation
for a century. In 1516, a Dominican Friar came to the
Holy Roman Empire city of Wittenberg in order to sell ‘indulgences’ - material ways
to reduce the amount of punishment one had to undergo
due to their sins. In the late middle-ages, this
practice had become corrupt and commercialised. A German theologian, monk and priest, Martin
Luther, objected, and famously nailed his ‘ninety-five theses’ to the Wittenberg
church. Perhaps his most revolutionary work was his translation
of the traditionally Hebrew and Greek bible into
common German, allowing laymen to read it for themselves, rather than relying on their
priests. This began the protestant reformation.
The sixteenth century conflicts precipitated by this reformation began with the massive
German Peasants’ War of 1524 to 1525 - a religious
conflict exacerbated by political and economic factors, a precursor of what was to come.
This period of violence, which also included the
Munster Rebellion of 1532 to 1535 and the Schmalkaldic Wars of 1546 to 1555 seemingly
came to an end with the Peace of Augsburg - during
which Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I established the key principle of ‘Cuius
regio, eius religio’. This allowed the many princes of the
various provinces of the Empire to impose their own religion, either Catholicism or
Lutheranism, on their own territory. It stabilised the
situation at first, but there were problems. The 1580s saw the situation deteriorate ever
further under the rule of Rudolf II. The causes of
this are complex, but it was probably a combination of severe climatic stresses on the European
economy, external conflicts, such as the ongoing Eighty Years War, and an intensification of
religious extremism. In 1606 another key moment came when the Treaty
of Zsitvatorok was signed between the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire monarchy and the
Ottoman Empire. This marked a decrease in pressure against the Empire’s Balkan border,
due to the necessity for Ottoman soldiers to quell
internal rebellion and to fight against the Safavids. This seemed like a victory for Christendom,
but it also took away a unifying factor between the various religious groups in the Habsburg’s
German territories, giving them breathing room to focus on their internal rivals.
In 1608, Protestant princes declared the Protestant Union, a military alliance to defend the
religious interests of their co-religionists under Frederick IV of the Palatinate. Feeling
threatened by this, Catholic princes under Duke of Bavaria
Maximilian I formed the Catholic League. One of the largest provinces in the Empire,
Bohemia, had enjoyed comparative religious freedom
since the end of the Hussite Wars, and was one of the most tolerant lands in Europe.
In 1609, Rudolf II issued the Letter of Majesty, a
text which guaranteed freedom of conscience for all and
liberty of worship for nobles, essentially allowing Bohemia the right to control its
religious affairs free from Imperial interference, but
it was clear that this was a fragile compromise. Rudolf II died in 1612 and was replaced by
Matthias II, who was more radical in his religious policies, and began to slowly roll back to
the right. The new Emperor also had no children, so the
succession was an open question. As a four-year dispute over the guardianship of the Electoral
Palatinate concluded in 1614, Frederick V became the Elector. He was a talented leader
and a zealous Calvinist, who firmly believed in
a Catholic conspiracy to annihilate German Protestantism, and positioned himself as leader
of the Protestant princes. By 1617 Matthias fell ill and Ferdinand of
Styria had been elected as the heir-designate, to the
dread of the Bohemians. They had heard tales of Ferdinand’s vicious counter-reformation
as Archduke of Austria, and feared that he would
not allow non-Catholics in Bohemia. On June 6th
1617, he ascended to the Bohemian throne as Ferdinand II, to the fury of the protestant
Bohemians. What happened next is debated, but the Bohemians
either wanted to perform a pre-emptive strike in anticipation of Ferdinand’s predicted
persecution, or violence was already done against the
protestants. The issue of Habsburg rule over Bohemia was also a key factor. On the 23rd
of May 1618 an assembly of protestants went to the
Hradshin - the royal castle - and insisted on seeing
the Imperial governors. After a heated exchange of words between the assembly, led by Count
Thurn, and the imperial representatives, the Imperials were thrown out of the council chamber’s
windows and fell - becoming infamously known as the Second Defenestration of Prague. This
was the trigger for the Bohemian Revolt, and Europe would consequently be embroiled in
an apocalyptic conflict for the next thirty years.
