A deadly continental struggle, the Thirty Years War devastated seventeenth-century Europe, killing nearly a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to towns and countryside alike. In a major reassessment, Wilson argues that religion was not the catalyst, but one element in a lethal stew of political, social, and dynastic forces that fed the conflict--a conflict that ultimately transformed the map of the modern world.

The Thirty Years War

The Thirty Years War: A Documentary History fills a gap in recent studies of the great pan-European conflict, providing fresh translations of thirty-eight primary documents for the student and general reader. The selections are drawn from the standard political documents, from the Apology of the Bohemian Estates for the Defenestration of Prague to the text of the Treaty of Westphalia, as well as from imperial edicts, trial records, letters, diary entries, and satirical broadsheets, all directly translated from the Early New High German, French, Swedish, and Latin. The volume contains some ten illustrations and one map . . . and on the whole is well organized and well presented with a judicious amount of footnotes and a slim For Further Reading section. A succinct introduction introduces the four sections, each with its own substantial introduction: (1) Outbreak of the Thirty Years War (1618-1623), (2) The Intervention of Denmark and Sweden (1623-1635), and (3) The Long War (1635-1648). The concluding section (4) Two Wartime Lives (1618-1648), interestingly juxtaposes the journals of a wandering mercenary and a settled townsman. The first is the diary of Peter Hagendorf, kept between the years 1624 and 1649 and only rediscovered in 1993. Hagendorf experienced the war as a common mercenary from the Baltic to Italy, from France to Pomerania. His counterpart is Hans Heberle, a shoemaker from a small town in the territory of the free imperial city of Ulm whose Zeytregister chronicled happenings both in the neighborhood and further afield. The engrossing accounts of their shifting fortunes over the three decades of the war really help to give this collection of texts, and the troublesome period itself, a human face. They are the stuff from which Grimmelshausen would craft his great novel of the war, The Adventuresome Simplicissimus (1668). Tryntje Helfferich is to be applauded for this consistently interesting and eminently useful volume. --Martin W. Walsh, University of Michigan, in Sixteenth Century Journal

Europe in 1618 was riven between Protestants and Catholics, Bourbon and Hapsburg--as well as empires, kingdoms, and countless principalities. After angry Protestants tossed three representatives of the Holy Roman Empire out the window of the royal castle in Prague, world war spread from Bohemia with relentless abandon, drawing powers from Spain to Sweden into a nightmarish world of famine, disease, and seemingly unstoppable destruction.

The period 1618-1648 was one of the most complex in European history. Religion interacted with rebellion and dynastic rivalry in a series of conflicts in central Europe known collectively as the Thirty Years War. This book guides the reader through the period by surveying the narrative of events and establishing the essential chronological framework. In addition Stephen Lee looks at such key issues as the motives of the participants, their gains and losses, as well as at the religious, military, social and economic aspects of the War. Each section in the book incorporates the most recent research.

Most of the material appears in English for the first time, including a variety of previously unpublished archival sources, all reproduced in their full original length.

Winner of the Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award 2011 The horrific series of conflicts known as the Thirty Years War (1618-48) tore the heart out of Europe, killing perhaps a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to whole areas of Central Europe to such a degree that many towns and regions never recovered. All the major European powers apart from Russia were heavily involved and, while each country started out with rational war aims, the fighting rapidly spiralled out of control, with great battles giving way to marauding bands of starving soldiers spreading plague and murder. The war was both a religious and a political one and it was this tangle of motives that made it impossible to stop. Whether motivated by idealism or cynicism, everyone drawn into the conflict was destroyed by it. At its end a recognizably modern Europe had been created but at a terrible price. Peter Wilson's book is a major work, the first new history of the war in a generation, and a fascinating, brilliantly written attempt to explain a compelling series of events. Wilson's great strength is in allowing the reader to understand the tragedy of mixed motives that allowed rulers to gamble their countries' future with such horrifying results. The principal actors in the drama (Wallenstein, Ferdinand II, Gustavus Adolphus, Richelieu) are all here, but so is the experience of the ordinary soldiers and civilians, desperately trying to stay alive under impossible circumstances.

