Thirty Years' War (Renaissance and Reformation)

Introduction

The Thirty Years War, a multifaceted and multinational political and military conflict that raged over central Europe between 1618 and 1648 has often been considered, at least in the scope of misery and destruction it brought to those experiencing it, as a disaster comparable to, if not greater than, the two world wars and the Black Death. The suffering and heroism of both the combatants and the hapless victims of the fighting has burned itself into the national literatures and historical consciousness of that age and those ages that follow. While information on the extent of the material losses is sketchy, recent scholarship estimates human casualties to be in excess of millions, or about 15 to 20 percent of the prewar population of the region. Added to the sheer human dimension of the conflict are its social and political consequences—its beginning is usually associated with the start of perhaps the last religious war of the Reformation, and its end is often considered to be the first stepping stone in the development of the modern nation-state. As such, what began as a revolt of one constituent element of that burdensome and overcomplicated quasi-state called the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, and soon engulfed many of the premier European Houses and nations, has been pegged by many historians to be an event standing at the crossroads of modernity; an extremely violent outburst of premodern political and religious sentiment staring down the precipice of a political and diplomatic paradigm shift that altered the face of Europe and, by extension, of the world. Over the course of three and a half centuries following the conclusion of the conflict, the war has inspired a myriad of historical viewpoints and interpretations, with its causes and consequences, personalities, phases, and military actions analyzed and reanalyzed from a variety of political, national, and social standpoints. A full bibliography on the Peace of Westphalia, for instance—the treaty concluding the war—would list several thousand works alone, and that would be just one aspect of the whole production.

General Overviews

The general accounts of the Thirty Years War have collectively followed several established historiographical trends and traditions. The earliest 18th-century German Sturm und Drang movement, best represented by Schiller in The Thirty Years War—Complete, accentuated the almost Gothic surge of tragedy, pain, and suffering of the German nation, while also stressing the confessional nature of the conflict (mostly with a pro-Protestant slant) and the role of individuals involved. The British production of the early 20th century, exemplified by Wedgewood 2005 (originally published in 1938), picked up on that tradition and followed it. It was only in the second half of the 20th century that more nuanced accounts began to dominate, with the “international school,” here represented by Parker 1997, attempting to portray the Thirty Years War in the light of the additional European and colonial events, while Asch 1997 and Wilson 2009 attempted to ground the conflict more in its central European context and reimagine its dimensions away from a religious and into a more politics-oriented struggle. Also emphasizing politics and political structures, Burkhardt 1992 sees the war as a “state-building” exercise. Polišenský 1971 is a Marxist-oriented account focusing on the socioeconomic and structural aspects of the conflict, though its inclusion of Bohemian sources makes it definitely worthwhile. Finally, Arndt 2009 is a general account also stressing the social dimension.

Asch, Ronald G. The Thirty Years War: The Holy Roman Empire and Europe, 1618–1648. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1997.
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A nuanced and balanced account of the Thirty Years War that stresses policies, events, and developments in central Europe and especially within the Holy Roman Empire.
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Arndt, Johannes. Der Dreißigjährige Krieg 1618–1648. Stuttgart: Reclam, 2009.
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A basic modern presentation of the Thirty Years War written with the general reader in mind that nevertheless delves deeply into the social dimension of the conflict as experienced by the common man, whether soldier or peasant.
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Burkhardt, Johannes. Der Dreißigjährige Krieg. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1992.
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A thorough analysis of the structural conditions of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and its constituent elements that turned the Thirty Years War into a “state-building war.” This isn’t necessarily a chronological account of the conflict but rather a thematic reimagining of the political structures that made the resulting conflict into one of premier importance in European history of statehood.
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Parker, Geoffrey, ed. The Thirty Years’ War. 2d ed. London: Routledge, 1997.
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A concise and well-researched account of the totality of the struggle that stresses the political and diplomatic aspects, as well as structural ones. Particularly strong in placing the Thirty Years War in its international context and looks at events in the Middle East, Asia, and the European colonial rim to explain central European developments. Also comes with a strong, annotated bibliography.
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Polišenský, J. V. The Thirty Years War. Translated by Robert Evans. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971.
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An important account of the war, written by one of the prominent central European scholars of the conflict, that utilizes heretofore unavailable in English Bohemian sources. Like most Eastern European research of the Cold War era, this one is heavy on the socioeconomic dimension as opposed to the political or the military.
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Schiller, Friedrich. The Thirty Years War—Complete.
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A classic of the Sturm und Drang period of German literature, this romanticized 18th-century account of the Thirty Years War by Germany’s leading poet could be seen as more literature than history, but it forms an important historiographic expression of an early attempt to come to terms with the sheer scope and destruction of the conflict.
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Wedgwood, C. V. The Thirty Years War. New York: New York Review, 2005.
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A classic study of the war, though now generally dated, first published in 1938, just in time for the beginning of another German-started catastrophe, that offers a personality-driven interpretation that is steeped in the Protestant-leaning Anglo-German historical literature of end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.
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Wilson, Peter H. The Thirty Years War: Europe’s Tragedy. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2009.
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A magisterial accounting of the entire scope and dimension of the titanic struggle that made up the Thirty Years War. Wilson’s book presents the war more in a political than a religious light, and sees the conflict as a freestanding event of intrinsic magnitude and importance rather than a part of more general economic or political events.
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Historiography

As with any conflict of vast dimensions and consequences that has drawn the attention of historians, there exist several schools of interpretation on the Thirty Years War that have imagined the epochal struggle from a variety of perspectives—many of them already identified in other categories. Most top-tier monographs and studies of the war carry some sort of historiographic section within their pages, but only rarely has the history of Thirty Years War historiography been analyzed in freestanding productions that actually concentrate on these schools of interpretation. Rabb 1964 offers a discussion of Thirty Years War historiography that goes all the way back to the 18th century, while Wilson 2005 concentrates on some of the more recent trends. Specifically, in the debate about the “international” nature of the Thirty Years War, Repgen 1982 and Mortimer 2001 both stand against the notion of the war being just a phase in a more general dynastic struggle.

