European wars of religion

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Catholicism
.

The European wars of religion were a series of wars waged in

Westphalian sovereignty
.

The conflicts began with the minor Knights' Revolt (1522), followed by the larger German Peasants' War (1524–1525) in the Holy Roman Empire. Warfare intensified after the Catholic Church began the Counter-Reformation against the growth of Protestantism in 1545. The conflicts culminated in the Thirty Years' War, which devastated Germany and killed one third of its population, a mortality rate twice that of World War I.[2][4] The Peace of Westphalia broadly resolved the conflicts by recognising three separate Christian traditions in the Holy Roman Empire: Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism.[5][6] Smaller religious wars continued to be waged in Western Europe until the 1710s, including the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639–1651) in the British Isles, the Savoyard–Waldensian wars (1655–1690), and the Toggenburg War (1712) in the Western Alps.[2][7]

Definitions and discussions

The European wars of religion are also known as the Wars of the Reformation.

papacy
.

Although most of the wars ended with the

war of religion", and whether these wars can be considered "European" (i.e. international rather than domestic).[11]

The religious nature of the wars has also been debated, and contrasted with other factors at play, such as national, dynastic (e.g. they could often simultaneously be characterised as wars of succession), and financial interests.[3] Scholars have pointed out that some European wars of this period were not caused by disputes occasioned by the Reformation, such as the Italian Wars (1494–1559, only involving Catholics),[note 1] as well as the Northern Seven Years' War (1563–1570, only involving Lutherans).[1] Others emphasise the fact that cross-religious alliances existed, such as the Lutheran duke Maurice of Saxony assisting the Catholic emperor Charles V in the first Schmalkaldic War in 1547 in order to become the Saxon elector instead of John Frederick, his Lutheran cousin, while the Catholic king Henry II of France supported the Lutheran cause in the Second Schmalkaldic War in 1552 to secure French bases in modern-day Lorraine.[3] The Encyclopædia Britannica maintains that "[the] wars of religion of this period [were] fought mainly for confessional security and political gain."[3]

In the late 20th century, revisionist historians including William M. Lamont argued religion was a primary driver behind the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, while John Morrill (1993) claimed it "was not the first European revolution...[but] the last of the Wars of Religion."[13] This view was subsequently criticised by historians like Glen Burgess, whose views were based on a study of Parliamentarian political propaganda. He concluded that while many Puritans took up arms in protest against the religious reforms promoted by Charles I of England, they often justified their opposition as a revolt against a monarch who had violated crucial constitutional principles, and thus had to be overthrown.[14] They even warned other Parliamentarians to avoid overt use of religious arguments in making their case for war against the king.[14]

It can be argued that religious motives were often concealed by legalistic arguments, for example emphasising the need to defend the Church of England as the national church: "Seen in this light, the defenses of Parliament's war, with their apparent legal-constitutional thrust, are not at all ways of saying that the struggle was not religious. On the contrary, they are ways of saying that it was."[15]

Overview of the wars

Jacobite rising of 1689Williamite War in IrelandCromwellian conquest of IrelandIrish Confederate WarsBishops' WarsTudor conquest of IrelandGlorious RevolutionEnglish Civil WarWars of the Three KingdomsWyatt's rebellionPrayer Book RebellionBigod's rebellionOldcastle RevoltWar of the Spanish SuccessionScotland in the Wars of the Three KingdomsAmboise conspiracyCamisardSavoyard-Waldensian WarsHuguenot rebellionsFrench Wars of ReligionMérindol massacreToggenburg WarNine Years' WarFirst War of VillmergenThirty Years' WarStrasbourg Bishops' WarWars of KappelHessian WarSecond Schmalkaldic WarGerman Peasants' WarWar of the Jülich SuccessionCologne WarSchmalkaldic WarMünster rebellionKnights' RevoltHussite WarsSecond Anglo-Dutch WarDutch RevoltEighty Years' WarAnabaptist riotWar against SigismundBattle of SauðafellCount's Feud
  •   British Isles
  •   Low Countries
  •   Spain & Portugal
  •   Central Europe (HRE)
  •   France & Italy
  •   Scandinavia, Baltics & Eastern Europe

Individual conflicts that may be distinguished within this topic include:

Holy Roman Empire

Religious situation in the Holy Roman Empire at the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in 1618

The

Archbishopric of Trier, and Württemberg
. A vast number of minor independent duchies, free imperial cities, abbeys, bishoprics, and small lordships of sovereign families rounded out the Empire.

outlawry issued by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, but also used state power to enforce the establishment of Lutheran worship in their lands, in what is called the Magisterial Reformation
. Church property was seized, and Catholic worship was forbidden in most territories that adopted the Lutheran Reformation. The political conflicts thus engendered within the Empire led almost inevitably to war.

The Knights' Revolt of 1522 was a revolt by a number of Protestant and religious humanist German knights led by Franz von Sickingen, against the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Emperor. It has also been called the "Poor Barons' Rebellion". The revolt was short-lived but would inspire the bloody German Peasants' War of 1524–1526.

Rebellions of Anabaptists and other radicals

Rebellious peasants surrounding a knight

The first large-scale wave of violence was engendered by the more radical wing of the Reformation movement, whose adherents wished to extend the wholesale reform of the Church into a similarly wholesale reform of society in general.[

Anabaptist peasants, townsfolk and nobles. The conflict took place mostly in southern, western and central areas of modern Germany but also affected areas in neighboring modern Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands (for example, the 1535 Anabaptist riot in Amsterdam[20]). At its height, in the spring and summer of 1525, it involved an estimated 300,000 peasant insurgents. Contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000. It was Europe's largest and most widespread popular uprising before the 1789 French Revolution
.

