The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648

Оглавление

Gardiner Samuel Rawson. The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648

PREFACE

CHAPTER I. CAUSES OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR

Section I. —Political Institutions of Germany

Section II. —Protestantism in Germany

Section III. —Reaction against Protestantism

Section IV. —Three Parties and Three Leaders

CHAPTER II. THE BOHEMIAN REVOLUTION

Section I. —The House of Austria and its Subjects

Section II. —The Revolution at Prague

Section III. —The War in Bohemia

Section IV. —Ferdinand on his Defence

CHAPTER III. IMPERIALIST VICTORIES IN BOHEMIA AND THE PALATINATE

Section I. —The Attack upon Frederick

Section II. —The War in the Upper Palatinate

Section III. —Frederick's Allies

Section IV. —The Fight for the Lower Palatinate

CHAPTER IV. MANSFELD AND CHRISTIAN IN NORTH GERMANY

Section I. —Mansfeld's March into the Netherlands

Section II. —Christian of Brunswick in Lower Saxony

Section III. —Danger of the Lower Saxon Circle

Section IV. —England and France

Section V. —Rise of Richelieu

CHAPTER V. INTERVENTION OF THE KING OF DENMARK

Section I. —Christian IV. and Gustavus Adolphus

Section II. —English Diplomacy

Section III. —Wallenstein's Armament

Section IV. —Defeat of Mansfeld and Christian IV

CHAPTER VI. STRALSUND AND ROCHELLE

Section I. —Fresh Successes of Wallenstein

Section II. —Resistance to Wallenstein in the Empire

Section III. —The Siege of Stralsund

Section IV. —The Siege of Rochelle

CHAPTER VII. THE EDICT OF RESTITUTION

Section I. —Oppression of the Protestants

Section II. —French Intervention in Italy

Section III. —Wallenstein deprived of his Command

Section IV. —The Swedes establish themselves on the Coast of the Baltic

Section V. —The Fall of Magdeburg

CHAPTER VIII. THE VICTORIES OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS

Section I. —Alliance between the Swedes and the Saxons

Section II. —The Battle of Breitenfeld

Section III. —March of Gustavus into South Germany

Section IV. —Wallenstein's Restoration to Command

Section V. —The Struggle between Gustavus and Wallenstein

Section VI. —The Battle of Lützen

CHAPTER IX. THE DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN AND THE TREATY OF PRAGUE

Section I. —French Influence in Germany

Section II. —Wallenstein's Attempt to dictate Peace

Section III. —Resistance to Wallenstein's Plans

Section IV. —Assassination of Wallenstein

Section V. —Imperialist Victories and the Treaty of Prague

CHAPTER X. THE PREPONDERANCE OF FRANCE

Section I. —Open Intervention of France

Section II. —Spanish Successes

Section III. —The Struggle for Alsace

Section IV. —French Successes

Section V. —Aims and Character of Richelieu

Section VI. —More French Victories

CHAPTER XI. THE END OF THE WAR

Section I. —Turenne's Strategy

Section II. —The Treaty of Westphalia

Section III. —Condition of Germany

Section IV. —Continuance of the War between France and Spain

Отрывок из книги

It was the misfortune of Germany in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that, with most of the conditions requisite for the formation of national unity, she had no really national institutions. There was an emperor, who looked something like an English king, and a Diet, or General Assembly, which looked something like an English Parliament, but the resemblance was far greater in appearance than in reality.

The Emperor was chosen by three ecclesiastical electors, the Archbishops of Mentz, Treves and Cologne, and four lay electors, the Elector Palatine, the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, and the King of Bohemia. In theory he was the successor of the Roman Emperors Julius and Constantine, the ruler of the world, or of so much of it at least as he could bring under his sway. More particularly, he was the successor of Charles the Great and Otto the Great, the lay head of Western Christendom. The Emperor Sigismund, on his death-bed, had directed that his body should lie in state for some days, that men might see 'that the lord of all the world was dead.' 'We have chosen your grace,' said the electors to Frederick III., 'as head, protector, and governor of all Christendom.' Yet it would be hard to find a single fragment of reality corresponding to the magnificence of the claim.

.....

In this way eight of the great northern bishoprics soon came under Protestant rule. Not that the Protestant occupant was in any real sense of the word a bishop. He was simply an elected prince, calling himself a bishop, or often more modestly an administrator, and looking after the temporal affairs of his dominions.

In some respects the arrangement was a good one. The populations of these territories were mainly Protestant, and they had no cause to complain. Besides, if only a sufficient number of these bishoprics could be gained to Protestantism, the factitious majority in the Diet might be reversed, and an assembly obtained more truly representing the nation than that which was in existence. But it must be acknowledged that the whole thing had an ugly look; and it is no wonder that Catholics pronounced these administrators to be no bishops at all, and to have no right to hold the bishops' lands, or to take their seat as bishops in the Diet of the Empire.

.....