Mortimer, G. “Did Contemporaries Recognize a ‘Thirty Years War’?” English Historical Review 116 (2001): 124–136.
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An article that uses excerpts from primary sources to dispute the assertions made by the “international school” of S. H. Steinberg and N. M. Sutherland claiming that the name “Thirty Years War” was a later construct and that the contemporaries did not view the central European events as a single unfolding conflict but rather as many wars (the Bohemian War or Swedish War, for instance).
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Rabb, Theodore K., ed. The Thirty Years War: Problems of Motive Extent and Effect. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath, 1964.
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A series of twenty-one essays and excerpts from historical works by noted scholars describing the importance and meaning behind the Thirty Years War to European and world affairs.
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Repgen, Konrad. “Noch einmal zum Begriff ‘Dreiβigjähriger Krieg.’” Zeitschrift für historische Forschung 9 (1982): 347–352.
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Looking over official contemporary documents Repgen concludes Germans saw the Thirty Years War as a continuous and homogeneous struggle that does not lend itself to “international” interpretations of S. H. Steinberg and N. M. Sutherland.
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Wilson, Peter. “New Perspectives on the Thirty Years War.” German History 23 (2005): 237–261.
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A good, solid overview of some additions to the history of the Thirty Years War from a historiographical perspective.
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Primary Sources

A war that has written itself conclusively into the imagination and psyche of an entire generation of Europeans will necessarily leave a lasting impact in literature, art, and historical accounts of the age. Historians working on the Thirty Years War have therefore at their disposal a considerable amount of primary sources. Chronicles, official documents, and biographical memoir-type literature dominate this genre, but there also exists a sizable artistic element, mostly woodcuts or similar forms, that aims to portray the witnessed horrors generated by the struggle. Theatrum Europaeum is a near-contemporary chronicle of the events that includes beautiful artwork. Political artwork inspired by the war is also the subject of Coupe 1962 and Bohatcová 1966. Beller 1927, an older work, discusses the success of the English 1620s coranto “newspapers” as they followed the affairs of the developing conflict in Germany. Jessen 1963 and Bentele 1984 are two German compilations of sources. Helfferich 2009 and Wilson 2010 offer a wide sampling of sources translated into English. Mortimer 2002 follows suit and offers extensive commentary as well.

Beller, Elmer A. “Contemporary English Printed Sources for the Thirty Years’ War.” American Historical Review 32.2 (1927): 276–282.
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An older but still readable introduction to the English Thirty Years War–inspired “coranto” literature of the early 1620s. The corantos, originally from Holland, were some of the earliest English broadsheet newspapers, which tracked the fortunes of Frederick V and Elizabeth of Bohemia in the beginning phases of the Thirty Years War. Their success bespeaks of lively English interest in the affairs of the Continent.
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Bentele, Günther, ed. Protokolle einer Katastrophe: Zwei Bietigheimer Chroniken aus dem Dreissigjährigen Krieg. Bietigheim-Bissingen, West Germany: Stadtarchiv Bietingheim-Bissingen, 1984.
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A collection of two local chronicles profiling the impact of the Thirty Years War on the community of Bietigheim in Baden-Württemberg. Often used in microhistorical studies of the war’s effect on localities and civilian populations.
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Bohatcová, Mirjam. Irrgarten der Schicksale: Einblattdrucke vom Anfang des Dreissigjährigen Krieges. Translated by Peter Aschner. Prague: Artia, 1966.
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An analysis of political and religious pamphlets and broadsheets from the beginning phase of the Thirty Years War.
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Coupe, W. A. “Political and Religious Cartoons of the Thirty Years’ War.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 25.1/2 (1962): 65–86.
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An analysis of the Helge, illustrated woodcut or copperplate broadsheets and pamphlets produced by German Briefmaler artists as political satire and commentary during the time of the Thirty Years War.
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Helfferich, Tryntje, ed. and trans. The Thirty Years War: A Documentary History. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2009.
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A major compilation of mostly German documents pertaining to the entire war, some translated for the first time into English. Covers the military, political, and social aspects.
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Jessen, Hans, ed. Der Dreissigjährige Krieg in Augenzeugenberichten. Dusseldorf, West Germany: K. Rauch, 1963.
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This mid-20th-century compilation of eyewitness accounts of the Thirty Years War strikingly demonstrates the war’s sheer terror and destructiveness as perceived by chroniclers, princes and politicians, and ordinary citizens.
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Mortimer, Geoff. Eyewitness Accounts of the Thirty Years War, 1618–48. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2002.
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A reworking of Mortimer’s Ph.D. thesis, this is an account of everyday life in Germany at the time of the Thirty Years War taken from the perspective of the historical actors themselves, namely, the soldiers fighting the war and the civilians suffering through its consequences. A mix of quotes from the actual documents and author’s commentary.
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Theatrum Europaeum; oder, Auβführiche und warhafftige Beschreibung aller und jeder denckwürdiger Geschichten, so sich hin und wieder in der Welt fürnemblich aber in Europa, und Teutschlanden, so wol im Religion-als-Prophan-Wesen, vom Jahr Christi 1617 biβ auff das Jahr 1629. 21 vols. Frankfurt: Daniel Fievet, 1662–1738.
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One of the principal, and beautifully illustrated, near-contemporary sources on the beginning and progress of the Thirty Years War as well as other events in central Europe; has long shaped historical research on the steps leading to the Bohemian outburst.
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Wilson, Peter H, comp. The Thirty Years War: A Sourcebook. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
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A comprehensive collection of documents, memoirs, and eyewitness accounts from the time of the Thirty Years War. Wilson’s sources include a genuine cross-section of surviving accounts, representing the works of leaders, politicians, soldiers, artists, and ordinary citizens.
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The War in Context

Unlike the Reformation, which is most often approached as a freestanding historic event of first importance, the Thirty Years War has often been seen as part of more general and long-term developments, be they military, diplomatic, economic, or political. This contextualization and compartmentalization of the Thirty Years War has therefore sometimes led to a perception that the war was simply a segment of something greater, and therefore lessened the war’s intrinsic importance in the eyes of many historians—a trend that both the 19th-century Sturm und Drang historiography and some of the more recent publications have set themselves to correct. Generally speaking, the Thirty Years War has been presented most forcibly as either part and parcel of a proposed general 17th-century European crisis, seen most strongly from an economic perspective by Polišenský 1968, and from a variety of perspectives—political, economic, and even environmental—by Anston 1965 and, more recently, Parker 1997; as a phase in the development of modern diplomatic norms, by Schilling 2007, and of political concepts—including nation-statehood—by Tilly 1975; as part of a progressive and large-scale military revolution by Downing 1992, or more gradual developmental military trends by Black 1991; and, finally, as an facet, albeit an important one, of a more complex and encompassing political game for continental supremacy by rival great houses, as it is presented by both Steinberg 1966 and Sutherland 1992.

