Thirty Years' War

The 1555 Peace of Augsburg was intended to end conflict between German Protestants and Catholics by establishing the principle of cuius regio, eius religio. This meant each of the 224 member states was either Lutheran, the most usual form of Protestantism, or Catholic, based on the choice made by their ruler. In addition, Lutherans could keep lands or property taken from the Catholic Church since the 1552 Peace of Passau. However, it was a compromise that failed to resolve underlying religious and political tensions within the Holy Roman Empire.[19]

Religious fragmentation in the Holy Roman Empire on the eve of the war's outbreak in 1618.

After 1560, the Protestant cause was deeply divided by the growth of Calvinism, a Reformed faith not recognised by Augsburg; Lutheran states like Saxony viewed Calvinists in the Palatinate and Brandenburg with mistrust, paralysing Imperial institutions.[20] In addition, rulers might share the same religion but have different economic and strategic objectives; for much of the war, the Papacy supported France against the Habsburgs. The chief agents of the Counter-Reformation were similarly split, the Jesuits generally backing Austria, the Capuchins France.[21]

Managing these issues was complicated by the fragmented nature of the Empire, a patchwork of nearly 1,800 separate entities in Germany, the Low Countries, Northern Italy, and areas like Alsace, now part of modern France. They ranged in size and importance from the seven Prince-electors who voted for the Holy Roman Emperor, down to Prince-bishoprics and City-states, such as Hamburg. Each member was represented in the Imperial Diet; prior to 1663, this assembled on an irregular basis, and was primarily a forum for discussion, rather than legislation.[22]

While Emperors were elected, since 1440 this had been a Habsburg, the largest single landowner within the Empire; their lands included the Archduchy of Austria, the Kingdom of Bohemia, and the Kingdom of Hungary, with over eight million subjects. In 1556, Habsburg Spain became a separate entity, while retaining Imperial states such as the Duchy of Milan, and interests in Bohemia and Hungary; the two often co-operated, but their objectives did not always align. Then the predominant global power, the Spanish Empire included the Spanish Netherlands, much of Italy, the Philippines, and most of the Americas, while Austria remained focused on Central Europe.[23]

Before Augsburg, unity of religion compensated for lack of strong central authority; once removed, it presented opportunities for those who sought to further weaken it. This included ambitious Imperial states like Lutheran Saxony and Catholic Bavaria, as well as France, which faced Habsburg territories on its borders in Flanders, Franche-Comté, and the Pyrenees. Disputes within the Empire drew in outside powers, many of whom held Imperial territories, including the Dutch Prince of Orange, hereditary ruler of Nassau-Dillenburg. Christian IV of Denmark was also Duke of Holstein, and it was in this capacity he joined the war in 1625.[24]

Habsburg possessions in Europe, ca 1700

These tensions gradually undermined Augsburg, and paralysed institutions like the Imperial diet designed to resolve them peacefully. Occasionally it meant full-scale conflict, such as the 1583 to 1588 Cologne War, caused by the conversion to Calvinism of the Prince Elector, Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg. More common were disputes such as the 1606 'Battle of the Flags' in Donauwörth, when the Lutheran majority blocked a Catholic religious procession. Emperor Rudolf approved intervention by the Catholic Maximilian of Bavaria on their behalf. To recover his costs, Maximilian was allowed to annex Donauwörth, which under the principle of cuius regio, eius religio changed a formerly Lutheran town into a Catholic one.[25]

As a result, when the Imperial Diet opened in February 1608, the Protestants demanded formal confirmation of the Augsburg settlement, which was especially significant for Calvinists like Frederick IV, Elector Palatine who had not been included. The Habsburg heir Archduke Ferdinand first required the return of all property taken from the Catholic church since 1552, rather than leaving the courts to decide case by case as previously. This threatened both Lutherans and Calvinists, paralysed the Diet, and removed the perception of Imperial neutrality.[26]