This scandalous act in Bohemia and the brewing insurrection took the courts of all Europe
by surprise, including the Bohemians themselves.
Despite the state of affairs, they were cautious, and refrained from demanding the deposition
of Ferdinand for now, instead addressing their demands to the sickly Holy Roman Emperor Matthias,
maintaining a pretense of loyalty. Nevertheless, military preparations and actions
began immediately by both sides. In mid-June, the Bohemians wrote to the Protestant
Union, asking them for full admittance and military support in the upcoming conflict.
In order to incentivize this further, they offered
Frederick V, the leader of the Union, the Kingship of Bohemia for their support. In
a diplomatic mistake, they offered the same to the rulers
of Savoy, Saxony and Transylvania, which led the
wider Union to declare neutrality in the conflict, contradictory to their leader - the Elector
of the Palatinate.
The ruler of Saxony - the most powerful Protestant province of the Empire - had never wanted
a war with the Emperor, and when Ferdinand offered
him protection against any protestant retaliation in return for neutrality, he accepted
and mobilised his forces to secure his border with
Bohemia. The Duke of Savoy however, responded to the Bohemian call for help swiftly, and
sent a 2,000 strong force under Ernst von Mansfeld,
along with financial aid for the conflict. In May
1618 this Protestant force captured the stronghold of Pilsen, marking one of the first major
engagements of the Thirty Years’ War.
The Spanish Habsburgs, at this moment in time headed by Philip III, were occupied by the
Eighty Years’ War against the Dutch Republic and their allies. Despite internal problems
they were still the most powerful state in Europe,
and their aid would be key to the Catholic cause. By
mid-1619, 7,000 veteran Spanish troops would be sent from the Low Countries in order to
support Ferdinand. The Austrian Archduke also received similar
support from inside the Holy Roman Empire. Bavaria the most powerful Catholic principality,
and its Duke Maximilian I saw protestant Bohemia as a threat to its authority, and
also considered the Elector Palatine, a fellow member of
the Wittelsbach family, as one of his main rivals for the position of Elector. However,
these preparations did not yet make war inevitable.
The Habsburgs viewed their insurrectionist Bohemian subjects as rebellious children and
themselves as the patient patriarchs, willing to
listen to their complaints. In addition, many Bohemians did not want to entirely reject
the dynasty, but instead wished to simply reinforce
the religious toleration concessions gained in
Rudolf’s Letter of Majesty. This relatively lax start to the conflict
would end when Holy Roman Emperor Matthias died in
March 1619. This forced the Bohemians into a decision. They would either have to lay
down their arms and accept Ferdinand as their king,
or denounce him and risk open war. They went with the second option, and offered the crown
to V of the Palatinate instead. In May 1619 the main army of protestants,
led by Count Thurn, marched on Vienna and put the
city under siege, despite not having any siege weapons to launch a decisive assault. These
successes were not to last, as on the 10th of June the Catholic commander, the Count
of Bucquoy, routed Mansfeld and his 2,000 strong
contingent at the Battle of Sablat in southern Bohemia. This cut off communications between
Prague and Thurn’s besieging army, forcing them to withdraw. Even worse, Mansfeld’s
correspondence was captured by the Imperials, revealing in detail the Duke of Savoy’s
dealings with the Bohemians, Dutch, Venetians and
English. He was embarrassed and, now aware that he would not be elected the Bohemian
king, ended his support for the rebels.
On the 28th of August 1619 Ferdinand II was finally elected the Holy Roman Emperor in
Frankfurt, but he still had problems to deal with. In late August, the prince of Transylvania
Bethlen Gabor began the conquest of Habsburg Hungary, and on October 13th, defeated the
last Habsburg army in the region. Soon afterwards,
he moved up the Danube and joined forces with Thurn, moving in November to lay siege to
Vienna a second time. Again, this apparent success was not to last.