Anston, T. H., ed. Crisis in Europe 1560–1660: Essays from Past and Present. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1965.
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The standard and classic reading for the “crisis theory” in 17th-century European history that includes the Thirty Years War as a part and parcel of ongoing socioeconomic, religious, and political trends. Includes classic articles, originally published in Past and Present, by Eric Hobsbawm and H. R. Trevor-Roper.
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Black, Jeremy. A Military Revolution? Military Change and European Society, 1550–1800. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1991.
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A revisionist approach and an answer to Downing 1992 on the “military revolution” that sees rapid changes in military employment beginning only in the seventeen hundreds, a century after the standard interpretation. Argues for the Thirty Years War as being a stepping stone in the long process of a European military development that began with the Italian Wars.
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Downing, Brian M. The Military Revolution and Political Change: Origins of Democracy and Autocracy in Early Modern Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992.
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A book linking premodern political developments in western and eastern Europe (as well as elsewhere) to inherent medieval forms of constitutionalism and the states“ ability to raise larger and more modern standing armies. The work specifically discusses several combatants of the Thirty Years War (France, Poland, and Sweden, for instance) and the developments, both political and military, of that age.
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Parker, Geoffrey, and Lesley M. Smith, eds. The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century. 2d ed. London: Routledge, 1997.
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A well-rounded collection of essays that approach the question of the existence of a general European (some articles also look at Southeast Asia and colonies) crisis from a plenitude of directions, some economic, some political, some even environmental. The Thirty Years War is seen therefore as just a part of a far larger international conflict.
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Polišenský, J. V. “The Thirty Years’ War and the Crises and Revolutions of Seventeenth-Century Europe.” Past and Present 39 (1968): 34–43.
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An important, Cold War–era reading of the Thirty Years War that puts much stock in the economic interpretations of the conflict—together with other upheavals and revolutions—as consequences of crisis of economic production and distribution.
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Schilling, Heinz. Konfessionalisierung und Staatsinteressen: Internationale Beziehungen 1559–1660. Paderborn, Germany: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2007.
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A stately, complex account of the developments in European diplomacy between the treaties of Cateau-Cambrésis and Oliva. The author studies intently the influence of confessional struggles on European power diplomacy and notices the lessening of this, as well as of the principles of “universal monarchy” after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
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Steinberg, S. H. The Thirty Years War and the Conflict for European Hegemony, 1600–1660. New York: Norton, 1966.
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A classic of the “international school” that argues the Thirty Years War must be seen as part of a framework of European power struggle (more accurately termed the Fifty Years War, 1609–1659) for continental hegemony in the 17th century.
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Sutherland, N. M. “The Origins of the Thirty Years War and the Structure of European Politics.” English Historical Review 107 (1992): 587–625.
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A part of the “international” interpretation of the war that sees the thirty-year struggle as just one phase of a longer conflict—lasting about three centuries—between the houses of France and Habsburg.
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Tilly, Charles, ed. The Formation of National States in Western Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975.
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Tilly, an eminent sociologist, leads a cohort of experts in discussing and explaining the multidimensional problems of state forming faced by emerging western European polities in the premodern world. The formation of standing armies and the exercise of power through war (including the Thirty Years War) associated with them is seen as one of the major successful strategies employed by the emerging nation-states.
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Origins

As with any prolonged conflict that influenced European development, the questions surrounding the origins of the Thirty Years War and its inevitability or accidental nature have long been analyzed by serious scholars. Special focus has been placed on a number of events that led to the war, or that influenced the political and diplomatic environment in which the war began. The Jülich-Cleves succession crisis, the particular interplay between the Spanish and Austrian branches of the house of Habsburg regarding the Bohemian succession, and eventually the Bohemian Rebellion itself are seen as representative of deep-seated dynastic animosities and constitutional dilemmas within an empire tottering on the brink of a catastrophe. The “international school” has been particularly interested in interpreting the war’s beginnings. Thus Anderson 1999 looks in detail at the Jülich-Cleves crisis and showcases the success of diplomacy that was all but absent less than a decade later. Sánchez 1994 sees the groundwork for the war being laid in the intricate diplomacy of the Spanish and Austrian branches of the Habsburgs. Polišenský 1964 and Polišenský 1991 support such an “international” interpretation of the conflict and look at how Spanish and Dutch politics intertwined to lead toward the outbreak of hostilities. Gutman 1988 is in agreement, seeing a hegemonic struggle between perceived and actual centers of shifting international power leading to the outbreak of the war. Brightwell 1979 and Brightwell 1982 follow the same line in tracing the progress of Spanish involvement at the start of the conflict. Sturmberger 1959 concentrates on the Bohemian Revolt itself, along with its diplomatic and military implications, while Müller 1997 analyzes Saxon involvement in the opening phases of the war.

