The 'Defenestration of Prague', the coup d'etat staged by Protestant Bohemian nobles against officials of the Hapsburg Emperor triggered the Thirty Years War. When Habsburg Spain intervened in support of their Holy Roman Emperor relative, what had started as a localized political and religious dispute in Germany, transformed into a European and global conflict.
In seeking to exploit the Bohemian revolt, Spanish Habsburg revanchist ambitions directed by the Spanish Count of Olivarez at the economically powerful Dutch Republic were allied with the Habsburg Emperor’s counter-reformation ambitions. After the Bohemian defeat at the White Mountain in 1620 the war widened as the Dutch Republic, England, Transylvania, Denmark, Sweden, and Richelieu’s France all intervened to roll back Habsburg hegemony and restore the balance power.
There was extensive fighting across the globe, as the Dutch and English sought to challenge the Spanish Habsburg global monopoly. These colonial wars were a major factor in the Iberian revolutions with brought down the Habsburg Imperium. Professor Charles Boxer called it: “the first world war”.
It was a tragic war of attrition but also an epic story of remarkable individuals including the 'titans’ of the era, Imperial General Wallenstein, warrior King Gustavus, sinister Count Olivarez, and the masters of international intrigue, realpolitik and diplomacy- Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin. Above all there were the decisive victories of the under-sung military genius of the era, Lennart Torstensson.
The Treaties of Westphalia followed a war which not only changed the global balance of power, but accelerated over thirty years the transformation of the European continent from a world characterized by dynasties and the medieval concept of United Christendom to a European order that was recognizably modern.
Author(s): John Pike
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 526
City: Barnsley
Cover
Book Title
Copyright
Contents
Introduction
Madrid and Vienna, two coup d’etat
The Defenestration of Prague 23 May 1618
Background to the Holy Roman Empire
Chapter I
The Naval and Economic Challenge to the Habsburg Imperium
The Ottoman challenges
Challenges within and without the Empire before 1600
New intellectual and religious challenge to Universal Christendom’s political order
Nationalism and identity politics
The ‘perceived’ Habsburg threat
Civil war and the dynamics of intervention; fear, the security dilemma, and balance of power
Chapter II Habsburg Domains, Ferdinand and the Defenestration of Prague
Internal development of Spanish politics, 1600–1621
Olivares
Olivares’s policy
Spain; financing, social and economic problems
Spanish politics and foreign policy, 1619–21
Defenestration of Prague
Ferdinand II
The Dutch economy, 1600–1648: military-industrial complex
Chapter III The Thirty Years War: Military Developments in the Thirty Years War 1618–1634
From Vienna to the White Mountain and the wars of the interveners
Wallenstein
Wallenstein and war finance
The grudging acceptance of the offer, 17 April 1626
Chapter IV Gustavus: the War in the Baltic
Gustavus Adolphus
Baltic War
Chapter V The Emergence of France, the Edict, Wallenstein and the Mantuan War
Richelieu’s policies and political developments, 1620–27
The Edict of Restitution 1629
Louis XIII
Cardinal Richelieu: Machiavelli’s disciple
Duchesse de Chevreuse
The concept of frontiers and contrasting world views of ‘devot’ and
Gallicans
The Mantuan War and the dismissal of Wallenstein
France, Italy, and the Huguenots and the development of French foreign policy
‘Day of the Dupes’: Three in a room – Turning point in the fight against Habsburg Dominion
Chapter VI The Dutch Front and Naval War
The Dutch front
Naval War
Chapter VII Gustavus Invades Germany
Enter Gustavus: Germany 1628–32
Swedish economy, military-industrial complex – sinews of war, 1600–1648
