AP® European History review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/euro/units/2/2-4)
Unit 2 · Topic 2.4
2.4 Wars of Religion
Religious division led to a century of wars, from the Holy Roman Empire to France and the Netherlands. Settlements like the Peace of Augsburg, the Edict of Nantes and the Peace of Westphalia slowly accepted that more than one Christian faith would survive, and that states, not the pope or emperor, would decide religion.
Key terms
- Peace of Augsburg (1555)
- St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (1572)
- Edict of Nantes (1598)
- Thirty Years' War (1618–1648)
- Peace of Westphalia (1648)
- politiques
See it on a map: 1648: The Peace of Westphalia
Charles V's impossible job
Charles V ruled Spain, its American empire, the Netherlands, much of Italy and the Austrian lands, and in 1519 he was elected Holy Roman Emperor. He wanted to crush Lutheranism but was constantly distracted. He fought the French Valois kings in the Habsburg-Valois Wars, and the Ottoman sultan Suleiman, who besieged Vienna in 1529. Catholic France even allied with the Muslim Ottomans against him, showing that politics could outweigh religion.
Charles beat the Schmalkaldic League in 1547 but could not wipe out Lutheranism. The Peace of Augsburg (1555) let each prince choose Lutheranism or Catholicism for his territory, a principle later summed up as whoever rules, his religion. Calvinism was left out. Charles then abdicated, splitting his lands: Spain and its empire went to his son Philip II, and Austria and the imperial title to his brother Ferdinand.
France's Wars of Religion (1562–1598)
Catholic and Huguenot nobles fought for control of a weak French monarchy. Catherine de' Medici, the Italian-born queen mother, held real power for her young sons and tried to balance the two sides. In the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (1572), during the wedding of the Protestant Henry of Navarre, Catholic mobs killed thousands of Huguenots in Paris and other towns. Catherine is usually blamed for approving the attack on Huguenot leaders that set it off. The War of the Three Henrys (1587–1589) pitted King Henry III, Henry of Guise of the Catholic League and the Protestant Henry of Navarre against each other; after Guise and then Henry III were assassinated, Navarre was next in line.
Politiques were moderates who argued that a strong state and peace mattered more than religious unity. Henry of Navarre became Henry IV in 1589, converted to Catholicism in 1593 to win Paris, and issued the Edict of Nantes (1598). It made Catholicism the official faith but let Huguenots worship in certain places and hold fortified towns. It was limited toleration for the sake of order. A few other states also chose toleration to keep the peace: in the Warsaw Confederation of 1573, Polish nobles pledged peace among the Christian faiths, and the Dutch Republic later let several faiths worship privately.
The Dutch Revolt
Philip II tried to stamp out Calvinism and raise taxes in the Netherlands. His general, the Duke of Alba, set up a court, nicknamed the Council of Blood, that executed about a thousand people. Led by William of Orange, the northern provinces formed the Union of Utrecht (1579) and declared independence in 1581. England helped the Dutch, which is one reason Philip sent the Spanish Armada against England in 1588; it failed. Spain finally recognized Dutch independence in 1648.
The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648)
The war began when Protestant nobles in Bohemia threw two of the Habsburg king's officials out of a window in Prague in 1618 and rejected their Catholic Habsburg king. It spread into a European war in phases: the Habsburgs crushed Bohemia, then beat Denmark, then faced Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus from 1630. In 1635 Catholic France, led by Cardinal Richelieu, openly joined the Protestant side to weaken the Habsburgs. Religion had become secondary to power.
Armies lived off the land, and plague and famine followed them. Historians estimate the German lands lost somewhere between a fifth and a third of their population, with some regions hit far worse.
- Peace of Westphalia (1648): recognized Calvinism alongside Lutheranism and Catholicism.
- Gave the empire's roughly 300 states nearly full sovereignty, leaving the emperor weak.
- Recognized Dutch and Swiss independence; gave France land in Alsace and Sweden land on the Baltic coast.
- Ended large wars fought mainly over religion; the pope's objections were ignored.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Evaluating a cause
Long-essay practice: Write a thesis on the extent to which religion caused the Thirty Years' War.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Take a position on extent: entirely, mostly, partly, or less over time.
- Step 2: Acknowledge the other side, such as dynastic politics.
- Step 3: Preview specific evidence.
Answer: Model thesis: Although the Thirty Years' War began as a religious revolt by Bohemian Protestants against their Catholic Habsburg king in 1618, by the 1630s it had become chiefly a struggle for power, as shown by Catholic France's entry on the Protestant side in 1635 to weaken the Habsburgs.
Common mistakes
- Saying the Peace of Augsburg created religious freedom. It let princes choose, not individuals, and it excluded Calvinists.
- Calling the Edict of Nantes full equality. It gave Huguenots limited rights, and Louis XIV revoked it in 1685.
- Mixing up the Peace of Augsburg (1555) with the Peace of Westphalia (1648). Westphalia added Calvinism and strengthened state sovereignty.
On the exam
- Long essays on religion and politics reward tracking change over time: Augsburg, Nantes, Westphalia show a growing acceptance of religious pluralism.
- France's alliances with the Ottomans and with Sweden are classic evidence that politics outweighed religion.
Connected topics
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Check yourself
4 questions on 2.4 Wars of Religion. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
III. We ordain that the Catholic Apostolic and Roman religion shall be restored and reestablished in all places and localities of this our kingdom . . . where the exercise of the same has been interrupted, in order that it may be peaceably and freely exercised, without any trouble or hindrance . . . .
VI. And in order to leave no occasion for troubles or differences between our subjects, we have permitted, and herewith permit, those of the said religion called Reformed to live and abide in all the cities and places of this our kingdom . . . without being annoyed, molested, or compelled to do anything in the matter of religion contrary to their consciences . . . .
XIV. It is forbidden as well to perform any function of the said religion in our court or retinue . . . or in our city of Paris, or within five leagues of the said city.
Source: Henry IV, king of France, Edict of Nantes, 1598. Translated in James Harvey Robinson, ed., Readings in European History, 1906.
The edict best reflects the views of the politiques in that it
Articles III and XIV together indicate that
The first thing these troopers did was, that they stabled their horses: thereafter each fell to his appointed task: which task was neither more nor less than ruin and destruction. For though some began to slaughter and to boil and to roast so that it looked as if there should be a merry banquet forward, yet others there were who did but storm through the house above and below stairs. . . . All that they had no mind to take with them they cut in pieces. . . . Bedsteads, tables, chairs, and benches they burned, though there lay many cords of dry wood in the yard.
And now they began: first to take the flints out of their pistols and in place of them to jam the peasants' thumbs in and so to torture the poor rogues . . . .
Source: Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, The Adventurous Simplicissimus, a novel published in 1668. The author had served as a soldier in the Thirty Years' War. Translated by A. T. S. Goodrick, 1912.
The scene described in the passage is most typical of which feature of the Thirty Years' War?
Which of the following best describes how a historian could use this passage?
0 of 4 answered