Anderson, Alison D. On the Verge of War: International Relations and the Jülich-Kleve Succession Crises (1609–1614). Boston: Humanities Press, 1999.
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A reappraisal of the political situation on the eve of the Thirty Years War. The article challenges the inevitability of the broader conflict by arguing that since diplomacy had solved the earlier Jülich-Cleves crisis not once but twice, something then must have accounted for the failure of diplomacy to stop the Thirty Years War from beginning a decade or so later.
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Brightwell, Peter. “The Spanish Origins of the Thirty Years’ War.” European Studies Review 9 (1979): 409–431.
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An analysis of the dynastic policies of the Spanish Habsburgs and their influence on the beginnings of the Thirty Years War.
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Brightwell, Peter. “Spain and Bohemia: The Decision to Intervene, 1619.” European Studies Review 12 (1982): 117–141.
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A reimagining of Brightwell 1979 now focuses on the Spanish Habsburg decision to support their Austrian cousins against the Bohemian rebels, thus internationalizing the conflict that would come to be known as the Thirty Years War.
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Gutmann, Myron P. “The Origins of the Thirty Years War.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 18.4 (1988): 749–770.
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Based primarily on secondary sources, this article is steeped in the “international school” that sees the Thirty Years War as a part of a wider struggle for European hegemony, an interpretation that began with Steinberg and was promoted by Geoffrey Parker. The article concentrates on and attempts to explain the complex beginning of the struggle, which Gutmann sees in the shifting loci of perceived and actual political power on the Continent.
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Müller, Frank. Kursachsen und der Böhmische Aufstand 1618–1622. Münster, Germany: Aschendorff, 1997.
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Discusses the role Saxony played in the Bohemian Revolt, the first phase of the Thirty Years War.
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Polišenský, Josef. Historie o válce české, 1618–1620: Výbor z historického spisování Ondrěje z Habernfeldu a Pavla Skály ze Zhoře. Prague: Státní Nakl. Krásné Literaturny a Umění, 1964.
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Polišenský, a major Czech scholar of the Thirty Years War, analyzes two contemporary Czech chronicles from the time of the Bohemian Revolt.
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Polišenský, Josef. Tragic Triangle: The Netherlands, Spain and Bohemia; 1617–1621. Translated by Frederick Snyder. Prague: Charles University, 1991.
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This discussion of how the Spanish and Dutch policies contributed to the outbreak of the Thirty Years War concentrates on the importance of the materialistic dialectic of protocapitalistic economic development and its influence on policymaking.
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Sánchez, Magdalena S. “A House Divided: Spain, Austria, and the Bohemian and Hungarian Successions.” Sixteenth Century Journal 25.4 (1994): 887–903.
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An account of the difficult and complicated diplomacy between Philip III of Spain and Ferdinand of Styria (later Ferdinand II) in reference to the disputed succession of Bohemia and Hungary in the period of 1612–1617 that led to the Bohemian Revolt and the beginning of the Thirty Years War.
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Sturmberger, Hans. Aufstand in Böhmen: Der Beginn des Dreißigjährigen Krieges. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1959.
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Discusses the events leading up to the Bohemian Revolt, the outbreak of hostilities between the Holy Roman Empire and the Protestants that started the Thirty Years War.
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Military

The Thirty Years War is often seen by military historians as a part of a major paradigm shift in military arts and sciences, sometimes even seen in terms of a “military revolution” that led to the development of “modern” warfare. The sheer scope and length of the conflict placed such enormous strains and pressures on state resources and its ability to wage a prolonged war that new strategic and logistical methods needed to be utilized to feed and preserve the old, crumbling state-power structure. For this reason the methods used by some states, statesmen, and generals to maintain themselves in the field have been consistently analyzed and discussed. Some works that deal with the Thirty Years War as a part of the Military Revolution are cited in The War in Context. Roberts 1967 is the granddaddy of the “military revolution” theory, seeing Gustavus Adolphus and his tactics as paradigm shifting. Chalaine 1999 is a straightforward French-language look at the opening campaign of the conflict—the Habsburg-Bavarian victory at White Mountain in 1620. Guthrie 2001 and Guthrie 2003 cover all the major military engagements of the entire war. Parrott 1985 offers a challenge to interpreting the Thirty Years War as a “military revolution,” while Parrott 2001 explores the challenge further by debunking the picture of the French army of the time as part of a “state-building” enterprise. Croxton 1998 analyzes the development and limitations of strategical visions and concepts in organizing and leading the war effort. Finally, Salm 1990 and Pohl 1994 delve into the minutiae of the imperial armies“ organization, supply, and logistics.

Chalaine, Olivier. La bataille de la Montagne Blanche (8 novembre 1620): Un mystique chez les guerriers. Paris: Noesis, 1999.
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An account of the first major battle of the Thirty Years War—the Battle of White Mountain outside of Prague—and of its importance to the Catholic-Protestant struggle.
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Croxton, Derek. “A Territorial Imperative? The Military Revolution, Strategy and Peacemaking in the Thirty Years War.” War in History 5 (1998): 253–279.
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An attempt to add a strategic dimension to the continuing talk of a military revolution in the early 17th century. Croxton believes developments in the strategic thinking of major combatants—in this case the Habsburgs—should be seen side by side with developments in battlefield tactics and the abilities of states to raise bigger and bigger armies.
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Guthrie, William P. Battles of the Thirty Years War: From White Mountain to Nordlingen, 1618–1635. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2001.
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The first part of an English-language attempt to cover the major military actions of the Thirty Years War in detail is an important contribution to our knowledge base on the organization, personnel, and battle tactics of the leaders and units involved in this momentous struggle.
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Guthrie, William P. The Later Thirty Years War: From the Battle of Wittstock to the Treaty of Westphalia. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2003.
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The continuation of Guthrie’s account of the major military actions of the Thirty Years War begins with the French direct involvement in the conflict and lasts until the final peace treaty in 1648. This book is notable for providing a full English-language account of several lesser known but still important battles that decided the course of the later stages of the war.
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Parrott, David. Richelieu’s Army: War, Government and Society in France, 1624–1642. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
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Both an explanation and a reappraisal of the sinews of power that propelled France’s greatness in the 17th century, this book challenges the prevalent picture of the French war machine at the time of the Thirty Years War as a tool deftly wielded by Richelieu in his quest of state building.
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Parrott, David. “Strategy and Tactics in the Thirty Years War: The ‘Military Revolution.’” Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen 18 (1985): 7–25.
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A reappraisal of the idea that 17th-century tactical and material development in the military arts at the time of the Thirty Years War constituted a “military revolution.”
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Pohl, Jürgen. “Die Profiantirung der keyserlichen Armaden ahnbelangendt”: Studien zur Versorgung der kaiserlichen Armee, 1634/35. Vienna: Ferdinand Berger, 1994.
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A work on the organization, supply, and logistics of the imperial army in the important year between the murder of Wallenstain and the Peace of Prague.
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Roberts, Michael. “The Military Revolution, 1560–1660.” In Essays in Swedish History. By Michael Roberts, 195–225. London: Widenfeld & Nicolson, 1967.
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A seminal article that initiated almost fifty years of scholarly debate. Roberts argues that tactical changes originated by Maurice of Nassau and by Gustavus Adolphus necessitated a paradigm shift in early modern states’ war-making capabilities that ushered in modern military and political concepts.
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Salm, Hubert. Armeefinanzierung im Dreiβigjährigen Krieg: Der Niederrheinisch-Westfälische Reichskreis 1635–1650. Schriftenreihe der Vereinigung zur Erforschung der Neueren Geschichte 16. Münster, Germany: Aschendorff, 1990.
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A discussion of both army operations and army provisioning in Germany during the second half of the Thirty Years War.
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The Osprey Series