Because of their revolutionary political ideas, radical reformers like Thomas Müntzer were compelled to leave the Lutheran cities of North Germany in the early 1520s.[28] They spread their revolutionary religious and political doctrines into the countryside of Bohemia, Southern Germany, and Switzerland. Starting as a revolt against feudal oppression, the peasants' uprising became a war against all constituted authorities, and an attempt to establish by force an ideal Christian commonwealth[citation needed]. The total defeat of the insurgents at Frankenhausen on 15 May 1525, was followed by the execution of Müntzer and thousands of his peasant followers. Martin Luther rejected the demands of the insurgents and upheld the right of Germany's rulers to suppress the uprisings,[29] setting out his views in his polemic Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants. This played a major part in the rejection of his teachings by many German peasants, particularly in the south.

After the Peasants' War, a second and more determined attempt to establish a

Anabaptist Bernhard Rothmann, Jan Matthys, and Jan Bockelson ("John of Leiden") had little difficulty in obtaining possession of the town on 5 January 1534. Matthys identified Münster as the "New Jerusalem", and preparations were made to not only hold what had been gained, but to proceed from Münster toward the conquest of the world.[citation needed
]

Claiming to be the successor of

Community of goods
was also established. After obstinate resistance, the town was taken by the besiegers on 24 June 1535, and then Leiden and some of his more prominent followers were executed in the marketplace.

Swiss Confederacy

In 1529 under the lead of Huldrych Zwingli, the Protestant canton and city of Zürich had concluded with other Protestant cantons a defence alliance, the Christliches Burgrecht, which also included the cities of Konstanz and Strasbourg. The Catholic cantons in response had formed an alliance with Ferdinand of Austria.

At the Second Battle of Kappel, Zwingli's supporters were defeated and Zwingli himself was killed.

After numerous minor incidents and provocations from both sides, a Catholic priest was executed in the Thurgau in May 1528, and the Protestant pastor J. Keyser was burned at the stake in Schwyz in 1529. The last straw was the installation of a Catholic

Habsburgs
. Tensions remained essentially unresolved.

On 11 October 1531, the Catholic cantons decisively defeated the forces of Zürich in the

Aegeri
succeeded in routing the camp, and the demoralized Zürich force had to retreat, forcing the Protestants to agree to a peace treaty to their disadvantage. Switzerland was to be divided into a patchwork of Protestant and Catholic cantons, with the Protestants tending to dominate the larger cities, and the Catholics the more rural areas.

In 1656, tensions between Protestants and Catholics re-emerged and led to the outbreak of the

ultramontanist Catholic cantons of Central Switzerland formed the Sonderbund.[30]

Schmalkaldic Wars and other early conflicts

Godesberg
during the Cologne War, 1583; the walls were breached by mines, and most of the defenders were put to death. Engraved by Frans Hogenberg, a Dutch engraver and artist of the 16th century.

Following the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, the Emperor demanded that all religious innovations not authorized by the Diet be abandoned by 15 April 1531. Failure to comply would result in prosecution by the Imperial Court. In response, the Lutheran princes who had set up Protestant churches in their own realms met in the town of Schmalkalden in December 1530. Here they banded together to form the Schmalkaldic League (German: Schmalkaldischer Bund), an alliance designed to protect themselves from the Imperial action. Its members eventually intended the League to replace the Holy Roman Empire itself,[31] and each state was to provide 10,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry for mutual defense. In 1532 the Emperor, pressed by external troubles, stepped back from confrontation, offering the "Peace of Nuremberg", which suspended all action against the Protestant states pending a General Council of the Church. The moratorium kept peace in the German lands for over a decade, yet Protestantism became further entrenched, and spread, during its term.

The peace finally ended in the Schmalkaldic War (German: Schmalkaldischer Krieg), a brief conflict between 1546 and 1547 between the forces of Charles V and the princes of the Schmalkaldic League. The conflict ended with the advantage of the Catholics, and the Emperor was able to impose the Augsburg Interim, a compromise allowing slightly modified worship, and supposed to remain in force until the conclusion of a General Council of the Church. However various Protestant elements rejected the Interim, and the Second Schmalkaldic War broke out in 1552, which would last until 1555.[19]

The

Lutherans
and the Catholics in Germany. It stated that:

  • German princes could choose the religion (Lutheranism or Catholicism) of their realms according to their conscience. The citizens of each state were forced to adopt the religion of their rulers (the principle of cuius regio, eius religio).
  • Lutherans living in an ecclesiastical state (under the control of a bishop) could continue to practice their faith.
  • Lutherans could keep the territory that they had captured from the Catholic Church since the Peace of Passau in 1552.
  • The
    ecclesiastical leaders
    of the Catholic Church (bishops) that had converted to Lutheranism were required to give up their territories.

Religious tensions remained strong throughout the second half of the 16th century. The Peace of Augsburg began to unravel as some bishops converting to Protestantism refused to give up their

free city of Donauwörth in 1606, when the Lutheran majority barred the Catholic residents from holding a procession, provoking a riot. This prompted intervention by Duke Maximilian of Bavaria
on behalf of the Catholics.

By the end of the 16th century the

League of Evangelical Union
in 1608.

Thirty Years' War

The Great Miseries of War by Jacques Callot, 1632

By 1617, Germany was bitterly divided, and it was clear that

Hussite Bohemia triggered the Thirty Years' War in 1618, when his representatives were defenestrated in Prague
.