Frederick IV now formed the Protestant Union, largely composed of states in Southern Germany, to which Maximilian responded by setting up the Catholic League in July 1609. While both Leagues were primarily designed to support the dynastic ambitions of their leaders, their creation combined with events like the 1609 to 1614 War of the Jülich Succession to increase tensions throughout the Empire.[27] Some historians who see the war as primarily a European conflict argue Jülich marks its beginning, with Spain and Austria backing the Catholic candidate, France and the Dutch Republic the Protestant.[28]

The Spanish Road

Outside powers became involved in an internal German dispute due to the imminent expiry of the 1609 Twelve Years' Truce, which suspended the war between Spain and the Dutch. Before restarting hostilities, Ambrosio Spinola, commander in the Spanish Netherlands, had first to secure the Spanish Road, an overland route connecting Habsburg possessions in Italy to Flanders. This allowed Spinola to move troops and supplies by road, rather than sea where the Dutch navy held the advantage and by 1618, the only part not controlled by Spain ran through the Electoral Palatinate.[29]

Since Emperor Matthias had no surviving children, in July 1617 Philip III of Spain agreed to support Ferdinand's election as king of Bohemia and Hungary. In return, Ferdinand made concessions to Spain in Northern Italy and Alsace, and agreed to support their offensive against the Dutch. Delivering these commitments required his election as Emperor, which was not guaranteed; one alternative was Maximilian of Bavaria, who opposed the increase of Spanish influence in an area he considered his own, and tried to create a coalition with Saxony and the Palatinate to support his candidacy.[30]

Another was Frederick V, Elector Palatine, who succeeded his father in 1610, and in 1613 married Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I of England. Four of the electors were Catholic, three Protestant; if this could be changed, it might result in a Protestant Emperor. When Ferdinand was elected king of Bohemia in 1617, he gained control of its electoral vote; however, his conservative Catholicism made him unpopular with the largely Protestant Bohemian nobility, who were also concerned at the erosion of their rights. In May 1618, these factors combined to bring about the Bohemian Revolt.[31]

Travellers attacked by soldiers, Vrancx, 1647. Note devastated landscape in background; by the 1640s, shortage of supplies and forage for horses drastically limited military campaigns

A serious Swedish defeat at Nördlingen in September 1634 threatened their participation, leading Richelieu to intervene directly. After tense negotiations with Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, he agreed to provide additional subsidies in the April 1635 Treaty of Compiègne, and France declared war on Spain in May, beginning the 1635 to 1659 Franco-Spanish War. A few days later, Ferdinand agreed the Peace of Prague with the German states; he withdrew the Edict while the Heilbronn and Catholic Leagues were replaced by a single Imperial army, although Saxony and Bavaria retained control of their own forces. This is generally seen as the point when the conflict ceased to be primarily a German civil war.[74]

After invading the Spanish Netherlands in May 1635, the poorly equipped French army collapsed, suffering 17,000 casualties from disease and desertion. A Spanish offensive in 1636 reached Corbie in Northern France; although it caused panic in Paris, lack of supplies forced them to retreat, and it was not repeated.[75] In the March 1636 Treaty of Wismar, France formally joined the Thirty Years War in alliance with Sweden and hired an army led by Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar to support an offensive in the Rhineland. At the same time, the Swedes under Johan Banér marched into Brandenburg and re-established their position in North-East Germany with victory at Wittstock on 4 October 1636. [76]

Ferdinand II died in February 1637 and was succeeded by his son Ferdinand III, who faced a rapidly deteriorating military situation. Dutch leader Frederick Henry recaptured Breda in October, and three months later Bernhard destroyed an Imperial army at Rheinfelden. Although von Hatzfeldt defeated a Swedish-English-Palatine force at Vlotho in October 1638, the capture of Breisach by Bernhard in December secured French control of Alsace and severed the Spanish Road. Madrid was forced to resupply their armies in Flanders by sea, and in October 1639 the Dutch destroyed a large Spanish convoy at the Battle of the Downs.[77]

