30 Years War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle, famine, and disease, while some areas of what is now modern Germany experienced population declines of over 50%. Related conflicts include the Eighty Years' War, the War of the Mantuan Succession, the Franco-Spanish War, and the Portuguese Restoration War. Until the 20th century, historians generally viewed it as a continuation of the religious struggle initiated by the 16th-century Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire. The 1555 Peace of Augsburg attempted to resolve this by dividing the Empire into Lutheran and Catholic states, but over the next 50 years the expansion of Protestantism beyond these boundaries destabilised the settlement. While most modern commentators accept differences over religion and Imperial authority were ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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European Wars Of Religion
The European wars of religion were a series of wars waged in Europe during the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries. Fought after the Protestant Reformation began in 1517, the wars disrupted the religious and political order in the Catholic Church, Catholic countries of Europe, or Christendom. Other motives during the wars involved revolt, territorial ambitions and European balance of power, great power conflicts. By the end of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), Catholic France had allied with the Protestant forces against the Catholic Habsburg monarchy. The wars were largely ended by the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which established a new political order that is now known as Westphalian sovereignty. The conflicts began with the minor Knights' Revolt (1522), followed by the larger German Peasants' War (1524–1525) in the Holy Roman Empire. Warfare intensified after the Catholic Church began the Counter-Reformation in 1545 against the growth of Protestantism. The conflicts cul ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Savoyard State
The Savoyard state is a term of art used by historians to denote collectively all of the states ruled by the counts and dukes of Savoy from the Middle Ages to the formation of the Kingdom of Italy. At the end of the 17th century, its population was about 1.4 million.Geoffrey Symcox"Victor Amadaeus II: Absolutism in the Savoyard State, 1675-1730."Page 245.Gregory Hanlon. "The Hero of Italy: Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma, his Soldiers, and his Subjects in the Thirty Years' War." Routledge: May 2014. Page 87. Piedmont's population is given at 700,000, and Savoy's at 400,000 in 1630; Aosta and the County of Nice are not listed. History The multi-century history of Savoy included the period before the County of Savoy, then the County of Savoy, the Duchy of Savoy, the period from Savoy to Sicily and Sardinia before Italian unification, and thereafter. From the Middle Ages, the state comprised the Duchy of Savoy, the Principality of Piedmont, the Duchy of Aosta and the County of Nic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Carl Gustaf Wrangel
''Fältmarskalk'' Carl Gustaf Wrangel (also Carl Gustav von Wrangel; 23 December 1613 – 5 July 1676) was a Swedish Statesman and Military Commander who commanded the Swedish forces in the Thirty Years', Torstenson, Bremen, Second Northern and Scanian Wars. A Baltic German, he held the ranks of a Field Marshal, Commander-in-Chief of the Swedish forces in Germany (1646–1648), and Lord High Admiral of Sweden (from 1657). Wrangel was Governor-General of Swedish Pomerania (1648–1652 and 1656–1676) and, from 1664, Lord High Constable of Sweden and a member of the Privy Council. He held the title of a Count of Salmis until 1665, when he became Count of Sölvesborg. By 1673, Wrangel's title was "Count of Sölvesborg, Freiherr of Lindeberg and Ludenhof, Lord of Skokloster, Bremervörde, Wrangelsburg, Spyker, Rappin, Ekebyhov, Gripenberg and Rostorp".Asmus (2003), p.195In 1666, he was still addressed Count of Salmis in the Treaty of Habenhausen: "Carl Gustav Wrangel / ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lennart Torstenson
Lennart Torstensson, Count of Ortala, Baron of Virestad (17 August 16037 April 1651), was a Swedish Field Marshal and military engineer. Early career He was born at Forstena manor in Västergötland. His parents were Märta Nilsdotter Posse and Torsten Lennartsson, of the noble house Forstena, who was supporter of King Sigismund and, for a while, the commandant of Älvsborg fortress. Young Lennart's parents fled to exile in the year of his birth because his father had confessed to being loyal to the deposed Sigismund. Lennart was taken care of by relatives - his father returned to Sweden only when Lennart was around twenty. His paternal uncle Anders Lennartsson was Lord High Constable of Sweden and trusted by Duke Charles, but he fell at the Battle of Kircholm in 1605. Military career At the age of fifteen he became one of the pages of the young King Gustavus Adolphus and was allowed to observe the Livonian War, such as the conquest of Riga in 1621. At the age of twenty, h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Johan Banér
Johan Banér (23 June 1596 – 10 May 1641) was a Swedish field marshal in the Thirty Years' War. Early life Johan Banér was born at Djursholm Castle in Uppland. As a four-year-old he was forced to witness how his father, the Privy Councillour Gustaf Banér, and uncle, Sten Axelsson Banér (also a Privy Councillour), were executed at the Linköping Bloodbath in 1600. They were accused of high treason by King Charles IX because of their support of King Sigismund. Though it was the father of King Gustavus Adolphus who had Banér's father executed, the two men developed a strong friendship from an early age, mostly because Gustavus Adolphus reinstated the Banér family soon after his coronation. Military career Banér joined the Swedish Army in 1615 when he participated in the Swedish siege of Pskov during the Ingrian War, he proved himself to be an exceptionally brave young man. He served with distinction in the wars with Russia and Poland, and had reached the rank of Colonel ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Axel Oxenstierna
