AP European History
AP European History
The conflict in France is best viewed as a three-sided struggle. In the middle stood the Catholic Valois family, now led by Henry’s widow, the moderate yet cunning Catherine de Medicis (1519-1589). Like the future Henry IV and Elizabeth I of England, Catherine advocated political stability over religious orthodoxy, being known as a politique. In addition, Catherine attempted to maintain the throne for her three weak sons – Francis II (1559-1560), Charles IX (1560-1574), and Henry III (1574-1589). Against the Catholic Valois, on one side, stood a faction of Protestant nobles who laid claim to the throne through Henry Bourbon (of Navarre) and wished free worship for those of the Huguenot faith. Also opposed to the Valois and with the backing of the Jesuits, the papacy, and Philip II were the Guise family, or ultra-Catholics. The ultra-Catholics viewed the Valois monarchy as weak in the face of the Protestant threat and wished to restore a more strongly Catholic king.
Religious conflict in France was played out in a series of 13 short wars, with numerous attempts at compromise by Catherine and her sons. One of these attempts at compromise led to one of the worst atrocities during this violent period. In 1572, Henry Bourbon agreed to marry . Catherine de Medicis’s daughter as a sign of reconciliation. However, during the wedding celebration in Paris, rumors flared that Protestants were plotting to take over the government. What followed was a slaughter of the Protestant nobles, in Paris and. throughout France, known as the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. In all, approximately 10,000 French Protestants were killed, though Henry Bourbon escaped by converting to Catholicism (a conversion he quickly renounced). The event seemed to show the corruption of the Valois monarchy and deepened resistance to it.
The final stage of France’s civil war is called the War of the Three Henries. In 1588, Henry Guise (leader of the ultra-Catholics) took the city of Paris, threatening the Valois hold on the nation. Henry III, of Valois, felt he had no alternative but to form an alliance against the ultra-Catholics with Henry Bourbon, whom he promised to make next in line to the throne. On the pretext of compromise, both Henries invited Guise to the palace and had him assassinated. In reprisal, a fanatical monk killed Henry III in 1589, milking Henry Bourbon (IV) ruler of France. However, Henry IV’s (1589-1610) way to Paris was barred by Spanish troops, and he would spend the next decade winning control of the nation. To bring peace to France, Henry. converted back to Catholicism (the majority religion of France), supposedly saying “Paris is worth a mass,” and then issued the Edict of Nantes, which allowed Huguenots to practice their religion outside Paris and to fortify towns to protect their hard-won liberties. Over the next several years, Henry IV became one of the most beloved monarchs in French history and established a strong Bourbon dynasty, laying the foundations for absolutism.
In response to Philip’s tax policy, discontented Burgundians in 1566 directed their ire against the symbols of Catholicism, smashing statues and church decorations, in what was known as the iconoclast revolt. Philip sent the Duke of Alba to the Netherlands to crush the revolt. Alba established the so-called Council of Blood and executed a number of leading Protestant nobles, which only further inflamed the provinces. Soon a leader of the revolt emerged – William “the Silent” (1533-1584) – from the House of Orange in Holland), so-called because of his reluctance to discuss his strategies with others. William was aided by the “sea beggars,” ships that engaged in acts of piracy against the Spanish. When Spanish troops pillaged the city of Antwerp in 1576 (they had not been paid because Spain lacked funds), all 17 provinces called for the end of Spanish rule in the Netherlands, an event known as the Pacification of Ghent. This action caused Philip to change tactics, and it overshadowed. the great Spanish naval victory. over Ottoman forces in 1571 at Lepanto, which cleared the western Mediterranean of the Muslim threat. Philip appointed his nephew Alexander Farnese (1545-1592), the Duke of Parma and a brilliant military leader, to subdue the Netherlands through reward and punishment. Farnese succeeded by 1578 in prying away the southern 10 provinces from the revolt and winning their allegiance to Spain with the Union of Arras. These provinces were populated primarily by the French-speaking Walloons. In response, the northern, mostly Dutch-speaking Flemish 7 provinces in 1581 formed the Union of Utrecht with the intent of separating from Spain. Throughout the conflict, Elizabeth I of England quietly provided the Dutch with financial and naval aid, including attacks on Spanish shipping by the “sea dogs” such as Sir Francis Drake (c. 1540-1596). By 1588, Philip was determined to end English meddling and teach Elizabeth, his one-time sister-in-law who had spurned his offer of marriage, a lesson. Philip’s Spanish Armada did not have a chance against the more maneuverable English ships and because his plan for an invasion was too complex. Spain’s “confident hope of a miracle” turned into a rout in the “Protestant wind,” which signaled the rise of England and the relative decline of Spain as maritime powers, though Philip would raise other armadas and continue to fight on.
