Episode 342: The War in Germany

fought a slight war over Mantua several decades earlier. Furthermore, Spain, despite claiming to be a victim of French aggression, was actively pursuing policies hostile to French interests. For instance, Spain continued to support the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand, who was at war with France's allies, the Dutch. This support, coupled with Spain's overall hostile stance, was a key factor in Cardinal

Richelieu's decision to declare war. This was also an opportunity to weaken the Habsburg's The Thirty Years War presented France with an opportunity to weaken the Habsburg dynasty, which ruled both Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. By supporting the enemies of the Habsburgs, namely the Swedish and the Dutch, France aimed to curb their influence in Europe. There was also a desire to secure the strategically important province of Alsace.

And by the way, France, the Holy Roman Empire and then later Germany are going to be fighting over Alsace Lorraine for a while now, so get used to it. The strategically important province of Alsace was particularly critical for France. Spanish military presence in Al Saints, which is directly along the Rhine, was a direct threat, prompting French intervention. The French sought to prevent the Spanish from using the province as a base from which to easily launch attacks into France.

But while France entered the war with ambition and a desire to curb the influence of the Habsburgs, the fact of the matter remains that its military capabilities legged far behind its aspirations. There's a couple of factors. The thing that we can point to here. One was financial dependence and a relatively weak military. Overall, France was heavily reliant on financial subsidies from the Dutch and from Sweden to sustain its war effort. This dependence underscored the limitations of

its own resources and financial systems. The French army, though ambitious and its deployments, was actually relatively small, smaller than the Swedes, for example, and experienced and poorly equipped. These factors combined to create a situation where France, despite being a territorially major power, found itself in a position of relative weakness compared to its adversaries and quite frankly, even its territorially smaller allies. It was also totally reliant on

its allies and aimed at procuring limited military success. The French needed to cooperate with and rely on their allies, particularly the Swedish and the Dutch, throughout the conflict. This reliance suggests that France was not yet in a position to independently chain lenge the military might of the Habsburgs or to achieve decisive victories on its own. There was a situation where the French were often reactive to the

movement of their allies and enemies. Never was France in a position to dictate the pace or the direction of the war. This is further illustrated by France's initial hesitance to commit troops to Germany, opting instead for limited financial support. The French military operations during this period were marked by a mix of setbacks and limited successes. There was a defeat in Alsace and a struggle to effectively support their

allies like Saxe Vemar. But of course, another factor in France's inability to really move the needle here is just frankly, Spanish strength. Spain was a formidable adversary throughout this period. Despite facing challenges on multiple fronts, Spain remained a significant military power, capable of resisting French advances and inflicting defeat beats.

There were instances where Spanish forces successfully countered French maneuvers and thwarted their objectives, particularly in the regions of Alsace and in the Rhineland. The Habsburgs were also, quite frankly, just more persistent, more dogged in their ability to keep the war effort going, perhaps because it simply mattered more

to them. The Habsburgs were persistent and their ability to secure alliances despite facing a coalition of enemies was critical in their ability to ultimately bring the war to a

somewhat successful conclusion. What this suggests is that France, even in alliance with other powerful entities like Sweden and the Dutch Republic, faced a difficult challenge in overcoming what was an entrenched power of the Habsburgs, you know, going all the way back to Francis the Second, there's this sort of desire on the part of France to somehow make

the French king the Holy Roman Emperor. And what we see even throughout the seventeenth century at that point is that that is becoming increasingly a relic of the past. The idea of these trans European empires that span what are going to become nation states and ethnicities just far

too medieval. And it reflects, quite frankly a fact that oftentimes the aristocracy and leading military orders of the day are still thinking three four hundred years in the past, and that's going to continue to be a problem throughout the Thirty Years War. Despite an optimistic outlook on the potential of offensive operations, the reality was that French finances were strained, with the troops often going unpaid. The need to maintain a standing army and provide subsidies to allies

put a considerable pressure on their treasury. France entered the Thirty Years War nonetheless in sixteen thirty five, declaring war on Spain, but the French army was ill prepared. It was small and experienced and poorly equipped. Be that as it may, France's objective remained to weaken the Habsburg dynasty, including both Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. To this end, they sought alliances with the Protestant German Princess and Sweden

were also opposed to Habsburg power. But the French were initially hesitant to fully commit to the war effort in Germany, and as a result, really honestly, the only French involvement early on was sending a small force under Henri de Rohan to support the French Protestants. This force, which numbered a couple of thousand men at the most, was ultimately unsuccessful, and the French suffered a further setback when their forces

