Forty Years' War (Merveilles des Morte)
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| Forty Years' War | |||||||||
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 Clockwise from top left: Contemporary engraving of the Battle of Twin Towers, sectarian conflict in Frankfurt at the onset of the war; The last stand of a Spanish tercio at the Battle of Turin (1606); The arrival of relief forces under the Duke of Gloucester turns the tide during the Battle of Oldenburg (1620); The death of King Louis XII of France at the Battle of Ansbach (1634). | |||||||||
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Protestant League and allies: |
Catholic League and allies: | ||||||||
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The Forty Years' War was a major religious conflict fought primarily in Central Europe between 1596 and 1636. It resulted in the deaths of over eight million people, including some 20 percent of the German population in the Holy Roman Empire, making it one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. Initially a war between Protestant and Catholic states in Germany, it gradually developed into a general European war involving most of the great powers of the continent.
The war was instigated by the death of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and his immediate succession. The prospect of a staunch Catholic Emperor intent on enforcing religious uniformity caused a breakdown of the 1595-95 imperial election, leading to a schism among the electors. In what became known as the Frankfurter Phase of the war, Frederick V was elected as Emperor, backed by the Catholic League founded by Leopold III of Habsburg, while Jungist electors selected Joktan of Hesse. Initial Catholic victories would lead to Joktan's deposal, but also an even greater escalation of the conflict due to unprecedented shifts in the balance of power.
In 1601 the Jungist cause was taken up by George II of Denmark, beginning the phase of the war known as the Danish Intervention, alongside German states such as the Rätian Union. After failing to eliminate Frederick and his allies, George II withdrew Denmark from the war in 1605. Under the leadership of Louis XII of France the tide was turned against the Catholics, as the war devolved into a continuation of the Přemyslid-Luxembourg Rivalry.
The Forty Years' War devastated entire regions, resulting in high mortality from hunger and disease. Campaigning armies and mercenaries funded themselves by looting or by exacting contributions from the inhabitants of occupied territories, imposing severe hardships on the populace. The war also bankrupted most of the combatant powers. Finally, the exhausted combatants negotiated the Peace of Lusatia (1636), putting an end to the majority of overlapping conflicts.
Background
The Peace of Passau (1537), signed by Jaromir I, Holy Roman Emperor, confirmed the result of the Diet of Augsburg (1509), which ended the persecution of Jungists and open war between German Jungists and Catholics, and establishing that:
- Rulers of the 224 German states could choose the religion (Jungism or Catholicism) of their realms. Subjects had to follow that decision or emigrate (the principle of cuius regio, eius religio).
- Prince-bishoprics and other states ruled by Catholic clergy were excluded and should remain Catholic. Prince-bishops who converted to Jungism were required to give up their territories (the principle called reservatum ecclesiasticum).
- Jungists could keep the territory they had taken from the Catholic Church prior to the Diet of Passau.
Although the Peace of Augsburg created a temporary end to hostilities, it did not resolve the underlying religious conflict, which was made yet more complex by the spread of Kalfanism throughout Germany in the years that followed. This added a third major faith to the region, but its position was not recognized in any way by the Augsburg terms, to which only Catholicism and Jungists were parties.
The rulers of the nations neighboring the Holy Roman Empire also contributed to the outbreak of conflict:
- Sweden and Denmark-Norway both were interested in gaining control over northern German states and trade in the Baltic Sea, to the detriment of German states such as the Hanseatic League and Livonia.
- France was dynastically tied to the Kingdom of Bohemia and thus the German states, and was eager to exert control over weaker Catholic states that surrounded it. France's rivals were likewise tied to the Catholic side, and determined to surround and contain French expansion.
- Hungary had made inroads into northern Italy during the Italian Wars, and contended against Bohemia and France.
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The Holy Roman Empire was a fragmented collection of largely independent states (a fragmentation that the Peace of Westphalia would solidify). The position of the Holy Roman Emperor was mainly titular, but the emperors, from the House of Přemyslid, also directly ruled a large portion of imperial territory (lands of the Kingdom of Bohemia). The Přemyslid domain was thus a major European power in its own right, ruling over some three million subjects. Another branch of the House of Přemyslid ruled over France and its empire. In addition to Přemyslid lands, the Holy Roman Empire contained several regional powers, such as the Rätian Union, the Hanseatic League, the Grand Duchy of Bavaria, and Duchy of Hesse, the Duchy of Habsburg. A vast number of minor independent duchies, free cities, abbeys, prince-bishoprics, and petty lordships (whose authority sometimes extended to no more than a single village) rounded out the empire. Apart from a handful of states, none of those entities was capable of national-level politics; alliances between family-related states were common, due partly to the frequent practice of partible inheritance, i.e. splitting a lord's inheritance among his various sons.
Religious tensions remained strong throughout the second half of the 16th century. The Peace of Passau began to unravel: some converted bishops refused to give up their bishoprics, and Catholic states became determined to restore the power of Catholicism in the region. A series of minor conflicts would be waged between both sides, with acts such as the Gunpowder Plot against the Pope and the Kerpen War – an armed response from extremist Catholics – galvanizing both sides. The response to the crisis by Paschal III and other Papal officials would lead to a schism in the Catholic leadership, further dividing the polities of the Holy Roman Empire.
During the reign of Henry X, his anti-Roman schismatic leanings, pro-French foreign policy during the Amiens War, and sense of apathy toward the reformation, caused trust in Bohemia to waver, and the ongoing series of wars in Italy between the Emperor and the Papacy erupted into an Imperial civil war. Leopold II of the Duchy of Habsburg would be elected as anti-king, while Henry X would effectively be ousted from Bohemia, in what would become the War of the Three Henrys.
The untimely death of Leopold II and a shift in Italian alliances allowed Henry X to retake Bohemia, and he formally converted to Jungism to end sectarian strife in the country, remarking, “Prague is worth the mass.” The empire would begrudgingly accept its first Jungist emperor, an event the Catholic leadership wished to prevent from becoming normalized; the Catholic League for form as an organized military to put pressure on the Jungist government. The conversion of Trier to Jungism by Archbishop-Elector Philip von Wied, who later received recognition through Trier’s support for Henry X’s restoration, upset the balance of power in the Imperial Electorate, prompting the promotion of multiple Catholic electors after careful negotiation.
The death of Henry X and later Philip von Wied renewed tensions. Henry would be succeeded by a Catholic, but moderate relative, Charles V from the Duchy of Livonia. In Trier a contentious election for Wied’s successor would spark the Trier War, in which Catholic and Jungist candidates competed for the strategically and politically crucial electorate. After the war the region saw stricter enforcement of the principle of cuius regio, eius religio, with residents often forced to choose between conversion or exile. Jungists also witnessed the defection of the lords of Württemberg (1576), Hanseatic Pomerania (1588), and others to the Kalkanist faith. Thus, at the beginning of the 17th century, the Rhine lands and those south to the Danube were largely Catholic, while Jungists predominated in the north, and Kalkanists dominated in certain other areas, such as south-central Germany and Belgium.. Minorities of each creed existed almost everywhere, however. In some lordships and cities, the numbers of Kalkanists, Catholics, and Jungists were approximately equal.
Reformation
| Part of a series on the Reformation |
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Contributing factors |
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Major political leaders |
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Counter-Reformation |
| Protestantism |
In 1504 Konrad Jung published the Hundred-five Theses, in which he criticized many of the acts and beliefs of the Catholic Church, beginning the Protestant Reformation. Jung's publications would have an immediate, dangerous effect on the authority of the Catholic Church and Ottokar I, Holy Roman Emperor, with the Emperor choosing to condemn Jung in the 1506 Diet of Speyer. Less than a year later Jung's untimely death at the hands of an assassin would solidify his legacy as a martyr and galvanize his movement, setting the tone for a century of religious violence to come. A literary battle was waged between Catholic figures such as Archbishop Bertrand of Mainz and Archbishop Ruprecht Moers of Cologne and early followers of Jung, such as Johann Freud and Martin Breuer. Elsewhere the debate was fought on the battlefield, in early engagements such as the Wolfen War, in response to alliances of key early adopters of sympathizers, such as the Thin White Duke of Thuringia, Charles the Ghost of Lechfeld of Brandenburg, and Agnes the Excommunicated of Hesse.
The early reformation shifted the balance of power in the Holy Roman Empire, with nations like Bohemia being severed from nations such as Bavaria, Thuringia, and other allies from the Lenzburg-Premsylid War. The Reformation after Jung's death would also splinter into multiple religious movements on various extremes, which were often more violent or belligerent than Jung's vision. The Knights' Revolt of 1512 would be a precursor to this in Swabia, while the Great Peasants' War caused widespread uprising across all of Germany. Anabaptists such as Benedikt Nietzche and Peter Meise preached doctrine contrary to mainstream Jungism, with the former a proponent of Thinwhitedukism: sociopolitical theory inspired by Christian millennialism. Although overall the Great Peasants' War subsided, in places like Thuringia revolting peasantry negotiated with the nobility to form partially representative government.
The conflicts surrounding the Reformation would continue into the middle of the 16th century. By the reign of Henry X, Holy Roman Emperor, the Empire had become firmly split in half, with an almost evenly split imperial electorate.
Passau and Henry X
Although the Peace of Passau (1537) signed by Jaromir I, Holy Roman Emperor created a lull in religious conflict, it did not solve the entirety of the religious debate. After Jaromir's death, the election of his son Henry IV as Henry X, the Catholic King of Bohemia, was a narrow and controversial decision. Henry continued a path that his father had pioneered, in which the Emperor remained largely disinterested in fierce oppression of Protestants, in the hopes of keeping the empire intact and less bloody. This was largely out of necessity; despite numerous inquisitions during the early half of the century, Bohemia was emerging as a state with a Catholic minority, with Hussites and Jungists, the former organizing into the Moravian Church, combined forming a majority. However, this delayed the inevitable, with Catholic nations becoming increasingly impatient with the Emperor's apathy, only subsiding during times of united crisis, such as the early Italian Wars.
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Conversely the Papacy became strongly invested in uprooting Jungism. A string of popes including Lucius IV (1523-1534), Francis I (1534-1540), and Paschal III (1540-1547) all promoted firm and sometimes violent inquisition or outright invasion against non-Catholic states. The Gunpowder Plot of 1535, in which the College of Cardinals was seemingly targeted by assassins, caused extremism in Italy and Germany to intensify. The Catholics responded under Henry von Kerpen, a Teutonic Knight and radical, who began a "crusade" in northwest Germany in the Kerpen War. Although Kerpen was initially seen as a Catholic hero, his ambitious powergrabs and decisions against fellow Catholics caused Catholic leadership to split. Paschal III's refusal to condemn Kerpen, and his approval and support instead, led to the election of a German antipope Zephyrinus II and a multi-decade schism in the Catholic church. Henry X's support for the German Papacy, as well as his polarizing foreign policy toward France during the Amiens War caused Paschal III to respond with the installment of an antiking backed by staunch German Catholics, Leopold II of Habsburg. With an imperial civil war erupting, Henry X would be ousted from Bohemia itself, beginning a succession war known as the War of the Three Henrys.
The sudden death of Leopold II and a change of alliances in the Italian peninsula caused the Catholic rebellion to falter. Bohemia was captured by Henry the Protector, a Jungist pretender from Brandenburg and the son of Duke John III, but his reign would be short lived after falling to assassination in 1553. Henry X would ultimately retake the country, but facing an uphill battle to retake Prague and regain legitimacy as ruler, he instead chose to peacefully resolve the conflict by converting to Jungism, remarking, "Prague is worth the mass." Henry X's conversion caused shockwaves across Europe, as he would be the first Emperor to formally do so. Many states refused to recognize this, while Catholic states in Germany, spearheaded by the late Leopold II's son Frederick, organized the Catholic League as a unified and disciplined Catholic alliance. This group would successfully broker the creation of two more Catholic electors in the imperial electorate: the County Palatinate of the Rhine under Frederick IV and the Archbishopric of Salzburg.
Trier War
In 1541 Archbishop Philip von Wied had formally converted to Jungism, becoming the first ecclesiastic electors to do so. The conversion of the Archbishopric to Jungism would lead to a series of conflicts in the Holy Roman Empire, and Wied would be immediately excommunicated and ordered deposed by Pope Paschal III, however he managed to defend his reign and avoid stepping down. During the crucial imperial election of 1544, Trier's vote caused an even split between Jungists and Catholics among the electorate, which eventually resulted in the election of Henry X from the Kingdom of Bohemia. Although Wied initially supported Leopold II as an antiking against Henry X, Wied would lead Trier in war against the Catholic Habsburgs in support of the Imperialists during the War of the Three Henrys. As a result, upon Henry X's victory the Emperor placed an exception in the Peace of Passau, stating Wied could retain his rule over Trier despite the mandate that ecclesiastic territories should stay Catholic
After the death of Henry X and later Philip von Wied, this decision would become contentious and debated. Trier was a strategically and politically crucial territory for both factions, as Trier controlled a section of the Rhine River and the middle of the "Rhineland Road", an otherwise unbroken connection of Catholic states from Italy to the Lowlands. Trier's vote had been shown to make or break imperial elections, with the Catholic League determined to ensure a Jungist emperor would not become a repeat occurrence.
Religious Makeup
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The Reformation as began in central Germany caused Jungism to be most centered in Thuringia, Saxony, and the surrounding regions, but this was not the only center of reformation in Europe. By the time of the Forty Years' War, Jungism or Protestantism in general had been formally adopted in most of northern and central Germany, the Scandinavian countries, and France. Wagnerism, an early form of Reformed Christianity, was founded in the city of Luxembourg and had spread to become the basis of the state church of Belgica. Kalfkanism, the most popular form of the Reformed faith, was primarily centered around the Austria-Switzerland border, Swabia and southern Germany, scattered locations across central Europe, and in a handful of northern Italian cities.