The Osprey books detail various aspects of military history. Aimed mostly at the amateur military buff rather than the professional historian, these books bring to light various battles, armies, and personalities of military history, including full color illustrations of battle maps, charts, uniforms, etc. The Thirty Years War is a subject of several Osprey offerings: pike and musket tactics that were generally utilized by both sides in the struggle are analyzed by Roberts 2010. The cavalry serving the imperial cause is looked at by Brnardic 2010; the infantry, by Brnardic 2009. Likewise, the Swedish infantry is studied by Brzezinski 1991, and the cavalry by Brzezinski 1993. The bloody Battle of Lützen, one of the most important campaigns of the Thirty Years War, is given treatment in Brzezinski 2001. Finally, Bonney 1992 provides a general account of the entire war.

Bonney, Richard. The Thirty Years’ War 1618–1648. Oxford: Osprey, 1992.
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An overview of the political and military aspects of the war with a special emphasis on the struggle’s place in the “military revolution” and in the development of modern methods of warfare. This book is written with both the military historian and the general reader in mind.
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Brnardic, Vladimir. Imperial Armies of the Thirty Years’ War. Vol. 1, Infantry and Artillery. Oxford: Osprey, 2009.
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Description of the imperial Habsburg infantry of the Thirty Years War: its organization, uniforms, weapons, and formations.
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Brnardic, Vladimir. Imperial Armies of the Thirty Years’ War. Vol. 2, Cavalry. Oxford: Osprey, 2010.
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An account of the weapons, uniforms, and tactics employed by the imperial Habsburg cavalry during the Thirty Years War.
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Brzezinski, Richard. The Army of Gustavus Adolphus. Vol. 1, Infantry. Oxford: Osprey, 1991.
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Gustavus Adolphus’s entry into the Thirty Years War gave new ardor to the Protestant ranks. This is a description of the role, structure, and organization of the infantry corps he utilized to turn the tide of the war against the Habsburgs.
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Brzezinski, Richard. The Army of Gustavus Adolphus. Vol. 2, Cavalry. Oxford: Osprey, 1993.
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Gustavus Adolphus’s cavalry tactics caused a revolution in the battlefields of the Thirty Years War. This account traces the development of Swedish cavalry battle tactics from the plains of Poland to the fields of Germany.
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Brzezinski, Richard. Lützen 1632: Climax of the Thirty Years War. Oxford: Osprey, 2001.
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A detailed and illustrated analysis of one of the most pivotal battles of the Thirty Years War, which led to the death of the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus.
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Roberts, Keith. Pike and Shot Tactics 1590–1660. Oxford: Osprey, 2010.
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A synthesis of research analyzing the prevalent battle tactics employed by both the imperialists and their Protestant (and Catholic) adversaries during the Thirty Years War.
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The Religious Dimension

Many historians see the Thirty Years War as a watershed in the affairs of Europe: a war that begins as a religious struggle between the Catholic House of Austria and Protestant Bohemian rebels and eventually turns into a wider, more complex political struggle between the Habsburgs and their enemies. In other words, the war is often seen as the last of the great European religious conflicts. Yet there is no denying that religious ideology continued to be important even after political questions came to the forefront, and, likewise, political considerations cannot simply be brushed over when dealing with the Bohemian Revolt. The questions of the religious/political dichotomy and nature of the thirty-year struggle have therefore constituted an important research topic. Championing the religious dimension are the works of Robert Bireley, who in Bireley 1975, Bireley 1976, Bireley 1981, and Bireley 2003 underscores the importance of religion in the Catholic experience of the war, especially when viewed from the perspective of the Society of Jesus. Due consideration to the religious and political is given in Roeck 1995, Kaiser 1999, and Wilson 2008.

Bireley, Robert. Maximilian von Bayern, Adam Contzen S. J. und die Gegenreformation in Deutschland 1624–1635. Göttingen, West Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1975.
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A detailed source analysis of the interaction between Maximilian I of Bavaria and the Jesuits during the middle phase of the Thirty Years War. Bireley, as in his other books, tends to ascribe a pronounced role to Maximilian’s Catholic faith in ordering his political and military affairs.
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Bireley, Robert. “The Peace of Prague (1635) and the Counter Reformation in Germany.” Journal of Modern History 48.1 (1976): 31–70.
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A thoroughly researched account chronicling the in-depth negotiations surrounding the 1635 Peace of Prague and the aspects of the deliberations that eventually led to political considerations trumping the religious ones.
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Bireley, Robert. Religion and Politics in the Age of the Counterreformation: Emperor Ferdinand II, William Lamormaini, S. J., and the Formation of Imperial Policy. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981.
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The book analyzes the relationship between Emperor Ferdinand II and his Jesuit confessor and claims that religious questions were of primary importance in formulating the imperial policy.
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Bireley, Robert. The Jesuits and the Thirty Years War: Kings, Courts and Confessors. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
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An in-depth analysis of the role, strategy, and influence the Society of Jesus wielded during the Thirty Years War, with a special focus on Jesuit work in the Catholic capitals of Munich, Vienna, and Madrid. The book points to a general reorientation of the order’s capabilities and mission due to a lessening of the confessional dimension of the conflict as it developed into a political struggle.
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Kaiser, Michael. Politik und Kriegführung: Maximilian von Bayern, Tilly und die Katholische Liga im Dreissigjährigen Krieg. Münster, Germany: Aschendorff, 1999.
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An analysis of political, military, and spiritual influences of Maximilian of Bavaria and his field marshal, Count Tilly, on the strategy and goals of the Catholic League during the beginning phases of the Thirty Years War.
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Roeck, Bernd, ed. Gegenreformation und Dreißigjähriger Krieg 1555–1648. Deutsche Geschichte in Quellen und Darstellung 4. Stuttgart: Reklam, 1995.
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A part of the Deutsche Geschichte in Quellen und Darstellung series, this offering brings together many pertinent primary sources that show the interaction between politics and religion from the time of the Peace of Augsburg to the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia.
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Wilson, Peter H. “Dynasty, Constitution, and Confession. The Role of Religion in the Thirty Years War.” International History Review 30 (2008): 473–514.
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An analysis of confessional influences on the political decisions of both Catholics and Protestants leading to the beginning of the Thirty Years War in Europe, as well as on its prosecution.
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Political and Diplomatic

