| Bohemian Revolt | |||||||
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| Part of theThirty Years' War andEuropean wars of religion | |||||||
 The1618 Defenestration of Prague | |||||||
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TheBohemian Revolt (German:Böhmischer Aufstand;Czech:České stavovské povstání; 1618–1620) was an uprising of theBohemianestates against the rule of theHabsburg dynasty that began theThirty Years' War. It was caused by both religious and power disputes. The estates were almost entirelyProtestant, mostlyUtraquistHussite but there was alsoa substantial German population that endorsedLutheranism. The dispute culminated after several battles in the finalBattle of White Mountain, where the estates suffered a decisive defeat. This startedre-Catholisation of theCzech lands, but also expanded the scope of the Thirty Years' War by drawingDenmark andSweden into it. The conflict spread to the rest of Europe and devastated vast areas ofCentral Europe, including the Czech lands, which were particularly stricken by its violent atrocities.
Without heirs, EmperorMatthias sought to assure an orderly transition during his lifetime by having his dynastic heir (the fiercely Catholic Archduke Ferdinand ofStyria, laterFerdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor) elected to the separate royal thrones ofBohemia andHungary.[1] Some of the Protestant leaders of Bohemia feared they would be losing the religious rights granted to them by EmperorRudolf II in hisLetter of Majesty (1609). They preferred the ProtestantFrederick V, Elector Palatine (successor ofFrederick IV, the creator of theProtestant Union). However, other Protestants supported the stance taken by the Catholics, and in 1617, Ferdinand was duly elected by the BohemianEstates to become the crown prince, and automatically upon the death of Matthias, the nextKing of Bohemia.
The king-elect then sent two Catholic councillors (Vilem Slavata of Chlum andJaroslav Bořita of Martinice) as his representatives toPrague Castle in May 1618. Ferdinand had wanted them to administer the government in his absence. On 23 May, an assembly of Protestants seized them and threw them (and also secretaryFilip Fabricius) out of the palace window, which was some 17 metres (56 ft) off the ground. Remarkably, although injured, they survived. This event, known as theThird Defenestration of Prague, started the Bohemian Revolt. Soon afterward, the Bohemian conflict spread through all of theLands of the Bohemian Crown, includingBohemia,Silesia,Upper andLower Lusatia, andMoravia. Moravia was already embroiled in a conflict between Catholics and Protestants. The religious conflict eventually spread across the whole continent of Europe, involving France, Sweden, and a number of other countries.
Had the Bohemian rebellion remained a local conflict, the war could have been over in fewer than thirty months. However, the death of Emperor Matthias emboldened the rebellious Protestant leaders, who had been on the verge of a settlement. The weaknesses of both Ferdinand (now officially on the Bohemian throne after the death of Emperor Matthias) and of the Bohemians themselves led to the spread of the war to western Germany. Ferdinand was compelled to call on his cousin, KingPhilip III of Spain, for assistance. The Spanish Crown had interests in maintaining theHabsburg monarchy as a stable ally; a critical supply route, the "Spanish Road", extended from the Mediterranean to Brussels. To this end they invested an enormous sum of treasure in the hiring of free companies and mercenaries.
The Bohemians, desperate for allies against King Ferdinand, applied to be admitted into theProtestant Union, which was led by their original candidate for the Bohemian throne, theCalvinistFrederick V, Elector Palatine. The Bohemians hinted Frederick would become King of Bohemia if he allowed them to join the Union and come under its protection. However, similar offers were made by other members of the Bohemian Estates to theDuke of Savoy, theElector of Saxony, and thePrince of Transylvania. The Austrians, who seemed to have intercepted every letter leaving Prague, made these duplicities public.[2] This unraveled much of the support for the Bohemians, particularly in the court ofSaxony. As a result, Ferdinand had no difficulty in securing election asHoly Roman Emperor at the1619 imperial election, which greatly strengthened his hand.
EvenJames I ofEngland refused to support Frederick, despite his wife being James' daughter. Overall, England was criticized for its inaction in the Thirty Years' War. In spite of these issues surrounding their support, the rebellion initially favoured the Bohemians. They were joined in the revolt by much ofUpper Austria, whose nobility was then chiefly Lutheran and Calvinist.Lower Austria revolted soon after, and in 1619, CountJindřich Matyáš Thurn led an army to the walls ofVienna itself.
TheSpanish sent an army from Brussels underAmbrogio Spinola to support King Ferdinand, officially in their role as Imperial princes ruling theSpanish Netherlands. In addition, the Spanish ambassador to Vienna,Don Íñigo Vélez de Oñate, persuaded ProtestantSaxony to intervene against Bohemia in exchange for control overLusatia, in addition they would invest nearly two million ducats in the supply and payment of both the army and its free company contingents. The Saxons invaded, and quickly overran most of Lustian except for Gorlitz and Bautzen, eventuallyDuke of Jägerndorf abandoned Bautzen. The Spanish army underCarlos Coloma moved intoLower Palatinate and capturedBad Kreuznach,Oppenheim, andBacharach and Lay siege toHeidelberg,Mannheim, andFrankenthal. TheProtestant Union remained inactive whileJoachim Ernst tried to relieveOppenheim but his efforts where in vain . Another Spanish force underBaltasar von Marradas moved through theAlps from Italy and into Austria. Oñate conspired to transfer the electoral title from the Palatinate to theduke of Bavaria in exchange for his support and that of the Catholic League. Now Thurn and Mansfeld fell out of favor with Fredrick so he replaced them withGeorg Friedrich of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein-Weikersheim andChristian of Anhalt-Bernburg respectively.
The Catholic League's army underJohan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly (which includedRené Descartes in its ranks as an observer)pacified Upper Austria, while Imperial forces under theCount of Bucquoy pacified Lower Austria. The two armies united and moved north into Bohemia. Ferdinand II decisively defeated Frederick V at theBattle of White Mountain, nearPrague, on 8 November 1620. In addition to becoming almost entirely Catholic, Bohemia would remain in Habsburg hands for nearly three hundred years.
This defeat led to the dissolution of theProtestant Union and the loss of Frederick V's holdings. Frederick was placed under theImperial ban and outlawed from the Holy Roman Empire. His territories, the Rhenish Palatinate, were given to Catholic nobles. His title of elector of the Palatinate was given to his distant cousin, Duke Maximilian of Bavaria. Frederick, now landless, made himself a prominent exile abroad and tried to curry support for his cause in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Denmark.
This was a serious blow to Protestant ambitions in the region. As the rebellion collapsed, the widespread confiscation of property and suppression of the Bohemian nobility ensured the country would return to the Catholic side after more than two centuries ofHussite and other religious dissent. In 1624, Emperor Ferdinand II issued a patent that allowed only the Catholic religion in Bohemia.[3] The Habsburgs introduced aCounter-Reformation and forcibly converted all Bohemians, even theUtraquist Hussites, back to the Catholic Church. In the 1620s, Protestant nobility, burghers, and clergy in Bohemia and Austria were expelled from the Habsburg lands or forced to convert to Catholicism, and their lands were confiscated, while peasants were forced to adopt the religion of their new Catholic masters. The elective monarchy was abolished in favour of hereditary succession and the privileges granted by theLetter of Majesty were revoked.[4]
However while Bohemia was effectively annexed by the crown, other regions would continue their revolt for several years. This would have the effect of bringing in elements of the Protestant Union which had suffered a severe blow to their credibility via their refusal to support the Bohemian revolutionaries. In addition, the changes in territory meant that previously unaligned powers would find a resurgent empire on their own borders, a circumstance that kingdoms like Denmark found untenable.
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