Asher K. Sisneros
Western Civilization Since 1492
Tom Woods
September 4, 2024
The Thirty Years’ War (AD 1619-1648) was a multi-decade and highly complicated civil war within the Holy Roman Empire. It is often touted as a religious war between Protestant and Catholic forces, and that is true, but it would be unfair to characterize the princes’ motives as purely religious; there were political motives as well.
The war arguably began with the Defenestration of Prague (1618). Historically, princes within the Holy Roman Empire retained strong autonomy from the Emperor who was more or less a figurehead. However, that started to change under King Ferdinand of Bohemia who later became the emperor. As an absolutist, he believed in the supremacy of the monarch and pushed the Holy Roman Empire away from decentralization. As a staunch Catholic, he used his authority to revoke Protestant privileges, violating the legal precedent established at the Peace of Augsburg: “Cujus regio, ejus, religio,” which is translated, as “whoever’s realm, their religion.” Ever since that precedent, princes retained autonomy in governing under their religious convictions. Thus, Protestants tended to migrate where there were Protestant princes, and the same was true of Catholics. King Ferdinand attempted to override this principle and reestablish Catholic supremacy in the Holy Roman Empire, but the Protestants grabbed the Emperor’s representatives and threw them out of a window, an incident known as the Defenestration of Prague. It was this action that caused the religious dispute to come to blows on the battlefield.
In the end, after a long and bloody war that neither side could afford, the Holy Roman Empire ended the war in the Peace of Westphalia (1648). The result of the treaty: Religious toleration. The Protestants were allowed to retain their privileges granted under the Peace of Augsburg.
Asher Sisneros 