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Chapter V: The Emergence of France, the Edict, Wallenstein and the Mantuan War
R ichelieu’s policies and political developments, 1620–27
he Edict of Restitution 1629
Cardinal Richelieu: Machiavelli’s disciple
D uchesse de Chevreuse
T he concept of frontiers and contrasting world views of ‘devot’ and Gallicans
T he Mantuan War and the dismissal of Wallenstein 123 France, Italy, and the Huguenots and the development of French foreign policy
‘ Day of the Dupes’: Three in a room - Turning point in the fight against Habsburg supremacy
Chapter VI: The Dutch Front and Naval
economy, military-industrial complex – sinews of war, 1600–1648
march to the Rhine
ichelieu’s vexation with his maverick ally
Chapter VIII: Wallenstein Returns and the Battle of Lutzen
T he return of Wallenstein: Gustavus falls off the critical path
Chapter IX: Wallenstein’s fall, Oxenstierna and the Peace of Prague
O xenstierna takes power and the fall of Wallenstein
Spanish reaction to the Swedish occupation of the Rhine valley
to Nordlingen May 1634–Sept 1634
A nother Spanish army crosses the Alps, 1634
W heel of fortune; The battle of Nordlingen, 6 September 1634
D utch campaigns 1633–4 and reactions to the Battle of Nordlingen 178
D utch war financing 179
T he war of Smolensk and the Swedish loss of Prussian tolls, 1632–1635 179
O xenstierna’s odyssey, and the end of the Heilbronn League, September 1634–May 1635 180
T he Peace of Prague, 30 May 1635 183
Spanish policy and the progress of the Imperial armies 1634–5 185
Chapter X: France Declares War and the Dutch Alliance 186
R ichelieu sends a herald to Brussels, 5 April 1635 186
Pre-emptive onslaught, Battle of Avin May 1635 187
Fault lines: Franco–Dutch campaign, summer 1635 189 The Rhineland 191 Rohan’s Swiss campaign, the Valtellina, 1635 191
Chapter XI: Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar Defects and the Swedish Army Mutiny 193
Recruiting Saxe-Weimar, 1635 193
T he ‘Gunpowder Convention’ and the French alliance, August 1635–February 1636 195
Saxon disillusion and decline, 1635–6 197
T he Hessian ‘long march’ 1636 and relations with the Dutch and French 198
1618–1648
France: Recruitment and officers and the changing role of Europe’s nobility 211
State development and ‘absolutism’ 212
French nobility, constitutional crisis, role in warfare, and modern military state 1629–1632 212
R ichelieu’s regime of terror 213
Invasion of France: the year of ‘Corbie’, 1636 215
Rohan’s Swiss campaign and the Valtellina: 1636 218
Chapter XIII: Swedish Recovery and the Emergence of Hesse
viii T he Thirty Years War, 1618–1648
Battle of Wittstock 4 October 1636
of Ferdinand II February, 1637
III
campaigns 1636–1641
in Europe 1637
A melia of Hesse
Landgravine Amelia of Hesse holds out, 1637–1639
Chapter XIV: Saxe-Weimar Breaks Out and the Battle for the ‘Spanish Road’
1638
debacle at Kallo 22 June 1637
of Rheinfelden, February 1638
Consequences of Rheinfelden and the serendipity of war, March 1638–April 1638
T he Breisach campaign and siege, April–December 1638
T he battle of Poligny 18 June 1638 and war in Franche-Comté
T he battle of Wittenwier, 9 August 1638
for the siegeworks October 1638
T he surrender of Breisach, 17 December 1638
of Saxe-Weimar, 1638–1639
last eccentric intervention February 1637–October 1638
utch and English attacks on Spain’s Empire
he Habsburg Asian Empire
in the Atlantic, South America and Caribbean 1618–1640
1620–1641
1624–1625
T he battles for El Mina and the Gold Coast 1600–1625
and ‘The Heart of Darkness’
and Mombasa
Chapter XVI: Stalemate on Land; Dutch Supremacy at Sea and Prelude to Revolution
T he Pyrenees front 1637–1640 and siege of Salces
ilitary stalemate, Flanders and Germany, 1639
Spain’s fleet 1630–1640
T he Battle of the Downs, 18 September to 21 October, 1639
D unkirkers: Spanish maritime raiders 1621–1646
Campaign in Germany 1640 and Amelia returns home
T he Artois–Luxembourg front, the siege of Arras, 1640
D utch campaign 1640
Regensburg Diet, Campaigns in 1641 and Baner’s last hurrah
Soissons rebellion, Battle of La Marfee, 9 July 1641
T he Dutch-French land campaign, 1641
Chapter XVII: Iberian Revolutions and the Fall of Olivares
T he revolutionary road: Catalan revolt May 1640
Revolution in Catalonia 1640–1642
T he secession of Portugal, December 1640
Spain’s economic problems 1640s
T he fall of Olivares, January 1643
Origins of the Peace of Westphalia, 1640–1643
Sweden’s negotiating issues, pressures for peace, 1636–1642
D utch moves towards peace, 1640–1646