The

. Military intervention by external powers such as Denmark and Sweden on the Protestant side increased the duration of the war and the extent of its devastation. In the latter stages of the war, Catholic France, fearful of an increase in Habsburg power, also intervened on the Protestant side.

The sack of Magdeburg in 1631. The Imperialist troops, particularly the Croat and Walloon regiments, went on a rampage of murder and mayhem that left only 10,000 survivors out of the city's 30,000 citizens and defenders. It was the war's worst massacre.

The major impact of the Thirty Years' War, in which mercenary armies were extensively used, was the devastation of entire regions scavenged bare by the foraging armies. Episodes of widespread

disease devastated the population of the German states and, to a lesser extent, the Low Countries and Italy, while bankrupting many of the powers involved. The war ended with the Treaty of Münster, a part of the wider Peace of Westphalia
.

During the war, Germany's population was reduced by 30% on average. In the territory of Brandenburg, the losses had amounted to half, while in some areas an estimated two thirds of the population died. The population of the Czech lands declined by a third. The Swedish army alone, which was no greater a ravager than the other armies of the Thirty Years' War,[32] destroyed 2,000 castles, 18,000 villages and 1,500 towns during its tenure of 17 years in Germany. For decades armies and armed bands had roamed Germany like packs of wolves, slaughtering the populace like sheep. One band of marauders even styled themselves as "Werewolves".[32] Huge damage was done to monasteries, churches and other religious institutions. The war had proved disastrous for the German-speaking parts of the Holy Roman Empire. Germany lost population and territory, and was henceforth further divided into hundreds of largely impotent semi-independent states. The Imperial power retreated to Austria and the Habsburg lands. The Netherlands and Switzerland were confirmed independent. The peace institutionalised the Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist religious divide in Germany, with populations either converting, or moving to areas controlled by rulers of their own faith.

One authority puts France's losses against Austria at 80,000 killed or wounded and against Spain (including the years 1648–1659, after Westphalia) at 300,000 dead or disabled.[32] Sweden and Finland lost, by one calculation, 110,000 dead from all causes.[32] Another 400,000 Germans, British, and other nationalities died in Swedish service.[32]

Low Countries

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Netherlands, or Low Countries, were engaged in a seemingly futile struggle for independence against the most dominant power of the times, Spain. The most politically significant turn of events came when Charles V of Spain transferred sovereignty of the Low Countries to his son Philip II. At this point in history the Low Countries were a loosely associated cluster of provinces. Philip II mishandled his responsibility through a series of bungled diplomatic maneuvers. Unlike his father, he had no basic understanding of the people placed under his direction. Charles V spoke the language; Philip II did not. Charles V was raised in Brussels; Philip II was considered a foreigner.

The religious element was a decisive factor in the development of hostilities despite the fact that the Dutch people at the time were overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. Their theological basis was in the liberal tradition of Erasmus versus the conservative line of the Spanish Church. Nevertheless, Protestant religions, especially Calvinism, seeped into the Low Countries during the early part of the 16th century due to the fact that it was a major center for trade. This period was also known for the

Inquisition
. Under Charles’ reign, the Low Countries were subjected to the papal form of the Inquisition where laws were rarely enforced. An incident at Rotterdam involving the rescue of several heretics from burning at the stake made Philip introduce the Spanish form of the Inquisition. This did little to promote allegiance to Spain.

Calvinism thrived in the mercantile atmosphere of the Low Countries. Businessmen liked the role of the laity in Calvinist congregations. The Roman Catholic church was viewed as an unyielding patriarch, and the pompous hierarchy of the Roman Catholic church was resented even though Catholicism had respect as an important social, moral, and political force. Merchants welcomed the "new" religion. Not to be taken lightly was the imposition of taxes on the businesses and people of the Low Countries. The taxation was unilateral in nature: it was levied by a foreign political entity and the benefit derived from the taxes went to Spain. Spain was building an empire, and the low Countries paid dearly.

In 1559, Philip appointed Margaret of Parma as governess. She held little power since her authority had been carefully limited by advisors designated by Philip. This was a means of preserving absolute control over the Low Countries and it was an excellent vehicle to promote the spread of the Inquisition. Hardly a day passed without an execution. Protestant authorities substantiate a number of accounts associated with the "justice" of Philip. One account reveals an incident where an Anabaptist was hacked to death with seven blows of a rusty sword in the presence of his wife, who died at the horror of the sight. Another tells of an enraged man who interrupted Christmas Mass, took the host, and trampled it. He was put to torture by having his right hand and foot burned away to the bone. His tongue was torn out, he was suspended over a fire and was slowly roasted to death. Margaret interceded but the atrocities continued. Even the Catholics now joined with Protestants as Philip stated that he would rather sacrifice a hundred thousand lives than change his policy. Some diplomacy was used and when a compromise was reached on 6 May 1566, Philip eased off. During the ensuing lull, Protestants brought their worship into the open. A group called the "Beggars" grew in strength and proceeded to raise a sizable army.

On 6 August 1566, Philip signed a formal instrument declaring that his offer of pardon had been gotten from him against his will. He claimed that he was not bound by the compromise of 6 May and a few days later, Philip assured the Pope that any suspension of the Inquisition was subject to papal approval. The destruction of thirty churches and monasteries followed. Protestants entered cathedrals smashing holy objects, breaking up altars and statues and smashing stained glass windows. Bodies were exhumed and corpses were stripped. Numbers of malcontents drank sacramental wine and burned missals. One Count fed the Eucharistic wafers to his parrot in defiance. It was well known that most Protestant leaders condemned the violence perpetrated by the angry mobs, but the pillage and destruction of property was considered far less criminal than burning heretics at the stake. On the political front,

Duke of Alva
to crush the malcontents.