sent to Alsace were decisively defeated by the Spanish. The Tie turn, however, in sixteen thirty six, when the French achieved a major victory in the town of Corbet. This victory forced the Spanish to retreat from France and allowed France, at least temporarily, to seize the offensive in the war. In the aftermath of Core, the French continued to pursue their goal of weakening the Habsburgs. They launched an invasion of the Spanish Netherlands and continued to provide support to

their allies in Germany. The events of sixteen thirty five and sixteen thirty six marked a crucial turning point in France's involvement in the Thirty Years War. Despite the initial reluctance and setbacks, the Frends were ultimately able to emerge as a larger player in the conflict thanks to the victory ed Corbell and the ability to put the Habsburgs both in Spain and in Germany on the back foot, at least as we'll see temporarily. The year is now

sixteen thirty five, after decades now of brutal war. Fair keep in mind we're already almost twenty years into the Thirty Years War. The Holy Roman Empire is finally starting to experience a glimmer of peace as the sides finally sign the Treaty of Prague. But the peace is fragile, and the treaty riddled with exceptions and exclusions that sow

the seeds of its own demise. Now, at the heart of the instability of the Treaty of Prague, which was signed between Emperor Ferdinand and the various chairman princes opposed to him in sixteen thirty five, was this idea of amnesty. It was an issue that exposed the deep divisions and mistrust lingering between Emperor Ferdinand the Second and his various adversaries.

So the Treaty of Prague, which was designed to be sort of a prototype of the Treaty of Westphalia that's actually going to end the war, promised a general amnesty. The idea was to just essentially forgive everyone who had taken part in the conflict, because otherwise there was simply no way to sort out who owed who what. The promise unfortunately doesn't work because it's immediately broken by Ferdinand Ferdinand foolishly. Besides that, the amnesty provision of the Treaty

of Prague will exclude many of his key opponents. It turns into selective amnesty, and the selective amnesty enrages everyone who had negotiated this treaty, especially those who had pledged a full pardon to everyone who initially laid down their arms to make the peace possible. The exclusion of figures like Bernard of Saxe Vemar and Johann Yorg of hesse Kill, both formidable military leaders, through an instant wrench into the

peace process. These men felt betrayed, and with their armies still at the command, refuse to accept the treaty and continue to fight against the emperor. Again. What we have here is a patchwork attempt at a solution. That's all we've seen since the very beginning of the Thirty Years War. What the parties seem to fail to recognize at this point is that this patchwork process to peace simply isn't going to work, and their inability to recognize that only

fuels the fires of war for another decade now. The impact of these exclusions reverberate throughout the Empire, reigniting old conflicts and hindering efforts to establish a lasting peace. The unity that we forged for about a month at Prague in sixteen thirty five crumbled instantaneously. In fact, there's one particular study that's relevant here, and that is the Landgrave Wilhelm,

the fifth of hesse Kessel. Despite being excluded from the amnesty, Wilhelm's troops remain active, and it becomes a testament to

the resentment and unresolved grievances that plague the empire. Wilhelm never stops fighting, despite the fact that there is ostensibly at least a peace treaty in place, which, as you can guess, because of the shifting alliances with people coming in and out of the conflict, the mere fact that it doesn't end, the mere fact that the smoldering embers of war are allowed to continue perpetuate the system going for it's as I discussed in the beginning, the Holy

Roman Empire had so many idiosyncrasies, had so many overlapping jurisdictions, so many confusing paths to authority, that that tended to drive the conflict over and over again, even as some sides tried to get out of it. Meanwhile, in Sweden, the amnesty issue became a powerful weapon in the hands of the Chancellor. I mentioned him before Oxtersteirna, and he was leading the Swedish delegation in the peace process. He immediately and adroitly recognized the discontent brewing between the German

Protestant princes. He realized that some people got amnesty and some people didn't, and all he did was skillfully exploited this division to bolster support for Sweden's continued involvement in the war. Auxygen Steirna painted the Emperor's limited amnesty as a betrayal of German liberties, actively framing the conflict as a fight for freedom and justice against a tyrannical ruler.