The Swedish army
Battle of Breitenfeld 1631
Gustavus’s march to the Rhine
Richelieu’s vexation with his maverick ally
Gustavus rampant
Chapter VIII Wallenstein Returns and the Battle of Lutzen
The return of Wallenstein: Gustavus falls off the critical path
Götterdämmerung
Chapter IX Wallenstein’s fall, Oxenstierna and the Peace of Prague
Oxenstierna takes power and the fall of Wallenstein
Spanish reaction to the Swedish occupation of the Rhine valley
Journey to Nordlingen May 1634–Sept 1634
Another Spanish army crosses the Alps, 1634
Wheel of fortune; The battle of Nordlingen, 6 September 1634
Dutch campaigns 1633–4 and reactions to the Battle of Nordlingen
Dutch war financing
The war of Smolensk and the Swedish loss of Prussian tolls, 1632–1635
Oxenstierna’s odyssey, and the end of the Heilbronn League, September 1634–May 1635
The Peace of Prague, 30 May 1635
Spanish policy and the progress of the Imperial armies, 1634–5
Chapter X France Declares War and the Dutch Alliance
Richelieu sends a herald to Brussels, 5 April 1635
Pre-emptive onslaught, Battle of Avin May 1635
Fault lines: Franco–Dutch campaign, summer 1635
The Rhineland
Rohan’s Swiss campaign, the Valtellina, 1635
Chapter XI Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar Defects and the Swedish Army Mutiny
Recruiting Saxe-Weimar, 1635
The ‘Gunpowder Convention’ and the French alliance, August 1635– February 1636
Saxon disillusion and decline, 1635–6
The Hessian ‘long march’ 1636 and relations with the Dutch and French
Imperial-Bavarian financing of war 1618–1648
Chapter XII French Economic and Military Mobilisation
The French economy and war finance, 1618–1648
Social stress
War on the home front
French army and military efficiency 1635
France: Recruitment and officers and the changing role of Europe’s nobility
State development and ‘absolutism’
French nobility, constitutional crisis, role in warfare, and modern military state 1629–1632
Richelieu’s regime of terror
Invasion of France: the year of ‘Corbie’, 1636
Rohan’s Swiss campaign and the Valtellina: 1636
Plates
Chapter XIII Swedish Recovery and theEmergence of Hesse
The Dutch Front and the English Channel, 1636
Baner’s masterpiece: Swedish recovery
Battle of Wittstock 4 October 1636
Death of Ferdinand II February, 1637
Ferdinand III
Baner’s campaigns 1636–1641
Campaigns in Europe 1637
Amelia of Hesse
Landgravine Amelia of Hesse holds out, 1637–1639
Chapter XIV Saxe-Weimar Breaks Out and the Battle for the ‘Spanish Road’
Campaigns in Europe 1638
Dutch debacle at Kallo 22 June 1637
Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar
Battle of Rheinfelden, February 1638
Consequences of Rheinfelden and the serendipity of war, March1638– April 1638
The Breisach campaign and siege, April–December 1638
The battle of Poligny 18 June 1638 and war in Franche-Comté
The battle of Wittenwier, 9 August 1638
Battles for the siegeworks October 1638
The surrender of Breisach, 17 December 1638
Cutting the Spanish Road: Consequences
Death of Saxe-Weimar, 1638–1639
England’s last eccentric intervention February 1637–October 1638
Chapter XV Global War
Dutch and English attacks on Spain’s Empire
The Portuguese Empire and trading riches
The Habsburg Asian Empire
War in the Atlantic, South America and Caribbean 1618–1640
Fortresses on the Spanish Main
War in the Caribbean 1620–1641
Sugar and slaves
Bahia 1624–1625
The battles for El Mina and the Gold Coast 1600–1625
Luanda and ‘The Heart of Darkness’
Mozambique and Mombasa
End of Imperium
Chapter XVI Stalemate on Land; Dutch Supremacy at Sea and Prelude to Revolution
The Pyrenees front 1637–1640 and siege of Salces
Military stalemate, Flanders and Germany, 1639
Spain’s fleet 1630–1640
The Battle of the Downs, 18 September to 21 October, 1639
Dunkirkers: Spanish maritime raiders 1630–1646
Campaign in Germany 1640 and Amelia returns home