Duke of Alba (Alva)

Duke of Alva
at Rotterdam in 1567
Engraving illustrating the devastation of the religious wars in the Dutch provinces

Philip gave full power to Alva in 1567. Alva's judgment was that of a soldier trained in Spanish discipline and piety. His object was to crush the rebels without mercy on the basis that every concession strengthens the opposition. Alva hand-picked an army of 10,000 men. He issued them the finest in armor while attending to their baser needs by hiring 2,000 prostitutes. Alva installed himself as Governor General and appointed a Council of Troubles which the terrified Protestants renamed "The Council of Blood". There were nine members: seven Dutch and two Spanish. Only the two Spanish members had the power to vote, with Alva personally retaining the right of final decision on any case that interested him. Through a network of spies and informers, hardly a family in Flanders did not mourn some member arrested or killed. One morning, 1,500 were seized in their sleep and sent to jail. There were short trials held, often on the spot, for 40 or 50 at a time. In January 1568, 84 people were executed from Valenciennes alone. William of Orange decided to strike back at Spain, having organized three armies. He lost every battle and the Eighty Years' War was underway (1568–1648).[33]

The Duke of Alva had money sent from Spain but it was intercepted by English privateers who were beginning to establish England as a viable world power. The Queen of England sent her apologies as a matter of diplomatic courtesy while unofficially enjoying Spain's troubles. Alva responded to his financial bind by imposing a new series of taxes. There was a 1% levy on all property, due immediately. He enforced a 5% perpetual tax on every transfer of realty and a 10% perpetual tax on every sale. This was Alva's downfall. Catholics, as well as Protestants, opposed him for eroding the foundations of business upon which the Dutch economy was built. What followed was a series of mutual confiscation of property as England and Spain played international cat-and-mouse.

Two new forces emerged to oppose Spain. Seizing upon the term, Beggars, used earlier in a derogatory manner by Margaret of Parma, the Dutch rebels formed the Wild Beggars and the Beggars of the Sea. The Wild Beggars pillaged churches and monasteries, cutting off the noses and ears of priests and monks. The Beggars of the Sea took to pirating under commission from William of Orange. William, who raised another army after a series of earlier defeats, again battled the Spanish without a single victory. He could neither control his troops nor deal with the fanatic Beggars. There existed no true unity between Catholics, Calvinists, and Protestants against Alva. The Beggars, who were nearly all ardent Calvinists, showed against the Catholics the same ferocity that the Inquisition and the Council of Blood had shown against rebels and heretics. Their captives were often given a choice between Calvinism and death. They unhesitatingly killed those who clung to the old faith, sometimes after incredible tortures. One Protestant historian wrote:

On more than one occasion men were seen hanging their own brothers, who had been taken prisoners in the enemy rank. The islanders found fierce pleasure in these acts of cruelty. A Spaniard had ceased to be human in their eyes. On one occasion a surgeon at Veer cut the heart from a Spanish prisoner, nailed it on a vessel's prow, and invited the townsmen to come and fasten their teeth in it, which many did with savage satisfaction.[34]

The Spanish Fury at Maastricht in 1576

While Alva rested, he sent his son Don Fadrique to revenge the Beggar's atrocities. Don Fadrique's troops indiscriminately sacked homes, monasteries and churches. They stole the jewels and costly robes of the religious. They trampled consecrated hosts, butchered men and violated women. No distinction was made between Catholic or Protestant. His army crushed the weak defenses of Zutphen and put nearly every man in town to death, hanging some by the feet while drowning 500 others. Sometime later after brief resistance, little Naarden surrendered to the Spaniards. They greeted the victorious soldiers with tables set with feasts. The soldiers ate, drank, then killed every person in the town. Don Fadrique's army later attempted to besiege Alkmaar but the rebels won by opening the dikes and routing the Spanish troops. When Don Fadrique came to Haarlem a brutal battle ensued. Haarlem was a Calvinist center that was known for its enthusiastic support of the rebels. A garrison of 4,000 troops defended the city with such intensity that Don Fadrique contemplated withdrawing. His father, Alva, threatened to disown him if he stopped the siege, so the barbarities intensified. Each army hung captives on crosses facing the enemy. The Dutch defenders taunted the Spanish besiegers by staging parodies of Catholic rituals on the cities ramparts.[35]

William sent 3,000 men in an effort to relieve Haarlem. They were destroyed and subsequent efforts to save the city were futile. After seven months, when the city's inhabitants had been reduced to eating weeds and heather, the city surrendered (11 July 1573). Most of the 1,600 surviving defenders were put to death and 400 leading citizens were executed. Those that were spared were shown mercy only because they agreed to pay a fine of 250,000 guilders, a sizable sum even by today's standards. This was considered the last and most costly victory of Alva's regime. The Bishop of Namur estimated that in seven years, Alva had done more to harm Catholicism than Luther or Calvin had done in a generation. A new Governor of the Netherlands followed.

Division

Spanish Catholics invaded Oudewater and brutally massacred every single man, woman, and child that did not have the good fortune to flee from the town.
Battle scene in Antwerp

Philip's half-brother, the famous Don John, was placed in charge of the Spanish troops who, feeling cheated at not being able to pillage Zeirikzee, mutinied and began a campaign of indiscriminate plunder and violence. This "Spanish Fury" was used by William to reinforce his arguments to ally all the Netherlands' Provinces with him. The Union of Brussels was formed only to be dissolved later out of intolerance towards the religious diversity of its members. Calvinists began their wave of uncontrolled atrocities aimed at the Catholics. This divisiveness gave Spain the opportunity to send Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma with 20,000 well-trained troops into the Netherlands. Groningen, Breda, Campen, Antwerp, and Brussels, among others, were put under siege.