The Peace of Westphalia, the treaty that finally put a stop to thirty years of almost uninterrupted conflict, was one of the most complicated peace treaties ever ratified, as it involved multiple parties and signatories. The Peace of Westphalia has also become one of the most famous, one of the most analyzed, and one of the most written-about treaties in human history, with over four thousand entries in various disciplines. Bridging the gap between diplomacy, history and political science, the treaty is often considered to be the framework upon which our modern understanding of national statehood still rests. The Thirty Years War has other political and diplomatic points of interest, but none of them as well described or analyzed as the final peace treaty that put an end to it all. For the importance of the Peace of Westphalia in the development of the modern understanding of international consensus, see Clark 2005 and Philpott 2001, while both Osiander 2001 and Teschke 2003 discount Westphalian influences in the development of modern nation-state concepts. Karsten 1990 looks at imperial politics and diplomacy during the long negotiation process. Greindl 2009 concentrates on the correspondence between the duke of Bavaria and his plenipotentiaries. Croxton 1999, on the other hand, looks to the French side, especially how the policies of Cardinal Mazarin shaped the peace process. Finally, Weber 1988 and Piirimäe 2002 concern themselves with questions justifying the entry of France and Sweden, respectively, into the Thirty Years War in the first place.

Clark, Ian. Legitimacy in International Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
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A lucid explanation of the concept of international legitimacy, written by a master political science scholar, which sees the Treaty of Westphalia as a major stepping stone in the development of modern standards of political consensus.
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Croxton, Derek. Peacemaking in Early Modern Europe: Cardinal Mazarin and the Congress of Westphalia. Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 1999.
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An explanation of Cardinal Mazarin’s strategies at the Peace of Westphalia that laid the groundwork for eventual French “preponderance” in Europe in the second half of the 17th century.
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Greindl, Gabriele, and Gerhard Immler, eds. Die diplomatische Korrespondenz Kurfürst Maximilians I. von Bayern mit seinen Gesandten in Münster und Osnabrück: Dezember 1644–Juli 1645. Munich: Kommission für Bayerische Landesgeschichte 2009.
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A listing and discussion of eighty-one letters between Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria and his agents to the peace Congress of Westphalia.
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Karsten, Ruppert. Die Kaiserliche Politik auf dem Westfälischen Friedenskongreβ (1643–1648). Schriftenreihe der Vereiningung zur Erforschung der Neueren Geschichte 16. Münster, Germany: Aschendorff, 1990.
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Describes the developments in imperial diplomacy relating to the peace process and explains its ability to limit additional concessions in view of the military losses associated with the last few years of the war.
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Osiander, Andreas. “Sovereignty, International Relations, and the Westphalian Myth.” International Organization 55.2 (2001): 251–287.
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An article challenging the assumption that the Peace of Westphalia established the now-accepted paradigms of international relations. The author argues that most concepts relating to “sovereignty” that the Westphalian system is supposedly based on did not appear until the 19th century.
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Piirimäe, Pärtel. “Just War in Theory and Practice: The Legitimation of Swedish Intervention in the Thirty Years War.” Historical Journal 45.3 (2002): 499–523.
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Discusses the Swedish Manifesto of 1630 as an attempt to justify Sweden’s intervention in the Thirty Years War on theological rather than political grounds.
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Philpott, Daniel. Revolutions in Sovereignty: How Ideas Shaped Modern International Relations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.
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This reappraisal of the political importance of the Westphalian system sees modern notions of sovereignty stemming from mostly religious and confessional ideologies as opposed to hard and materialistic reasons of state.
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Teschke, Benno. The Myth of 1648: Class, Geopolitics and the Making of Modern International Relations. London: Verso, 2003.
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A book that challenges the perceived notions that the Peace of Westphalia laid the groundwork for modern international relations, including ideas about state sovereignty. Teschke sees the signatories of the 1648 treaty as proto-absolutist states, not developed enough for notions of sovereignty that necessitate a more modern understanding of social property claims coalesced around burgeoning capitalism.
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Weber, Hermann. “Zur Legitimation der französischen Kriegserklärung von 1635.” Historisches Jahrbuch 108 (1988): 90–113.
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An analysis of multiple explanations present in French documents justifying the entry of France into the Thirty Years War in 1635, in view of present international legal formulas.
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Historical Figures

Besides being a war between great dynastic and emerging nation-states, as well as (at least initially) a contest between religions, the Thirty Years War also became a struggle of individuals. Kings and emperors, chancellors and prime ministers, generals and mercenaries wrote their own history in the shadow of battles and devastation. Scholars and historiographers have noticed them as well, making some out to be the heroes, others the villains of the unfolding drama. There is no question, however, that individuals such as the Swedish monarch Gustavus Adolphus or the mercenary captain Wallenstein have imprinted their stories onto the narrative of the war. For the career of Gustavus Adolphus, see Roberts 1992. An interesting study of the German reception of the Swedish king, based on published broadsheets, is Paas 1996. For the career of Wallenstein, see Mortimer 2010; for his career from the Czech viewpoint, see Polišenský and Kollmann 1995. Richelieu and Mazarin get their due in Sturdy 2003. The Bavarian general Tilly is discussed by Rill 1984; the Italian Montecuccoli, by Barker 1975. Christian IV of Denmark is brought to life by Heiberg 1988. Finally, the “Winter King,” Frederick V, is discussed in Pursell 2003.