Europe's Tragedy

One of the most momentous and destructive wars in European history, the Thirty Years War has long been studied for its diplomatic, political, and military consequences. Yet the actual participants in this religiously motivated, seemingly endless conflict have largely been ignored. Hans Medick and Benjamin Marschke reveal the Thirty Years War from the perspective of those who lived it. Their introduction provides important insights into the roiling religious and political landscape from which the war emerged, as well as a thoughtful examination of the war's stages and enduring significance. An unprecedented collection of personal accounts, many of them translated for the first time into English, combine with visual sources to convey directly to students the experience of early modern warfare. Incisive document headnotes, maps and illustrations, a chronology, questions to consider, and a bibliography enrich students' understanding of this fateful war.

Experiencing the Thirty Years War

A comprehensive book on the French army of Louis XIII and Richelieu with ful accounts of battles of this period and order of battles. This book begins in 1617, the year that Louis XIII really took power by distancing the queen mother and ordering the assassination of Concini (24 April 1617), and ends in 1648 - five years after the death of Louis XIII - the year of the Westphalia Peace Treaty (24 October 1648). This period was mostly dominated by the personality and works of Richelieu, who entered the king's Council in April 1624. He gave the king an ambition: "to procure the ruin of the Huguenot party, humble the pride of the great, reduce all subjects to their duty, and elevate your majesty's name among foreign nations to its rightful reputation". By the time of his death, on the 4th of December 1642, this programme had been accomplished. The political beliefs of Richelieu gave Louis XIII a powerful instrument that was to emerge transformed from the Thirty Years' War. Commanded by great captains such as the Duc de Rohan, the Viscomte de Turenne and the Prince of Condé, the army was highly successful, as shown by the long list of French victories: Avins and the Valtelline in 1635, Tornavento in 1636, Leucates in 1637, La Rota in 1639, Casale and Turin in 1640, Wolfenbüttel in 1641, Kempen and Llerida in 1642, Rocroi in 1643, Friburg in 1644, Allerheim (or Nördlingen) and Lhorens in 1645, Zusmarchausen in 1647, and Lens in 1648.

French Armies of the Thirty Years' War

One of the most complete histories of this inter-Christian war, fought mainly in the heartland of present-day Germany, in which up to 40 percent of the population was killed. It explains how a religious conflict between Catholic and Protestant in Germany spiralled out of control into what became the most devastating European war of all time.

The Thirty Year's War

The Thirty Years War: Friedrich Schiller's classic history of the savage war of religion that devastated Germany and tore apart the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic Church during the years 1618 to 1648. It was the time of Gustavus Adolphus, the Hapsburg Emperor Ferdinand II, Cardinal Richelieu, Albrecht von Wallenstein, terrible battles, starvation, social collapse, and intolerable suffering.

The History of the Thirty Years' War

Women on campaign -- Peasant women and conscription -- Officers' wives on the home front -- Queen Christina and female military leadership -- Conclusion

Courage and Grief

A concise history of a cataclysmic European conflict in the 17th century The Thirty Years' War was fought between 1618-1648 and is widely recognised as being one of the most destructive wars ever fought. More people lost their lives in this conflict, as a percentage of the total population at the time, than in the conflicts of the twentieth century. Fought principally in central Europe-and mostly over terrain now in modern day Germany-the war involved more than fifteen nation states. Forces were divided broadly on religious grounds, between Protestants and their allies and the Catholics of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain but also with elements of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Self evidently this was a long, bloody conflict the causes of which were many and complex. Dynasties were born in its tumult, great men were brought to the fore and some, like Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, would perish before its conclusion. The campaigns and battles of the Thirty Years' War have inspired historians across the centuries to the present day to write about them and many highly regarded works concerning the war have been published. This concise book takes a different approach; it sets out to give an understanding of the events and personalities involved and is an ideal overview for both specialists and those new to the subject. Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.