Farnese, the son of Margaret of Parma, was the ablest general of Spain. In January 1579, a group of Catholic nobles formed a League for the protection of their religion and property. Later that same month Friesland, Gelderland, Groningen, Holland, Overijssel, Utrecht and Zeeland formed the United Provinces which became the Dutch Netherlands of today. The remaining provinces became the Spanish Netherlands and in the 19th century became Belgium. Farnese soon regained nearly all the Southern provinces for Spain.

Further north, the city of Maastricht was besieged on 12 March 1579. Farnese's attackers tunnelled an extensive network of passages in order to enter the city beneath its walled defenses. The defenders dug tunnels to meet them. Battles were fought fiercely in caverns with limited manoeuvring capabilities. Hundreds of besiegers were scalded or choked to death when boiling water was poured into the tunnels or fires were lit to fill them with smoke.[36] In an attempt to mine the city, 500 of Farnese's own men were killed when the explosives detonated prematurely.[36] It took more than four months but the besiegers finally breached the wall and entered the city at night. Catching the exhausted defenders sleeping, they massacred 6,000 men, women and children.[36] Of the city's 30,000 population, only 400 survived.[36] Farnese repeopled it with Walloon Catholics.

Maastricht was a major disaster for the Protestant cause and the Dutch began to turn on William of Orange. After several unsuccessful attempts, William was assassinated in 1584 and died penniless. Spain had taken the upper hand on land but the Beggars still controlled the sea. Queen Elizabeth of England began to aid the Northern provinces and actually sent troops there in 1585. While Philip wasted Farnese with ridiculous and useless battles against England and France, Spain had become spread too thin. The Spanish Armada suffered defeat at the hands of the English in 1588 and the situation in the Netherlands became increasingly difficult to manage.

Maurice of Nassau, William's son, had studied mathematics and applied the latest techniques in science to ballistics and siege warfare. He recaptured Deventer, Groningen, Nijmegen and Zutphen.

In 1592, Farnese died of wounds and exhaustion. Philip II died in 1598. As the period of sieges subsided, the War of Liberation continued. Archduke Albert and Isabel of Austria were given sovereign rights in the Netherlands forming a truce in 1609 that gave the Dutch a brief respite from war. But, in 1621, 12 years later, the war resumed when the Netherlands reverted to Spain when Albert and Isabel died childless. This period never experienced the fury of the early sieges; however, the struggle for independence went on. Attacks on Dutch border towns were made by Spinola, an Italian banker who pledged allegiance to Spain. Spain made progress in trying to suppress the Dutch but the Dutch recovered. They were financially supported by France and the money was poured into ships since Spain's control of the seas had been broken by England. Deeply involved in the Thirty Years' War, Spain decided to yield everything to the Dutch in order to be free to fight the French. The Treaty of Münster was signed on 30 January 1648, ending the War of Liberation.

France

In 1532, King Francis I intervened politically and militarily in support of Protestant German princes against the Habsburgs, as did King Henry II in 1551; both kings firmly repressed attempts to spread Lutheran ideas within France. An organised influx of Calvinist preachers from Geneva and elsewhere during the 1550s succeeded in setting up hundreds of underground Calvinist congregations in France.

1560s

The fortified harbour of La Rochelle in western France became a Protestant stronghold that was fought over in two lengthy sieges.

In a pattern soon to become familiar in the Netherlands and Scotland, underground

Calvinist preaching and the formation of covert alliances with members of the nobility quickly led to more direct action to gain political and religious control. The prospect of taking over rich church properties and monastic lands had led nobles in many parts of Europe to support a princely Reformation. Added to this was the Calvinist teaching that leading citizens had the duty to overthrow what they perceived as an ungodly ruler (i.e. one who was not supportive of Calvinism). In March 1560, the "Amboise conspiracy", or "Tumult of Amboise", was an attempt on the part of a group of disaffected nobles to abduct the young king Francis II and eliminate the Catholic House of Guise. It was foiled when their plans were discovered. The first major instances of systematic Protestant destruction of images and statues in Catholic churches occurred in Rouen and La Rochelle in 1560. The following year, the attacks extended to over 20 cities and towns, and would, in turn, incite Catholic urban groups to massacres and riots in Sens, Cahors, Carcassonne, Tours and other cities.[37][full citation needed
]

In December 1560, Francis II died, and

. As hostilities broke out, the Edict was revoked.

This provoked the First War. The Bourbons, with English support and led by

Admiral Coligny, began to seize and garrison strategic towns along the Loire. The Battle of Dreux and the battle of Orléans were the first major engagements of the conflict. In February 1563, at Orléans, Francis, Duke of Guise was assassinated, and Catherine's fears that the war might drag on led her to mediate a truce and the Edict of Amboise
(1563), which again provided for a controlled religious toleration of Protestant worship.

However, this was generally regarded as unsatisfactory by both Catholics and Protestants. The political temperature of the surrounding lands was rising, as religious unrest grew in the Netherlands. The Huguenots tried to gain French government support for intervention against the Spanish forces arriving in the Netherlands. Failing this, Protestant troops then made an unsuccessful attempt to capture and take control of King Charles IX at Meaux in 1567. This provoked a further outbreak of hostilities (the Second War), which ended in another unsatisfactory truce, the Peace of Longjumeau (March 1568).