Barker, Thomas M. The Military Intellectual and Battle: Raimondo Montecuccoli and the Thirty Years’ War. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1975.
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A fine introduction to an important but often forgotten or minimized figure from the later stages of the Thirty Years War—the Italian-born imperial general Montecuccoli—combines both his life story and an English translation of some of his important writings on the art of war.
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Heiberg, Steffen. Christian 4: Monarken, mennesket og myten. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1988.
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A detailed Danish-language overview—filled with source materials available only in Denmark—of the politics, ideology, and personality of this intriguing 17th-century monarch who led Denmark into its disastrous intervention during the Thirty Years War.
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Mortimer, Geoff. Wallenstein: The Enigma of the Thirty Years War. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
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An attempt to distill reality from the myths surrounding this minor nobleman who, through his own abilities, rose to the position of commander in chief of the armies of the Holy Roman Empire and became one of the greatest landowners of his generation, but whose fall from grace was as rapid as his ascent.
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Paas, John Roger. “The Changing Image of Gustavus Adolphus on German Broadsheets, 1630–3.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 59 (1996): 205–244.
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An analysis of Protestant woodcut and copperplate images of the Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus from the period of his involvement in the Thirty Years War (1630–1632) shows him portrayed as both a victorious military leader and a spiritual savior of true Christianity (Protestantism), and finally as a martyr for the cause of liberty.
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Polišenský, Josef, and Josef Kollmann. Valdštejn: Ani cízař ani král. Prague: Academia, 1995.
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A Czech-language analysis of the career and importance of Wallenstein to Czech history written by one of the greatest central European historians on the subject.
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Pursell, Brennan C. The Winter King: Frederick V of the Palatinate and the Coming of the Thirty Years’ War. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2003.
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More than just a biography of Frederick V, this work portrays the so-called Winter King’s actions and reactions to political issues presented him by his elevation to the Throne of Bohemia as stemming more from a constitutional rather than a confessional perspective.
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Rill, Bernd. Tilly: Feldherr für Kaiser und Reich. Munich: Universitas Verlag, 1984.
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The story of the Belgian-born Count Tilly, the successful Catholic general in the service of Bavaria during the first phases of the Thirty Years War, who is often seen as a villain for his army’s bloody destruction of Magdeburg in 1631.
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Roberts, Michael. Gustavus Adolphus. 2d ed. London: Longman, 1992.
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The standard, positive appraisal of the career of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden as both a great military captain and one of the heroes of the Thirty Years War.
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Sturdy, David J. Richelieu and Mazarin: A Study in Statesmanship. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
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A study of the political careers and decision-making processes of the two French cardinals whose involvement in the Thirty Years War led to the ascendancy of France in western European politics of the 17th century.
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National Studies

Because of its scope, length, and sheer cost in human lives and physical destruction, the Thirty Years War has become an integral part of many national narratives. The myths and legends that coalesced around the personalities involved, the battles, and the suffering of its victims brought on over time grim or heroic accounts used to explain national cultures and character. Modern historians, of course, concentrate more on actual facts and figures, as well as the systemic and political consequences the war had on the nations involved. Sweden’s side of the conflict has been thoroughly analyzed by Roberts 1973, while the creation of legends and myths associated with the Swedish monarch Gustavus Adolphus is tackled by Oredsson 1994. For the Danish perspective, see Lockhart 1995 and Tandrup 1979. English involvement in the war is summarized in the German-language publication Weiss 1966 and in the rare Czech-language work Polišenský 1949. The Scots’ involvement is discussed by Murdoch 2001, and that of Savoy by Osborne 2002. Finally, Porshnev 1995 established the basics of the Russian connection.

Lockhart, Paul Douglas. “Religion and Princely Liberties: Denmark’s Intervention in the Thirty Years War, 1618–1625.” International History Review 17.1 (1995): 1–22.
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Focuses on ideology as a major component in the escalation of Thirty Years War from a local rebellion to an international conflict, and sees the ultimately disastrous intervention of Denmark as an attempt to defend its imperial rights rather than an affair of state-building.
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Murdoch, Steve, ed. Scotland and the Thirty Years’ War: 1618–1648. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2001.
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A collection of essays tracing the Scottish involvement in the Thirty Years War on behalf of the Scottish Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia, wife to the “Winter King,” Frederick V.
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Oredsson, Sverker. Geschichtsschreibung und Kult: Gustav Adolf, Schweden und der Dreißigjährige Krieg. Translated by Klaus R. Böhme. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1994.
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A historiographical account that follows the literary construction of the legend of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden as the hero of the Thirty Years War, a literary motif that at one time permeated both English and German historical productions.
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Osborne, Toby. Dynasty and Diplomacy in the Court of Savoy: Political Culture and the Thirty Years’ War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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A look at the politics and diplomacy of the House of Savoy during the Thirty Years War from the perspective of its powerful ambassador Alessandro Scaglia.
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Polišenský, Josef. Anglie a Bílá Hora: 1618–1620. Prague: Nákl. Filosofické Fakulty Karlovy University, 1949.
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A Czech-language analysis of the English involvement in the Bohemian phase of the Thirty Years War that led to the Protestant disaster at White Mountain.
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Porshnev, B. F. Muscovy and Sweden in the Thirty Years’ War: 1630–1635. Edited by Paul Dukes. Translated by Brian Pearce. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
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An English-language translation of the works of a noted Soviet historian B. F. Porshnev detailing the Russian involvement with Sweden during the middle years of the Thirty Years War. The work offers many insights previously not available in western, Anglophone scholarship.
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Roberts, Michael, ed. Sweden’s Age of Greatness, 1632–1718. London: Macmillan, 1973.
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In many ways a classic of interpretation; a packed collection of essays by Anglophone and Swedish scholars that uses the Swedish military and economic experiences of the Thirty Years War (and other campaigns up to the Great Northern War, 1701–1721) to illuminate and explain the difficulties faced and solutions employed by the Swedes in their quest for Great Power status.
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Tandrup, Leo. Mod triumf eller tragedie: En politisk-diplomatisk studie over forløbet af den dansk-svenske magtkamp fra Kalmarkrigen til Kejserkrigen med særligt henblik på formuleringen af den svenske og især den danske politik i tiden fra 1617 og især fra 1621 til 1625. 2 vols. Århus, Denmark: Universitetsforlaget i Århus, 1979.
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A Danish-language study that sees Christian IV’s 1626 intervention in the Thirty Years War as the champion of Protestantism as stemming from his concerns over the Swedish gains in the Eastern Baltic. The Danish intervention is thus seen from the perspective of Danish-Swedish dynastic, political, and economic competition over Dominium Maris Baltici.
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Weiss, Elmar. Die Unterstützung Friedrichs V. Von der Pfalz durch Jakob I. und Karl I. von England im Dreißigjährigen Krieg, 1618–1632. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1966.
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Discusses the level support the Count Palatine Frederick V (a.k.a. the Winter King) received from the courts of James II and Charles I.
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Germany and the Empire

