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. Peter Wilson offers the first new history in a generation of a horrifying conflict that transformed the map of the modern world.
When defiant Bohemians tossed the Habsburg emperor’s envoys from the castle windows in Prague in 1618, the Holy Roman Empire struck back with a vengeance. Bohemia was ravaged by mercenary troops in the first battle of a conflagration that would engulf Europe from Spain to Sweden. The sweeping narrative encompasses dramatic events and unforgettable individuals—the sack of Magdeburg; the Dutch revolt; the Swedish militant king Gustavus Adolphus; the imperial generals, opportunistic Wallenstein and pious Tilly; and crafty diplomat Cardinal Richelieu. 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.
By war’s end a recognizably modern Europe had been created, but at what price? The Thirty Years War condemned the Germans to two centuries of internal division and international impotence and became a benchmark of brutality for centuries. As late as the 1960s, Germans placed it ahead of both world wars and the Black Death as their country’s greatest disaster.
An understanding of the Thirty Years War is essential to comprehending modern European history. Wilson’s masterful book will stand as the definitive account of this epic conflict.
For a map of Central Europe in 1618, referenced on page XVI, please visit this book’s page on the Harvard University Press website.
Peter H. Wilson is the author of Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire, an Economist and Sunday Times Best Book, and The Thirty Years War: Europe’s Tragedy, winner of the Distinguished Book Award from the Society of Military History. He has appeared on BBC Radio and has written for Prospect, the Los Angeles Times, and the Financial Times. President of the Society for the History of War and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Wilson is Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford. His work has been translated into Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, and Spanish.
Table of Contents
Cover Title Page Copyright Contents List of Illustrations List of Maps and Battle Plans List of Tables Note on Form The Habsburg Family Tree 1500–1665 Map of Central Europe, 1618 Note on Currencies Preface Part 1. Beginnings Three Men and a Window Interpretations The Argument The Empire Confessionalization Religion and Imperial Law Lands and Dynasty Estates and Confession The Catholic Revival The Turkish Menace The Ways of War The Long Turkish War The Brothers’ Quarrel The Spanish Monarchy The Dutch Revolt 1568–1609 The Spanish Road Spanish Peace-making Denmark The Divided House of Vasa Poland-Lithuania Religion and the German Princes Confession and Imperial Politics to 1608 Union and Liga 1608–9 The Ju¨ lich-Cleves Crisis 1609–10 Emperor Matthias The Uskok War and the Habsburg Succession 1615–17 Palatine Brinkmanship Part 2. Conflict For Liberty and Privilege A King for a Crown Ferdinand Gathers his Forces White Mountain Accounting for Failure The Palatine Cause Protestant Paladins The Catholic Ascendancy 1621–9 Olivares Richelieu The Valtellina Trouble in Lower Saxony Wallenstein Denmark’s Defeat 1626–9 Chapter 13. The Threat of European War 1628–30 The Baltic The Netherlands Mantua and La Rochelle The Edict of Restitution The Regensburg Electoral Congress 1630 Swedish Intervention Between the Lion and the Eagle The Swedish Empire Calls for Assistance Zenith The Heilbronn League Tension along the Rhine Spain Intervenes Wallenstein: the Final Act The Two Ferdinands Richelieu Resolves on War The War in the West 1635–6 The Peace of Prague 1635 Appeals to Patriotism Renewed Efforts for Peace Stalemate Resolution on the Rhine Peace for North Germany? The Franco-Swedish Alliance 1641 The War in the Empire 1642–3 Spain’s Growing Crisis 1635–43 From Breda to Rocroi 1637–43 The Westphalian Congress France in Germany 1644 The Baltic Becomes Swedish 1643–5 1645: Annus horribilis et mirabilis A Crisis of Confidence 1646 Towards Consensus Spain’s Peace with the Dutch The Final Round 1648 Part 3. Aftermath The International Dimension A Christian Peace Demobilization The Imperial Recovery An All-destructive Fury? The Demographic Impact The Economic Impact The Crisis of the Territorial State Cultural Impact The Nature of Experience Military–Civil Relations Perceptions Commemoration Abbreviations Notes Index Photos
