THIRTY YEARS' WAR. - In 1608 the German Protestants formed the Evangelical Union, against which the "Catholic League" arose the following year. In 1618 the Defenestration of Prague was the signal for a political and religious revolt of Bohemia against the Habsburgs: the Bohemians asked the Evangelical Union for help and elected as their king Frederick, Elector of the Palatinate. But he was defeated in 1620 by Ferdinand II; there followed, under the auspices of the Catholic League, an energetic "Counter-Reformation" action that extended to Austria and Silesia. The Evangelical Union was dissolved.

To curb the excessive power of the Habsburgs, Richelieu, while fighting the Huguenots in France, encouraged the intervention of Christian IV of Denmark against the Empire; Christian was placed at the head of the reconstituted Evangelical Union, but, defeated by Wallenstein, he was forced to make peace. France then provoked the entry into the war of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, who, after defeating the imperial forces at Leipzig, fell on the field of Lützen (1632). In 1635 the Emperor concluded with the German Protestants the Peace of Prague, which suspended the Edict of Restitution for forty years. France and Sweden did not adhere to this peace. Now Richelieu, having subdued the Huguenots, decided on direct intervention by France, which declared war on Austria and Spain. From this moment the conflict lost its original character of a war of religion and became a struggle for predominance. The French won at Rocroi (1643) and at Freiburg, while Mazarin, with his diplomatic arts, isolated the Habsburgs. In 1648 several peace treaties were concluded in various places (Münster, Osnabrück) which go under the collective name of the Treaty of Westphalia. By this France obtained Alsace and had confirmed its possession of the three bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun. Sweden and Brandenburg increased their territories. Switzerland and Holland were recognized as independent. The Treaty settled the religious question, granting an amnesty for occupied properties. By granting toleration to the Protestants, it sanctioned the rupture of the religious unity of the Christian world.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: G. Winter, Geschichte des 30. jährigen Krieges. Berlin 1893; D. Ogg, The thirty years war, Cambridge 1906; K. Brandi, Gegenreformation und Religionskrieg, Leipzig 1930; Pastor, XIII and XIV, passim. For further bibliography cf. E. Préclin and V. L. Tapié, Le XVIIe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris 1949, pp. 111-33.

Roberto Palmarocchi

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Thirty Years' War

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