In Germany Catholicism remained the majority in the west, especially near the Rhineland, as well as in the northern Lowlands, Switzerland, and Austria. Catholicism was dominate in the British Isles, but a sizable population of Presbyterians existed in Ireland wand was the majority in much of the country, and smaller communities existed scattered across Britain. Conversely, although Protestant, France contained a strong Catholic population especially in the south. The Iberian peninsula, Italy, and the Catholic parts of Eastern Europe, namely Hungary and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, remained firmly Catholic, although in Eastern Europe Nontrinitarianism sects and Jungist communities existed. The Kingdom of Bohemia also held a major Taborite population, the largest Taborite sect being the Moravian Church. Taborites were also present in minor numbers in the Lowlands, Hanseatic League, and in Poland and other nations bordering Bohemia.
Belligerents
Protestants
The informal leader among the Protestants was the Rätian Union, a confederation of Thinwhitedukist and Jungist states. Inspired by the teachings of the Thin White Duke, who led Thuringia from 1460 to 1522, Thinwhitedukism is chiefly a sociopolitical ideology and movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of an Utopian society based on Christian (namely Jungist and apocalyptic) principles; a socioeconomic order structured upon the ideas of communal ownership, the absence of social classes and money, and the creation of the Messianic Kingdom alluded to in the Bible. In the aftermath of the German Peasants’ War, negotiation between the peasantry and the ruling class, and later the refinement from leaders such as Benedikt Nietzche and Walter Steinmeier, led to the first implementation of the ideology in Thuringia, which eventually evolved into the Rätian Union.
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The Rätian Union represented a very real threat to the status quo and German feudal society, and it would remain almost constantly at war for much of the early 16th century, often against Bohemia and other Catholic states. Nonetheless, the Union expanded to include Thuringia, Saxony, and Franconia, and formed connections with states such as Hesse, Ansbach, and Bavaria. Formally known as Special Associate States of the Union after the Conference of Gera these nations were allied and Jungist, but with varying degrees of cooperation and implementation of Thingwhitedukism within their borders.
The former Catholic enemy of the Union, Bohemia, became Jungist following the reign of Henry X, shifting the two adversaries into the same faction. Despite this, animosity remained between the two states, with both seeking a dominant position in the war, ultimately causing initial weakness in the Jungist coalition. The Duchy of Brandenburg, a vassal of Bohemia but in practice highly autonomous, was a Jungist state proceeding Bohemia’s conversion and contender for leadership in its own right. Other major Protestant states in the Empire included the Messin Republic, Württemberg, although they had adopted Kalkanism in 1576, and the state of Belgica in the Lowlands, who adhered to the Wagnerist form of Kalkanism.
Outside the Empire the Kingdom of France remained the preeminent Protestant nation in the continent. French Protestantism, known as Gallicanism, was arguably less of a break from Catholicism than mainstream Jungism, retaining some Catholic traditions while replacing the Pope as head of the faith with the King of France. Other Protestant nations included the nations of Denmark-Norway and Sweden, although their personal rivalry prevented both states from unifying for the Protestant cause at the same time more often than not.
Catholics
The Catholics of the Empire were largely represented by the Duchy of Habsburg, which had produced antiking Leopold II and Leopold III, founder of the Catholic League. Created in the aftermath of the Lenzburg-Premsylid War (1484-1489), the Duchy of Habsburg consolidated its position throughout the Reformation, growing from a collection of disconnected territories in Swabia to the controller of most of the Upper Rhine. During the Amiens War, Habsburg initially worked with Catholic and Jungist states alike, such as the Kingdom of Arles-Burgundy, the Messin Republic, and the Archbishopric of Trier, in opposing the Kingdom of Lotharingia. Habsburg would take advantage of the war to defeat a collection of allied, primarily Jungist states in the Upper Rhineland, known as the Alsace League, becoming hegemon of the League. This position allowed Habsburg to control the southwestern edge of Germany and begin to strongly enforce Catholicism there.
Habsburg was bordered to the north by the Electoral Palatinate, which was only recently created an elector prior to the Forty Years’ War. Nonetheless, the Palatinate remained an emerging regional power, with its control of a large extent of the Rhine and strategic chokepoints, and its widespread dynasty, which led to the incorporation of Jülich and other territories, affording it an important and powerful strategic position.
In the Lowlands the United Kingdom was a major Catholic power, after it broke off from the Wagnerist south during the Lotharingian Civil War. The conflict between the Catholic north and the Wagnerist south, later called Belgica, remained unresolved prior to the Forty Years’ War, with both sides retaining claim of the other until after the conflict’s conclusion. Other major Catholic powers in the Empire included the Swiss Confederacy, with strong connections to the Papal States and other nations, which existed since the days of the House of Lenzburg’s domination.
Outside the Holy Roman Empire was the Kingdom of Spain, which through the exploration and colonization of the New World had emerged as one of the largest and wealthiest nations in Europe. Nations such as Poland-Lithuania and Hungary remained as Catholic nations on the eastern periphery of the Empire. The British Isles remained divided between the rival nations of the Kingdom of England and the Celtic Confederacy, although the isle of Britain had remained Catholic religiously, with only Ireland adopting any widespread Protestantism.
Frankfurter Phase (1596-1601)
The first phase of the Forty Years' War is often referred to as the Frankfurter Phase, as the war first broke out in the eponymous city. The direct catalyst to the conflict would be the Elections of 1595-96, which saw a deadlock emerge among the Imperial Electorate along religious lines. No single candidate was supported by both Catholic and Jungist electors, eventually leading to a schism among the electorate and the election of two rival Emperors, Frederick V of the Palatinate for the Catholics and Joktan of Hesse for the Jungists.
Elections of 1595-96
On 13 August 1595 Charles V, the Catholic Emperor from the Duchy of Livonia, died at the age of 68. The Emperor met his demise after an accidental impaling while trying on the armor and armament of his grandfather Marek Ironside during a dinner party, leaving the Holy Roman Empire to an uncertain fate. Charles had managed to keep the empire intact while serving as a neutral emperor, but his death put into motion a plan by his allies to keep Catholic control over the throne. Before his death, Charles V coordinated with the Catholic League, agreeing to put his son-in-law Frederick V of the Palatinate in his will as his successor, as he was deemed a neutral candidate that both the Habsburg and the Arpads could agree upon. Thus the Catholic side was highly organized behind one candidate, and entered the conference already confident in having secured half the electorate. With the victory in the Trier War, the Archbishopric of Trier could be counted as Catholic once more, as could the rest of the ecclesiastic electors, even in the wake of Hamburg-Lubeck’s conversion to Jungism.
Prior to the election the Rätian Union was disorganized in regards to its stance. The ongoing political schism between the “Optimates and Populares” of the Union – the lack of trust between the nobility and Jenagothas versus lower class politicians uplifted by the new government system – led to an internally focused government, which was hesitant to respond to foreign matters. However, the imperial delegation at the behest of President of the Magi Jair von Jenagotha sought to have a unified opinion going into the election. Gedeon II of Thuringia and Henry V of Saxony would be persuaded to form a strong voting bloc, voting for an agreed upon third party if needed, and not voting without consulting the other first. Similarly Bohemia and Brandenburg, although both preferring to elect a fellow Premyslid, found a Jungist Emperor non-negotiable in the wake of the religious upheaval in Bohemia before and during Charles V’s reign.
Although elderly by the time of the election, Zebulon Zobel retained the position of Premier Captain, and was a crucial vote for the Catholics. During Charles V’s reign he had also elevated three Catholic guardsmen, leaving the Imperial Guard in total at six Catholics and three Jungists, which would make a Jungist-backed veto of Zobel’s vote impossible. By chance the cabinet member votes were given to two Jungist-leaning officials who happened to agree, creating what would become a completely even 9-9 split of the imperial electorate.
Both sides attempted to sway or bribe members from the other to their cause. The most obvious targets were the cabinet members, Jaromir III of Bohemia and Imperial Guard Saumon Meise. Despite repeated attempts to bribe both men, Jaromir III refused because of the Catholic side’s chosen candidate, and Meise was zealously anti-Catholic and favored chaos over compromise. Simon Burkhart II secretly tried to pressure the Archbishop of Bremen to switch his vote, but when this was revealed the Hansa was lambasted by the other Archbishops, and complaints were sent to have Simon excommunicated. Charle V’s wife and his successor, Marek II, were both pressured to invoke the “Right of God’s Arbitration”, which would have undoubtedly benefited the Jungists by invalidating several ecclesiastic votes, but both were Catholic and refused.
After a deadlock of nearly three weeks, the conference was paused in preparation for Christmas, with plans to resume discussion and voting during the following spring. The Archbishop of Cologne would not return to Frankfurt, as he was adamant against changing his vote. Other electors, such as Henry V of Saxony, elected to not leave the city at all, preferring to monitor the situation closely. Allegedly, while traveling out of the city, an attempted assassination attempt was carried out against Saumon Meise, which would have ended the schism if it succeeded. Meise miraculously fought off his attackers and escaped, going into hiding. Jaromir III would elect to vote by proxy the coming spring, sending his brother Charles in his stead.
In late March voting was resumed. By this time the general populace was well aware of the issues and had their own opinions on the matter, as did numerous foreign nations. During the arrival of the Rätian delegates, which was now traveling with a large caravan of guards and courtiers, an impromptu parade broke out among the largely Jungist population of Frankfurt. Conversely, the Archbishop of Mainz was coldly received, but nonetheless, entered the city with a large group of some 200 attainers. Numerous foreign dignitaries had arrived in the city, including a papal legate with word that Simon Burkhart had been excommunicated. It was hoped this would incite rebellion against him and perhaps turn the Hanseatic League Catholic once more, but it seemed to have the opposite effect of hardening Burkhart’s resolve.
The deadlock would continue over the next few months, causing increasingly escalated bouts of violence and intrigue. Protests began across the city, much to the dismay of the leading mayors and city council. During one incident, the Archbishop of Salzburg organized a procession of the Catholic population through the city for a saint’s feast day, causing the gathered crowd to be attacked by onlookers. Three days later Salzburg was pushed out of town by a mob, with several of his entourage being captured. According to one account, "boisterous Jungists of Frankfurt... having captured a plethora of priests, nuns, and friars, caused divers feather beds to be ripped, and all the feathers thrown into a great hall, whither the nuns and friars were thrust naked with their bodies oiled and pitched and to tumble among these feathers." The Archbishop of Mainz and other officials from the late government of Charles V would begin organizing an armed response, calling upon reserves of the Imperial army to begin organizing around Frankfurt. A force of some 800 men from Darmstadt would be sent to the city strictly for the purposes of alleged peacekeeping.
|This decision was highly controversial and caused the city to fall into a panic. The solution by Salentin von Isenburg, Senior Mayor of Frankfurt, was to produce an ancient-looking document which he claimed was an edict from Henry VIII, Holy Roman Emperor, which decreed that generals and their armies, or any weapons, were not allowed within the city, as the city was to be a neutral meeting place, based on the rules of the ancient Roman Republic. Although almost certainly a forgery by Isenburg, the expertly crafted law and the evidence surrounding it was enough to halt the Archbishop of Mainz’s proposed plan for the time being. Instead the Archbishop’s militia was camped at Mörfelden, just south of Frankfurt and outside the city limits.
So would begin a year long struggle by the partnership of Salentin von Isenburg and Junior Mayor Isaac Grieff to deter any damage to Frankfurt. Isenburg was an elderly and experienced politician, having served all his life in the Frankfurt assemblies, and multiple times as mayor. Grieff on the other hand was a young and untested man from a non-noble family, who unexpectedly rose to the position of Junior Mayor after receiving a plethora of throwaway votes. Fearing that both sides were in favor of increased escalation, the mayors would begin strategically spying on and befriending the various electors, hoping to learn of any plot before it could be initiated.
In early May the Mayors received word that Jungist extremists were planning to plant explosives in the city and kill some of the Catholic electors. Isenburg organized a very public feast with several prominent Catholics in the hopes of attracting the group's attention, and during the feast, Grieff searched underneath the building’s floorboards to discover the planted bomb and disarm it. Unaware of the bomb plot, Jungists perceived Isenburg as becoming Catholic-leaning and criticized him. Nonetheless, Isenburg used this apparent Catholic trust to receive rumors of a plot to assassinate Charles Premyslid and leaked this information to the Jungists, ending their criticism of him.
Despite the ban on weapons and soldiers within the city, a local noble named Hieronymus the Younger, a nephew of prominent leader Hieronymus Kellner, began organizing a Jungist militia in the city. Hieronymus’ group would patrol the streets and occasionally acted as police, but more often than not was a force of intimidation against Catholics and protection for Jungists. On one occasion Hieronymus appeared outside the residence of the Archbishop of Bremen, attempting to stop him from leaving the house for the vote. After receiving news that the Archbishop had been trapped in his house for a week, a Catholic militia led by Ludwig von Glauburg was formed that scared off Hieronymus after some light fighting in the street.
Isenburg’s solution was to have all the electors still present assemble within the Reichstag, with enough supplies and supporters to potentially stay there without leaving. Although this ensured the safety of the electors and quelled violence for a time, it would ultimately lock all the most belligerent men in the city together in the same building. Each elector was granted a room or small wing of the building, and each day Isenburg hoped to have a vote undertaken in the center of the building. It became clear that they would not come to a solution on their own, and Isenburg and Grieff attempted to meet with various electors privately and negotiate a compromise. For the next two months the situation in the Reichstag became an unproductive one, with meetings between the two sides only turning to arguments, and hours spent separately turning into plotting sessions, talks of strategy, and sometimes impromptu parties. The period would later be dramatized by Shakespeare in his play, 16 Angry Men.