The Artois–Luxembourg front, the siege of Arras, 1640
Dutch campaign 1640
Regensburg Diet, Campaigns in 1641 and Baner’s last hurrah
Soissons rebellion, Battle of La Marfee, 9 July 1641
The Dutch-French land campaign, 1641
Chapter XVII Iberian Revolutions and the Fall of Olivares
The revolutionary road: Catalan revolt May 1640
Revolution in Catalonia 1640–1642
The secession of Portugal, December 1640
Spain’s economic problems 1640s
The fall of Olivares, January 1643
Chapter XVIII Origins of Peace
Origins of the Peace of Westphalia, 1640–1643
Sweden’s negotiating issues, pressures for peace, 1636–1642
Dutch moves towards peace, 1640–1646
Spain sues for peace, 1640
Bavaria’s need for peace, 1636–1640
The Emperor considers peace
France: Peace talks and revolt 1636–1639
Hesse and German supplicants at Westphalia
Other interests at Westphalia
Chapter XIX Enter Torstensson and Mazarin,Italy and Habsburg Exhaustion
Mazarin, the gambler
Mazarin’s progress to power 1634–1639
Savoy: a small state’s struggle for survival, 1635–1640 and the war in Italy
Savvy Christina of Savoy and the war in Italy 1638–1641
De Campion’s transition into high politics and misdemeanours
The Cinq Mars affair, usual suspects, and the Death of Richelieu, 1642
French military and political triumph in Savoy 1641–1643
Interregnum, death of Louis XIII, Mazarin and Anne of Austria consolidate power
Anne of Austria
Power struggle at court
Massacre of the Tercios: Battle of Rocroi, 19 May 1643
Consequences
Dutch campaign 1643
The battle of Tuttlingen, military masterclass by Franz von Mercy, November 1643
The Bavarian army and postscript to Tuttlingen
Torstensson identity: Enter the ‘artilleryist’, 1641–1645
The German campaign in balance 1641; Brandenburg makes peace
Torstensson’s invasion of the Hereditary lands, 1642
The invasion of Moravia and capture of Olomouc, June 1642
Torstensson’s retreat to Silesia and Saxony, July–November 1642
Torstensson supremacy: Second Battle of Breitenfeld, 2 November1642
The strategic outcome of the battle of Second Breitenfeld
Torstensson’s campaign in 1643
Chapter XX Torstensson’s War and the Invasion of Denmark
Torstensson’s ultimatum: The Swedish-Danish war, 1643–1645:
causes
‘Torstensson’s War’: Swedish war aims 1636–1642
The invasion of Denmark and the War at Sea, 1643–44: OpeningGambits
Disquiet amongst the anti-Imperialist alliance, 1644
Baltic Naval strategy
Gallas; ‘the army wrecker’ and last hope for the Danes, 1644
Transylvania stirs again
The Baltic naval war and Torstensson at bay July 1644: Middle Game
Military manoeuvres in Jutland and Holstein
Naval battle of Ferman, 23 October 1644
Gallas’s long retreat autumn-winter 1644: Endgame
The Peace of Bremsebro, 1644: Checkmate
The accession of Queen Christina of Sweden, her character andpolicy, 1644
Chapter XXI War and Peace: Mazarin, France and Sweden Ascendant
Turenne
The ‘Great’ Condé, duc d’Enghien
The five-day battle of Freiburg, August 1644
The siege of Philippsburg, August 1644
The French and Dutch attack on Gravelines and Sas-van-Ghent,1644
The Battle of Jankov, Bohemia, 7 March 1645
Advance to Vienna, March 1645
Diplomatic tremors after Jankov, June to August 1645
Imperialist popular mobilisation, Spring 1645
The battle of Mergentheim (Herbsthausen), May 1645
After Jankov: Joining Rákóczy and the siege of Brno, April–August 1645
Battle of Allerheim, 3 August 1645
In Flanders field 1645
Diplomatic consequences for the Peace of Imperial defeats in 1645
Chapter XXII Setting up the Conference 1643–1645
The delegations
Main issues at the conferences 1645
Chapter XXIII Peace and the End ofHabsburg Supremacy in Europe
Germany 1646–1648
The Dutch triumph
Peace at last, October 1648
Bohemia betrayed
Last fighting
End of the Habsburg Imperium
Chapter XXIV Postscript: The Struggle for the Mastery of Europe and European Identity
Europe and hegemony; the struggle to master Europe
Notes
Index
Backcover