The Thirty Years' War

The Bavarian Army has been overshadowed by those of Gustavus Adolphus' and Wallenstein's Armies, but it was one of only a few armies to have fought throughout the Thirty Years War, first as part of the Catholic League and then an independent army after the Peace of Prague. Among the generals of the Bavarian Army were Count Johan von Tilly and Gottfried von Pappenheim, who are two of the most famous generals of the war. This book covers not only the Bavarian Army's organisation, but also has chapters on recruitment, officers, clothing, weaponry, pay and rations of a soldier during the Thirty Years War. As well as life and death in the army, this book also looks at the women who accompanied it. The chapter on 'civilians and soldiers' looks at the impact of the war on the civilian population, their reaction to it and the infamous sack of Magdeburg which sent shockwaves across Europe. This chapter also looks at the impact on Bavaria by having Swedish, Spanish and Imperialist troops quartered upon it and how this affected the country's war effort. In addition there are chapters on regimental colours and a detailed look into the tactics of the time, including those of Spain, Sweden and the Dutch. As well as using archival and archaeological evidence to throw new light on the subject the author has used several memoirs written by those who served in the army during the war, including Peter Hagendorf who served in Pappenheim 's Regiment of Foot from 1627 until the regiment was disbanded after the war. Hagendorf's vivid account is unique because not only is it a full account of the life of a common soldier during the war, but also records the human side of campaign, including the death of his two wives and all but two of his children. This book is essential reading to anyone interested in the wars of the early seventeenth century, not just the Thirty Years War.

The Bavarian Army During the Thirty Years War, 1618-1648

Historians have tried time and again to identify the central issues of the conflict which devastated Europe between 1618 and 1648. The Thirty Years War by Ronald G. Asch puts the religious and constitutional struggle in the Holy Roman Empire squarely back into the centre of events. However, other issues are not neglected. Thus the problems of war finance are shown to be an important key to the interaction between inter-state and domestic conflicts during the war. Equally, confessional tensions are analysed as a decisive factor linking international and domestic disputes, and the reader is provided with a succinct narrative account concentrating on the major turning points of the war.

This thoroughly revised new edition of Geoffrey Parker's classic text incorporates the latest research about this central episode of early modern history. `Judicious, lively, enlightening.' - Times Literary Supplement

The nineteenth century witnessed the birth of German nationalism and the unification of Germany as a powerful nation-state. In this era the reading public?s obsession with the most destructive and divisive war in its history?the Thirty Years? War?resurrected old animosities and sparked a violent, century-long debate over the origins and aftermath of the war. The core of this bitter argument was a clash between Protestant and Catholic historians over the cultural criteria determining authentic German identity and the territorial and political form of the future German nation. ø This groundbreaking study of modern Germany?s morbid fascination with the war explores the ideological uses of history writing, commemoration, and collective remembrance to show how the passionate argument over the ?meaning? of the Thirty Years? War shaped Germans' conception of their nation. The first book in the extensive literature on German history writing to examine how modern German historians reinterpreted a specific event to define national identity and legitimate political and ideological agendas, The Thirty Years? War and German Memory in the Nineteenth Century is a bold intellectual history of the confluence of history writing, religion, culture, and politics in nineteenth-century Germany.

The Thirty Years' War and German Memory in the Nineteenth Century

The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) remains a puzzling and complex subject for students and scholars alike. This is hardly surprising since it is often contested among historians whether it is actually appropriate to speak of a single war or a series of conflicts. Similarly emphasis is also put on the different motives for going to war, as conflicting religious and political interests were involved. This research companion brings together leading scholars in the field to synthesize the range of existing research on the war, which is still fragmented and divided along national historical lines, and to further explore the complexities of the conflict using an innovative comparative approach. The companion is designed to provide scholars and graduate students with a comprehensive and authoritative overview of research on one of the most destructive conflicts in European history.

