| Strasbourg Bishops' War | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofEuropean wars of religion and theProtestant Reformation | |||||
 Etching depicting skirmishes betweenDachstein andMolsheim on 2 December 1592. | |||||
| |||||
| Belligerents | |||||
Strasbourg WürttembergAnhalt-Bernburg |  Lorraine | ||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||
Frederick I Christian I | Charles III | ||||
TheStrasbourg Bishops' War (German:Bischöflicher Krieg[1] orStraßburger Kapitelstreit;[2]French:Guerre des Evêques;Alsatian:D'r Bischäflig Kriag) (1592–1604) was a conflict betweenCatholics andProtestants for control of theBishopric of Strasbourg. It was one of only two sectarian or confessional conflicts, both highly localised, that occurred within theHoly Roman Empire between thePeace of Augsburg (1555) and the outbreak of theThirty Years' War (1618). It was less bloody than theCologne War (1583–88).[3] It coincided with theCounter-Reformation and theSpanish Winter (1598–99), and the Catholic victory caused Protestants in Germany great worry that the tide had turned decidedly against them.[3]
The emergence of theLutheran andCalvinist doctrines following theReformation, soon led to the first large scale interdenominational conflict between those new creeds. TheSchmalkaldic War ended in 1555 with signing of thePeace of Augsburg. TheFree Imperial City ofStrasbourg benefited from the treaty by gaining further autonomy, now being able to pursue its own ecclesiastical policies. Strasbourg's status as an important trading hub along with the appeal of itsuniversity, attracted radical thinkers from both sides of the religious spectrum includingHans Denck,Girolamo Zanchi, andMichael Servetus to name but a few. However, by the second half of the century the city started leaning towards Lutheranism under the leadership ofJohann Marbach, a former doctoral student ofMartin Luther. In his capacity as the President of the Company of Pastors, Marbach organized annual visitations to the 14 rural parishes under the city's control. The visitations included meetings during whichcatechisms were delivered, while the life and beliefs of every parishioner were publicly examined and those not in accord with the official doctrine were admonished.[4]
At the start of the war, Strasbourg was a Protestant-majority city andits cathedral chapter comprised twelve Protestants and seven Catholics.[5] The immediate cause of the war was the death of BishopJohann von Manderscheid and the disputed election to replace him.[5][6] The Protestants feared the powerful CardinalCharles of Lorraine, whom the Catholic canons had invited to join the chapter in 1585, and who stood for election as bishop.[5][6] To hedge against this, the Protestants seized the episcopal offices and held their own election on 20 May to replace Manderscheid.[7] Their choice fell upon the 15-year-oldJohann Georg, son of theElector of Brandenburg,Joachim III Frederick.[5] This decision was designed to unite Protestants across Germany behind them.[5] On this occasion,Johannes Pappus, president of theCompagnie des Pasteurs (Kirchenconvent), delivered a sermon on the "ministry, character and election of a bishop", but only the Protestants were present to hear it.[7] After the election, the Catholic canons had fled toSaverne and there elected Charles bishop in opposition to Johann Georg on 9 June.[5][7]
At first, the Protestants purchased the support of DukeFrederick I of Württemberg by accepting from him a loan of 300,000florins. In turn Johann Georg ceded to Württemberg the district ofOberkirch, which connected the duchy to two of its enclaves inAlsace.[5] Frederick's son,Louis Frederick, aged six, was made a canon and promised the succession to Johann Georg.[5]
In the first year of the war, locally raised troops underChristian of Anhalt halted the invasion of Charles of Lorraine.[5] At Saverne, Charles was joined by his 20-year-old brotherFrancis, who brought with him forty cavalrymen.[6] Charles's war treasury, managed at Paris by his treasurer, Stefano del Poggio, disbursed 15,386francs during his time at Saverne, and in 1593 another 35,392 francs were spent on military ventures in Alsace.[6]
The reclusiveEmperor Rudolph II refused to mediate the conflict, and soHenry IV of France—a Protestant convert to Catholicism—intervened in 1593. In September, he secured the division of the bishopric between the contending prelates: seven districts, including Saverne, went to Charles and six, including Oberkirch, to Johann Georg.[5] Charles felt compelled to apologise to KingPhilip II of Spain, whose Catholic troops were at that momentfighting the Protestant Dutch, for this compromise.[6] This provisional state persisted until 1604, when the Duke of Württemberg offered to pension Johann Georg and pay off his debts if he would resign the bishopric to Charles. This he did, and in return Charles ceded Oberkirch to Württemberg for a term of thirty years in theTreaty of Haguenau (22 November 1604).[5][8] The Bishops' War turned out to be less about confessionalism than the dynastic interests of theHouse of Württemberg.[5]