The Catholic side was increasingly confident in Frederick V of the Palatinate, and argued that despite no formal vote being concluded that would have granted him the title, on account of him having the closest to a passing vote, and with many Jungist electors refusing to participate, he was by right the proper emperor. On 30 July Frederick V was referred to openly for the first time as emperor, and the Catholic electors attempted to pressure Isenburg into allowing the rest of the legislature into the building to witness this and confirm it. A physical altercation broke out, with the Duke of Hesse being injured, and the Archbishop of Salzburg being thrown out the building’s window in a cart of manure that was below. Isenburg suffered a blow to the head and was carried out of the building by Grieff and attendants, leaving the electors to their own devices for the rest of the night.
Battle of Frankfurt
The next morning Isenburg awoke to news of protests breaking out around the Reichstag. Hieronymus’ mob attempted to escort Catholic dignitaries into the building, and their parade soon turned into defensive march. The two mobs clashed outside the building, while the Frankfurter guard, numbering some 400 men on the periphery of the building, were essentially put to siege by the crowd outside, suffering 161 casualties over the following week. Inside the building, the electors initially split into their separate halves of the building, beginning the so-called “Battle of Twin Towers”. Over the course of the next week the electors and their handful of retainers fought to take over the interior of the Reichstag compound. On 2 August a nighttime sortee into the Catholic wing led to a dozen people dead, the wounding of Duke Elias of Brandenburg and Zebulon Zobel losing his left ear, before being carried away by fellow guard Stephen the Stranger and a Cologne clergyman.
Although those outside the city were partially aware of the situation, sending exact information outside the building was difficult. The Archbishop of Salzburg, essentially in house arrest two blocks away, coordinated news to outsiders, while Imperial Guard Johann von Tiefen attempted to send word to the Catholic force outside through carrier pigeon. Hieronymus’ mob ordered all birds around the Reichstag to be hunted, and for Catholic messengers to be killed, but slowly word did escape. The head of the Mainz army from Darmstadt, Jochen Benz, began marching on the city, capturing the outskirts of southern Frankfurt. East of Kelsterbach, his forces would be ambushed by Jungists who awaited his arrival and were stalking his camp, leading to a hard fought battle on 4 August. Nonetheless, Benz’s advance caused Catholic forces to launch an attack on the Reichstag, managing to smuggle 70 men through the crowds and into the building. These forces would be directly responsible for capturing Grand Admiral Henry von Sudland, and would claim the life of Andreas Vesalius, the High Medicus attempting to care for the wounded.
While the Catholics were smuggling men in, the Jungists attempted to smuggle someone out. Knowing that his lands were the closest to Frankfurt and hoping to personally lead a Jungist relief force, the Duke of Hesse managed to rappel out a window during the chaos. However, the following day he would be captured on the road and imprisoned by an opportunistic mercenary captain, but he managed to spread word beforehand, allowing a messenger to flee into Hesse and alert the Duke’s relatives.
With foreign forces now marching toward Frankfurt, Grieff led a small force of Frankfurter militia toward the Reichstag hoping to negotiate a truce. This was aided by Isenburg managing to capture several rebel leaders earlier that day, including Hieronymus. Ultimately the electors would come to a gentlemen’s agreement: they would all go their separate ways and make preparations for war if they wished, but they would all be allowed free access to flee the city in peace. It soon became a race among the electors to travel back to their home territories and convince the rest of their allies toward war. Frankfurt itself however proved too valuable to completely vacate, and both sides retained a vested interest.
War in Hesse
With the Duke of Hesse already en route north, Hessian forces would be the first to respond to the crisis. Otherwise from the Jungists, the first proponent of all-out war was Henry V of Saxony, who returned to the Rätian Union to begin raising Saxon forces, even before the national government could approve such a thing. Others such as the Elias of Brandenburg remained in the city, helping to oversee a break up of mob forces. Frankfurt was left in a precarious position as a Jungist city largely surrounded by Catholic powers. Most of the city was surrounded by the Archbishopric of Mainz, with the Palatinate nearby. The nearest Jungist states included Württemberger Hanau, Hesse, and minor states such as Isenburg-Birstein, ruled by a relative of Salentin von Isenburg, Count Reinhard, who controlled the Frankfurter suburb of Offenbach.
The Archbishop of Mainz, Wolfgang von Dalberg, largely separated himself from military endeavors, leaving Benz in a position to act independently. He quickly took charge of the remnants of his 800 men, plus 320 militiamen from the surrounding Frankfurt area, and approximately 250 knights and various men at arms stationed in the city by the Catholic electors, and secured the southern bank of the Main and marched on Offenbach, which fell within a day without much resistance or bloodshed. Emperor-elect for the Catholics, Frederick V, traveled to Mainz to be crowned, an event which hastily occurred on 21 August. Letters would be sent across the Empire calling all princes of the Empire to recognize him, while prominent Jungists like Jair von Jenagotha began publicizing the perceived illegitimacy of the election.
Nevertheless, most states were hesitant to fully mobilize and commit to war, especially as Frederick V began to receive recognition from major nations across Europe. Fearing retaliation, several Jungist states formally recognized Frederick, while most simply remained quiet. In particular minor Jungist states of the Rhineland and area around Frankfurt quickly submitted, and from both sides nearby unfortified manors, monasteries, and small towns saw people evacuate toward nearby major cities or fortresses. A brief battle would occur in the city of Frankfurt on 28 August, which ultimately saw the Lord Mayors successfully defeat the mobs within the city and restore order. In the aftermath the city issued a statement that it would officially be neutral and stood down, and those who sought to openly resist the government were banished, either directly or indirectly. Dozens of nobles within the city would flee, while 400 armed Jungists marched out to rendezvous with reinforcements at Hanau.
With several successful skirmishes under his belt in the holding of the southern bank of the Main and Offenbach, Benz marched east through the allied town of Mülheim, collecting additional Imperial soldiers and levies from eastern Mainz, and elected to besiege the city of Hanau before the Hessians could arrive and relieve it. Additional forces under Frederick V’s brother, Louis Philip, and imperial detachments from across the Rhineland soon joined him. At the same time, Arnold of Isenburg-Grenzau led an Imperial-Trevian army east into Nassau, helping to distract the Hessian advance. Forces from Hesse were slow to assemble; on paper the Duke of Hesse had raised some 20,000 soldiers including mercenaries, but only about 5,600 soldiers were in Nassau, and another 4,000 near Wetzlar.
The diversion proved successful, and the Duke of Hesse took his main army southwest toward southern Nassau rather than toward Hanau. Although the city of Hanau possessed a large stockpile of food and supplies, the influx of people strained resources, and the city lacked gunpowder for their artillery. On 3 November the city’s walls were breached, and after hours of hand-to-hand fighting in the streets the city was captured. Benz recognized several nobles who had fled and had them imprisoned for ransoms, with a handful executed for those linked to the riots in Frankfurt. An enormous sum was also demanded from the Duke of Württemberg as war reparations for sparing the city and not razing it. Instead this only ensured Württemberg would firmly join the Jungists in mobilization.
In late 1596, with Imperial forces now aiding rebellion in the Hanseatic League, Simon Burkhart would organize a counter election among the Jungist electors. With Frankfurt not deemed safe, a conference was held in Mühlhausen that was partially attended, with Hanseatic delegates, Duke Elias’ nephew Edmund from Brandenburg, Charles Přemyslid representing Bohemia, the Dukes of Thuringia and Saxony, and Duke Joktan of Hesse’s brother Mordecai being the most notable attendants. Even with crisis breaking out, the electors were still partially divided. Mordecai would succeed in arguing that to show solidarity behind the current leader of the Jungist cause on the battlefield, his brother Joktan was the clear choice, much to the dismay of the Rätian delegates. Joktan’s election was only partially accepted, and was argued to be illegitimate by many, but nonetheless, at the end of the year he was crowned in the city of Wetzlar in between overseeing mobilization.
In late February Joktan renewed his efforts against the Catholic coalition, but found the diplomatic situation turning against him. Frederick V managed to secure at least partial support from Fulda, Würzburg, and Trier in the south, Cologne and Oldenburger Berg in the west, and Münster and Paderborn in the north, surrounding Hesse on three sides. There existed a large concentration of imperial soldiers in the north as well, although they were of varying allegiances, as shown on 1 December when a Jungist mutiny occurred at the Battle of Delbrück, after the imperial army was ordered south. A leading officer of the army and one of the most senior among the Jungists, Bernhard Verspoell, would divert Jungist imperial soldiers toward the service of the Hanseatic League, harassing Catholic forces and delaying their march south. Other imperial detachments, such as a 500 man regiment stationed in Dortmund, easily defected to Hesse.
After taking Hanau, Joachim Benz had stationed there for much of the winter, intermittent with raids against nearby Jungist towns and villages. He was joined by Prince-Bishop Echter von Mespelbrunn of Würzburg, who personally led 7,000 soldiers from Würzburg, as well as men from Fulda and other various towns. The nation of Belgica, locked in an ongoing stalemate against the United Kingdom, offered minor financial support to the Hessians, and Joktan sought to link up with Belgian reinforcements in the Rhineland. With his country largely surrounded, Joktan divided his army among himself and Eduard von Battenberg, dispatching Battenberg to take the city of Hersfeld in the east while he personally led an army to the west. Battenberg’s campaign was initially successful and the city was seized and looted, but in early May 1597 he suffered a major defeat at Burghaun against Mespelbrunn.
This forced Joktan to rethink his strategy, insteading adopting a defensive approach in the hopes it would buy enough time for foreign powers to intervene on his behalf, although this stressed his financial reserves the more he delayed. Taking to the offensive, Benz and Mespelbrunn managed to capture southern Nassau, inflicting harsh pillaging against the local population, but were halted at the Battle of Wetzler on 12 September.
Swabian Campaign
In response to Hesse and Württemberg taking up arms, Leopold III was dispatched into Swabia with the army of the Catholic League that he helped mastermind. Some 8,000 professional soldiers, combined with 4,500 levies from Habsburg, the Palatinate, and their Rhineland allies, crossed from Baden into southwest Württemberg. Conrad V of Württemberg canceled plans to imarch on the Palatinate city of Heidelberg and instead rushed back toward Stuttgart. Although the Habsburg Dukes were nominally hegemons over the Swabian League, and had extorted a number of soldiers prior to the outbreak of war, the vast majority of Swabia was Jungist or Kalfkanist, allowing Conrad V to quickly find allies. Hohenzollern was a vassal of Hesse and thus entered the war alongside them, while the major state of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein under Count George Frederick was also quick to come to his aid.
The Habsburgs marched east from Karlsruhe through a northern pass of the Black forest, where they were forced to engage with Protestant defenders at Pforzheim. Although a small town of only some 3,000 people, the town consisted of sizable fortifications, and was soon reinforced with some 5,000 men from Stuttgart. Another center of the Habsburg alliance, Rottweil, was encircled by the Count of Hohenzollern. Although largely non-Catholic, Rottweil had a close relationship with the Swiss Confederacy, and had been occupied by the Habsburgs previously. As such the city retained a Catholic garrison prior to the war. No pitched battle would occur until 31 January 1597, when 3,000 men under the command of Count George Frederick were lured westward by Lothar Zobel of Rastatt and decisively defeated. Nonetheless, Zobel failed to reach Rottweil, while outnumbered and juggling multiple enemy armies, and the city fell on 15 February.
Despite this, Leopold III pressed on, and encountered the main army of Conrad V attempting to relieve Pforzheim. The Catholic army was slightly outnumbered, with some 12,500 soldiers versus 5,000 soldiers in the city and an 8,750 man relief force commanded by the Duke. The town's commander, a relative of the Duke named Edmund the Pale, ordered a sortie from the fortifications to support Conrad's advance, only to have his forces decimated by Catholic artillery placed out of reach of the city walls. Conrad's army, which was engaging with the Catholic army perpendicular to the city walls, attempted to send his heavy cavalry across the battlefield to support the advance by Edmund the Pale, but these forces were quickly routed. This eventually turned to a disastrous rout for the entire Württemberger army, and Conrad V fled from the battlefield. Edmund the Pale and other nobles and commanders would be captured, while the town of Pforzheim surrendered formally soon after. The remaining army of the country fled to Stuttgart in a panic.
The rapid success of the Habsburgs alarmed the rest of Swabia, leading several minor states to surrender or recognize the Catholic emperor. Alternatively, Nehemiah II of Breisgau began covertly organizing resistance to the Habsburgs in the form of a rebellion among the Swabian League. The state to be the most outspoken against the Habsburgs in Swabia was the state the furthest away from them, Ulm, led by Maximilian Syrlin, the grandson of famed Hegemon of the Swabian league Franz von Sickingen in the early part of the century. Through Nehemiah’s negotiation and persuasion, Maximilian Syrlin agreed to take up the cause as a rival claimant to Leopold III. He received the support of Gedeon II of Thuringia, who wed his daughter Jezebel to Maximilian, and received a small stipend and a group of some 1,000 volunteers, called the renewed Blue Army, and 3,400 contracted former Imperial soldiers. Other states to join Syrlin included states less indebted to the Habsburgs, such as Reutlingen and Ravensburg, but included one notable defection in the form of Count Joachim of Veringen.
