Religious Wars in Europe in the 1500s and 1600s Concluding With the Thirty Years War (Essay Sample)

Religious Wars in Europe in the 1500s and 1600s Concluding With the Thirty Years War
Introduction
Religious wars were largely caused by high levels of intolerance within and among states in which different religions competed for adherents. In Europe, the Christian church had been a near universal church for about 1000 years, but this was changed by the reformation of the early 1500s. By the mid 1500s, 3 major factors were converging to push the continent in to a century of brutal religious wars.
Religious wars between 1500- 1600
During the late 1500 and early 1600s, there was a strong belief that states had to be homogenous so as to attain stability. Some of the monarchs as well as politicians had little concern over what a given religion practiced so long as there was only one. However, there were still devout religious kings who still believed that hell fire and damnation was awaiting those who did not adhere to the true religion.
These two beliefs went hand in hand, creating a struggle for the conscience of the people within many states in the continent. Physical coercion was by this time being often used as a means of persuasion. This was followed by occasional civil wars and later a European- wide war resulted.
The wars of Philip II
King Philip ii (1556- 1598) was a devout catholic and king of Spain. Some of the territories under his control included Netherlands, burgundy and southern Italy. Earlier in his reign, he dealt with Calvinists in the northern areas of Netherlands, who wished to be independent since they felt that they were being taxed heavily. The Dutch gained their independence in 1609 (spaans, 1999).
During these struggles, Philip got in to a conflict with England. Mary of England had been his wife, and during her reign, they had attempted to reverse the English reformation and thus brought England back to catholic fold (greengrass, 1999).
Following the death of Mary, Elizabeth became the queen leading Protestants back to power. In 1588, Philip launched a large number of ships that would invade England. However, the English learned of the invasion and fought an 8 day running battle with the Spaniards. The maneuverability and weapons range of the English made them superior. A storm also blew in causing the remaining Spaniards to sail by England, around Scotland and Ireland back to their region. This was the last time England would be threatened by a direct attack from Spain.
Wars in France
A civil war between Huguenots (Calvinists) led by bourbons and catholic majority population led by the guise family in France, and would turn out to be a complicated messy war.
An undercurrent of secular strife had risen between the two parties since Calvinism started seeping over the boarder from Switzerland. A majority of the nobles went on to become Protestants. Whereas for some it was a vital religious conversion, for some it was it was a means through which they could subvert the king's power. During this time, Catherine de Medisi was queen mother, and had ben the power behind the throne of three successive sons. In 1562, things came to a head and following eight year of fighting, a truce came in to effect in 1570.
However, Catherine still had desires to deal a blow to the Huguenots, and thus engineered the St. Bartholomew’s day massacre in 1572. This resulted in the death of several thousands of Protestants across France.
This raised an outrage from several quarters, and when henry of Navarre (a king of a separate country in north of Spain) became head of the protestants, he marched in to France. This began the war of the three henrys (henry, the duke of guise leading the catholic faction, the French king henry iii, who was the third son of Catherine de Medici leading a moderate faction, and henry of Navarre)
Henry of guise was assassinated by the king's men while the king was assassinated by the duke's men. This opened the way for henry on Navarre to become king henry IV of France between 1553 and 1610. As the king, he ended the civil strife in France, thus proving to be a unifying force.
The thirty years war
In 1555, the peace of Augsburg had determined that people of each state of the Holy Roman Empire would follow the religion of the ruler and the state (Lutheran or catholic). For a short time, this brought peace among the various religious factions in Germany. However, Calvinist noblemen were afraid that they would be persecuted when Ferdinand of Styria was made king of bohemia in 1617. They decided to rebel, and to being the whole country with them, some of the nobles entered the palace throwing two f the kings’ official out of the window (defenestration of Prague). This was a phrase used to mean swift removal from office (Wilson, 2009).
It was as a result of this demonstration that a thirty year war was provoked.
Bohemia nobles declared Ferdinand deposed and elected Frederick as the new king, a war between bohemia and the holy roman emperor, a position that Ferdinand had been promoted to ensued, and by 1620, the rebellion in bohemia was crushed.
In 1625, the Lutheran king of Denmark decided to aid Protestants in Germany. This led to conflicts. However, the catholic gained victoria and an army of Christian IV was destroyed. Christian backed out of the internal struggles of the empire and got Holstein as his reward (chaff, 1525).
These fighting served to consolidate power of the Hapsburg family in the Holy Roman Empire, which had long been a very loose conglomeration of states, nearby nation states stated to consider unification a problem.
Under Cardinal Richelieu, France, a catholic state supported Protestants. Gustavo’s Adolphus, a Swedish king decided to directly intervene. Being a superb general, Gustavo’s made many tactical military innovations that made his army more maneuverable. Although he won a number of battles that threw Hapsburgs on the defensive, he died at the Battle of Lutzen allowing the Hapsburg to gain the upper hand. A treaty was signed in 1635, and was favorable to the holy roman emperor (Wilson, 2010).
When France entered in to the struggle, they tipped the balance in favor of the rebellious protestant princes. Princes, kings and emperors did not have enough money to pay their troops, and thus the troops continued pillaging the regions being invaded to get money and supplies, a majority of the kings were afraid to make peace since they did not want these armies to return to their own territories. For this reason, the war, in a desultory fashion cont...