The Ashgate Research Companion to the Thirty Years' War

Excerpt from The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648 I have only to add that the dates are according to the New Style. Ten days must be deducted to bring. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648 (Classic Reprint)

Historians have tried time and again to identify the central issues of the conflict which devastated Europe between 1618 and 1648. The Thirty Years War by Ronald G. Asch puts the religious and constitutional struggle in the Holy Roman Empire squarely back into the centre of events. However, other issues are not neglected. Thus the problems of war finance are shown to be an important key to the interaction between inter-state and domestic conflicts during the war. Equally confessional tensions are analysed as a decisive factor linking international and domestic disputes, and the reader is provided with a succinct narrative account concentrating on the major turning points of the war.

This title highlights and explains the most important aspects of this complex conflict. It concentrates on the origins of the war, how it unfolded through its various episodes, why it lasted so long, how it came to end and what its consequences were. In addition, there is a full chapter dealing with the nature of the war, which looks at its effects on religion, military conduct, the economy and society.

The Thirty Years' War was a series of wars in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648. It was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, resulting in millions of casualties. Initially a war between various Protestant and Catholic states in the fragmented Holy Roman Empire, it gradually developed into a more general conflict involving most of the great powers. These states employed relatively large mercenary armies, and the war became less about religion and more of a continuation of the France-Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence. In the 17th century, religious beliefs and practices were a much larger influence on an average European than they are today. In the era, almost everyone was vested on one side of the dispute or another. The war began when the newly elected Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II, tried to impose religious uniformity on his domains, forcing Roman Catholicism on its peoples. The northern Protestant states, angered by the violation of their rights to choose granted in the Peace of Augsburg, banded together to form the Protestant Union. Ferdinand II was a devout Roman Catholic and relatively intolerant when compared to his predecessor, Rudolf II. His policies were considered heavily pro-Catholic. These events caused widespread fears throughout northern and central Europe, and triggered the Protestant Bohemians living in the dominion of Habsburg Austria to revolt against their nominal ruler, Ferdinand II. They ousted the Habsburgs and instead elected Frederick V, Elector of Palatinate as their monarch. Frederick took the offer without the support of the union. The southern states, mainly Roman Catholic, were angered by this. Led by Bavaria, these states formed the Catholic League to expel Frederick in support of the Emperor. The Empire soon crushed this perceived rebellion in the Battle of White Mountain, but reactions of the Protestant world condemned the Emperor's action.... George Alfred Henty (8 December 1832 - 16 November 1902) was a prolific English novelist and war correspondent.He is best known for his historical adventure stories that were popular in the late 19th century. His works include The Dragon & The Raven (1886), For The Temple (1888), Under Drake's Flag (1883) and In Freedom's Cause (1885).Biography--G.A.Henty was born in Trumpington, near Cambridge. He was a sickly child who had to spend long periods in bed. During his frequent illnesses he became an avid reader and developed a wide range of interests which he carried into adulthood. He attended Westminster School, London, and later Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was a keen sportsman. He left the university early without completing his degree to volunteer for the Army Hospital Commissariat when the Crimean War began. He was sent to the Crimea and while there he witnessed the appalling conditions under which the British soldier had to fight. His letters home were filled with vivid descriptions of what he saw. His father was impressed by his letters and sent them to The Morning Advertiser newspaper which printed them. This initial writing success was a factor in Henty's later decision to accept the offer to become a special correspondent, the early name for journalists now better known as war correspondents. Shortly before resigning from the army as a captain in 1859 he married Elizabeth Finucane. The couple had four children. Elizabeth died in 1865 after a long illness and shortly after her death Henty began writing articles for the Standard newspaper. ....