In the months after the victory at Pforzheim, Leopold III suffered an injury that forced him to hand command to several other generals, including Frederick of Durlach and Franz Karrer, leader of a Swiss detachment to Swabia. Officers at the time would remark that Leopold III had been fearless in battle, seemingly not feeling pain when struck. This would prove to be more literal than observers intended, as it soon became evident that Leopold was suffering from leprosy. With the aid of one of his advisors, Ulrich Steigleder, Leopold managed to cover this up for some time, but by the time of the Swabian campaign it became impossible to hide. When Leopold emerged he donned a mask over his face and was often fully covered. Despite attempts by the rest of the Catholic alliance to have him retire, he swore to finish what he had begun before his death ultimately came.
While Leopold III was absent from command, Frederick of Durlach elected to raid much of western Württemberg rather than besieging Stuttgart directly, hoping to force the city to surrender without a fight, and to replenish his supplies and coffers. To this end Durlach would achieve a minor victory at Sachsenheim against a force of some 3,000 Jungists on 1 April. Throughout the early half of the year over a dozen castles and towns would fall to the Habsburg army, putting continual pressure on Conrad V and his allies. In the meantime the Swiss Confederacy under Huldrych Jaunch spearheaded an invasion of the rebellious Swabian League, defeating the Count of Hohenzollern at Tuttlingen, and retaking Rottweil in July. Nonetheless, the involvement of the Swiss aided in recruitment among the Swabian cities, and by the end of summer some 5,500 infantry and 1,000 cavalry had been acquired and tasked with invading the eastern, estranged territories of the Duchy of the Habsburg.
During the Siege of Ehingen in late July, a Jungist officer and volunteer from Hall named Jäcklein Rainier would be placed in command of the Swabian forces by Maximilian Syrlin after he led the capture of the city by drawing away the defenders in a fake attack elsewhere. Upon receiving word that Durlach was now marching southeast to aid in the reprisal against the Swabians, Rainier rushed north to meet them, arriving outside Reutlingen on 19 August. The battle the following day would result in one of the few major defeats for the Catholics in the early era of the war, with Durlach himself only barely escaping with his life. Of the 10,000 Catholic soldiers, at least 1,300 would be dead and another 2,500 captured, versus Rainier’s 7,000 men suffering only 600 casualties. When Leopold III learned of this he ordered Durlach to resign, and took direct control of the army once more despite his ailing health.
Rainier sought to relieve Stuttgart, which had been formally placed under a siege at the end of July, but first was forced to repulse Jaunch’s forces, which were now advancing across Hohenzollern. Although the Swiss would be defeated at Gomaringen, the distraction gave time for Leopold III to march toward Stuttgart with the remnants of Durlach’s army and new reinforcements from the Palatinate and Speyer. At the subsequent Battle of Harrenberg on 9 October, Leopold’s army would prevail in defeating the Swabian alliance, but failed to follow the fleeing Jungist army. Both sides subsequently called off further offensives due to an outbreak of disease, and later the beginning of winter. Harrenberg would be the last engagement Leopold fought in which he could still wield a sword in his right hand, and he soon lost ability in that arm.
That winter Württemberg suffered the loss of several of its more distant territories and castles. Ravensburg was directly besieged by the Swiss and Austrian volunteers, followed by Württemberg’s southeast territories. Rainier pillaged Swabia into the early months of 1598, before he was dismissed by Syrlin. He traveled into Bavaria and was warmly received as a hero, helping to raise Jungist soldiers much to the worry of Frederick V, who had hoped to keep Bavaria neutral due to his familial ties. Although Bavaria did not outright invade during the Swabian Campaign, Rainier’s negotiations caused enough alarm to the point where the potential intervention would later influence the future peace arrangements. Swabia would suffer a high degree of destruction, as both sides relied on marauding mercenaries to apply pressure to the other. Nehemiah II’s death to old age in early 1598 additionally weakened the Swabian cause.
By the spring of 1598 the fall of Ravensberg, Reutlingen, and Sigmaringen, among others, effectively ended the Swabian Campaign, with the majority of Syrlin’s alliance now making peace. Conrad V would write to Joktan of Hesse, stating that with no other option available he was expecting to surrender Stuttgart rather than see the city destroyed. Although this accounted for a major part of the nation’s army, a force of 3,000 men instead evacuated to Ulm, while the Count of Hohenzollern and other nobles attempted to flee into Jungist territory and continue the fight another day. Hohenzollern would eventually become the head of the largest continent, leading an army from Swabia north in the hopes of aiding Hesse directly. On 5 April 1598 Duke Conrad V surrendered the duchy and abdicated.
Joktan’s Capitulation
After spending much of late 1600 severely wounded, Joktan retook control of the Hessian military in February 1601. By this time however, Siegen, Wetzlar, Dortmund, and other crucial cities in the region had fallen. Two of Joktan’s brothers and trusted commanders, Mordecai and Konrad, had been killed in battle, several relatives, nobles, and generals had been captured, and only Eduard von Battenberg and Peter Melander remained active in the field. Joktan’s attempts to court foreign aid had been partially successful, but his stubborn refusal to relinquish the imperial crown limited his alliances. After the disastrous Battle of Hatzfeld on 28 February the situation became dire enough for Joktan to reconsider. On 7 March 1601 he formally abdicated the imperial throne and the electorate, hoping such an act would spare the nation of worse consequences.
Frederick V and the Catholic coalition instead ordered harsh terms. Joktan’s request for a pardon was refused and he fled into exile, establishing a ducal government-in-exile. Other nobles and relatives were ordered to be imprisoned or executed for treason. It soon became clear that much of Hesse’s lands would be partitioned, most of which going to the nearest Catholic relatives of Joktan, but other lands being divided among the Catholic allies. Bodo von Stolberg, Joktan’s second cousin in law and the Catholic younger son of Henry X, Count of Stolberg, was awarded Arnsburg, while Joachim Benz was awarded lands from Giessen. The closest Catholic relative overall to Joktan passed through the House of Courtenay, who later became Kings of England, leading to a proposed English Duke. The electorates of Hesse and Nassau were also to be severed. Jungist churches and universities were closed down, Catholic bishops were appointed, and a 1,000-manuscript library personally owned by Joktan would be captured and gifted to the Pope in appreciation for his financial aid during the campaign.
- The late Leopold III of Habsburg was posthumously proclaimed “Restitutor Imperii” (“Restorer of the Empire”) and awarded an Iron Cross. The government would issue a grant toward the construction of a mausoleum in Frankfurt, although this would be delayed and not completed until after the war.
- Huldrych Jaunch was knighted and given a place in the Imperial Guard for his crucial leadership during the Battle of Hatzfeld, replacing Damien Vallier.
- Charles of Somerset, brother of King William III of England and Lotharingia, was awarded the position of Elector of Hesse. An arranged marriage would occur between himself and Joktan’s sister, Naomi “the Key”, so named for being the supposed key to the Hessian throne after she converted to Catholicism. Naomi would be declared Duchess of Hesse-Freidberg. Additionally, the English would promise 8,000 soldiers and 50,000 florins a month toward the pacification of Hesse-Kassel. The Duchy of Hesse was further divided:
- The Duchy of Hesse-Marburg was awarded to Henry Frederick von Wittelsbach, younger son of Frederick V.
- The Duchy of Hesse-Giessen was granted to Joachim Benz.
- Burgrave of Butzbach
- The Duchy of Hesse-Giessen-Friedberg (or Hesse-Freidberg) was granted to Naomi, consort of Elector Charles of Hesse.
- The Landgraviate of Homburg was awarded to Ernst Staphylus.
- The Duchy of Habsburg was granted electorate status in replacement of Nassau. Nassau proper was further divided:
- The Duchy of Duchy of Nassau-Limburg was granted to Louis Philip of Veldenz, brother of Frederick V.
- Joachim Benz was appointed Grand Marshall and the head of the Catholic League army, making him the highest ranking military official in the Holy Roman Empire.
- Walter von Isenburg of Joktan’s Imperial Guard surrendered and was pardoned, but was removed of his rank.
- 129 men awarded rank of edler, 301 men knighted, 53 men awarded rank of freiherr, 16 viscounts (vizegraf) created, 20 free counts (freigraf) created, 34 burgaves created, and three rhinegraves created.
Joktan’s chosen successor as elector, Ermanaric III, refused to vacate Kassel despite being ordered deposed by Frederick V. Hesse-Kassel had not been occupied by the Catholic coalition, and with Joktan’s abdication the Rätian Union would intensify its support for the Jungist cause, especially due to marriage ties between Ermanaric and the Thuringian aristocracy. The Rätian Union now faced a real threat of a hostile, Catholic state on its border with claim to its territory of Bayreuth, and the nation’s initial hesitation ended. Thuringian diplomats would orchestrate negotiations with the Hansa, persuading them to relinquish claim to Schleswig. This was because the Rätian ally of Denmark had been hesitant to intervene against the Catholics until it could be promised lands in southern Jutland and the imperial crown. With Rätian assistance and the abdication of Joktan, both of these goals were achieved. Additionally, George II of Denmark had nominally been King of England through his marriage to Elizabeth I, before they were both forced to flee England in 1594. The prospect of his main rival and replacement in England gaining control over Hesse pushed George toward advocating for war. The destruction of Hesse had similarly disrupted the balance of power in the empire, with Catholics gaining a level of control not seen since the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. This galvanized the remaining neutral powers of the empire and its neighbors, making escalation inevitable.
Hanseatic War (1595-1607)
At the onset of the Frankfurt crisis in late 1595, the Hanseatic League had entered a period of decline largely brought on by religious tension. As the early reformation progressed, much of the core territory of the Hansa adopted Jungism, and later, especially after the Great Peasants’ War in the 1520s, Anabaptist teachings were introduced. In addition to “mainstream” Anabaptism prevalent in the Rätian Union championed by figures such as Benedikt Nietzche, Starckism emerged natively in Hanseatic territory, growing to become a major sect in urban areas such as Lübeck and Bremen, and in the northwest territory of the League. Despite this, the Hanseatic League remained catholic nationally, and instituted a series of inquisitions against non-Catholic communities.
The Kerpen War of the 1540s greatly changed this dynamic by bringing religious tension to a head. Radical Catholic Henry von Kerpen seized control over several principalities in northwest Germany, using this as a powerbase against numerous states of both Catholic and Protestant allegiances, including several within the Hanseatic League. Rather than condemn Kerpen, Pope Paschal III instead supported him, going as far as to excommunicate Peter Burkhart of Hamburg-Lübeck for his resistance to the Catholic crusaders. This strongly galvanized the Hanseatic League, with large portions of its population adopting Jungism openly, while allegiance to the Roman papacy faltered. Hanseatic Catholics instead supported the creation of the Northern Catholic Church as a schism from the Pope in Rome. The first conclave of the German Papacy would take place in Hamburg in 1545, while Bremen became the seat of the first northern pope, Zephyrinus II.
Nonetheless, the Kerpen War had a pronounced effect on the western half of the Hansa, with formerly Protestant majority areas like Münster, Paderborn, and Osnabrück being forcefully converted to Catholicism, either by Kerpen or his northern Papal successors. This trend continued into the Forty Years’ War, and by 1595 most of northwest Germany was officially Catholic, while states within the Hansa such as Pomerania and Lüneburg becoming officially Jungist states. As the Imperial Elections of 1595-96 began, Simon II of Hamburg-Lübeck was excommunicated for his role in attempted voter suppression in Frankfurt, again flaring up religious tensions. During the holiday season of 1595 violence broke out in cities such as Bremen, with a Catholic mass being interrupted by protestors. Likewise a Catholic mob from the city of Kiel raided the nearby village of Ralsdorf.
The government of the Hansa, paralyzed by its laws that required votes among the Aldermen to be unanimous, was unable to react to the violence accordingly. Emergency powers were seized by Simon Burkhart dubiously, who began mobilizing soldiers to restore order. In April 1596 several states in the western half of the nation resigned from the Tagfahrt in protest and refused to comply with this order, although it was initially unclear if this would become a declaration of secession or a vote of no confidence against the Grand Syndic. The Catholics also benefited from the fact that a large concentration of imperial soldiers, largely Catholic themselves, was stationed in Hanseatic territory along major borders and in certain strategic locations, and the majority of the Imperial Army in the region came to their aid after the ascension of Frederick V as emperor.
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On 1 May 1596, a detachment of imperial soldiers stationed in Schleswig was sent south at the suggestion of the Archbishop of Bremen, in order to reinforce the campaign against the Duke of Hesse. Unaware of these soldiers’ intentions as they marched through Holstein, Simon Burkhart interpreted this march as an invasion force, and dispatched a largely mercenary force under Peter Melander to intercept and capture this force. While crossing at Rendsburg Bridge, the imperial detachment came under fire by Melander’s army, causing half the imperialists to rout and flee north, and capturing some 300 men. When news of this reached the rest of the nation protests ensued. Frederick V and Catholic officials condemned Burkhart and a replacement of the government was suggested. Catholic representatives in the Hansa largely complied and disavowed Burkhart, while others found the Emperor’s suggestion to infringe on the Hansa’s government insulting. The largely Catholic region of Holstein began forming militias, and Melander would be harassed all along his march back south by guerrilla fighters, the most prominent of which being Laurentius Surius.