Most of the political, diplomatic, and military struggles of the Thirty Years War occurred within the borders (however poorly defined) of the Holy Roman Empire. Germany, the successor state to the Holy Roman Empire has therefore assumed the Thirty Years War as part of its own history and the terrors and destruction that the conflict wrought as part of its historic, political, and social inheritance. Many aspects of the war have been discussed in historical literature. Brendle and Schindling 2009, for instance, concentrates on the experience of clergy. Though its discussion progresses beyond 1648, the Thirty Years War period constitutes one of the cores. The peasantry and its economic relationship with the Junkers of Brandenburg at the time of the war (and later) is discussed by Hagen 1989. Asche and Schindling 2001 is a standard representation of war experience as narrated by well-established case studies. Haan 1981 talks about Germany and the “crisis” theory. Head 2008 concentrates on the history of a single individual as a parable of the war’s impact on society. Israel 1983 looks at the war’s effect on the German Jewish community. Benecke 1972 challenges the accepted notions of casualty and damage accounts, claiming they should be much lower, while Theibault 1993 defends the severity of the losses. Finally, Outram 2001 attempts to systematize the reasons for the mortality crisis that emerged in Germany at the time of the war.

Asche, Matthias, and Anton Schindling, eds. Das Strafgericht Gottes: Kriegserfahrungen und Religion im Heiligen Römischen Reich Deutscher Nation im Zeitalter des Dreißigjährigen Krieges. Münster, Germany: Aschendorff, 2001.
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A rich text providing four case studies of the experience of war in the German countryside at the time of the Thirty Years War.
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Benecke, Gerhard. “The Problem of Death and Destruction in Germany during the Thirty Years War: New Evidence from the Middle Weser Front.” European Studies Review 2 (1972): 239–253.
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Part of a revisionist trend in Thirty Years War social history that sees contemporary (as well as later historical) claims of high levels of death and destruction caused by the conflict as highly overblown and untrustworthy. Sees many such accounts and plaints as simple attempts to reduce tax burdens, masking the primary motives with war-caused suffering.
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Brendle, Franz, and Anton Schindling, eds. Geistliche im Krieg. Münster, Germany: Aschendorff, 2009.
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Discusses the contributions and experiences of clergy in central European wars (though the focus is on Germany) from the 17th-century Wars of Religion (where the main focus is, again, on the Thirty Years War in the Holy Roman Empire) to the time of the two world wars.
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Haan, Heiner. “Prosperität und Dreißigjähriger Krieg.” Geschichte und Gesellschaft 7 (1981): 91–118.
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Discusses the economic consequences of the Thirty Years War on Germany in view of the “crisis” literature and the relationship between the ruling and peasant classes.
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Hagen, William W. “Seventeenth-Century Crisis in Brandenburg: The Thirty Years’ War, the Destabilization of Serfdom, and the Rise of Absolutism.” American Historical Review 94.2 (1989): 302–335.
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A reappraisal of the effects of the Thirty Years War on the developing economic and political relationship between the state-building crown and the landed nobility (the Junkers) in late- and postwar Brandenburg-Prussia. Hagen argues that the clear increase in serfdom seen after the Thirty Years War was not necessarily a result of crown-Junker agreement and collusion.
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Head, Randolph C. Jenatsch’s Axe: Social Boundaries, Identity, and Myth in the Era of the Thirty Years’ War. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2008.
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A fascinating portrayal of the life and death of Georg Jenatsch (1596–1639), a colorful figure from the Swiss cantons who used the changing allegiances of the time of the Thirty Years War to advance from a pastor’s son to a soldier, a political leader, and a nobleman, eventually becoming a sort of a folk hero and a local legend.
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Israel, Jonathan I. “Central European Jewry during the Thirty Years’ War.” Central European History 16.1 (1983): 3–30.
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This interesting study of Jewish economic and political life in Germany at the time of the Thirty Years War concludes that the Jewish community within the Holy Roman Empire enjoyed a veritable Renaissance while other segments of the imperial population suffered a catastrophic decline.
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Outram, Quentin. “The Socio-Economic Relations of Warfare and the Military Mortality Crises of the Thirty Years’ War.” Medical History 45 (2001): 151–184.
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An article bringing to the fore the concept of socioeconomic relations between the military and civilian populations as a primary cause of the heavy mortality crisis in Germany during the Thirty Years War. The argument basically holds the various armies’ inability to sustain an orderly relationship with the civilian population, thus causing a flight-or-fight response in their victims, as a catalyst for increasing mortality rates that were already heightened by concurrent natural disasters.
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Theibault, John. “The Rhetoric of Death and Destruction in the Thirty Years War.” Journal of Social History 27.2 (1993): 271–290.
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In many respects an answer to claims that contemporary accounts of German suffering during the Thirty Years War were overblown or unfunded. By an analysis of extant sources Theibault shows the presence of real distress and explains the frequent hyperbole as a linguistic attempt to fit existing vocabulary of misery to the crisis conditions.