The Thirty Years War by Charles  Knutson May 1989

Contents Introduction and Bylaws Interpretive Clothing Scottish Culture History Music and Dance Military Life Language Bibliography, Sources and Library Materials

In 1555, The Diet of Augsburg attempted to bring a truce to the religious conflicts in Europe through the principle Cuius regio eius religio, "whose region, his religion. " In each state, the ruler would decide the religion of his country.  This was a slightly more progressive policy than before, since it gave believers of the "wrong" creed a chance to emigrate to avoid execution.  It was a less than perfect solution.  If the king died, and his successor was of another religion, the people were to accept the new creed or suffer the consequences.  For example, Elector Frederick III of the area called the Palatinate favored Calvinism.  His son Lewis enforced Lutheranism when he came into power.  Lewis' brother, as regent, was again Calvinist, as were the next two rulers including Frederick V.  Frederick V married Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James the VI of Scotland. As a result of such religious fluctuations, Europe was infected by what a Lutheran leader terms "theological rabies," with Protestant groups arguing as bitterly amongst themselves as they did with the Roman Catholics.  In the midst of the turmoil, the Catholic church was able to regain about half of the countries it had lost during the first half of the 1500's.  When the Protestants finally realized their divisions could be suicidal as the Catholics regained influence, a group of Protestant princes formed a Union of Evangelical Estates (1608) for mutual protection.  By 1610, nearly all the Catholic states of the Holy Roman Empire formed their own union, the Catholic League, and thus the stage was set for the 30 Years War. In 1618, Emperor Matthias (of the Holy Roman Empire) left ten governors to administer Bohemia, seven of them were Catholic.  When these Catholic governors jailed a group of Protestants, a crowd of irate sympathizers entered the castle where two of the governors sat, threw them and a secretary out of a third-story window, and formed a revolutionary directory.  The Arch-duke Ferdinand was the legal heir to Bohemia at the time and therefore promptly dispatched two armies to put down this Protestant revolt. In order to exclude the Catholic Ferdinand from the Bohemian throne, the revolutionary directory offered it to a Calvinist - Frederick V.  Frederick's father-in-law, James VI of Scotland, recommended he reject this offer and refused to give him any military aid.  His wife Elizabeth, however, promised to share whatever fate his decision would bring, and on October 31, 1619, Frederick and his Scottish bride took their place as the King and Queen of Bohemia. Empire, or be declared an outlaw, and have all his property confiscated.  By August 1620, an Imperial army of 25,000 men invaded By this time, Archduke Ferdinand had become Emperor and declared Frederick to be a usurper.  Frederick was ordered to leave the Bohemia.  The insurrection that began in 1618 had escalated into what we now know of as the Bohemian phase of the 30 Years War. Scottish mercenaries were willing to fight in the 30 Years War.  The Scots served Gustavus so well that his Swedish troops were, at times, jealous of the attention given the Scots.  The Scottish involvement in the 30 Years War ended about 1635 after many of them were The fact that a Scottish princess was married to the embattled King Frederick of Bohemia has been pointed to as one of the reasons that slaughtered in the Protestant defeat at the Battle of Nordlingen, and those who survived began to return home as the clouds of civil war began to gather over Britain. Source: Durant, Will and Ariel.  The Reformation.