Despite these dire responses the Jungist side in the Hanseatic League was still strong, with the eastern two thirds of the nation largely supporting Burkhart, and his own territory in the core of the nation accounting for a major portion of the population and the nation’s army. Melander’s army was doubled with levies from Lübeck, and he took Ratzeburg and the bishopric territories of eastern Hamburg-Lübeck with relative ease by the end of the month. Similarly Pomerania laid siege to Kolberg, although this prompted outcry from both the Duchy of Livonia and Poland-Lithuania, although the latter was soon distracted by war with Sweden. The Catholic states of the Hansa, namely the Archbishopric of Bremen, the bishoprics of Verden, Osnabrück, and Münster, the County of Calenberg, would form an alliance known as the League of Meppen, along with foreign parties such as the County of Oldenburg, which was illegal under Hanseatic law, and began creating a central army in the spring of 1596. Ernst Staphylus, a Jungist-to-Catholic convert and mercenary leader, was appointed the head of the league in its formative days, and under his command the League began raiding Jungist towns in the western Hansa.
Major battles in this period were scarce, as both sides still claimed to be legitimate followers of Hanseatic laws, and both sides continued to build up their local support and alliances. The presence of the Duchy of Hesse to the south and the ongoing campaign against them distracted the Meppen army, which was persuaded by Frederick V to continually put pressure on the Hessians. With the approach into Hesse protected by the Lippe River and the fortress at Dortmund, Staphylus was hesitant to commit forces. An alliance with Paderborn at the end of the year would make an invasion of Hesse more feasible, although by that time the war within the Hansa had escalated.
In November the local nobles of Holstein and Hanseatic Schleswig, in response to a year of pillaging and conscription by a Jungist government non-representative of the local population, elected Christian Rantzau as ruler, breaking off the northern half of Hamburg-Lübeck in rebellion. Holstein looked for support from other nearby nations, especially Denmark, but the Danish were hesitant due to desiring the territory for themselves and their religious differences. The Holsteiners would find better success with the United Kingdom, who promised them financial aid and naval support, and with the English and Scottish. Although a relatively small territory, Holstein was able to raise some 8,000 men, most of which being untrained peasantry, while Burkhart’s army included some 3,000 levies, 4,500 professional soldiers, and 5,000 mercenaries. Holstein also hoped to count on Catholic peasants in the northern Hansa to rise up in support, while Burkhart hoped to court the support of Dithmarschen, a practically theocratic Anabaptist, but staunchly independent-minded, republic of the Hansa.
As Holstein prepared its defense, Laurentius Surius would be tasked with leading irregular forces around Burkhart territory, inciting rebellion, harassing government soldiers, and raiding Jungist settlements. To this end, Surius engaged with Melander’s army on multiple occasions, most notably at Nortorf, where the Jungist army was routed. After this battle, in March 1597 a rebellion broke out in the city of Kiel against the Jungist occupiers. This would prove to be Rantzau’s first true test, and he marched with Holstein’s main army toward the city. This would prove well coordinated, as in mid March Staphylus laid siege to the city of Bremen itself with some 8,000 men, including 1,000 men from the Lowlands. A Lotharingian fleet would accompany this, causing havoc along River Wesser.
This proved a major crisis for the Hanseatic League, with all of the nation’s remaining military being tasked with defense. The Hanseatic fleet was divided between the Baltic and the Atlantic, and ships were immediately called from the coast of Livonia and Poland back to the Hansa, while ships in the Hanseatic Baltic were sent around Jutland. The fleet stationed in the Atlantic, primarily around Hamburg, accounted for some 80 ships, and was tasked with countering the Lotharingian attack at sea. However, at the Battle of the Jade Bay, with 59 ships themselves, the Lotharingians achieved a decisive victory, with 12 Hanseatic ships being sunk and two ships captured. Half of the remaining fleet fled to Ritzebüttel, which soon found itself besieged by Catholic Bremeners and Lotharingia, trapping the survivors inside the city.
On land, the Jungists tasked the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg with repulsing the Meppen League, and Duke Augustus marched with 10,000 men to relieve the city of Bremen. Additionally the Hansa received the support of Jungists in Magdeburg and the Rätian Union, who dispatched an expedition force by boat down river. This force would meet resistance at the city of Verden, and Augustus diverted his army south to assault the city concurrently, hoping to also draw attention away from Bremen. Elsewhere, a group of about 900 men from Stade launched a daring raid through the Archbishopric of Bremen, leading to any Catholic resistance in the region fleeing to Bremervörde.
The assault on Verden began on 9 May, with the Jungist reinforcements by river landing on the southern approach to the city. The march into the city by land was more guarded due to an attack there being expected, and the army of Duke Augustus suffered heavy casualties in a frontal assault from the northeast while under cannon fire. Nonetheless, the charge succeeded in breaking through the first line of defenses on the outskirts of the city, and when paired with the surprise attack from the south, the city center was quickly surrounded. After heavy fighting the city was taken by the following morning, and intense looting was carried out by the conquerors. This brutal reprisal shocked the rest of the Hansa, but Augustus’ situation was also highly desperate, and he likely intended to send a message to the Catholic rebels as well.
Instead of attacking Bremen directly, Augustus instead turned north and pillaged the Archbishopric, aiding in the sack of Bremervörde at the end of the month, and arriving at Ritzebüttel in time to save the city’s garrison. By the time of the Battle of Ritzebüttel on 13 July, thousands of civilians and the majority of the Hanseatic fleet and its crew had succumbed to the siege, gaining Augustus little in the way of reinforcements. Nonetheless, the campaign placed the Archbishopric firmly under the control of the Jungists, with the Archbishop himself having been captured. After being nearly denounced by the Hanseatic government for delaying in the relief of Bremen, Augustus marched on the city proper. The Jungist army would launch a daring charge against besiegers on the northern bank, capturing the entrance to the city, but the Duke would be killed in the process. Command fell to Paul Behrens, who had been tasked with finding a crossing.
During the Siege of Ritzebüttel the arrival of 200 Irish Presbyterians had been instrumental in keeping the city from Catholic hands. Although in need of troops of their own in the hopes of launching a rebellion against the Scots, the Irish rebels hoped that by aiding Jungist nations on the continent they would gain valuable allies when the time came. With 97 men remaining under Red Hugh O'Donnell, this detachment would be dispatched by Behrens along with 800 of his own men would be tasked with securing a beachhead on the other end of a pontoon bridge constructed at the end of July. Additionally some 3,000 reinforcements would pass through Verden and march into Oldenburg from neutral Hoya, defeating a small Catholic detachment at the Battle of Syke on 3 August, which damaged supply lines and communication into Bremen.
Finally on 20 August 1597, the five-month siege of Bremen was lifted with a Catholic retreat. Although there were attempts by Behrens to pursue the Catholic army, this proved untenable, with a series of small skirmishes throughout the fall ending inconclusively. The de facto border between the Catholics and Jungists in the Hanseatic League would become the River Wesser, with neither side able to launch a full invasion across.
Christian Rantzau’s advance on the city of Kiel caused rebel activity to skyrocket, and on 3 April the city’s governors were forced to flee the city. Nonetheless, a Catholic detachment would remain in the city despite the retreat, leading to fighting within the city for the rest of the week. Rogue Catholic commander Leonhard Reinhold would personally lead the command of 300 Catholic militia and estranged imperial soldiers in a fortified position in the center of the city. The Holstein invasion was matched by a counterattack by Melander, but his army was harassed by Holstein skirmishers all throughout the approach into the city. His advance would culminate in a formal battle in the outskirts of the city on 8 June, which ended in a victory for Rantzau’s army. With Melander sent into a retreat toward Lübeck, the city of Kiel fell to the Holsteiners and was swiftly fortified.
After Kiel Christian Rantzau was crowned Christian I, although he adopted the title of Lord Defender rather than king, became a hero of the Catholic cause, and his state began to receive aid from countless states in northern Europe. The attacks against Holstein and other states, or more specifically the perceived trampling of church lands such as the Archbishopric of Bremen, prompted the Pope to call an informal crusade action against the Hansa similar to the actions of inquisitors during the Henrician Civil War, although initially this had little effect. The Polish campaign would continue for almost another year, until a truce in the spring of 1598 left the easternmost territories of the Hanseatic League in Polish hands. In the meantime a battle began diplomatically to court the Russians, with Simon Burkhart hoping to incite a Russian invasion of Poland-Lithuania, while the Polish sought to persuade the Russians into an invasion of Sweden through Finland.
The fall of Kiel left the Hanseatic government in a panic, as the Holsteiners seemingly possessed a clear route to Lübeck only 80 kilometers away. However, Christian believed he did not have enough men and supplies to launch such a siege without exposing the rest of his territory. As a result a standstill occurred for most of 1598, with little skirmishes held across southern Holstein. Simon Burkhart organized a defensive strategy, stockpiling supplies and men in the region rather than pressing the offensive. He would also oversee the construction of the fort of Glückstadt, which later emerged as a major town decades later. Under pressure from the rest of the Hanseatic League for recent defeats, Simon Burkhart abdicated on 1 May 1598 in favor of his brother Andreas – his son Paul having died that spring – but informally the Burkharts were also forced to concede leadership to a group of other nobles, most notably Magnus II of Lauenburg and John Albert II of Mecklenburg. Peter Melander would exit Hanseatic service in May, instead traveling to Hesse, and instead a mercenary leader named Thomas Stalkoper was selected as general. Stalkoper had been the former dean of the Bishop of Ratzeburg, but after converting to Jungism lead the successful campaign to convert the bishopric and oust the Catholic leadership, and for this he was elected the bishopric’s first Jungist administrator.
Christian I would be persuaded by his allies, most notably the English, to break the stalemate by launching an attack toward Hamburg to wrest control of the Elbe. He would be supported by the Royal Navy and a detachment of English soldiers, while an assault of the Wesser was also planned to take place as a diversion. This plan was delayed by Catholic forces in northwest Germany instead mounting an attack on Hesse from the north. Instead only 3,000 soldiers under Staphylus would be spared for an attack, which crossed into Calenberg in February 1599. Christian I meanwhile marched south toward the Elbe before besieging the fortress at Glückstadt. On 17 March the decisive Battle of Otterndorf off the coast of Holstein ended in a Hanseatic defeat, and allowed 2,000 Englishmen under Sir Geoffrey Vere to land in the vicinity. Glückstadt fell on 29 March, before Hanseatic forces could respond.
Magnus II was dispatched from Hamburg to counter the invasion, while Stalkoper was sent as a diversion toward Kiel. To the Hansa’s surprise, Stalkoper advanced much further than ordered and defeated Christian I at the Battle of Neumünster. This placed him in the vicinity of Kiel, and allowed him to capture several territories nominally part of Ratzeburg, which the Hansa promptly awarded to him. Magnus II retook Glückstadt on 9 May, and a Holsteiner retreat began north practically to the original Holstein border. To make matters worse, one of Christian’s trusted generals Laurentius Surius would be captured by Stalkoper and executed later that month. In the south the attack by Staphylus took the Hansa by surprise, with the area around Hannover being pillaged. The Catholic forces would achieve a minor victory at the Battle of Walsrode, but after receiving news of the events in the north, Staphylus instead retreated south out of Hanseatic territory.
The Hanseatic advance into the Jutland Peninsula was delayed by the end of the Polish truce, and a 15,000-man invasion of Pomerania on 8 July 1599. Despite possessing an early advantage, the Polish were also stalled by the ambitions of the king elsewhere, namely an unpopular scheme to invade Sweden by sea. With the conquest of Danzig and other cities from the Hansa, a major building product was launched despite protests from various nobles. The Polish king became confident that he would receive Spanish help and be able to finally cripple the country’s main rival. By mid 1599 seven medium size ships were built, with tonnage ranging from 200 to 400 tons. They were manned mostly by local Kashubian fishermen, while marine infantry consisted of English mercenaries, employed by the Polish King. Spanish aid had also failed to materialize, except for a handful of advisors and dignitaries.
Sweden would declare war on Poland later that year, beginning a four year conflict against the Polish primarily concentrated in the northeast Baltic. Despite this the Polish invasion of the Hansa continued, capturing Stolp in August and Kolberg in October. Stalkoper would be called off from his invasion of Holstein to lead a counterattack in the east, arriving in the beginning of November with additional reinforcements.
Middle Phase (1602-1614)
Rätian War
After the abdication of Joktan in March 1601 an uneasy ceasefire began in central Germany. That June an Imperial Diet in Frankfurt formally revoked the electoral rights of Hesse and Nassau and distributed various titles and lands to the victors, as Frederick V sought to reward and keep promises to various supporters, while punishing those defiant. The conference was only partially attended by the Hessians, with the new ruler of Hesse and Joktan both absent. A little more than half of Hesse’s territory had been occupied or pacified, and these areas were divided, but Hesse-Kassel remained de facto independent and defiant despite being de jure defunct in the eyes of the Catholic government.
Hesse-Kassel began formally receiving aid the following month from the Rätian Union, with the 600-strong elite regiment known as the Nordhausen Revierjägers, a 1,200-man detachment from Duderstadt, 3,200 men from Thuringia under Nehemiah the Younger, and 12 guns, crossing the border from Eisenach. Elsewhere Julian, Administrator of Halberstadt, raised 10,000 men at great cost from his own territories, from mercenaries, and from surviving soldiers from the Hesse campaign, and marched to Kassel. Fearing encirclement, Bavaria was initially hesitant to mobilize for war, while the Kingdom of Bohemia was limited by the fear of a Polish and Austrian invasion.
Ermanaric III refusal to recognize the dissolution of Hesse by the Catholic powers continued the war in central Germany in early 1602, once it became clear that the ongoing partial ceasefire was futile, and neither side was willing to compromise. The English would spend the end of 1601 raising forces for the promised expedition to Hesse, although pressing matters at home and in the Lowlands during the winter of 1601 led to a smaller army than expected being sent to Germany. The most eager and optimistic among the English would prove to be Charles of Somerset, the titular Elector of Hesse, who sought to capture the defiant territory himself despite possessing little in the way of combat experience.
