However, at least initially, their armies were unable to make inroads against the forces of Ferdinand II, even after he died of old age in 1637. Thus, the French entered the conflict in 1635. The French, though Catholic, were rivals of the Habsburgs and were unhappy with the provisions of the Peace of Prague. With religious and political tensions in the latter regions remaining high, fighting continued.
The resulting treaty, the so-called Peace of Prague, protected the territories of the Lutheran/Calvinist rulers of northeastern Germany, but not those of the south and west in present-day Austria and the Czech Republic. Using military assistance of Bohemian nobleman Albrecht von Wallenstein, who provided his army of an estimated 50,000 soldiers to Ferdinand II in exchange for the freedom to plunder any captured territory, began to respond and, by 1635, the Swedes were vanquished. However, when Gustavus Adolphus was killed in the Battle of Lutzen in 1632, the Swedes lost some of their resolve. With the support of the Swedes, Protestant victories continued. Gustavus Adolphusīut in 1630, Sweden, under the leadership of Gustavus Adolphus, took the side of the northern Protestants and joined the fight, with its army helping to push Catholic forces back and regain much of the lost territory lost by the Protestant Union. With Emperor Ferdinand II’s ascension to head of state of the Holy Roman Empire in 1619, religious conflict began to foment.Įven with help from soldiers from Scotland, however, the armies of Denmark-Norway fell to the forces of Ferdinand II, ceding much of northern Europe to the emperor. In the end, the conflict changed the geopolitical face of Europe and the role of religion and nation-states in society. However, as the Thirty Years’ War evolved, it became less about religion and more about which group would ultimately govern Europe.
The war lasted from 1618 to 1648, starting as a battle among the Catholic and Protestant states that formed the Holy Roman Empire. It remains one of the longest and most brutal wars in human history, with more than 8 million casualties resulting from military battles as well as from the famine and disease caused by the conflict. The Thirty Years’ War was a 17th-century religious conflict fought primarily in central Europe.
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