Won by the Sword; a Tale of the Thirty Years' War. By:G. A. Henty (illustrated)

'War,' wrote Cardinal Richelieu, 'is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men'. Yet the prelate's mournful observation scarcely begins to encapsulate the full complexity and unspeakable horror of the greatest man-made calamity to befall Europe before the twentieth century. Claiming far more lives proportionately than either the First or Second World Wars, it was a contest involving all the major powers of Europe, in which vast mercenary armies extracted an incalculable toll upon helpless civilian populations as their commanders and the men who equipped them frequently grew rich on the profits. Swedish troops alone are said to have destroyed some 2,000 German castles, 18,000 villages and 1,500 towns, while other vast armies in the pay of Spain, France, the Holy Roman Emperor and a host of pettier princelings brought death to as many as 8 million souls. Rarely has such a perplexing tale been more in need of a new account that is both compelling and informed, and no less comprehensible than comprehensive.

Europe in Flames

This book brings to light the extent to which the Thirty Years War was a religious war.

The Jesuits and the Thirty Years War

As the 400th anniversary of the outbreak of the Thirty Years War approaches, Geoff Mortimer provides a timely re-assessment of its origins. These lie mainly neither in religious tensions in Germany nor in the conflicts between Spain, France and the Dutch, but in the revolt in Bohemia and the famous defenestration of Prague.

The Origins of the Thirty Years War and the Revolt in Bohemia, 1618

The Thirty Years War – Complete is a war historiography by Friedrich Schiller. It chronicles the European political struggles that led to- and describes these multinational wars that were later called the thirty years war.

The Thirty Years War — Complete

The little-known story of the Swedish king and military commander who conquered much of Germany in the early seventeenth century. As one of the foremost military commanders of the early seventeenth century, Gustavus Adophus, king of Sweden, played a vital role in defending the Protestant cause during the Thirty Years War. In the space of two years—between 1630 and 1632—he turned the course of the war, winning a decisive victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld and conquering large parts of Germany. Yet remarkably little has been written about him in English, and no full account of his extraordinary career has been published in recent times. That is why this perceptive and scholarly study is of such value. The book sets Gustavus in the context of Swedish and European dynastic politics and religious conflict in the early seventeenth century, and describes in detail Swedish military organization and Gustavus’s reforms. His intervention in the Thirty Years War is covered in graphic detail—the decision to intervene, his alliance with France, his campaigns across the breadth of Germany, and his generalship at the two major battles he fought there. His exceptional skill as a battlefield commander transformed the fortunes of the Protestant side in the conflict, and he had established himself as a major European figure before his death on the battlefield. Lars Ericson Wolke, one of the leading experts on the military history of the Baltic and the Thirty Years War, offers a fascinating insight into Gustavus the man and the soldier.

Gustavus Adolphus, Sweden and the Thirty Years War, 1630–1632

The book describes and analyses the early modern Swedish army, with a particular emphasis on the reforms introduced by King Gustavus Adolphus before and during the Thirty Years War. Furthermore, the book expands our understanding of the Swedish army during the Thirty Years War by also focusing on its operations on the eastern front, against Russian and Polish opponents, and not only on the better-known operations in Germany against the Catholic League and the Holy Roman Empire. Sweden had a long history of conflict with neighbouring countries, and the reforms introduced by King Gustavus Adolphus had their origin in wars fought in the early seventeenth century, before or in the early phases of the Thirty Years War. The Kalmar war with Denmark, the Novgorod and Pskov campaigns in Russia, the conquest of Livonia, and the war with Poland played important roles in preparing the Swedish army for the wars on the continent from 1630 onwards. While some of the technical and tactical innovations attributed to the Swedish Army in the Thirty Years War are myths, others were real. Possibly of yet more enduring importance were the Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna's administrative reforms. A conscription system was established which consistently managed to raise troops, despite the small population of Sweden and its territories. A logistics system was introduced which could supply the armies, despite the vast geographical depth of operations. The intelligence service was developed into a comprehensive support establishment to military operations. It is fair to say that the Swedish army that entered the Thirty Years War and the organisation that enabled it formed the foundation for the subsequent Swedish rise to regional great power status. While the army of Gustavus Adolphus has been described elsewhere, the book includes current research that has not yet appeared in the English language. It also, unlike most previous works, explains how the Swedish experiences on the eastern front influenced Gustavus Adolphus and his views on how to build a modern army that could challenge the established great powers on the continent.