Charles wintered at Kleve until the spring of 1602, endearing himself to the local nobility and attracting volunteers through promises of adventure and great wealth to those who helped seize Hesse-Kassel. Although only 3,500 Englishmen had arrived, Charles raised another 2,000 Dutchmen, and 1,500 volunteers and mercenaries paid from his own pocket. He departed that March, making a detour to Dortmund to assist in the quelling of a Jungist rebellion in the city, which left the surrounding region heavily looted. Around the same time, Joachim Benz on behalf of Emperor Frederick V raised a much larger army in the south and began training throughout the winter, before marching to Marburg en route to Kassel. The Hessians would harass the Catholic attackers, with Charles being baited into the disastrous Battle of the Pader, where he suffered the loss of 800 men and the desertion of at least another 500. After this incident Benz and Charles would often fight, with Charles insisting that he would win his throne personally, and Benz attempting to keep the Duke away from active leadership.
Seeking a decisive blow against the Hessians before reinforcements from the Rätian Union could be mobilized, Joachim Benz rendezvoused with Somerset’s army reluctantly. His army was further diminished by the large number of garrisons he left behind him to hold down rebellion-prone Hesse. This included some 2,700 men in the north broadly under the command of Bonaventure de Longueval at Dortmund and another 5,000 men under the command of Arnold of Isenburg-Grenzau. The Hessians under Ermanaric adopted a Fabian strategy until the summer of 1602, when Julian of Halberstadt’s arrival persuaded the Jungists to pursue a decisive battle against the Catholic armies while they were separated. In May 1602 Julian’s army departed Kassel toward northwest Hesse and Mark. More cautious than before, Somerset fell back and took up a defensive position at Meschede, protected on two sides by river. Deferring to his advisors, Somerset reluctantly sent word to Benz for aid, and in the meantime set up his artillery overlooking the river crossings, in what was believed to be a highly advantageous position. On 11 May an advance force of cavalry harassed Julian’s army to draw him toward Somerset’s position.
Seeing the unfavorable position before him, Julian set up a fortified camp of his own and took time scouting out his surroundings. In the north the Catholic army had spread out along the river, and were protecting the various crossings as far as Arnsberg, where a large garrison was stationed, and in the south they had positions in the hills overlooking a nearby body of water, the Hennesee. Julian’s conclusion was that the far southern flank was unprotected, and he planned to lead the majority of his forces in a wide flanking maneuver to bypass the Meschede Heights. Becoming impatient, Somerset ordered several attacks to disrupt the defenses being built by Julian on 15 May, forfeiting his advantage. The attacks were repulsed and nothing was gained by the Catholics. The following day Julian ordered 3,000 men under an officer named Thomas Merten of Zellerfeld to assault Meschede as a diversion attack. Julian didn’t expect much success from this attack, but tasked Merten with focusing on the more lightly defended northern end of Meschede proper, before advancing toward the village of Laer if he was successful. In the meantime, Julian personally led 5,000 men away from the battlefield east, and then southwest.
Merten’s assault was unexpectedly successful at first, owing in part to the bravery of Merten and his men. The Jungists charged the positions in the north of the town and overran them, and the Catholic detachment in the town was forced to retreat south across the river. Somerset ordered the bulk of his army to focus on repulsing Merten’s assault, while 2,000 men were ordered east against the remnants of Julian’s army back at their camp, as Somerset feared that the Jungists were ordering a quiet retreat from the battlefield, and he hoped to cut them off and capture their baggage train. Julian’s army arrived from the south while these forces were already engaged, allowing him to assault Somerset’s position before the Catholics could react in kind. Near the village of Enkhausen the Catholic army was surprised and nearly destroyed and a retreat began. Finally sensing what was going on, Somerset panicked and ordered all his forces to abandon Meschede. What remained of his 2,000-strong detachment became trapped and forced to surrender. In total the Catholic army had suffered nearly 3,500 losses, compared to only 500 losses for the Jungists, mostly from Merten’s detachment. However, with Somerset’s hasty retreat Julian failed to completely capture the Catholic army. Merten would later return to Zellerfeld and be elected mayor, defending the town from several attacks later in the war.
After Meschede, the Hessians were reinvigorated and abandoned their earlier cautiousness. Somerset was embarrassed and listened to Benz’s advice—ordered to disengage and defend western Hesse, he obliged. Now outnumbered, Benz’s strategy shifted. Fearing that Julian’s army might have full reign to ransack Westphalia and Mark, he needed to attract him away from the west. Similarly, he hoped to draw out Ermanaric III to expose Kassel. Benz ordered a quick march northward and put himself deliberately between the two northern Jungist armies. At the same time he ordered the competent commander Echter von Mespelbrunn to march with his 5,000 men toward the Thuringian border in an effort to lure away some of the Jungist defenders. The effort worked and Nehemiah the Younger pursued Mespelbrunn. At the Battle of Wanfried the Catholic army would be defeated by Nehemiah, but it proved a tactical victory for Benz, as a third of the Jungist army was now outside his concern. Benz took a purposely weak looking position at Fritzlar, and was subsequently attacked by Julian and Ermanaric’s armies jointly.
Benz allowed the Jungists to occupy the hills north of the town, where they established a strong, defensive line. Spreading out his own forces, Benz made his right flank deliberately weak, while concentrating most of his army on the left flank or in concealed positions to the south. As hoped by Benz, the Catholics charged from the hills against the right flank near Fritzlar, and the Catholic detachment there was forced to defend against overwhelming odds. As the hours passed, fog began to dissipate and Benz saw few soldiers remained garrisoning the hills. With a diversion attack on the left, he charged the majority of his army northward and they overwhelmed the Jungist army there. The hills were taken, and the Jungist army began to crumble. The Catholic army swung around and surrounded the Jungists on the right flank, destroying the Jungist army that remained on the field. In the chaos, Ermanaric III was caught in this encirclement and captured, ending the Hessian war effort. The Battle of Fritzlar became one of Benz’s finest achievements, and a disaster for the Jungists. The remaining Jungist army under Julian fled toward Kassel, and the city was eventually besieged.
The Rätian Union’s armies also fell back, as it was feared that Benz could easily cross into Thuringia after his victory at Fritzlar. Instead, to their surprise, Benz began a quick march northward, leaving Somerset and Mespelbrunn in charge of the war in Hesse. Benz commandeered a 5,000-man Anglo-Dutch army under Francis Hawkins that was intended for Hesse, supplementing his own forces, and then entered the Hanseatic League intending to repulse the Danish invasion.
Danish Intervention
The Kingdom of Denmark-Norway had a vested interest in Germany prior to the war, with the Danish kings historically seeking influence in the north in competition with the Hanseatic League. The disruption of the Hansa in the early days of the war only helped to further Danish influence over trade. Denmark’s economy was largely dependent on Baltic trade and tolls extracted from traffic in the Øresund, which had contributed to George II of Denmark becoming one of Europe’s richest monarchs, and he used these funds previously to bankroll campaigns in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, and the British Isles. Through his marriage to Elizabeth I of England, George II had been recognized as King of England, before being expelled from the kingdom in 1594 in favor of Stephen III and later his daughter, Jane. With the English marriage to William III of the United Kingdom, and England’s growing influence over Hesse after the defeat of Joktan, Denmark was forced to intervene to curb the growing power of its primary rival.
Denmark would raise an army of approximately 25,000 men, mostly consisting of mercenaries, as well as some volunteers from other Protestant nations. On 5 June 1602 the Danish army crossed into Germany, its first opponent being Christian I of Holstein. George II hoped that his invasion would be matched with a similar attack from the south, but the Hanseatic response was uncoordinated, with the nation hesitant to launch a costly attack. The League of Meppen sought to aid Holstein by launching a series of attacks on Jungist-held Bremen, drawing the attention of the Hanseatic forces under Magnus II, resulting in a Jungist victory at Celle on 23 July.
The Danish advance quickly moved south through Jutland, only being delayed by a handful of minor battles, the largest of which being the Battle of Styrtom, which devolved into a two-month, disproportionately costly siege against a 646-man garrison of defiant imperial soldiers that had remained independent of either Emperor’s sway. On 28 June the Battle of Almsted led to the Danish fleet securing the region around Sønderborg against a Holsteinert-Dutch detachment, with the city itself being sieged and captured on 5 August. The main Danish army under George II pillaged the countryside and raided across Holstein, sacking Husum and reaching as far south as Rendsburg. Having retreated south with his army, aside from large garrisons in major cities such as Flensburg, Christian I regrouped near Kiel and prepared a defense.
The English commander Geoffrey Vere and other generals advised Christian I to make his defense on the western coast, in the hopes of being resupplied by sea from allied nations. Comparatively the Baltic Sea was now almost entirely Jungist-dominated, with the Danish securing the coast north of Kiel in the decisive Battle of Fehmarn on 1 July. The former Hanseatic commander and Catholic admiral Andreas von Barby was killed in action, and with him was lost almost the entire Holsteiner and Catholic-Hanseatic navy. Vere began to quarrel with the Holsteiner command, causing tension in the Catholic ranks. Christian I viewed that the loss of Kiel would be too great of a symbolic loss, and elected to fortify the city and make a last stand, whereas Vere championed making an aggressive offensive southward to break out before the Danish arrived. Vere planned for two southern attacks, one toward Lübeck and one toward Hamburg, in the hopes that the Hanseatic army would divide itself in half. The Lübeck attack being only a feign, Vere would then concentrate the entire Catholic army toward Hamburg where he hoped he could overwhelm the divided defenders. He viewed it crucial that the Holsteiners devote themselves fully to this attack, and that they coordinate with Anglo-Dutch reinforcements by land and sea to support the southern offensive.
However, Christian I only partially cooperated, granting Vere only half of his army, the rest being placed in Kiel. Vere launched the attack regardless despite being outnumbered, and initially was successful. Jungist reinforcements became tied down near Bremen by the Meppen attack, and the majority of the Hansa’s northern army was concentrated at Lübeck where another attack was expected. An English cavalry regiment was ordered to rush ahead of the army and was encountered near Oldesloe, where a bloody skirmish occurred. Feigning weakness, the cavalry fled northwest, and drew out the Hamburger army to pursue, as the town’s commander, Jodokus Hodfilter, believed he had an opportunity to crush the Catholic army that remained. Hodfilter was instead countered by Vere’s entire contingent, which had managed to position itself dangerously close to Hamburg without being caught due to the carelessness of the defenders. At the subsequent Battle of Pinneberg the Jungist army would be decisively defeated, with those that remained fleeing into Hamburg. Vere’s initially army of 5,000 had suffered only about 600 losses, while the Jungists over 2,500.
Despite this victory, Vere’s army was left in a poor position. It had been expected that the English would arrive with ships and reinforcements as planned, but by the time of Pinneberg no such ships had arrived. The Catholic alliance’s navy had suffered a series of setbacks, including a defeat at the Battle of Trischen, and poor coordination left an army from the Lowlands still crossing Jungist territory near Bremen. Vere constructed an encampment on the shore of the Elbe and began setting up proper fortifications near Wedel. When it became clear to the defenders of Hamburg that no siege was materializing, and that Vere may have intended on fleeing, they began actively harassing his encampment, inflicting heavy losses and destroying progress on a fort on several occasions. Ernst Staphylus, who had handed off command of the Second Siege of Bremen to Justinus van Nassau, took up personal command of relief forces numbering about 8,000, but unable to cross the Wesser, they were forced to march in a roundabout route that circled south of Verden.
The Danish army continued its advance southward but was slowed by sporadic raids from Catholic forces and a few minor skirmishes. Several cities across Holstein would surrender without a fight, or be compelled to pay large ransoms to the Danish to avoid a brutal siege. Much to the dismay of Christian I, on 18 September Flensburg surrendered to the Danish after only brief fighting, its inhabitants including a large Jungist population. The Holsteiners fell back to defensive positions at Kiel and Rendsburg at the order of Christian I, although a handful of small garrisons remained further north that refused. Although the Danish had hoped to secure Holstein as quick as possible, in late September the Danish began wintering until the following spring. By the time George II resumed his offensive in early 1603 effectively all of Holstein had surrendered aside from a few cities such as Kiel, which were still being actively besieged. Vere’s expedition was largely indecisive, but had helped to prolong the Holstein nation into the next year, as his southern advance stunted any attempt by the Hansa to invade from the south and surround Kiel, which would have likely resulted in the city’s fall far sooner.
In late September an Anglo-Dutch force arrived by sea, granting Vere some 2,500 reinforcements and much needed supplies. At the same time scouts reported that Jungist reinforcements had also arrived on the western bank of the Elbe, and Vere fought off several crossing attempts using English ships. By January 1603 the situation in Kiel had turned desperate, as a Danish blockade now completely cut off resupply. On 18 January Vere led a desperate charge to the northeast against a perceived weakly held Danish-Hanseatic position, as a last ditch effort to break the siege and resupply the city, but was routed after a fierce day of fighting. Finally on 28 January the city was captured after a costly assault. Christian I would be killed defending the city, and the rest of the Holsteiner army was either killed or captured. The Danes proceeded to harshly loot the remaining city, inflicting thousands of civilian casualties in the chaos. Being harried by Jungist forces all the while, Vere returned to the Elbe River and successfully evacuated by sea, although his army had been reduced to less than a thousand men after the costly battle near Kiel, attrition, and desertion.