On the 27th of November 1619 Gabor received reports that a large Polish army, assisting
the Catholic Ferdinand, had entered upper Hungary and
cut his communications with his Transylvanian heartland. This ruined the second siege of
Vienna and forced Gabor to rush back to Hungary,
and Thurn to move back to Bohemia. Imperial diplomats then negotiated with Gabor to cease
his support for the Bohemians and he accepted on
the 20th of January 1620. As 1620 progressed, another Spanish army of
20,000 men began its march from the Low Countries into the Palatinate under the command
of Ambrosio Spinola, aiming to secure Catholic League territories such as Bavaria. At the
same time, an army of around 30,000 Catholic troops
conquered Upper Austria, led by the Count of Tilly, while Bucquoys force had conquered
Lower
Austria. This done, the Imperial armies under Bucquoy and Tilly united and thrust into Bohemia,
seeking a decisive engagement. On the 8th of November 1620, the Imperial army met the
rebels just beyond the walls of Prague at Bílá
Hora - the White Mountain. The rebels were around 21,000 strong, with
11,000 footmen, 5,000 Harquebusier horse, 5,000 additional Hungarian light cavalry and
10 cannons. Their army drew up in the Dutch Style, constituting two lines of battle, with
interspersing cavalry squadrons between each battalion of infantry. Half of the Hungarian
light cavalry manned the extreme right wing, while the other half functioned as a mobile
reserve in the rear. Commanded by Christian of
Anhalt, the rebel army set up on the high ground of the White Mountain ridge, digging
trenches in front of their line. Thick fog obscured the Imperial approach on
the morning of Sunday 8th of November, and advance guard forces secured the two crossings
of a stream two kilometres in front of the rebel position. After Ferdinand’s army crossed,
they began to form up. The Catholic League’s forces commanded by
Tilly, set up on the left, while the Imperial Army, led by Bucquoy, took up position on
the right. 17,000 Habsburg footmen were organised into 10 large blocks, known as Tercios,
and were comprised mainly of Pikemen and Musketeers. The Imperial Cavalry meanwhile,
consisted of 6 regiments of lightly armoured Harquebusiers, armed with a long
Harquebus carbine, and 4 regiments of heavily armed Cuirassiers wielding Wheellock
Pistols and straight swords. Supplementing them were 300 light cavalr y from Catholic
Poland. The army of Ferdinand II also had 12
cannons in support. The Imperial commanders knew that time was
on their side, so they did not have to attack immediately. However, the Duke of Bavaria
Maximilian wanted a quick and decisive victory, so they decided to attack. Ever since
they had been brought up, the Imperial cannon had been firing uphill without much
impact. At around fifteen minutes to midday, all 12 guns fired at once to signal the advance.
Imperial Tercios and cavalry on the less steep right side advanced up the hill, opposed by
two cavalry regiments under Anhalt’s son, Christian the Younger, who wanted to perform
an active defence. Meanwhile, Thurn’s elite infantry division crashed into the Habsburg
infantry, who were labouring up the slope. The Bohemian army initially had success in
their downhill advance, breaking through the Imperial Cuirassier cavalry and into one of
their Tercios by using their wheellock pistols. Pikes clashed and firearms sounded for a
while, however Tilly then sent more Cuirassiers and Dragoons to the right flank under
Bucquoy and drove the rebel cavalry away, rallying the Tercios to push forward in the
process. Witnessing their horsemen retreating under
the pressure, the Bohemian infantry began to
follow suit, and the Hungarians in reserve scattered. Meanwhile, the Catholic League’s
forces advanced up the steeper slope on the left towards the rebel right flank. Due to
the unfavourable terrain on this area of the field,
the Bohemian contingents manning it managed to halt the advancing League Tercios.
However, rumours of the 300 Polish cavalry having already flanked the rebels
spooked the remaining Bohemian units and they attempted to flee. The German mercenaries
fighting on the right side of the rebel line were
unable to flee due to the terrain, and they had to fight to the last man. A later legend
would distort this occurrence and described the
heroic resistance of these men who refused to give
up. The Bohemian rebels had been utterly crushed
in the field, and Tilly’s forces entered Prague the
next day. Forty-seven leaders of the rebellion were put to death, twenty-seven of them being
executed in the Old Town Square - commemorated by 27 crosses engraved into the modern-day
cobblestones. The estates of the treacherous nobility were sold off to Ferdinand’s supporters
and their possessions were plundered, while the
Elector Palatine managed to flee. However, this was
not the end of the conflict, and the destruction of the Protestant cause would catalyze an
intensification which would drastically increase the devastation caused by the wider war.
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