In September of that year, war again broke out (the Third War). Catherine and Charles decided this time to ally themselves with the House of Guise. The Huguenot army was under the command of

Elizabeth I of England. The Catholics were commanded by the Duke d'Anjou (later King Henry III) and assisted by troops from Spain, the Papal States and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.[39][full citation needed
]

St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572

The Protestant army laid siege to several cities in the

Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre
. This led to the Fourth and Fifth Civil wars in 1572 and 1573–1576.

Henry III

Henry of Anjou was crowned King Henry III of France in 1575, at Reims, but hostilities—the Fifth War—had already flared up again. Henry soon found himself in the difficult position of trying to maintain royal authority in the face of feuding warlords who refused to compromise. In 1576, the King signed the Edict of Beaulieu, granting minor concessions to the Calvinists, but a brief Sixth Civil War took place in 1577. Henry I, Duke of Guise, formed the Catholic League to protect the Catholic cause in France. Further hostilities—the Seventh War (1579–1580)—ended in the stalemate of the Treaty of Fleix.

The fragile compromise came to an end in 1584, when the King's youngest brother and heir presumptive,

Salic Law, the next heir to the throne was the Calvinist Prince Henry of Navarre
. Under pressure from the Duke of Guise, Henry III reluctantly issued an edict suppressing Protestantism and annulling Henry of Navarre's right to the throne.

In December 1584, the Duke of Guise signed the

Estates-General, which was to be held in Blois
.

King Henry decided to strike first. On 23 December 1588 at the

Cardinal de Guise, were lured into a trap and were murdered. The Duke of Guise had been highly popular in France, and the league declared open war against King Henry. The Parlement of Paris
instituted criminal charges against the King, who now joined forces with his cousin, Henry of Navarre, to war against the League.

Salic Law
, he named Henry as his heir.

Henry IV

The situation on the ground in 1589 was that King Henry IV of France, as Navarre had become, held the south and west, and the Catholic League the north and east. The leadership of the Catholic League had devolved to the Duke de Mayenne, who was appointed Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. He and his troops controlled most of rural Normandy. However, in September 1589, Henry inflicted a severe defeat on the Duke at the Battle of Arques. Henry's army swept through Normandy, taking town after town throughout the winter.

The first part of the reign of Henry IV's son Louis XIII was marked by domestic conflict, including a series of Huguenot rebellions in the 1620s.

The King knew that he had to take Paris if he stood any chance of ruling all of France, and this was no easy task. The Catholic League's presses and supporters continued to spread stories about atrocities committed against Catholic priests and the laity in Protestant England, such as the

Roman Catholic Church in 1593 and was crowned at Chartres
in 1594.

Some members of the League fought on, but enough Catholics were won over by the King's conversion to increasingly isolate the diehards. The Spanish withdrew from France under the terms of the Peace of Vervins. Henry was faced with the task of rebuilding a shattered and impoverished Kingdom and reuniting France under a single authority. The wars concluded in 1598, when Henry IV issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted a degree of religious toleration to Protestants.

France, although always ruled by a Catholic monarch, had played a major part in supporting the Protestants in Germany and the Netherlands against their dynastic rivals, the Habsburgs. The period of the French Wars of Religion effectively removed France's influence as a major European power, allowing the Catholic forces in the Holy Roman Empire to regroup and recover.

Denmark–Norway

Denmark

In 1524, King Christian II converted to Lutheranism and encouraged Lutheran preachers to enter Denmark despite the opposition of the Danish diet of 1524. Following the death of King Frederick I in 1533, war broke out between Catholic followers of Count Christoph of Oldenburg and the firmly Lutheran Count Christian of Holstein. After losing his main support in Lübeck, Christoph quickly fell to defeat, finally losing his last stronghold of Copenhagen in 1536. Lutheranism was immediately established, the Catholic bishops were imprisoned, and monastic and church lands were soon confiscated to pay for the armies that had brought Christian to power. In Denmark, this increased royal revenues by 300%.

Norway, Faroe Islands, and Iceland

Christian III established Lutheranism by force in

King of Sweden as part of the Treaty of Kiel
.

Thirty Years' War

In 1625, as part of the

Zealand. Peace negotiations were concluded in the Treaty of Lübeck
in 1629, which stated that Christian IV could keep his control over Denmark-Norway if he would abandon his support for the Protestant German states.

Great Britain and Ireland

The Reformation came to Britain and Ireland with King

Henry VIII of England
's breach with the Catholic Church in 1533. At this time there were only a limited number of Protestants among the general population, and these were mostly living in the towns of the South and the East of England. With the state-ordered break with the Pope in Rome, the Church in England, Wales and Ireland was placed under the rule of the King and Parliament.

The first major changes to doctrine and practice took place under Vicar-General Thomas Cromwell, and the newly appointed Protestant-leaning Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. The first challenge to the institution of these reforms came from Ireland, where "Silken" Thomas Fitzgerald cited the controversy to justify his armed uprising of 1534. The young Fitzgerald failed to gain much local support, however, and in October a 1,600-strong army of English and Welshmen arrived in Ireland, along with four modern siege guns.[42] The following year Fitzgerald was blasted into submission, and in August he was induced to surrender.

Shortly after this episode, local resistance to the reforms emerged in England. The dissolution of the monasteries, which began in 1536, provoked a violent northern Catholic rebellion in the Pilgrimage of Grace, which was eventually put down with much bloodshed. The reformation continued to be imposed on an often unwilling population with the aid of stern laws that made it treason, punishable by death, to oppose the King's actions with respect to religion. The next major armed resistance took place in the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549, which was an unsuccessful rising in western England against the enforced substitution of Cranmer's English language service for the Latin Catholic Mass.

