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 Original members in light purple, later members in dark purple. | |
| Formation | February 1531 |
|---|---|
| Founded at | Schmalkalden,Hesse,Holy Roman Empire |
| Dissolved | 1547 |
| Type | Military and political alliance |
| Membership | |
Official language | |
Leadership | Philip I John Frederick I |
TheSchmalkaldic League (English:/ʃmɔːlˈkɔːldɪk/;German:Schmalkaldischer Bund;Medieval Latin:Foedus Smalcaldicum orLiga Smalcaldica) was amilitary alliance ofLutheranprincipalities and cities within theHoly Roman Empire during the mid-16th century. It received its name from the town ofSchmalkalden, where the group was founded in 1531.[1]
Although created for religious motives soon after the start of theReformation, its members later came to have the intention that the League would replace the Holy Roman Empire as their focus of political allegiance.[2]
While it was not the first alliance of its kind, unlike previous formations, such as theLeague of Torgau, the Schmalkaldic League had a substantial military to defend its political and religious interests.
The League was officially established on 27 February[3] 1531 byPhilip I, Landgrave of Hesse, andJohn Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, the two most powerful Protestant rulers in the Holy Roman Empire at the time.[4] It originated as a defensive religious alliance, with the members pledging to defend each other if their territories were attacked byCharles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. At the insistence of the Elector of Saxony, membership was conditional on agreement to the LutheranAugsburg Confession or the ReformedTetrapolitan Confession.[5]
The formation of the Schmalkaldic League in 1531 and the threatening attitude of SultanSuleiman the Magnificent, who, in April 1532, assumed the offensive with an army of 300,000 men, causedFerdinand of Austria to grant the religious peace.
Ferdinand had made humiliating overtures to Suleiman[how?] and as long as he hoped for a favourable response, was not inclined to grant the peace, which the Protestants demanded at the Diet of Regensburg in April 1532. However, as the army of Suleiman drew nearer, he yielded, and on 23 July 1532 the peace was concluded at Nuremberg, where the final deliberations took place.[6]
Those who supported the Reformation obtained religious liberty until the meeting of a council and in a separate compact all proceedings in matters of religion pending before the imperial chamber court were temporarily paused.[7]
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In December 1535, the League admitted anyone who would subscribe to the Augsburg Confession, andAnhalt,Württemberg,Pomerania, as well as thefree imperial cities ofAugsburg,Frankfurt am Main, and theFree Imperial City of Kempten joined the alliance.[8]
In 1538, the Schmalkaldic League allied with thenewly reformed Denmark-Norway. In 1545, the League gained the allegiance of theElectoral Palatinate, under the control ofFrederick III, Elector Palatine.[9]
In 1544,Denmark-Norway and the Holy Roman Empire signed theTreaty of Speyer, which stated that during the reign ofChristian III, Denmark-Norway would maintain a peaceful foreign policy towards the Holy Roman Empire. The league would also get limited support fromBrandenburg underJoachim II Hector, but during theSchmalkaldic War he would send cavalry support to the Emperor against the league.[10]
The League's members agreed to provide 10,000infantry and 2,000cavalry[11] for their mutual protection. They rarely provoked Charles directly but confiscated church land, expelled bishops and Catholic princes and helped spreadLutheranism throughout northern Germany.
Martin Luther planned to present to the League theSmalcald Articles, a stricter Protestant confession, during a meeting in 1537.[12]
Luther attended the critical meeting in 1537 but spent most of his time suffering fromkidney stones. The rulers and princes even met in the home at which Luther was staying. Though Luther was asked to prepare the articles of faith that came to be known as theSmalcald Articles, they were not formally adopted at the time of the meeting, but in 1580, they were included in theBook of Concord.[citation needed]
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For 15 years, the League existed without opposition because Charles was busy fighting wars with France and theOttoman Empire. Overall, theOttoman–Habsburg Wars lasted from 1526 to 1571.
In 1535,Francis I of France, despite vigorously persecuting Protestants at home, supported the Protestant princes in their struggle against their common foe, Charles.
The tactical support ended in 1544 with the signing of theTreaty of Crépy in which the French king, who was fighting the Emperor in Italy, pledged to stop backing the Protestant princes and the League in Germany.
In 1535, Charles led theConquest of Tunis. Francis, in an effort to limit the power of the Habsburgs, allied withSuleiman the Magnificent of theOttoman Empire and formed aFranco-Ottoman alliance. TheItalian War of 1536–38 between France and the Holy Roman Empire ended in 1538 with theTruce of Nice.
The final war during that period Charles fought against France, theItalian War of 1542–46, ended with inconclusive results and theTreaty of Crépy.[12]
After the peace with France, Charles signed theTruce of Adrianople in 1547 with the Ottoman Empire, which was allied to Francis, to free even more Habsburg resources for a final confrontation with the League.
After Charles made peace with Francis, he focused on suppressing Protestant resistance within his empire. From 1546 to 1547, in what is known as theSchmalkaldic War, Charles and his allies fought the League over the territories ofErnestineSaxony andAlbertineSaxony. Although the League's military forces may have been superior, its leaders were incompetent and unable to agree on any definitive battle plans.[13] Despite the fact that Pope Paul III withdrew his troops from the Imperial forces and halved his subsidy, on 24 April 1547, the imperial forces gathered by Charles routed the League's forces at theBattle of Mühlberg, capturing many leaders, including, most notably, Johann Frederick the Magnanimous. Philip of Hesse tried to negotiate, but the emperor refused, and Philip surrendered in May.[14] In theory, that meant that the residents of thirty different cities were returned to Catholicism, but that was not the case.[2] The battle effectively won the war for Charles; only two cities continued to resist. Many of the princes and key reformers, such asMartin Bucer, fled to England, where they directly influenced theEnglish Reformation.
In 1548, the victorious Charles forced the Schmalkaldic League to agree to the terms set forth in theAugsburg Interim.[15]
A small Protestant victory in 1552 forced Charles to flee across the Alps to avoid capture; the heir Ferdinand (King of the Romans) signed thePeace of Passau, which granted some freedoms to Protestants and ended all of Charles' hopes of religious unity within his empire.
Three years later, thePeace of Augsburg granted Lutheranism official status within the Holy Roman Empire and let princes choose the official religion within the domains that they controlled, according to the principle ofCuius regio, eius religio.[16]
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913)."Nuremberg".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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