Austin Sterness rhetoric, however, made his own difficult dilemma. He desperately wanted a favorable peace for Sweden, but at the same time, the only way he was going to get that was if he leveraged the support of his German allies. Accepting the German Emperor's limited amnesty would risk alienating these crucial allies, yet pushing for a full amnesty could very well prolong the Body conflict, which Sweden really didn't want

it to. Oxygen Sterna kept up this balancing act as long as he could, but as tensions escalated that became untenable. The Swedish army, which was at this point largely composed of German soldiers, actually quickly grew disillusioned with the peace negotiations. They came to see oxten Sterna's willingness to compromise as a betrayal of the sacrifices that they had made after fighting for years, and they demanded full amnesty and critically

all the back pay they had been owed. This discontent would boil into open mutiny, which was nothing less than a dramatic display of deep frustration and distrust and also an ominous sign of things to come. One of the things to keep in mind here is that none of these kingdoms has the capacity to fight a war for thirty years. None of these kingdoms have the logisticals support for their troops to be able to keep this whole

machine going for three decades. The fact of the matter is it was the peasants who bore the bronze of the Thirty Years War, as I'll talk about really extensively at the end of this story arc, because that's the true devastation here. It's the loss of harvest after harvest and the subsequent famine that's caused by marauding armies of both sides, honestly roving back and forth over the countryside

that's the issue with the Thirty Years War. It's not even about who wins, it's about who loses, and who loses is the people of Germany, the people of the territories that are being fought over now. Ultimately, this particular mutiny crippled Oxygen Sterna's negotiating position and led to the breakdown of talks between Sweden and the Emperor in November of sixteen thirty five. And this failure marks yet another

one of these turning points in the war. It ended the hopes that maybe the Thirty Years War is only the Seventeen Years War and comes to an end in sixteen thirty five. Instead, the war continues and Central Europe is plunged back into chaos. Now, the collapse of the negotiations was not solely an amnesty issue, and it wasn't

solely Oxygen Stererna's fault either. The personal ambitions and political maneuvering of several key people, particularly of course, the Emperor and Johann George, another one of those minor principality leaders,

also play a crucial role. These leaders, who prioritize their own interests over the common good, became obstacles to peace, particularly the unwillingness of the Habsburg Emperor to compromise and his goal at trying to still get some sort of consolidated power over the entirety of the empire continued, the perpetuation of the conflict, and of course ultimately results in a decline of Habsburg authority. The story of the Treaty

of Prague is a cautionary tale. It's a reminder that peace, even when achieved, can easily be shattered by broken promises, unaddressed grievances, and the hunger for power. And I think it's something we need to think about right now in the world, a world that's experiencing a lot of conflict, where there's hopes for peace, but we need to remember it's not about winning the war and getting the peace terms. It's about winning the peace, and that means about addressing

grievances and following through with your promises. Now, this story also underscores the fragility of peace and the devastating consequence of prioritizing individual gain over collective well being. The events of sixteen thirty five and sixteen thirty six reveal a complex web of competing interests, personal ambitions, and political maneuvering that ultimately undermine the efforts to bring an end to

the devastating Thirty Years War. In sixteen thirty seven, as the Thirty Years War continued to wage, finally an event happens that some might say could have ended the war in that year, and that is that the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand the Second, also Duke of Austria dies. The throne is then inherited by a young Emperor, Ferdinand the Third. He inherits the throne at the age of only thirty nine, and finds himself confronting a series of political intrigues, military setbacks,

and above all, financial turmoil. Ferdinand the Third is a man of contradictions. He is often described as more moderate than his father, Ferdinand the Second, yet he remained fiercely committed to protecting the Habsburg dynasty in its vast, vast holdings. The new emperor faced the daunting task of securing peace in a war torn empire while upholding the constitutional rights

of its varied territories. However, he's also very much driven by a deep seated desire to advance his own religious goals, a legacy of his father's staunch Catholic convictions. Now. One of the most pressing challenges facing Ferdinand the Third is the legacy of the Treaty of Prague, signed two years earlier and now basically in tatters. The treaty, intended to bring an end of the bloodshed, as we know, was riddled with loopholes and exclusions, particularly regarding the amnesty question.

Many of Ferdinand the Third's opponents, including powerful military leaders like Bernard of Saxey Weimar and Johann George of Hesse Kassel, were excluded from the general partner. Now, this put Ferdinand the Third in a tough position because immediately he was facing these two men and others, including of course Sweetness we've discussed, who were going to reignite the old conflict.

These unresolved grievances fuel ongoing resistance and complicated any efforts that Ferdinand the Third might have made in the absence of them, to establish some sort of stability. The military situation that Ferdinand the Third was facing was also very dire. The Rhineland, a strategically vital region, became a battleground now as Imperial forces attempt to get the French out of

German territory. This campaign, which was launched in early sixteen thirty seven, one of the first of Ferdinand the Third's reign, ends in total disaster for the Empire. A combination of factors contribute to this defeat. There were logistical problems that plagued the Imperial army, in adequate funding and poor coordination with their allies. They're also tactical blunders made by imperial commanders. All in all, safe to say the Empire had no chance.