Pressure grew on Spanish minister Olivares to make peace, especially as attempts to obtain additional resources, such as hiring Polish auxiliaries, proved unsuccessful.[78] Dutch attacks on their possessions in Africa and the Americas caused increasing unrest in Portugal, then part of the Spanish Empire; combined with heavy taxes levied by Madrid, in 1640 it led to revolts in both Portugal and Catalonia.[79] In August 1640, the French captured Arras, then over-ran the rest of Artois; Olivares argued it was time to accept Dutch independence and prevent further losses in Flanders. Although the Empire remained a formidable power, it meant reducing Spanish support for Ferdinand, impacting his ability to continue the war.[80]

Breitenfeld

Wolfenbüttel

Wittstock

Nördlingen

Breisach

Rheinfelden

Zusmarshausen

Münster

Klingenthal

Herbsthausen

Vlotho

Osnabrück

Tuttlingen

Hamburg

Prague

Kempen

Germany, 1636 to 1648; key locations

Despite the death of Bernhard, over the next two years the Franco-Swedish alliance won a series of battles in Germany, including Wolfenbüttel in June 1641 and Kempen in January 1642. At Second Breitenfeld in October 1642, Lennart Torstenson inflicted almost 10,000 casualties on an Imperial army led by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria,[81] while success at Klingenthal in November left the Swedes firmly in control of Saxony.[82] Although Ferdinand realised military victory was no longer possible, he still hoped to exclude France and Sweden from peace talks and reach a settlement negotiated only with members of the Empire.[83]

The death of Richelieu in December was followed by that of Louis XIII on 14 May 1643, leaving the five-year-old Louis XIV as king. With France holding most of Alsace, Richelieu's successor Cardinal Mazarin re-focused on the war with Spain in the Netherlands. On 19 May, Condé won a famous victory over the Spanish at Rocroi, but it was less decisive than often assumed and the French could not take advantage.[84] One key factor was the devastation inflicted on the countryside by 25 years of warfare, which forced armies to spend more time foraging than fighting, and made it difficult to campaign away from their main supply lines.[85] The French also had to rebuild their army in Germany after it was shattered by an Imperial-Bavarian force led by Franz von Mercy at Tuttlingen in November.[86]

Three weeks after Rocroi, Ferdinand invited Sweden and France to attend peace negotiations in the Westphalian towns of Münster and Osnabrück, but talks were delayed when Christian of Denmark blockaded Hamburg and increased toll payments in the Baltic.[87] This severely impacted the Dutch and Swedish economies and in December 1643 the Swedes began the Torstenson War by invading Jutland, with the Dutch providing naval support. Hoping to regain Saxony, Ferdinand pulled together an Imperial army under Matthias Gallas to attack the Swedes from the rear, which proved a disastrous decision. Leaving Wrangel to finish the war in Denmark, in May 1644 Torstenson marched into the Empire; Gallas was unable to stop him, while the Danes sued for peace after their defeat at Fehmarn in October 1644.[88]

Ferdinand restarted peace talks in November, but his position continued to deteriorate; Gallas' army disintegrated and the remnants retreated into Bohemia, where they were scattered by Torstenson at Jankau in March 1645.[89] In May, a Bavarian force under von Mercy destroyed a French detachment at Herbsthausen, before he was defeated and killed at Second Nördlingen in August.[90] With Ferdinand unable to help, John George of Saxony signed a six-month truce with Sweden in September, followed by the March 1646 Treaty of Eulenberg in which he agreed to remain neutral until the end of the war.[91]

This allowed the Swedes, now led by Wrangel, to put pressure on the peace talks by devastating first Westphalia, then Bavaria; by the autumn of 1646, Maximilian was desperate to end the war he was largely responsible for starting. At this point, Olivares publicised secret discussions initiated by Mazarin in early 1646, in which he offered to exchange Catalonia for the Spanish Netherlands; angered by what they viewed as betrayal and concerned by French ambitions in Flanders, the Dutch agreed a truce with Spain in January 1647.[92] Seeking to release French troops and prevent further Swedish gains by neutralising Bavaria, Mazarin negotiated the Truce of Ulm, signed on 14 March 1647 by Bavaria, Cologne, France, and Sweden.[93]

The final battle of the war; Swedish siege of Prague

Turenne, French commander in the Rhineland, was ordered to attack the Spanish Netherlands but the plan fell apart when his mostly German troops mutinied, while the new Bavarian commander, Johann von Werth, declared his loyalty to the Emperor and refused to comply with the truce.[94] This forced Maximilian to do the same in September; he replaced Werth with von Bronckhorst-Gronsfeld, who linked up with an Imperial army under von Holzappel. Outnumbered by a Franco-Swedish army under Wrangel and Turenne, von Holzappel was defeated and killed at Zusmarshausen in May 1648; although Montecuccoli extracted most of his troops, all the baggage and artillery was captured, ending any offensive capability.[95]

While Turenne and Wrangel devastated Bavaria, a second Swedish force attacked Prague, seizing the castle and Malá Strana district in July. The main objective was to gain as much loot as possible before the war ended; they failed to take the Old Town but captured the Imperial library, along with treasures including the Codex Gigas, now in Stockholm. On 5 November, news arrived that Ferdinand had signed peace treaties with France and Sweden on 24 October, ending the war.[96]

Holy Roman Empire after the Peace of Westphalia, 1648

Preliminary discussions began in 1642 but only became serious in 1646; a total of 109 delegations attended at one time or other, with talks split between Münster and Osnabrück. The Swedes rejected a proposal that Christian of Denmark act as mediator, with Papal Legate Fabio Chigi and the Venetian Republic appointed instead. The Peace of Westphalia consisted of three separate agreements; the Peace of Münster between Spain and the Dutch Republic, the treaty of Osnabrück between the Empire and Sweden, plus the treaty of Münster between the Empire and France.[105]

The Peace of Münster was the first to be signed on 30 January 1648; it was part of the Westphalia settlement because the Dutch Republic was still technically part of the Spanish Netherlands and thus Imperial territory. The treaty confirmed Dutch independence, although the Imperial Diet did not formally accept that it was no longer part of the Empire until 1728.[106] The Dutch were also given a monopoly over trade conducted through the Scheldt estuary, confirming the commercial ascendancy of Amsterdam; Antwerp, capital of the Spanish Netherlands and previously the most important port in Northern Europe, would not recover until the late 19th century.[107]

Negotiations with France and Sweden were conducted in conjunction with the Imperial Diet, and were multi-sided discussions involving many of the German states. This resulted in the treaties of Münster and Osnabrück, making peace with France and Sweden respectively. Ferdinand resisted signing until the last possible moment, doing so on 24 October only after a crushing French victory over Spain at Lens, and with Swedish troops on the verge of taking Prague.[108]

Taken as a whole, the consequences of these two treaties can be divided into the internal political settlement and external territorial changes. Ferdinand accepted the supremacy of the Imperial Diet and legal institutions, reconfirmed the Augsburg settlement, and recognised Calvinism as a third religion. In addition, Christians residing in states where they were a minority, such as Catholics living under a Lutheran ruler, were guaranteed freedom of worship and equality before the law. Brandenburg-Prussia received Farther Pomerania, and the bishoprics of Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Kammin, and Minden. Frederick's son Charles Louis regained the Lower Palatinate and became the eighth Imperial elector, although Bavaria kept the Upper Palatinate and its electoral vote.[106]

Frederick's son Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine, restored by Westphalia

Externally, the treaties formally acknowledged the independence of the Dutch Republic and the Swiss Confederacy, effectively autonomous since 1499. In Lorraine, the Three Bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun, occupied by France since 1552, were formally ceded, as were the cities of the Décapole in Alsace, with the exception of Strasbourg and Mulhouse.[91] Sweden received an indemnity of five million thalers, the Imperial territories of Swedish Pomerania, and Prince-bishoprics of Bremen and Verden; this gave them a seat in the Imperial Diet.[109]

The Peace was later denounced by Pope Innocent X, who regarded the bishoprics ceded to France and Brandenburg as property of the Catholic church, and thus his to assign.[110] It also disappointed many exiles by accepting Catholicism as the dominant religion in Bohemia, Upper and Lower Austria, all of which were Protestant strongholds prior to 1618. Fighting did not end immediately, since demobilising over 200,000 soldiers was a complex business, and the last Swedish garrison did not leave Germany until 1654.[111]

