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Thirty Years' War

Thirty Years' War Home Page an interactive web resource for historians and gamers Thirty Years War Wargame System The Thirty Years' War had its roots in the ongoing religious struggle between Protestant and Catholic, which became bound up in the dynastic and imperial ambitions of the house of Hapsburg. Nevertheless, Princes would readily trade religious conviction for political advantage: Catholic France was prepared to support the Protestant states against the Holy Roman Empire and Spain. It was this heady brew of faith and traditional rivalries that was to ensure that the war would be a protracted one. By the beginning of the Seventeenth Century Catholicism and the Protestant faith had reached parity among the tiny states and principalities that made up Germany. Three of the electors that voted for the Emperor were Protestant, and the other three Catholic, the Seventh and final one was the Emperor himself, in his capacity as King of Bohemia. The Hapsburgs were initially prepared to tolerate this situation as the main threat was from the Muslim Ottoman Turks, and both Protestant and Catholic fought with equal enthusiasm in the defence of Christendom. But it was a delicate balance, and a swing either way presented a new danger, as each side began to arm to defend themselves from the other.

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