Chapter 12: The Age of Religious Wars – Flashcards

Period of religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics during the first half of the seventeeth century in Europe. Conflicts included France, the Netherlands, England and Scotland where Calvinists fought out against their Catholic rulers. The causes were both religious and political as both denominations battled for the right to practice freedom of religion. The first beginnings of violence was the Vassy Massacre in March 1562, where the duke of Guise (Catholic) ordered the congregation of Protestants to be killed.

(1562-1598) As the writings of Luther and Calvin began circulating in Paris, massive persecution of Protestants ensued. The Hugeunots protested by spreading Paris and other French cities with anti-catholic propaganda on October 18, 1534. Many Protestants were arrested.

French Protestants who went under major persecution during the French Wars. Many like John Calvin were driven into exile.

(1519-1589) Named Queen of France for her minor son Charles IX in 1560. She unsuccessfully tried to reconcle the Protestants and Catholics. In order to maintain the monarchy, she consulted Protestant allies. In exchange for their support, Catherine issued the January Edict which granted Protestants freedom to worship publicly outside of towns in 1562.

A powerful family in eastern France who lobbied to control the country following the unfortunate death of Charles V and his sickly son in 1560. The Guises had major influence through the Catholic hierarchy of cardinals and bishops. They supported the Catholics in order to keep their political power.

Another powerful family in the south and west of France. In league with the Montmorency-Chatillon, the Bourbons supported the Huguenot protesters to battle the Guises for political reasons.

A powerful family who controlled the center of France. This family also supported the Huguenots in combating the Catholic Guises in France.

As more an more of the French aristocracy sided with the Huguenots (Calvinists), the French monarchy resorted to violence in order to preserve the Catholic country.

As the religious reformers gained support from the aristocratic families such as the Bourbons and the Monmorency-Chatillons, the French monarchy, especially under Catherine de Medici, was forced to choose sides in order to maintain peace. The St. Bartholomew's massacre, the massacre at Vassy, and the assassination of Conde and the duke of Guise are only a few of the hostilites during the French Wars.

On the feast day of St. Bartholomew August 24, 1572, 20,000 Huguenots were killed in Paris. The massacre changed the entire nature of the Protestant-Catholic conflict. It was no longer an internal political struggle between aristocratic families; the Huguenots now viewed it as their duty to sanction their religious freedoms at any means of resistance necessary.

Following joining in alliance with the Catholic French King Henry III, this Protestant politique succeeded him after the assassination of the king by a friar. Although a Protestant, his philosophy as a politique urged him to achieve piece in France by maintaining a tolerance of Catholicism. His charisma and easygoing manner helped win him great support and therfore granted him support to take the throne.

As a part of the Hagsburg kingdom, imperial Spain controlled the lands of Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary. Their newfounded colonies in South America, coupled with their additional wealth and military prowress deemed them a major world power. The new wealth from the colonies was concentrated among the few wealthy families of Spain while the peasants became more and more destitute. Under Phillip II's rule, he kept Spain piously Catholic and repressed all other religious including Islam among the invading Moors in Granada. King Phillip II's failure to conquer parts of northern Europe ended the possibility of Spain becoming a world empire. This and other later defeats began unraveling Spain as a European power.

King of Spain and ruler of the Hagsburg kingdom, this successful politique and devout Catholic governed the strong empire with harsh military and heavy taxes on peasants to pay revenues for his bankers and mercenaries. Although he led many successful military expeditions, his attempts to conquer the Netherlands, England and France failed therefore ending his attempt to create a world empire.

Under William of Orange, the Northern part of the Netherlands began to revolt against Spanish rule. After the historic resolutions of the Pacification of Ghent, the Perpetual Edict, and finally the recognition of the Netherlands' independence in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, the region was free from the governance of imperial Spain. The revolts not only gained political independece but also religious freedoms that made the Netherlands predominantly Calvinist.

Following King Henry VIII's split with the Catholic Church, combined with the Protestant reforms of his close advisors Cranmer and Cromwell, England became a Protestant nation. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth (the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn), she tried to enforce a compromise between the Catholic and Protestant extremists. Although she was supported Protestant theologies, she kept many Catholic practices such as ceremonial vestments and direct alliance of bishops to the Roman papacy. These and other grievances of "popery" were disliked by the growing number of Puritans who wished to "purify" the English church from such practices.

Although both Phillip II and Elizabeth desired to avoid conflict, the two contries inevitably declared war following the duke of Alba's invasion of the Netherlands as a leapstone to invade England. Elizabeth was also "excommunicated" for allowing England to become Protestant, and thereby adding more bitterness to their relations.

(1618-1648) The last and most destructive wars of religion in Europe. The deep-seated hatred between Protestants and Catholics forced both sides to extreme levels of sacrifice to secure religious freedoms. Caused by the fragmentation of Germnay, the splits among both Catholics and Protestant believers, and the struggle for political advancement through Calvinism, the four periods of war drew in every major Western European nation. Hostilites finally were ended through the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648.

The Thirty Years War went through four distinct periods. They included the Bohemian (1618-1625); the Danish (1625-1629); the Swedish (1630-1635); and the Swedish-French (1635-1648). The four phases revolved around the growing Protestant dissention and the Catholic rulers' desire to maintain authority.

The war removed most of the Catholic rulers and reinstated the Peace of Augsburg which deemed "the ruler of the land determines the official religion of the land." Both Sweden and France continued to influence Germany's internal affairs until the end of the century in which France gained more territory. This kept Germany in a continued state of fragmentation and political weakness even into the modern period.