The settlement failed to achieve its stated intention of achieving a 'universal peace'. Mazarin insisted on excluding the Burgundian Circle from the treaty of Münster, allowing France to continue its campaign against Spain in the Low Countries, a war that continued until the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees. The political disintegration of the Polish commonwealth led to the 1655 to 1660 Second Northern War with Sweden, which also involved Denmark, Russia and Brandenburg, while two Swedish attempts to impose its control on the port of Bremen failed in 1654 and 1666.[112]

It has been argued the Peace established the principle known as Westphalian sovereignty, the idea of non-interference in domestic affairs by outside powers, although this has since been challenged. The process, or 'Congress' model, was adopted for negotiations at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1668, Nijmegen in 1678, and Ryswick in 1697; unlike the 19th century 'Congress' system, these were to end wars, rather than prevent them, so references to the 'balance of power' can be misleading.[113]

Historians often refer to the 'General Crisis' of the mid-17th century, a period of sustained conflict in states such as China, the British Isles, Tsarist Russia and the Holy Roman Empire. In all these areas, war, famine and disease inflicted severe losses on local populations.[114] While the Thirty Years War ranks as one of the worst of these events, precise numbers are disputed; 19th century nationalists often increased them to illustrate the dangers of a divided Germany.[115]

Reduction in population of Holy Roman Empire compared to pre-war.

  33–66%

  > 66%

By modern standards, the number of soldiers involved was relatively low; most battles were fought between opposing forces of around 13,000 to 20,000, the largest being Alte Veste in 1632, which featured a combined total of 70,000 - 85,000.[116] However, the conflict has been described as one of the greatest medical catastrophes in history.[117] Well into the 19th century, far more soldiers died of disease than in battle; of an estimated 600,000 military casualties between 1618 and 1648, only 200,000 resulted from combat. Based on analysis of contemporary reports, less than 3% of civilian deaths derived from military action; the major causes were starvation (12%), bubonic plague (64%), typhus (4%), and dysentery (5%).[118]

Parish records show regular outbreaks of these diseases were common for decades prior to 1618, but the conflict greatly accelerated their spread. This was due to the influx of soldiers from foreign countries, the shifting locations of battle fronts, as well as the displacement of rural populations and migration into already crowded cities.[119] Poor harvests throughout the 1630s and repeated plundering of the same areas led to widespread famine; contemporaries record people eating grass, or too weak to accept alms, while instances of cannibalism were common.[120]

The modern consensus is the population of the Holy Roman Empire declined from 18-20 million in 1600 to 11–13 million in 1650, and did not recover to pre-war levels until 1750.[121] Nearly 50% of these losses appear to have been incurred during the first period of Swedish intervention from 1630 to 1635. The high mortality rate compared to the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in Britain may partly be due to the reliance of all sides on foreign mercenaries, often unpaid and required to live off the land. Lack of a sense of 'shared community' resulted in atrocities such as the destruction of Magdeburg, while creating large numbers of refugees, who were extremely susceptible to sickness and hunger. While flight may have saved lives in the short-term, in the long run it often proved catastrophic.[122]

In 1940, agrarian historian Günther Franz published Der Dreissigjährige Krieg und das Deutsche Volk, a detailed analysis of regional data from across Germany; membership of the Nazi Party meant his objectivity was challenged post-1945, but recent reviews support his general findings. He concluded "about 40% of the rural population fell victim to the war and epidemics; in the cities,...33%". There were wide regional variations; in the Duchy of Württemberg, the number of inhabitants fell by nearly 60%.[17] These figures can be misleading, since Franz calculated the absolute decline in pre and post-war populations, or 'total demographic loss'. It includes factors unrelated to death or disease, such as permanent migration to areas outside the Empire, or lower birthrates, a less obvious impact of extended warfare.[123]

Although it has been suggested some towns over-stated their losses to avoid taxes, individual records confirm serious declines; from 1620 to 1650, the population of Munich fell from 22,000 to 17,000, that of Augsburg from 48,000 to 21,000.[124] The financial impact is less clear; while the war caused short-term economic dislocation, overall it accelerated existing changes in trading patterns. It does not appear to have reversed ongoing macro-economic trends, such as the reduction of price differentials between regional markets, and a greater degree of market integration across Europe.[125] The death toll may have improved living standards for the survivors; one study shows wages in Germany increased by 40% in real terms between 1603 and 1652.[126]