Following the restoration of Catholicism under Queen Mary I of England in 1553, there was a brief unsuccessful Protestant rising in the south-east of England.

Scottish Reformation

The Reformation in

iconoclastic
riot. A mob poured into the church and it was entirely gutted. In the pattern of Calvinist riots in France and the Netherlands, the mob then attacked two friaries in the town, looting their gold and silver and smashing images. Mary of Guise gathered those nobles loyal to her and a small French army.

With Protestant reinforcements arriving from neighbouring counties, the queen regent retreated to Dunbar. By now, Calvinist mobs had overrun much of central Scotland, destroying monasteries and Catholic churches as they went. On 30 June, the Protestants occupied Edinburgh, though they were only able to hold it for a month. Even before their arrival, the mob had already sacked the churches and the friaries. On 1 July, Knox preached from the pulpit of St Giles', the most influential in the capital.[43]

Knox negotiated by letter with

Elizabeth's chief advisor, for English support. When additional French troops arrived in Leith, Edinburgh's seaport, the Protestants responded by retaking Edinburgh. This time, on 24 October 1559, the Scottish nobility formally deposed Mary of Guise from the regency. Her secretary, William Maitland of Lethington, defected to the Protestant side, bringing his administrative skills. For the final stage of the revolution, Maitland appealed to Scottish patriotism to fight French domination. Support from England finally arrived and by the end of March, a significant English army joined the Scottish Protestant forces. The sudden death of Mary of Guise in Edinburgh Castle on 10 June 1560 paved the way for the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh
, and the withdrawal of French and English troops from Scotland, leaving the Scottish Calvinists in control on the ground. Catholicism was forcibly suppressed.

The return of

James VI
was raised as a Protestant, later becoming King of England as well as Scotland.

The Rising of the North from 1569 to 1570 was an unsuccessful attempt by Catholic nobles from Northern England to depose Queen Elizabeth I and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots.

English Civil War

James I & VI, continued Elizabeth I's policy of providing military support to European Protestants in the Netherlands and France. King Charles I decided to send an expeditionary force to relieve the French Huguenots whom Royal French forces held besieged in La Rochelle
. However, tax-raising authority for these wars was getting harder and harder to raise from parliament.

In 1638 the Scottish

Bishops War, soon followed, leading to the defeat of a weak royalist counter-force in 1640. The rebels went on to capture Newcastle upon Tyne
, further weakening King Charles' authority.

In October 1641, a major rebellion broke out in Ireland. Charles soon needed to raise more money to suppress this

High Church Anglicanism. This, its opponents believed, was far too catholic in form, and based on the authority of bishops
.

The English parliament refused to vote enough money for Charles to defeat the Scots without the King giving up much of his authority and reforming the English church along more Calvinist lines. The king refused, and deteriorating relations led to the outbreak of war in 1642. The first

Turnham Green, and Charles was forced to withdraw to Oxford
, which would serve as his base for the remainder of the war.

In general, the early part of the war went well for the Royalists. The turning point came in the late summer and early autumn of 1643, when the Earl of Essex's army forced the king to raise the siege of Gloucester and then brushed the Royalist army aside at the First Battle of Newbury on 20 September 1643. In an attempt to gain an advantage in numbers, Charles negotiated a ceasefire with the Catholic rebels in Ireland, freeing up English troops to fight on the Royalist side in England. Simultaneously Parliament offered concessions to the Scots in return for their aid and assistance.

With the help of the Scots, Parliament won at

restored until 1660. Even then, religious strife continued through the Glorious Revolution
and thereafter.

Ireland

After Cromwell's victory, huge areas of land were confiscated and the Irish Catholics were banished to the lands of Connacht.

The wars of religion in Ireland took place in the context of a country that had already rebelled frequently against English rule in the previous decades. In 1534, Thomas Fitzgerald, known as Silken Thomas, led what was called the Silken Thomas Rebellion. In the province of Ulster in the North of the country, Shane O'Neill's Rebellion occurred from 1558 to 1567, and in the South of the Country, the Desmond Rebellions occurred in 1569–1573 and 1579–1583 in the province of Munster.

Ireland entered into a continuous state of war with the

Admiral Robert Blake blockaded Prince Rupert's fleet in Kinsale
, Oliver Cromwell could land at Dublin on 15 August 1649 with an army to quell the Royalist alliance in Ireland.

Cromwell's suppression of the Royalists in Ireland during 1649 still has a strong resonance for many Irish people. The siege of Drogheda and massacre of nearly 3,500 people[citation needed]—comprising around 2,700 Royalist soldiers and all the men in the town carrying arms, including civilians, prisoners, and Catholic priests—became one of the historical memories that has driven Irish-English and Catholic-Protestant strife during the last three centuries. However, the massacre has significance mainly as a symbol of the Irish perception of Cromwellian cruelty, as far more people died in the subsequent guerrilla warfare and scorched-earth fighting in the country than at infamous massacres such as Drogheda and Wexford. The Parliamentarian conquest of Ireland ground on for another four years until 1653, when the last Irish Confederate and Royalist troops surrendered. Historians have estimated[citation needed] that up to 30% of Ireland's population either died or had gone into exile by the end of the wars. The victors confiscated almost all Irish Catholic-owned land in the wake of the conquest and distributed it to the Parliament's creditors, to the Parliamentary soldiers who served in Ireland, and to English people who had settled there before the war.

