The Thirty Years War: The Battle Of White Mountain

The Thirty Years War was a series of battles that were fought primarily on German soil but also in Central Europe. Thirty Years War began 1618 and over the course of thirty years, it ended in 1648. The war started out as the Bohemian phase and lasted until 1621. The most important battle of this period was the Battle of White Mountain. Ferdinand II became King in 1617 and because they feared he would re-enforce Catholicism on them, they got rid of him and offered the crown to Frederick V. On November 4, 1619 Frederick became King and the war shifted into the Holy Roman Empire. A year and four days later, the battle of White Mountain broke out and the Protestant Union under Frederick now faced the Catholic League under Ferdinand. The Battle
The war was now seen as an international conflict. Christian IV raised 34,000 men but lacked the resources to keep them for very long. It was at this point that Wallenstein emerged to lead the Imperial army. On July 28, 1625 Tilly crossed the Weser River officially beginning the Danish Phase. Tilly’s troops ravaged the area around Brunswick and Christian withdrew to Verden. Wallensteain took his army of 20,000 to occupy Magdeburg and set up his headquarters. Mansfeld tried to attack over the bridge at Dessau on April 25, 1626 but faced a devastating loss. In July, Wallenstein spilt his army up by sending part of them to Tilly and taking the rest in pursuit of Mansfeld. Tilly caught up with Christian in the Village of Lutter where he was then defeated. The Danish army was broken and the Hungarian campaign came to nothing. Bethlen Gabor and Wallenstein signed a truce and it was later that Mansfeld fell ill and died. On March 6, 1629 the Edict of Restitution was put in place. All properties seized by Protestants since 1552 were to be returned and a special commission was created to oversee the process. The Edict also permitted the expulsion of Protestants from Catholic lands. No Calvinist state would be tolerated and the commissioners had the right to raise troops to enforce their rulings. Thousands of Protestants were driven to exile or were forced to
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