George II rested his army for the remainder of the winter, only engaging in minor skirmishes in southern Holstein to eliminate the last vestiges of the Catholic nation. All of the region was effectively in Danish control, and George II had himself crowned Duke of Holstein and Schleswig on 5 March. This greatly aggravated the Hanseatic League, which had previously owned Schleswig and Holstein, but they were forced in line by threat of the Danish military. George’s power was further elevated when he was elected Administrator of the Prince-Bishopric of Lübeck, which gave him a direct vote in Hansa affairs and made him a proper adversary to the Burkharts of Lübeck city. Two months later he was elected Prince-Bishop of Bremen, a previously Catholic polity. The bishopric’s cathedral chapter, which consisted of many Jungist capitulars, feared Danish retribution and sought to surrender to the Danish king preemptively. The latter election constituted an illegal conversion of a Catholic bishopric, leading to condemnation from the Holy See, Emperor Frederick V, and the most zealous Catholic nations of Germany.
Under George II’s rule Holstein underwent a period of “re-protestantization”. The Catholic mass was banned and Catholic priests were forced to convert or be exiled. Kiel remained greatly damaged and depopulated, while other towns underwent bouts of iconoclasm that turned to looting and sectarian violence. The Archbishopric of Bremen, which had a larger Catholic population, was slower to comply with these orders. The Danes divided their forces and created a number of major garrisons across Holstein, while George II’s main army intended to launch an invasion of the League of Meppen in the spring of 1603. Fearing that the Danish king intended to subjugate these territories under his own rule, cooperation between the Danish and Hanseatic commands began to break down.
Ernst Staphylus had halted his advance after he learned of the fall of the Catholic army in Holstein, although before this he had achieved a minor victory at Gehrden which put him within striking distance of the Jungist city of Hanover. Now the most senior Catholic commander in the north, Staphylus began raising reinforcements and calling on his allies to consolidate their forces with his, The Siege of Bremen was again lifted, and the majority of Nassau’s army regrouped with Staphylus, aside from a detachment which garrisoned Oldenburg. This ballooned the Catholic army under his command to about 16,000 total soldiers.
Believing that the Catholics were on the backfoot in the spring of 1603, and discontent with George II’s occupations, the Hanseatic League focused its efforts in the east in an attempt to reclaim territories occupied by the Polish, however this proved an arrogant mistake. Staphylus’ army was discovered to be much larger and more capable than anticipated, and in March 1603 he successfully crossed into Lüneburg. Jungist forces were gathered under the command of Paul Behrens from various garrisons, namely Bremen, Hanover, Hamburg, and Stade, organizing an army of about 11,000 men. Outnumbered, Behrens pulled back and gave ground, but left much of the region behind him heavily pillaged, angering Lüneburg’s duke and the duchy’s inhabitants. Staphylus in turn sacked several towns as well during his advance, devastating Celle and Uelzen. The Catholic army finally caught up to Behrens near the town of Heber, where local forests and hills gave the outnumbered army a slight advantage.
Behrens’ men were exhausted from several days of forced march in an effort to escape Staphylus, and consisted of many new recruits from the various garrisons of the Hansa. As a result the Jungist army’s artillery was used far less effectively, shooting sporadically and slowly compared to the Catholic army’s, and Staphylus managed to outflank the Jungist position with professional cavalry. The battle quickly turned into a full defeat for Behrens, who narrowly fled the battlefield with what remained of his army. Behrens’ army would suffer the death of some 1,600 men, and had an additional 2,750 captured or deserted, while the Catholic army suffered only about 700 casualties. Staphylus’ victory gave him near complete control of Lüneburg, and he went on to siege and sack the city itself, while Behrens fled toward Lauenburg to regroup. George II was slow to respond due to his ongoing process of consolidating rule over Holstein and his other occupied territories. In April the Danes moved south and Staphylus withdrew, beginning a long chase through Lüneburg. The Catholic army moved slowly, taking a large amount of captured loot and supply wagons, but the Danes moved just as slow themselves, as George II cautiously surveyed the region, established garrisons, and met with local leaders.
In May George II entered the city of Verden and pacified its Catholic elements, later being elected Administrator of Verden. After several small skirmishes he established control over the Archbishopric of Bremen de facto after being named its administrator previously, pushing the Catholics firmly west of the Wesser River. Staphylus continued to withdraw hoping to gather additional reinforcements and eat away at the Danish army through attrition and small skirmishes. However, on 3 June George II caught up to Staphylus and forced him into battle near Hoya. Although outnumbered, Staphylus used his army effectively and managed to break several Danish charges. One of George’s imperial knights, Philipp von Bimbach, gathered Danish cavalry and launched a darying charge on the Catholic flank, which was the final blow to Staphylus’ line. The Catholic army would begin to retreat, although while charging down fleeing infantry, Bimbach would be shot through the back of the neck, dying moments later. The battle would be a Jungist victory but would be incredibly hard fought. In total the Catholics suffered some 7,300 casualties, while the Jungist army suffered almost 8,000. Although victorious the large number of losses stalled a Jungist advance further, as George II called upon additional reinforcements from Denmark and hired new mercenaries.
In the summer of 1603 George’s goals turned toward the complete collapse of the League of Meppen, as they were the preeminent Catholic threat in northern Germany and most threatening to his territorial interests and his conflict in the Lowlands. However, having not suffered the loss of their key cities, and being well supplied from the United Kingdom and the Rhineland, the League of Meppen refused negotiations. Additionally George II sought to cement his rule as supposed Holy Roman Emperor, and spent time treating with Jungist princes and enforcing justice. Frederick V meanwhile sought to rally support away from him by emphasizing George’s non-German origins. Frederick V began to consider the Danish invasion as the main issue in the war and ordered Joachim Benz and other Catholic commanders to divert their attention from Hesse in favor of repulsing the Danes, but this plan was slow to materialize.
Annoyed by repeated Anglo-Dutch raids on Danish shipping, their trade with the League of Meppen, and their ferrying of Catholic soldiers, George II attempted to take command of the seas. The Danish navy was moved around Jutland into the North Sea, and were joined by the Hanseatic-Jungist navy that remained. One of George’s most trusted advisors, the capable former governor-general of Norway Aeneas Sehested, was placed in total control of the Danish navy and ordered to oversee a naval buildup, including in occupied German ports. However, this proved a difficult task for the Danish, whose funds were limited by the costly land war, and they were constantly harried by larger Anglo-Dutch navies. Luckily in Autumn 1603 the Dutch became preoccupied off Belgica allowing Sehested to win a minor engagement near Sylt in August, followed by a major victory at the Battle of Alte Mellum in September, which saw 54 Danish warships clash against 35 German warships and 22 Dutch warships. The city of Ritzebüttel emerged as Sehested’s headquarters, and from there he put pressure on towns such as neutral Heinrichshaven, which he hoped to persuade into joining his alliance.
In early August the army of Joachim Benz arrived at the city of Minden, emboldened from the Catholic victories in Hesse. George II had been counting on the Hessians and Thuringians tying down reinforcements from the south and initially was caught off guard, however, he quickly gathered as many men as he could spare from the surrounding region and regrouped at Verden. It was estimated by George that the Danish army, which had swelled once more to about 20,000, would outnumber the Catholics, however this was not the case, as Benz managed to rendezvous with Staphylus and assemble an army about as large. Additionally, many of the Danish soldiers were fresh recruits raised from Jutland and the allied Hanseatic cities and lacked experience. On 9 September 1603 both armies met near the village of Wagenfeld hoping for a decisive engagement.
The Danish managed to secure relative high ground to the northwest of the town, while the Catholic army marched east around the Danish position and crossed a small stream after light skirmishing. This placed the Catholic army northeast of the Danish hills, with a stream on their flanks, and also placed them in between the Danish army and their best path to safety. The Catholic army deployed two echelons in the center, the first commanded by one of Benz’s veteran commanders, Gottfried Kratz, the second by the Burgrave of Butzbach. They were also joined by about 500 cavalry held in the reserve. Benz himself led the right wing, which consisted of most of the Catholic army’s cavalry, supported by musketeers for fire support. The left wing was similar, although slightly smaller, commanded by Staphylus, while to the east of him was positioned a separate English contingent led by Hawkins. The Danish army was arranged with mixed infantry in the center, spread out over a long, single line in an effort to guard the entire hillside and extend past the Catholic center. Two contingents of cavalry and some musketeers were placed on each wing, commanded by Johann Fuchs on the left and Georg Holk on the right. Additionally Behrens was placed in command of a reserve force, mostly made up of Hanseatic fresh recruits, and Imperial Guard Jørgen Ulfeldt and Red Hugh O'Donnell were placed at the head of a small group of elite cavalry and famed Irish fighters.
The battle began with an exchange of artillery, which lasted about three hours. The Catholic army possessed slightly more artillery total, and in the center had experienced light artillery from the Hessian campaign, which managed to fire almost twice as quickly on average compared to the Danish. For unclear reasons, both Danish wings began to charge the Catholic lines, possibly from an unauthorized charge begun by O'Donnell. Fuchs’ detachment reached the Catholic line and fired upon them, but were met by a larger Catholic volley. Benz immediately ordered a full charge in retaliation beginning bloody hand-to-hand combat. Fuchs’ infantry, which consisted of two regiments of elite Danish soldiers, were joined by a detachment from the center and ordered to hold back the Catholics, while Fuchs swung around and attempted to outflank Benz’s position. Benz had half his force cautiously turn and meet them, repulsing Fuchs a second time. As Fuchs continued to try and outflank the Catholic position, additional reinforcements were fed into the Catholic line to extend their flank.
Meanwhile, the charge on the right was far more successful, as the Danish clashed with the smaller, supplementary English force under Hawkins. O’Donnell and a handful of cavalry, numbering no more than 200 men, swung around the flank, while Holk made significant progress directly, devastating the English artillery installed near the center of their line. Seeing the sharp progress being made on the right, George II ordered his center to begin advancing diagonally to the right in support of Holk. After a series of costly cavalry charges against them, the English force began to disintegrate and flee the battlefield, although some of the veteran English were rallied by Hawkins and joined Staphylus’ flank. The Danes seemed poised to envelop the Catholic army, as the Danish center moved into place and began to wrap around their enemies along the right. However, many of George’s cavalry on that flank had continued after the fleeing English and were looting their baggage, effectively leaving the battle.
In response to George’s attempted outflanking, Staphylus pivoted his line and called upon Butzbach’s reserve force to march to the right flank. As the Danes got into position Staphylus repeatedly harassed their lines with cavalry charges and artillery barrages. Both sides became engaged all along the right flank, which was now curved into a hook shape. Staphylus took command of his men personally around the angle and repulsed a major cavalry charge by O’Donnell and Ulfeldt, beginning a fierce struggle. During this chaos, O’Donnell was shot off his horse and fell, suffering a serious injury, but continued fighting. Eventually the Danish cavalry was repulsed, and O’Donnell suffered another mortal wound, being left on the battlefield. The Irish detachment made a brutal last stand to cover the withdraw, and O’Donnell’s entire contingent was killed.
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After a half dozen charges on the left flank by Fuchs, Benz finally countered by ordering a return charge with his reserve cavalry. Exhausted from hours of fighting, Fuchs’ cavalry were crushed, and Fuchs himself was killed while fleeing back toward the center. Danish infantry in the center began to flee as well upon seeing the rout on the left flank, and Benz ordered his men to advance. After almost an hour, the lightly engaged group under the command of Gottfried Kratz charged forward and broke what remained of George’s center. A full scale retreat was ordered, which Benz pursued. About half of the Danish pikemen in the center organized near a small forested hill to the southeast, making a stand against the Catholic cavalry in an effort to allow the remainder of the army to flee. George II narrowly escaped with his own life at this point due to the distraction, having been caught in a melee alongside his imperial guard in the chaos. These infantry that remained were later bombarded with their own artillery, and they fled under the cover of darkness.
The Battle of Wagenfeld would prove to be one of the most important battles of the war and was abysmal for the Danish. The Catholics had suffered about 4,200 casualties, while the Danish had seen some 13,800 casualties, including 4,000 deaths, 3,000 wounded, 3,800 captured, and 3,000 missing. The fleeing Danish also had to contend with numerous skirmishes as they fled, which cost them additional losses, and saw their mercenaries desert, many of which joined the Catholic army. For the next year George II scrambled to regain the strength he had enjoyed previously and was put on a desperate defense. After Wagenfeld the Danes had also lost the political battle, as other Jungist nations hesitated to aid them, while others swore homage to Frederick V. George II returned to Hamburg, while Benz spent the remainder of the year into 1604 clearing the Hanover region of resistance and Danish garrisons. Cities such as Verden and Lüneburg were taken after brief sieges, while others that didn’t have a Danish presence surrendered without a fight.
In early 1604 Benz advanced into Mecklenburg, cutting the Hanseatic forces in half. He achieved another decisive victory at Schwerin, which caused much of Mecklenburg to surrender, aside from the port cities such as Rostock that were supplied by the Baltic Sea or had large garrisons. Benz’s undoing proved to be attempted sieges of these northern cities, as without a navy, and with the cost of the war starting to add up, Benz was unable to take the Hansa’s major cities, and suffered heavy losses in his attempts to. Additionally in the region of Brunswick-Lüneburg, which was perhaps the most devastated and decentralized region of the war, the peasantry rose up and seized control over the relatively unscathed city of Hanover. Discontent with the disastrous leadership of the region’s Dukes, the region began electing new rulers. The Hanover Republic was declared as a breakaway nation from the Hansa, and they entered negotiations with the Catholics. Not wanting to have his supply lines cut off, Benz accepted Hanover’s peace, effectively breaking away one of the Hansa’s most important regions, and establishing an independent state tacitly aiding the Catholic side.
