Thirty Years War Religion

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The debate about whether the Thirty Years’ War was a religious or political war is a very old one indeed. Many historians have taken a crack at identifying the essential causes of the war, but the jury is still out on the matter. Therefore, this assignment aims at identifying whether religion was truly the main push factor, or of its counterpart - politics - was the real star of the show.

Protestants and Catholics had been at each other’s throats for quite a while before the break of the Thirty Years’ War. The Peace of Augsburg (1555) sought to end religious wars in central Europe, and so it for fifty (albeit uneasy) years. The Peace of Augsburg established the principle ‘cuius regio, eius religio’ which roughly translated to whoever rules …show more content…
To his dismay however, his idea of religious purity would never fully come to fruition due to Protestant rebellions brought about when Rudolph’s army attacked the Turks in the Balkans. In 1609, Rudolph was forced to sign a ‘Letter of Majesty’ which granted religious liberty and toleration to Bohemians. His brother Matthias took the throne in 1612 and was then succeeded by Archduke Ferdinand in 1619, taking up the name Ferdinand II. Ferdinand was a devout and pious Catholic whose confessor convinced him that the only way Ferdinand could save his soul was to launch a war of religions. As a result, in 1618, the future Emperor, Ferdinand, began curtailing some religious privileges previously enjoyed by his subjects which led to both Bohemian and Austrian peasants starting a …show more content…
This started with the Swedish phase (1630-1635) which saw the entry of Protestant Sweden into the war, not for religious matters but more for the possibility of extending its territories to the south of the Baltic. Sweden’s king, Gustavus Adolphus, is considered to be the father of modern warfare due to his use of mobile artillery, which aided him greatly in winning many battles over the Catholics. During this period we also see Catholic France funding Sweden’s fighting. This falls in line with the principles of ‘Politique’, where politics comes before religion, and ‘Balance of Power’. The Holy Roman Empire was a very powerful and influential power in Europe and to add to that, France was surrounded by Hapsburg rule so with the Thirty Years’ War, France found the perfect opportunity to limit Hapsburg power. The turning point in this phase came with the death of Adolphus which lead to a decline in Sweden’s active leadership leading to the forth and final period. The French phase (1635-1648) was the longest and bloodiest period from the Thirty Years’ War. Cardinal Richelieu advised the French King to enter the war more fully in the hopes of accumulating gains at the cost of the Hapsburgs. Here we see another instance of non-religious motivation to enter war; his ambition was for the French monarchy to reign supreme. Thus, during this period, we see the Swedish taking the
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