Scotland

The execution of

Battle of Carbisdale in Ross-shire on 27 April 1650. The victors captured Montrose shortly afterwards and took him to Edinburgh
. On 20 May, the Scottish Parliament sentenced him to death and had him hanged the next day.

"Cromwell at Dunbar", by Andrew Carrick Gow

Charles II landed in Scotland at Garmouth in Moray on 23 June 1650 and signed the 1638 National Covenant and the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant immediately after coming ashore. With his original Scottish Royalist followers and his new Covenanter allies, King Charles II became the greatest threat facing the new English republic. In response to the threat, Cromwell left some of his lieutenants in Ireland to continue the suppression of the Irish Royalists and returned to England.

Cromwell arrived in Scotland on 22 July 1650 and proceeded to lay siege to Edinburgh. By the end of August disease and a shortage of supplies had reduced his army, and he had to order a retreat towards his base at Dunbar. A Scottish army, assembled under the command of

David Leslie, tried to block the retreat, but Cromwell defeated them at the Battle of Dunbar
on 3 September. Cromwell's army then took Edinburgh, and by the end of the year, his army had occupied much of southern Scotland.

In July 1651, Cromwell's forces crossed the

George Monck to finish the campaign in Scotland. Monck took Stirling on 14 August and Dundee on 1 September. In 1652, the army finished off the remnants of Royalist resistance, under the terms of the "Tender of Union
".

In late 1688,

Jacobite risings of the erstwhile Stuart King James III in 1715 and Charles Edward Stuart
in 1745.

Other

Death toll

These figures include the deaths of civilians from

diseases, famine, etc., as well as deaths of soldiers in battle and possible massacres and genocide
.

Lowest estimate Highest estimate Event Location From To Duration Main opponents* Character
4,000,000[44] 12,000,000[44] Thirty Years' War Holy Roman Empire 1618 1648 30 years
Reformed and Hussites) against Catholics
began as a religious war; quickly became a French–Habsburg political clash
2,000,000[45] 4,000,000[45] French Wars of Religion France 1562 1598 36 years
Reformed) against Catholics
began as a religious war, and largely remained such
315,000[citation needed] 868,000 (616,000 in Ireland)[46]
War of the Three Kingdoms
Great Britain and Ireland 1639 1651 12 years
Reformed, various other nonconformists), Catholics
distributed in various fractions of the war
civil, religion-state relation and religious freedom issues, with a national element
600,000[47] 700,000[47] Eighty Years' War Low Countries in the Holy Roman Empire 1568 1648 80 years
Reformed) against Catholics
conflicts over religion (and taxes and privileges) evolved into a war of independence
100,000[citation needed] 200,000[citation needed] German Peasants' War Holy Roman Empire 1524 1525 1 year
Lutherans), Catholics
mixed economic and religious reasons, war between peasants and Protestant/Catholic landowners

The wars listed were the most severe in casualties; the remaining religious conflicts in Europe lasted for only a few years, a year, or less and/or were much less violent. Huguenot rebellions were possibly the most damaging conflict after the German Peasants' War and may have taken up to 100,000 lives.

Religious situation pre- and post-European wars

At the Reformation's zenith around 1590, Protestant governments and/or cultures controlled about half of the European territory; however, as a result of Catholic reconquests, only about one-fifth was left in 1690.[7][dubious ][clarification needed]

Peak of the Reformation & beginning of the Counter-Reformation (1545–1620)
End of the Reformation & Counter-Reformation (1648)
After the Edict of Fontainebleau (1685) expelled Huguenots from France
Religious situation in Europe, late 16th & early to mid-17th century

See also

Notes

  1. Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559) to all parties involved was that they needed to 'purge their lands of heresy'; in other words, all their subjects had to be forcefully reverted to Catholicism. When pressured by Spain to implement this obligation, Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy proclaimed the Edict of Nice (15 February 1560), which soon led to an armed revolt by the Protestant Waldensians in his domain that would last until July 1561.[12]

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  5. ^ Treaty of Münster 1648
  6. ^ Barro, R. J. & McCleary, R. M. "Which Countries have State Religions?" (PDF). University of Chicago. p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 August 2006. Retrieved 7 November 2006.
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  13. ^ Burgess 1998, p. 175.
  14. ^ a b Burgess 1998, p. 196–197.
  15. ^ Burgess 1998, p. 198–200.
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  19. ^ a b c d e f Onnekink, p. 3.
  20. ^ .
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  22. ISBN 978-1440330674. Retrieved 9 February 2018.[permanent dead link
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  27. ^ a b John S. Morrill (7 February 2018). "Jacobite". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 16 April 2019. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
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  37. ^ Jouanna, p. 181.
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  41. ^ Ellis, S. "The Tudors and the origins of the modern Irish states: A standing army". In: Bartlett, Thomas, A Military History of Ireland (Cambridge 1996), pp. 125–31).
  42. ^ MacGregor 1957, p. 127
  43. ^ a b Matthew White (January 2012). "The Thirty Years War (1618–48)". Necrometrics. Archived from the original on 11 March 2011. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  44. ^ a b Matthew White (January 2012). "France, Religious Wars, Catholic vs. Huguenot (1562–1598)". Necrometrics. Archived from the original on 11 March 2011. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  45. ^ Matthew White (January 2012). "British Isles, 1641–52". Necrometrics. Archived from the original on 11 March 2011. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  46. ^ a b "Victimario Histórico Militar". Archived from the original on 1 July 2018. Retrieved 12 February 2018.

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