The Danish intervention formally continued into 1605, when George II sued for peace. Although he managed to secure a handful of victories in the preceding months, his failing health stalled the war effort and made continuing the conflict untenable. Aeneas Sehested managed a defense of Ritzebüttel that lasted several months, but he was ultimately forced to evacuate to Jutland. Later the Danish navy would be decisively defeated at the Battle of Fano Bay by Dutch admiral Anthony von Schönberg. Cut off from Lübeck, many of the members of the Hanseatic League made their own peace treaties, de facto breaking away from the League in the process, devolving the Hansa to southern Holstein, the Hamburg-Lübeck Corridor along the Elbe up to Lauenburg and Wismar, and several scattered Baltic cities. The Danish began negotiations with Benz and representatives of Frederick V, and in April the Treaty of Lübeck was signed.
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Denmark was to withdraw from the war and maintain neutrality henceforth. George II agreed to pay a moderate sum to the League of Meppen and the Emperor as compensation for his invasion, although Frederick V later learned this was disappointingly less than he had hoped, and the cost of the Catholic League’s army was only partially covered. The various prince-bishoprics that George II had ascended to were completely relinquished, and Bremen, Verden, and Lübeck were to become Catholic bishoprics once more, while Schleswig and Holstein were acknowledged as possessions of the Danish kings, although Danish Holstein was reduced in territory to only its northern half. George II had to relinquish his claimed throne of Holy Roman Emperor and acknowledge Frederick V as emperor, with the Danish relinquishing all imperial offices or possessions. The Hanseatic League’s interests were largely disregarded, and the treaty effectively made them confirm the independence of the League of Meppen, Hanover, and other breakaway states. For his success, Benz was made Duke of Mecklenburg by Frederick V, and Benz’s ascendency was considered controversial to both Jungists and Catholics.
The victory over George II further empowered Frederick V and his Catholic ministers, and they issued a series of edicts harsher than those that followed the Hessian defeat. Protections and guarantees previously granted to Jungists were stripped, and legally all territories captured or converted to Jungism since the Peace of Passau, including numerous former bishoprics, were to be restored to Catholicism. The stage would be set for Sweden and a coalition of Jungist states in Germany to declare war on the Catholic League in response, causing the war to renew soon after the peace at Lübeck. George II would ultimately die of natural causes on 9 June 1605.
Balkan Theatre (1603-1626)
Just as the Forty Years’ War was beginning in Germany, the Long Byzantine War of 1573-1595 had established a tenuous peace in the Balkans. Although Andrew III of Austria (1534-1594) considered himself victorious and intended to continue the fight until the entirety of Hungary fell into his domain, his death in 1594 led to the war’s collapse early the following year. The Árpáds now had to face the reality of the situation: they had taken on massive debts to both lenders and the army, had made numerous concessions to the Hungarian nobility, and had disappointed their German allies with grandiose promises. Although Austria had gained western Hungary, it would spend the intertwining years before entering the Forty Years' War combatting internal squabbles that further crippled the country. Discontent from the Hungarian nobility led to a dispute between Stephen V/XI and his brother Olivér, and fearing intervention from foreign powers Stephen was pressured to abdicate in favor of Olivér II. An edict of toleration for Protestantism was passed by Olivér which further weakened Austrian hold over Hungary, although it placated their worrying situation for the time being.
The Eastern Hungarian Kingdom was faring better than their western counterpart. After the Edict of Turda the nation recognized Jungists, Kafkanists, Unitarians, and Roman Catholics as protected and tolerated, although the Eastern Orthodox Church was less supported. By 1600 the vast majority of the nation had converted to protestant sects, while after 1588 the monarch had converted to unitarianism, the world’s first. Although they occupied lands formerly owned by Hungary, the eastern kingdom supported strong ties with the resurgent Kingdom of Bosnia, which had broken free from Byzantine hegemony to establish a resurgent and strong nation. Conflict seemed inevitable after 1600, as the Bosnians began to support rebellious Hungarian lords in Austria in an effort to undermine their authority. At the same time Austria had begun promising soldiers to alliance of Frederick V, Holy Roman Emperor against the forces of Joktan of Hesse. Later the Hungarians dispatched a force under the Kafkanist general Gabriel Bethlen to rendezvous with George II of Denmark, although their armies failed to coordinate.
The war began piecemeal in 1603 with the defection of Michael the Brave, Prince of Wallachia from the Byzantine alliance. Although previously profiting off Byzantine support to become the most powerful northern vassal of the Byzantine Empire, he took advantage of Byzantine weakness with the aid of several Hungarian nobles, notably Sigismund Báthory. The Byzantines responded by raising an army of some 70,000 soldiers poised to invade Wallachia, and also courted Moldavia with promises of suzerainty over Wallachia. Michael refused to meet the Byzantines on an even field of battle, instead attacking with 20,000 men in a marshy field near the Neajlov River. The subsequent battle became an infamous defeat for the Byzantines, with the Wallachian alliance suffering approximately 1,000 casualties, compared to a claimed 10-15,000 losses for the Byzantines. Michael lacked the soldiers to pursue the fleeing army however, instead spending the remainder of the year removing Byzantines garrisons across Wallachia with the aid of a Transylvanian army. Meanwhile, Byzantine-Hungarian relations had already begun to deteriorate after the succession of John II in Eastern Hungary, as the Byzantines feared a resurgent kingdom under his rule now that the Árpáds had begun to decline—with the news of Neajlov River reaching Hungary, John II was persuaded into an alliance in support of Wallachia.
Michael the Brave’s army crossed the Danube and began a fierce guerilla campaign against the northern frontier of the Byzantine Empire, helping to spark an uprising of the Bulgarian nobility which lasted into 1606. A Hungarian army likewise launched an invasion of the contested border region of eastern Serbia, making moderate gains. Caught off guard by both invasions, the Byzantines were pushed back from the northern Balkans in a series of defeats, most notably the Battle of Giurgiu, where the remnants of the original Byzantine army, now only 40,000 strong, was repulsed by a joint Wallachian-Hungarian army, forcing the Byzantines to flee south in disarray. News of this defeat caused the Byzantines to recall their forces and prepare a defense in Bulgaria and Serbia, while diplomatically they tried to court the Austrians. In 1605 Olivér II was prepared to accept this offer, having stabilized his position in Germany. He launched a full scale invasion of Eastern Hungary under the command of Italian general Demetrio Basta. At the same time Stephen III of Bosnia had entered into an alliance with Albania with the intent of invading Byzantine Serbia, but Stephen’s plans were changed by Austria’s Austria’s invasion. Stephen III recalled his main army and attacked Austrian possessions in Croatia.
The Austrian invasion proved successful and markedly divided the Hungarian military. In April 1605 the Battle of Požarevac reversed Byzantine misfortunes, defeating a Hungarian army and forcing them out of central Serbia. Thinking that they had defeated the main Byzantine army, the Hungarians had begun to loot the Byzantine camp, only to be caught by surprise and devastated by hidden defenders. Michael the Brave was offered recognition as independent by the Byzantines, although he viewed this as only buying time. However, without support from his allies he was forced to return to Wallachia and raise new forces. His efforts would be spent over the next year pacifying Moldavia.
By 1607 the Austrians had secured numerous cities by siege, namely Eger and Tokaj. The Kingdom of Eastern Hungary was effectively deprived of all its Hungarian land, leaving the majority of Transylvania only. John II fell ill and became detached from the war, leaving the country in the hands of his ministers. Upon his death he willed rulership over to his treasurer Gáspár Bekes as Voivode of Transylvania, but this was contested. Instead Olivér II brokered a secret alliance between himself, Sigismund Báthory (one of the most powerful nobles, the leader of the army, and a rare Catholic noble), Jan Zamoyski (a Polish chancellor and hetman), and Ieremia Movilă (a sworn Moldavian enemy of Michael the Brave). With Polish assistance Báthory deposed Bekes and had himself crowned king, and later recognized the suzerainty of Olivér II.
Sigismund’s usurpation did not go unchallenged, especially as his actions polarized the nobility. He was viewed as a puppet, and his preference toward Catholics became extreme despite governing a majority non-Catholic nation. This included confiscating lands and money from Kafkanist nobles in order to consolidate control and rebuild Sigismund’s army and exhausted treasury, which prompted Stephen Bocskay to launch a rebellion of some 5,000 runaway serfs and refugees in the borderlands. He was soon joined by the remnants of Gabriel Bethlen’s army, and by an invasion led by Michael the Brave. Bocskay was recognized as ruler of Eastern Hungary by the Byzantines in 1608 after he renounced Hungary’s gains and promised the return of lands in the south, much to the dismay of Michael the Bold. Primarily focusing on the west, Bocskay managed to recapture most of the cities captured by the Austrians, while Michael the Brace occupied a large majority of Transylvania, secretly intending to not cede this land back to Bocskay.
With Austria’s attention now turned elsewhere, they elected to sign the Treaty of Vienna in February 1609, which established peace between Austria and Eastern Hungary. Hungary was recognized as independent under Stephen Bocskay, and Sigismund was recognized as deposed. The majority of Austria’s gains were reversed, although they retained some territory in Upper Hungary. Bocskay would die in 1609 without an heir, allowing Michael the Bold to claim the throne. He secured Transylvania for himself, and later in the year he reconciled with his former Hungarian enemies, including Gabriel Bethlen, to repulse a Byzantine invasion at the Battle of Mórahalom. However, soon after the battle Michael the Brave was assassinated on the orders of his allies, ending Wallachian hegemony over Transylvania.
French Intervention (1605-)
Prior to the Forty Years' War the nation of France had formally adopted the Gallican Church, a French-branded Protestant sect, as the state religion of the nation, which included France toward the side of Protestants in Germany. However, France was also in a dynastic union with the Přemyslid realms of Bohemia and Livonia, which often placed it tacitly on the side of Catholic nations during the reign of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. France additionally intervened on the side of Belgica during the Hundred Years' War of the Lowlands, until a ceasefire was established with the 1590 Treaty of The Hague. The final years of the reign of Henry III left France in an inadequate position for a major war.
The events of several recent wars in the New World and the British Isles, notably a failed armada against the Celtic Union, and other ambitious projects strained the nation's treasury, compounded by lingering tensions from the partial protestantization of the nation. The mountainous regions of France, where support from Navarre and Spain was plentiful, refused to give up Catholicism or support the endeavors of the French king. New taxes levied by the government, such as the paulette tax, and well as the increased sale of offices to make up this difference antagonized the nobility across the board. Opposition was also mounted to foreign advisors and artisans that Henry III employed from Italy and Germany, many of which were Catholic. When Henry III died in 1603, the throne passed to his thirteen year old son Louis XII, and the country was governed by a series of unpopular regents appointed by his mother.
The Queen Mother and her favorite, Peter Jeannin, quarreled with other members of the court, such as Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, and in late 1603 Bourbon raised an army with the support of several dissatisfied nobles, nearly prompting a civil war. However, the two armies never came to blows and instead a meeting of the Estates General was called to address the grievances. These negotiations accomplished little, and all the while French Catholics became increasingly defiant to the crown, eventually boiling over into full rebellion. One of the Queen's ministers, the Duke of Luynes, as well as Puritan military leader Noël Brûlart, likely intentionally inflamed the situation in the hopes of instigating a crackdown against French Catholics by military force, however, this backfired when Luynes persuaded the crown to attack the Catholic stronghold of Bordeaux, only to be defeated in combat. Upon his next birthday, Louis XII intervened to have Luynes replaced by the Duke of Lesdiguières in what became a bloodless coup in the royal palace. His mother was sent into exile in Blois, two of the palace's Italian advisors were executed, a third was tried for witchcraft, and several others were imprisoned or exiled.
As king Louis XII placed power in some unlikely hands, favoring merit over the prestige of those he promoted. The Grand Falconer Gédéon Vivonne, Archbishop Raoal Després, and Nicholas Hytholoday, a descendant of the famed explorer Raphael Hytholoday, made up the core of his cabinet, while Lesdiguières was made First Minister. However, fearing the duke's ambitions, the king had Lesdiguières placed in command of securing Brittany to keep him away from the capital. The king aligned with the Puritans at court, taking advantage of the loyalty of the famed New Model Army, a puritan wing of the French military famous for its zealotry and discipline, to lead a counterattack against French rebels in the south. Moving quickly into the Occitan region, this rapid campaign took the French Catholics by surprise. Louis XII would see his first battle near Limoges that October, defeating an army under the command of Charles d'Albert. The war would continue into 1605, becoming one of the bloodiest in the long French Wars of Religion, and ultimately culminated in the Sack of Montauban. Negotiating from a position of power, Louis XII received the submission of the Catholic nobility in exchange for reassurances that their religion would be tolerated as had been done previously. Under this arrangement, several fortifications were razed, and the French Catholic nobility was to supply France with soldiers and taxes once more. The king was also reconciled with the Duke of Bourbon, who proved an important ally later in the Forty Years' War.
The peace would last for the majority of Louis XII's reign, affording him the ability to look outside France and in the ensuing crisis in Germany. The success of the Catholic League thus far threatened to further surround France, as now France was cut off from many of its Jungist allies in western Germany by the Habsburg-Palatinate alliance which essentially dominated the entire Rhine from Switzerland to the North Sea. France's historic ally the Hanseatic League, which was often pursued as a counter to the Lowland states, had been dismantled, and France was now surrounded on three sides by the House of Luxembourg, who ruled the United Kingdom, England, and Spain simultaneously. France's intervention in the war would therefore be on the side of the Protestant alliance, although it began in slow order. During the final days of his campaign on the continent, George II of Denmark received minor subsidies from the French crown, a practice that became intensified with Sweden throughout most of the war.
Footnotes
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