Though Philip never admitted defeat in the Netherlands, his successor Philip III in 1609 signed a Twelve Years’ truce with the Union of Utrecht, which all but granted the Dutch independence. The southern 10 provinces remained loyal and became known as the Spanish Netherlands. Once the strongest nation in Europe, Spain slowly declined throughout the 17th century. There were several reasons for this loss of power. ,First, the Spanish had overextended themselves politically and militarily, taxing their subjects excessively and allowing the nation to fall behind economically. Second, the Iberian crusading mentality led the Spanish to persecute talented minorities, like the moriscos (Muslim converts to Catholicism), who were driven out in the early 17th century. Finally, internal revolts over high taxes and government centralization, combined with population decline, sapped Spain’s internal energy. By the end of the Thirty Years’ War, to which we now turn, Spain’s siglo de oro (Golden Age) was over, an important lesson for nations that believe that power entails invincibility.
Following the Peace of Augsburg (1555), Germany divided between Lutheran and Catholic states. However, the treaty did not take into account the fastest growing denomination after 1560 – Calvinism. When the ruler of the Palatinate, Frederick V (1610-1623), converted to Calvinism, the delicate religious balance in Germany seemed threatened. It became apparent that neither Protestant nor Catholic leaders had any intention of treating Augsburg as a permanent settlement to Germany’s religious division. What complicated matters was the elective nature of the Holy Roman Emperor, nominally the political leader of Catholicism and still a position of importance. According to the Golden Bull of l356, the emperor was elected by seven states, three of which were controlled by Catholic rulers and three by Protestants. To gain control of the last electoral state (Bohemia), the next Habsburg in line (the traditional . imperial ruling house) – Ferdinand II (1620-1637) – promised the Bohemian nobles he would respect their religious liberties if they would elect him the king of Bohemia (whereby he could in turn vote for himself as emperor). After Ferdinand was elected king in 1618, he betrayed his promise to the Bohemian nobles, thus initiating the conflict.
The event that set off the conflict was the so-called Defenestration of Prague (1618), in which Bohemian nobles tossed two imperial officials out of the Prague castle. Following this act of rebellion, the nobles elected Frederick V of Palatine as their new king. Subsequent fighting is often divided by historians into four distinct phases, which are outlined below. You are encouraged to take note of the shifting motivations and alliances of states.
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The Peace of Westphalia (1648), which ended the Thirty Years’ War, marks an important turning point in European politics and diplomacy. After this point, the Holy Roman Empire’no longer played a minor role in the affairs of central Europe, though the Austrian Habsburgs turned to the east in subsequent years to revive their imperial fortunes. The treaty formally recognized the independence of Switzerland and the Dutch Republic, as well as reflected a shift in the balance of power. Emerging stronger were France, Sweden, Prussia (in Germany), and the Dutch. Losing energy were the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, which now fell into the rank of the second-tier powers, beset by a declining population and economy.
Historians often view the Westphalia settlement as the “final nail in the coffin of the Middle Ages” because it recognized the sovereignty of each nation over its own religious affairs and ended any hopes of religious unity of Europe. Indeed, the papacy was virtually ignored in the peace negotiations and would playa sharply reduced role in future diplomacy. Though Europe as a whole moved toward a grudging religious tolerance, Germany was decimated. Estimates vary, but Germany’s population may have declined by 20%-33%. In areas of heavy fighting, entire towns ceased to exist, and economic life was severely curtailed. Central Europe was left a power vacuum that would soon be filled by the emergence of two competing German powers – Prussia and Austria – whose fortunes will be traced in the next chapter.
As a result of the Thirty Years’ War, Europe underwent a military revolution. Gunpowder and the foot-soldier (pikemen and musketeers) played a major role, with the infantry square formation employing massed volleys (firing at the same time). Tactics became more flexible, with the use of lighter and more mobile cavalry, pioneered by Gustavus Adolphus. In addition, to fund the increasing costs of war and oversee it complexity, governments grew larger and more centralized. Warfare had become the primary function of European states, who often spent up to 80% of their budgets on fielding, training, supplying, and of course, using armies (to meet their political objectives). As we’ll see in Chapter 7, this trend caused a further expansion of the state’s power in the age of absolutism.