The breakdown of social order caused by the war was often more significant and longer lasting than the immediate damage.[127] The collapse of local government created landless peasants, who banded together to protect themselves from the soldiers of both sides, and led to widespread rebellions in Upper Austria, Bavaria and Brandenburg. Soldiers devastated one area before moving on, leaving large tracts of land empty of people and changing the eco-system. Food shortages were worsened by an explosion in the rodent population; Bavaria was over-run by wolves in the winter of 1638, its crops destroyed by packs of wild pigs the following spring.[128]

A peasant begs for mercy in front of his burning farm; by the 1630s, being caught in the open by soldiers from either side was 'tantamount to a death sentence' [119]

Contemporaries spoke of a 'frenzy of despair' as people sought to make sense of the turmoil and hardship unleashed by the war. Their attribution by some to supernatural causes led to a series of Witch-hunts, beginning in Franconia in 1626 and quickly spreading to other parts of Germany, which were often exploited for political purposes.[129] They originated in the Bishopric of Würzburg, an area with a history of such events going back to 1616 and now re-ignited by Bishop von Ehrenberg, a devout Catholic eager to assert the church's authority in his territories. By the time he died in 1631, over 900 people from all levels of society had been executed.[130]

At the same time, Prince-Bishop Johann von Dornheim held a similar series of large-scale witch trials in the nearby Bishopric of Bamberg. A specially designed Malefizhaus, or 'crime house', was erected containing a torture chamber, whose walls were adorned with Bible verses, where the accused were interrogated. These trials lasted five years and claimed over one thousand lives, including long-time Bürgermeister, or Mayor, Johannes Junius, and Dorothea Flock, second wife of Georg Heinrich Flock, whose first wife had also been executed for witchcraft in May 1628. During 1629, another 274 suspected witches were killed in the Bishopric of Eichstätt, plus another 50 in the adjacent Duchy of Palatinate-Neuburg.[131]

Elsewhere, persecution followed Imperial military success, expanding into Baden and the Palatinate following their reconquest by Tilly, then into the Rhineland.[132] Mainz and Trier also witnessed the mass killing of suspected witches, as did Cologne, where Ferdinand of Bavaria presided over a particularly infamous series of witchcraft trials, including that of Katharina Henot, who was executed in 1627.[133] In 2012, she and other victims were officially exonerated by the Cologne City Council.[134]

The extent to which these witch-hunts were symptomatic of the impact of the conflict on society is debatable, since many took place in areas relatively untouched by the war. Ferdinand and his advisors were concerned the brutality of the Würzburg and Bamberg trials would discredit the Counter-Reformation, and active persecution largely ended by 1630.[135] A scathing condemnation of the trials, Cautio Criminalis, was written by professor and poet Friedrich Spee, himself a Jesuit and former "witch confessor". This influential work was later credited with ending the practice in Germany, and eventually throughout Europe.[136]

Europe after the Peace of Westphalia, 1648

The Peace reconfirmed "German liberties", ending Habsburg attempts to convert the Holy Roman Empire into an absolutist state similar to Spain. This allowed Bavaria, Brandenburg-Prussia, Saxony and others to pursue their own policies, while Sweden gained a permanent foothold in the Empire. Despite these setbacks, the Habsburg lands suffered less from the war than many others and became a far more coherent bloc with the absorption of Bohemia, and restoration of Catholicism throughout their territories.[137]

By laying the foundations of the modern nation state, Westphalia changed the relationship of subjects and their rulers. Previously, many had overlapping, sometimes conflicting political and religious allegiances; they were now understood to be subject first and foremost to the laws and edicts of their respective state authority, not to the claims of any other entity, be it religious or secular. This made it easier to levy national armies of significant size, loyal to their state and its leader; one lesson learned from Wallenstein and the Swedish invasion was the need for their own permanent armies, and Germany as a whole became a far more militarised society.[138]