The setback forces Ferdinand to shift his focus to Hesse Cassel, where he hoped to secure a crucial stronghold and gain control over vital supply lines. Despite receiving assistance from the Duke of Lorraine, Ferdinand the Third's forces were unable to dislodge the French garrison from this key province. This failure underscored the growing strength of France and the challenges the

Empire faced encountering their influence. The growth of France, of course, has a lot to do with the roles played by Cardinal Richelieu. Richelieu continued to be a master of diplomacy and intrigue, skillfully exploiting the Empire's weakness is to advance French interests. Throughout the period, he provided generous financial subsidies to the Swedes and the Hessians, keeping the pressure on Ferdinand the Third and hindering any efforts he might have

made to consolidate his power. Richelieu also secured the allegiance of the landgrave Wilhelm the second of Hesse Kassel, a key player in the ongoing conflict. Richelieu understood that Wilhelm's strategic position and military expertise would make him a valuable ally going forward, and he was one of the first people to recognize this. He worked tirelessly to cultivate this relationship, even orchestrating a marriage between Wilhelm's granddaughter, emil Elizabeth and

the Duke of Orleans, a French prince. This alliance not only strengthened French's position, but also isolated Ferdinand the Third, further diminishing his chances of achieving a lasting piece. Of course, from Prance perspective, this made sense. The longer that you could keep the Holy Roman Empire divided and weak, the longer it would be before they could challenge French hegemony, and the more territory that France would be able to

consolidate to long the critical Rhine River valley. Now, meanwhile, of course, Sweden was still around, casting a long shadow over the Empire. Despite facing internal divisions and the challenges of sustaining a prolonged campaign, the Swedish Army remained a formidable force. The exiled Prince Laarl Ludwig, with Swedish backing, tried to reclaim lost territories in the Palatinate that had been lost actually all the way going back to Frederick

the Fifth when this story all began. Initially, the Palatinate forces, bolstered by Scottish mercenaries and of course by Swedish help, enjoyed success, but this momentum was frankly short lived. In November sixteen thirty eight, the Palatinate forces for a crushing defeat at the hands of the Imperial Army, dashing Karl

Ludwig's hope of a Protestant restoration to the key territory. Now, despite this setback, the Swedes were still all in, and under the command of Johann Banaher, they proved to be both resilient and adaptable. They weathered a difficult retreat in sixteen thirty nine. They regrouped and continued operations, demonstrating the determination to remain a major player in this conflict that

seems increasingly not in their interests. Now, adding, of course, to Ferdinand the Third's military woes were the Empire's chronic financial constraints. The costs of maintaining a large standing army, coupled with the ongoing expenses of the war, continued to strain the Imperial treasury. Securing adequate funding from the imperial estates proved to be a constant challenge, hindering the Emperor's

ability to effectively prosecute the war. Remember, all of these grants that were issued by the Reichstag and other different estates throughout the Empire, those were conditional, and they were normally made for a brief period of time and to critically combat an external threat like the Ottomans. It was never a system that was built or intended to fight a prolonged conflict that lasted thirty years, not to say something that was essentially a civil war. Now, it is

important to back up for a second. If you think about the period from sixteen thirty seven to sixteen forty and think about the larger challenges that are facing the Holy Roman Empire. There's a complicated web of political alliances that Ferdinand the Third has to hold together during this period, and not everybody's initiatives, desires, or demands are the same. Makes it a very difficult juggling act for him to continue uously carry out. On top of it, the military

campaigns for both sides were never uniform. It was never a string of uninterrupted victories for the Protestant princes, for Sweden, for France, or for the imperial forces. It was a lot of back and forth, so you had to recover from losses. And then on top of this were the financial pressures. The financial pressures were enormous for all the combatants, but mostly for the imperial forces. Now, Ferdinand is a young emperor and he's doing the best he can, grappling

with a legacy of conflict. He's got an empire that appears to be crumbling, and powerful adversaries like France, Spain, and Sweden all lined up potentially with him, potentially against him at different times. This was a challenging time to be a leader. Next time, we'll delve into Ferdinand the Third's reign a little bit more and start to learn

more about how he feels these challenges going forward. Now all this week I'll be releasing more episodes as I continue to try to put the pedal to the metal. As we used to say, it doesn't really make much sense anymore in the world of evs, but keeping the analogy going. If you'd like to support my efforts to bring this to a conclusion, please check out the link in the show notes to Western Civ two point oh.

For one dollar a month you can get all of these shows a little early and without any advertisements, and for two dollars or more a month you can continue to support the show and get access to Western Civ two point oh, where I do a much much more detailed look at all the events of history in the same narrative style.