The Lion from the North

Albrecht Wallenstein was a legendary military commander and generalissimo of the Habsburg forces, yet was eventually assassinated on the orders of Emperor Ferdinand II. This accessible modern biography of Wallenstein for the English-speaking reader dispels the many historical myths surrounding this central character of the Thirty Years War.

Wallenstein

More than three and a half centuries have passed since the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War (1618-48); but this most devastating of wars in the early modern period continues to capture the imagination of readers: this book reveals why. It was one of the first wars where contemporaries stressed the importance of atrocities, the horrors of the fighting and also the sufferings of the civilian population. The Thirty Years' War remains a conflict of key importance in the history of the development of warfare and the 'military revolution'.

The Thirty Years' War 1618–1648

This history of the Catholic armies of the Hapsburg Empire that fought in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) explores the role of infantry and artillery during the last major religious war in mainland Europe. As the states of the Holy Roman Empire fractured along religious lines, all of Europe was plunged into a bloody conflict that lasted three decades, decimated populations, and annihilated communities. However, amidst this social, political, and religious catastrophe, important changes were experienced within the organization of armed forces. The war saw the end of the large mercenary forces and the beginnings of the well-disciplined national army. This book charts this progression, illustrating and explaining the forces of the key Catholic armies, while exploring the weapons, organization, tactics, and colorful uniforms used by the infantry and artillery.

Imperial Armies of the Thirty Years’ War (1)

Initially a religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Germany, the Thirty Years War raged across Europe between 1618 and 1648, devastating huge areas of Germany in particular. By 1632 the Protestant powers were in dire straits, until King Gustavus Adolphus II of Sweden came to their rescue.

Lützen, 1632

This history of the Catholic armies of the Habsburg Empire that fought in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) explores the role of cavalry during the last major religious war in mainland Europe, which saw the end of the large mercenary forces and the beginnings of the well-disciplined national army. This book charts this progression, illustrating and explaining the forces of the key Catholic armies, while exploring the organization, tactics, and colorful uniforms of the cavalry forces as they were expertly wielded by the great captains of the period including Tilly, Condé and Gustavus.

Imperial Armies of the Thirty Years’ War (2)

Italy 1636 uses the French and Savoyard invasion of Spanish Lombardy in 1636 to explore the operation of early modern armies through a neo-Darwinian lens, uncovering the universal features of human behaviour and psychology as they relate to violence and war.

Italy 1636

The Thirty Years War--the first great pan-European war, and until the twentieth century the most terrible--ravaged Germany, but myth, propaganda, and historical controversy have obscured its true nature. Another perspective is provided by the private diaries, memoirs, and chronicles of soldiers and citizens who recorded their own experiences. War at the individual level is discussed and described using these sources, which are extensively quoted in their own words.

Eyewitness Accounts of the Thirty Years War 1618-48

The Thirty Years' War, a devastating conflict that raged across Europe from 1618 to 1648, was a complex and multifaceted struggle primarily rooted in religious and political tensions. Sparked by religious divisions between Catholics and Protestants, it evolved into a protracted series of conflicts involving numerous European powers. The war had profound and long-lasting consequences, including significant demographic and economic upheaval, as well as the establishment of the modern Westphalian system of international relations through the Peace of Westphalia treaties, which redefined state sovereignty and contributed to shaping the geopolitical landscape of Europe for centuries to come. Understanding this war's intricate history is essential for comprehending the evolution of European politics, religion, and diplomacy during the early modern period.

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