The benefits of Westphalia for the Swedes proved short-lived. Unlike French gains which were incorporated into France, Swedish territories remained part of the Empire, and they became members of the Lower and Upper Saxon kreis. While this gave them seats in the Imperial Diet, it also brought them conflict with both Brandenburg-Prussia and Saxony, who were competitors in Pomerania. The income from their imperial possessions remained in Germany and did not benefit the kingdom of Sweden; although they retained Swedish Pomerania until 1815, much of it was ceded to Prussia in 1679 and 1720.[139]

Swedish acquisition of Western Pomerania (in blue) was confirmed in 1653

Arguably, France gained more from the Thirty Years' War than any other power; by 1648, most of Richelieu's objectives had been achieved. They included separation of the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs, expansion of the French frontier into the Empire, and an end to Spanish military supremacy in Northern Europe.[140] Although the Franco-Spanish conflict continued until 1659 and Spain remained a global force for another two centuries, Westphalia allowed Louis XIV of France to complete the process of replacing her as the predominant European power.[141]

Although religion remained an issue throughout the 17th century, it was the last major war in Continental Europe in which it featured as the primary driver; later conflicts were either internal, such as the Camisards revolt in South-Western France, or relatively minor like the 1712 Toggenburg War.[142] The war created the outlines of a Europe that persisted until 1815 and beyond; the nation-state of France, the beginnings of a unified Germany and separate Austro-Hungarian bloc, a diminished but still significant Spain, independent smaller states like Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, along with a Low Countries split between the Dutch Republic and what became Belgium in 1830.[139]

• 
  War Scene
  by Sebastian Vrancx
• 
  Battle of Sablat,
  10 June 1619
• 
  Bautzen is besieged by Saxon troops, 1620 by Matthäus Merian
• 
  Battle of Wimpfen,
  6 May 1622
• 
  Battle of Fleurus,
  29 August 1622
• 
  Battle of Stadtlohn,
  6 August 1623
• 
  Siege of Stralsund,
  May to 4 August 1628
• 
  A cavalry battle
  between 1626 and 1628
• 
  Sack of Magdeburg,
  1631[note 1]
• 
  Battle of Frankfurt an der Oder,
  April 1631
• 
  Death of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden at the Battle of Lützen,
  6 November 1632
• 
  The capture of Rheinfelden by the troops of the Duke of Feria,
  1633

• Helfferich, Tryntje, ed. The Thirty Years' War: A Documentary History, (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2009). 352 pages. 38 key documents including diplomatic correspondence, letters, broadsheets, treaties, poems, and trial records. excerpt and text search
• Sir Thomas Kellie, Pallas Armata or Military Instructions for the Learned, The First Part (Edinburgh, 1627).
• Monro, R. His Expedition with a worthy Scots Regiment called Mac-Keyes, (2 vols., London, 1637) www.exclassics.com/monro/monroint.htm.
• Dr Bernd Warlich has edited four diaries of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). These diaries can be viewed (in German) at: http://www.mdsz.thulb.uni-jena.de/sz/index.php
• Wilson, Peter H. ed. The Thirty Years' War: A Sourcebook (2010); includes state documents, treaties, correspondence, diaries, financial records, artwork; 240pp

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thirty Years War.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Thirty Years War.

• The Thirty Years' War – Czech republic
• The Thirty Years' War LearningSite
• Thirty Years' War Timeline
• Project "Peace of Westphalia" (among others with Essay Volumes of the 26th Exhibition of the Council of Europe "1648: War and Peace in Europe", 1998/99)
• History of the Thirty Years' War by Friedrich von Schiller at Project Gutenberg
• BBC Radio4 documentary – The Invention of Germany: The Thirty Years' War and Magdeburg
• – Sovereignty, International Relations, and the Westphalian Myth
• "The Thirty Years' War – how was peace achieved? (history documentary)". Deutsche Welle Documentary. 1 November 2018. (Part 2)
• "The 30 Years' War (1618–48) and the Second Defenestration of Prague – Professor Peter Wilson". Gresham College. 24 May 2018.