Axel Gustafsson Oxenstierna af Södermöre (; 1583–1654), Count of Södermöre, was a Swedish statesman. He became a member of the Swedish Privy Council in 1609 and served as Lord High Chancellor of Sweden from 1612 until his death. He was a confidant of King Gustavus Adolphus and then Queen Christina, of whom he was at first regent. Oxenstierna is widely considered one of the most influential people in Swedish history. He played an important role during the Thirty Years' War and was appointed Governor-General of occupied Prussia; he is also credited for having laid the foundations of the modern central administrative structure of the State, including the creation of Counties of Sweden, counties ( sv, län). Early life and education Oxenstierna was born on 16 June 1583, at Enköping Municipality, Fånö in Uppland, the son of Gustaf Gabrielsson Oxenstierna (1551–1597) and Barbro Axelsdotter Bielke (1556–1624), as the oldest of nine siblings. His parents belonged to the a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gustavus Adolphus
Gustavus Adolphus (9 December Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">N.S_19_December.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">N.S 19 December">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">N.S 19 December15946 November Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">N.S 16 November] 1632), also known in English as Gustav II Adolf or Gustav II Adolph, was King of Sweden from 1611 to 1632, and is credited for the rise of Swedish Empire, Sweden as a great European power ( sv, Stormaktstiden). During his reign, Sweden became one of the primary military forces in Europe during the Thirty Years' War, helping to determine the political and religious balance of power in Europe. He was formally and posthumously given the name Gustavus Adolphus the Great ( sv, Gustav Adolf den store; la, Gustavus Adolphus Magnus) by the Riksdag of the Estates in 1634. He is often ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Catholic League (German)
The Catholic League ( la, Liga Catholica, german: Katholische Liga) was a coalition of Catholic states of the Holy Roman Empire formed 10 July 1609. While initially formed as a confederation to act politically to negotiate issues vis-à-vis the Protestant Union (formed 1608), modelled on the more intransigent ultra-Catholic French Catholic League (1576), it was subsequently concluded as a military alliance "for the defence of the Catholic religion and peace within the Empire". Notwithstanding the league's founding, as had the founding of the Protestant Union, it further exacerbated long standing tensions between the Protestant reformers and the adherents of the Catholic Church which thereafter began to get worse with ever more frequent episodes of civil disobedience, repression, and retaliation that would eventually ignite into the first phase of the Thirty Years' War roughly a decade later with the act of rebellion and calculated insult known as the Second Defenestration o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Electorate Of Bavaria
The Electorate of Bavaria (german: Kurfürstentum Bayern) was an independent hereditary electorate of the Holy Roman Empire from 1623 to 1806, when it was succeeded by the Kingdom of Bavaria. The Wittelsbach dynasty which ruled the Duchy of Bavaria was the younger branch of the family which also ruled the Electorate of the Palatinate. The head of the elder branch was one of the seven prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire according to the Golden Bull of 1356, but Bavaria was excluded from the electoral dignity. In 1621, the Elector Palatine Frederick V was put under the imperial ban for his role in the Bohemian Revolt against Emperor Ferdinand II, and the electoral dignity and territory of the Upper Palatinate was conferred upon his loyal cousin, Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria. Although the Peace of Westphalia would create a new electoral title for Frederick V's son, with the exception of a brief period during the War of the Spanish Succession, Maximilian's descendants wou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predecessor states between 1492 and 1976. One of the largest empires in history, it was, in conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, the first to usher the European Age of Discovery and achieve a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, territories in Western Europe], Africa, and various islands in Spanish East Indies, Asia and Oceania. It was one of the most powerful empires of the early modern period, becoming the first empire known as "the empire on which the sun never sets", and reached its maximum extent in the 18th century. An important element in the formation of Spain's empire was the dynastic union between Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1469, known as the Catholic Monarchs, which in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Peace Of Prague (1635)
The Peace of Prague (, ), signed on 30 May 1635, ended Saxony's participation in the Thirty Years War. Other German princes subsequently joined the treaty and although the Thirty Years War continued, it is generally agreed Prague ended it as a war of religion within the Holy Roman Empire. Thereafter, the conflict was largely driven by foreign powers, including Spain, Sweden, and France. Some scholars regard the treaty merely as a step towards the terms of the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, but others recognise it as an important treaty in its own right that marked the boundaries between two historical eras. European historians generally pay more attention to the Peace of Prague than their non-European colleagues, who are more focused on Westphalia. Background The Thirty Years' War began in 1618 when Frederick, the Protestant ruler of the Palatinate, accepted the crown of Bohemia. Many Germans remained neutral and viewed it as an inheritance dispute. With Bavarian support, Emper ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Landgraviate Of Hesse-Kassel
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Kassel), spelled Hesse-Cassel during its entire existence, was a state in the Holy Roman Empire that was directly subject to the Emperor. The state was created in 1567 when the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided upon the death of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. His eldest son William IV inherited the northern half of the Landgraviate and the capital of Kassel. The other sons received the Landgraviate of Hesse-Marburg, the Landgraviate of Hesse-Rheinfels and the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt. During the Napoleonic reorganisation of the Empire in 1803, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel was elevated to an Electorate and Landgrave William IX became an Imperial Elector. Many members of the Hesse-Kassel House served in the Danish military gaining high ranks and power in the Oldenburg realm due to the fact that many Landgraves were married to Danish princesses. Members of the family who are known to have served Denmark-Norwa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |