The Wars of Religion (1560 -1648)

1. TheWars ofReligion (1560 -1648)

2. Civil War In France (1562-1598)

3. The Valois Family: • Henry II was the last powerful Valois King…his wife Catherine de Medici was a force to be reckoned with… • Henry’s father (Francis I) died in a tennis game…sound fishy? I wonder if it was a ‘love’ game? And, then Henry and Catherine become king and queen…coincidence? • Henry, as king, ignored Catherine and appeared in court with his mistresses…openly! • He had an “accident”…are you surprised… in a jousting contest…he got a scratch! • On Henry’s death their 15 year old son Francis II became king…he was weak, frail, and had ideas of his own, and oops, he died too! Do you love her?Her 10 year old was now crowned king, Charles IX…she had sweeping power…and mysteriously her son Charles dies…talk about bad luck! • To lose one son was tragic, to lose two is down right careless! Finally, her third son became king…Francis II…he listened to his mom AND LIVED…coincidence? • At first, Catherine sought compromise through limited concessions to the Huguenots; she failed, however, to grasp their need for freedom of worship.. • Later, as anarchy set in, Catherine abandoned conciliation and resorted to hard-line policies towards religious rebels. As a result, she was personally blamed for the worst atrocities of the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Day, of 1572, in which thousands of Huguenots were butchered in Paris and throughout France. • Catherine's subsequent vilification in contemporary pamphlets gave birth to "the black legend,” which branded her for posterity as the epitome of evil, servicing an overwhelming lust for power with dark political crimes, serial poisonings, and even witchcraft. • By the nineteenth century, this tradition had hardened to the point where the great historian Jules Michelet could refer to Catherine as that "maggot which came out of Italy's tomb.”

4. Catherine de Medici Mother of the year…1560

5. Francis II & His Wife, Mary Stuart Is it me, or does he look like he’s 12 years old? He listened to his mom

6. The French Civil War The duke de Guise Le Duc de Guise • There were two sides: • The Guise family led the Catholics in the North • The Bourbon family led the Huguenots in the South • They were fighting for the French crown…of course, religion had nothing to do with it! • Catherine supported the Guises in the first phase…and then switched sides • St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre: • In what became known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 24 August – 17 September, 1572 Catholics killed thousands of Huguenots in Paris. • Similar massacres took place in other towns in the weeks following, with death toll estimates again ranging wildly, from thousands to as high as 110,000. • An amnesty granted in 1573 pardoned the perpetrators. Antoine Bourbon, Le Duc de Vendome

7. St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

8. The French Civil War • Catherine started supporting the Bourbons…she switched sides… • Henri of Navarre defeated the Catholic League & became Henry IV of France. • Effects of Civil War: • France was left divided by religion • Royal power had weakened • Valois family now replaced by Bourbons CatholicLeague CIVILWAR ProtestantUnion

9. Triumphal Entry of Henry IV Into Paris – Peter Paul Reubens

10. Henry IV of France • He ended Spanish interference in France • He converted to Catholicism: • He did this to compromise and make peace…he was a POLITIQUE • A politique puts the interest of the state first, before any religious considerations • He issued the Edict of Nantes in April of1598: The Edict of Nantes was issued by Henry IV to grant French Calvinists (also known as Huguenots) substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. The main concern was civil unity, and the edict separated civil from religious unity, it treated some Protestants for the first time as more than mere heretics, and opened a path for secularism and tolerance. In offering general freedom ofconscience to individuals, the edict offered many specific concessions to the Protestants, such as amnesty and the reinstatement of their civil rights, including the right to work in any field or for the state and to bring grievances directly to the king. “Paris is worth a mass”

11. The Cathedral in Nantes • The edict granted the Protestants fifty places of safety (places de sureté), which were military strongholds such as La Rochelle for which the king paid. • Such an innovative act of toleration stood virtually alone in a Europe, where standard practice forced subjects to follow the religion of their ruler — the application of the principle of CUIUS REGIO, EIUS RELIGIO. The Huguenot Cross

12. TheThirty Years War (1618-1648)

13. Background to the Thirty Years War • Under the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 Lutheranism had been given official recognition in the Holy Roman Empire. • Lands of the Roman church which had previously been taken by secular powers were retained by them. • German rulers could also impose their religion on their subjects. • However, the Peace did not provide a permanent framework for religious settlement in Germany. • The Catholics and Protestants formed armed alliances to preserve their rights: • The Catholic League under Maximilian I of Bavaria and the Protestant Union under Frederick V of the Palatinate. • Meanwhile, in Bohemia, Moravia and Austria dissension between the Habsburgs had enabled the local elites to extort religious freedom from their rulers. The Habsburgs gradually began to chip away at these concessions. • So, the scene is set………………

14. The Thirty Years' War began as a civil war and was fought between 1618 and 1648… mostly on the territory of today's Germany, and involved most of the major European continental powers. • Although it was from the outset a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, the rivalry between the Habsburg dynasty and other powers was also a central motive, as shown by the fact that Catholic France, under the de facto rule of Cardinal Richelieuwho supported the Protestant side in order to weaken the Habsburgs, thereby furthering France's position as the pre-eminent continental power. The major impact of the Thirty Years' War, which primarily used mercenary armies who had little concern for anyone's rights or property, was to lay waste to entire regions, causing a much higher than normal death rate among the civilian population. Episodes of widespread famine and disease (a starving body has little resistance to illnesses) devastated the population of the Germanys and the Low Countries. The war also bankrupted many of the powers involved. The war may have lasted for 30 years, but the conflicts that triggered it continued unresolved for a much longer time. The war ended with the treaty of Munster, a part of the wider Peace of Westphalia. Germany’s population was reduced by 30 % on average…in some areas it was an estimated two thirds of the population. Germany’s male population was reduced by almost half. Population of the Czech lands declined by a third. The Swedish armies alone destroyed 2,000 castles, 18,000 villages and 1,500 towns in Germany, the number represented one-third of all German towns.

15. 1618-1648

16. After the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia

17. The war was fought in four phases: The Bohemian Phase: 1618-1622 • Ferdinand II…the Holy Roman Emperor…a Habsburg inherited Bohemia (present day Czech Republic) • The Bohemians hated him. • Ferdinand refused to tolerate Protestantism. • Defenestration of Prague May, 1618 • The Defenestration of Prague • On 23 May 1618, three figures fluttered down from a high window of the Castle Hradshin in the heart of Prague. Landing in a convenient heap of rubbish, they escaped with their lives. Thus began the Thirty Years War. • The men had been flung from the window at the culmination of disputes between the Protestant nobility of Bohemia and their overlord Matthias II, Holy Roman Emperor and leader of the Habsburg House of Austria. • Bohemia named a new king, Frederick II.Ferdinand II becomes Holy Roman Emperor. • Frederick II borrowed an army from Bavaria and quickly lost his lands in the fighting…not a terribly smart move! • The rebellion in Bohemia inspired others.

18. Bohemian Phase

19. The Danish Phase: 1625-1629 The Danish Phase of the Thirty Years War This phase of the Thirty Years War encompassed the years 1625 to 1630. Foreign powers opposed to the Habsburgs could not look with equanimity on the developments in Germany. The French, English and Dutch formed a league to oppose the Habsburgs. They found their champion in Christian IV of Denmark, who also had extensive possessions in northern Germany. Christian invaded, but was crushingly defeated by the army of the Catholic League and a new Imperial force under the enigmatic Bohemian condottiere Wallenstein. Emboldened by victory, the Emperor issued the Edict of Restitution, requiring the return of all lands expropriated from the Roman church since the 1550’s. Fearing Wallenstein’s power, the territorial rulers forced the Emperor to remove him from power and reduce the size of the Imperial army. The King Christian IV triplets…

20. Danish Phase

21. AlbrechtvonWallenstein

22. The Swedish Phase: 1630-1635 The Swedish Phase of the Thirty Years War This phase of the Thirty Years War encompassed the years 1630 through 1634. Concerned by growing Habsburg power along the Baltic, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden invaded northern Germany. He was not welcomed by his fellow Lutherans: his sole significant ally were the French, who subsidized his army. After the Swede’s allied city of Magdeburg was destroyed by an Imperial army, the Protestants grew concerned and began to arm. When the Imperial forces moved against Saxony, the Elector of Saxony threw in his lot with the Swedes. The Swedish army met the Imperials at Breitenfeld near Leipzig and annihilated them. The Swedes promptly took over most of southwest Germany. The Emperor had no choice but to recall Wallenstein. The Swedes and Wallenstein’s new army met near Leipzig at Lützen. The battle was a draw, but Gustavus was killed. Fearing Wallenstein’s power, and concerned by his intrigues with hostile powers, the Emperor had him killed…that’s gratitude for you! The Imperial and Spanish armies joined and inflicted a crushing defeat on the Swedes at Nördlingen. All the Swedish gains in southern Germany were lost.

23. Swedish Phase

24. GustavusAdolphus

25. The French Phase: 1635-1648 • The French Phase of the Thirty Years War • This phase of the Thirty Years War encompassed the years 1634 through 1648. • After Nördlingen most of the German territorial rulers made their peace with the Emperor. Under the resultant Peace of Prague most of the church lands in Protestant hand in 1627 were allowed to remain so. • Fearing the power of the Hapsburgs the French declared war on Spain and increased the scope of their interventions in the Empire. • Gradually the Imperial forces were weakened. France took control of Alsace and much of the Rhineland while the Swedes took over or neutralized northern Germany and carried the war into Bohemia. • This phase was most destructive! • German towns decimated. • Agriculture collapsed  famine resulted. • 8 million dead  1/3 of the population [from 21 million in 1618 to 13.5 million in 1648] • Caused massive inflation. • Trade was crippled throughout Europe. Cardinal Richelieu

26. Loss of German Lives in 30 Years’ War

27. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) Over the last four years of the war, the parties were actively negotiating at Osnabrück and Münster in Westphalia. On 24 October, 1648 the Peace of Westphalia was signed, ending the Thirty Years War. The Swedes received a large cash payment and control over western Pomerania, Bremen and Verden…in Germany. The French received rights over Alsace. The control of the Emperor over the German territorial rulers was reduced to zero. Within the German portion of the Empire, private exercise of non-conforming religion was permitted. The organs of government were rendered religiously neutral. Lands secularized by the Protestants in 1624 were generally allowed to remain so. However, in the Habsburg territories of Bohemia and Austria the Emperor was given a nearly free hand to re-impose Catholicism. Ratification of the treaty of Munster

28. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) Consequences of the Thirty Years War: • The Thirty Years' War marked the last major religious war in mainland Europe, ending large scale religious bloodshed in 1648. • There were still religious conflicts but no great wars. • The destruction caused by MERCENARY soldiers defied description. • The war did much to end the age of mercenaries and ushered in the age of well-disciplined national armies. • For the next few centuries, this war was blamed for everything that went wrong in Central Europe. And now for some more student out takes………

29. After the refirmation were wars both foreign and infernal. • If the Spanish could gain the Netherlands they would have a stronghold throughout northern Europe that would include Italy, Burgangy, central Europe and India thus surrounding France. • The German Emperor's lower passage was blocked by the French for years and years.