Spain sues for peace, 1640
Bavaria’s need for peace, 1636–1640
T he Emperor considers peace
France: Peace talks and revolt 1636–1639
Hesse and German supplicants at Westphalia
Chapter XIX: Enter Torstensson and Mazarin, Italy and Habsburg
Mazarin, the gambler
Mazarin’s progress to power 1634–1639
Savoy: a small state’s struggle for survival, 1635–1640 and the war in Italy
Savvy Christina of Savoy and the war in Italy 1638–1641
De Campion’s transition into high politics and misdemeanours
T he Cinq Mars affair, usual suspects, and the Death of Richelieu, 1642
French military and political triumph in Savoy 1641–1643
Interregnum, death of Louis XIII, Mazarin and Anne of Austria consolidate
Massacre of the Tercios: Battle of Rocroi, 19 May 1643
D utch campaign 1643
T he battle of Tuttlingen, military masterclass by Franz von Mercy, November 1643
T he Bavarian army and postscript to Tuttlingen
Torstensson identity: Enter the ‘artilleryist’, 1641–1645
T he German campaign in balance 1641; Brandenburg makes peace 362
Torstensson’s invasion of the Hereditary lands, 1642
T he invasion of Moravia and capture of Olomouc, June 1642
Torstensson’s retreat to Silesia and Saxony, July–November 1642
Torstensson supremacy: Second Battle of Breitenfeld, 2 November 1642
T he strategic outcome of the battle of Second Breitenfeld
Torstensson’s campaign in 1643
Chapter XX: Torstensson’s War and the Invasion of Denmark 376
Torstensson’s ultimatum: The Swedish-Danish war, 1643–1645: causes
‘ Torstensson’s War’: Swedish war aims 1636–1642
T he invasion of Denmark and the War at Sea, 1643–44: Opening Gambits
Disquiet amongst the anti-Imperialist alliance, 1644
Gallas; ‘the army wrecker’ and last hope for the Danes, 1644
Transylvania stirs again
T he Baltic naval war and Torstensson at bay July 1644: Middle Game
M ilitary manoeuvres in Jutland and Holstein
Naval battle of Ferman, 23 October 1644
Gallas’s long retreat autumn-winter 1644: Endgame
T he Peace of Bremsebro, 1644: Checkmate
T he accession of Queen Christina of Sweden, her character and policy, 1644
Chapter XXI: War and Peace: Mazarin and France Ascendant
T he ‘Great’ Condé, duc d’Enghien
T he five-day battle of Freiburg, August 1644 4 01
T he siege of Philippsburg, August 1644 4 07
T he French and Dutch attack on Gravelines and Sas-van-Ghent, 1644 4 09
T he Battle of Jankov, Bohemia, 7 March 1645 410
Town/Village
Lagoons/Lakes
River/Canals
Road
Coastline
Land Gradient
Sea Bridge
Church
Houses
Windmill
Camp
Wagon Train
Wat/Pagoda
Map Key
Infantry
Cavalry
Tercio
Attack
Killing Zone
Battle Musket
Cannon
Cannon Fire
Redoubts/Fieldwork
/Siege Lines
Cheveaux de Frise
Ditch Chains
Explosion
Wind Direction
Elephant
Horse Grazing
English Ship
Swedish/Danish Warship
Spanish Galleon
Dutch MerchantWarship/ Ship
Portuguese Galleon/Nao
French Warship
Chinese Junk
Dutch Herring Fleet
Oared Galley/Galiotte (Lateen rigged)
Dutch & Spanish Barges
Mountain
Deciduous Trees
Evergreen Trees
Palm Tree
Mixed Forest
Banyan Tree
Marshland
Introduction
Habsburg Imperium and the Challenges
Madrid and Vienna, two coup d’etat
At the Spanish court, Count Olivares was gaining influence behind the scenes as the confidant of Philip III’s son (to become Philip IV). Olivares with his uncle Zuniga organised a progressive coup d’etat to replace chief Councillor Duke of Lerma; contriving firstly to insinuate his uncle Zuniga onto the Royal Council they then instigated a new assertive foreign policy on behalf of Philip III and his Jesuit confessor. Lerma received his coup de grace in October 1618, but power had already shifted from the moment that ambassador Zuniga at Vienna was recalled to join the Royal council in July 1617. Through 1617-18 power slipped away from Lerma who was forced into a more pro-active policy. With Philip III’s support a reluctant Lerma was forced to offer money to the Emperor in the form of a 200,000 ducat subsidy in July 1618, to help Ferdinand in the Bohemian crisis, ‘since if the Empire should be lost to the House of Austria through the lack of it (money),’ advised Lerma, ‘nothing in Italy will be safe’. [Lerma to Salazar 26 Aug 1618].
He was replaced by his own son Ucueda who had backed the reformist faction. Completion of the coup had to wait until Philip III’s death in 1621, at which point Philip IV’s favourite, Olivares, would boast ‘now everything is mine’.
New ambassador Onate in Vienna actively aided the launching of a coup against Emperor Matthias by grooming Counter-Reformation hawk Ferdinand of Styria as the future emperor. The Habsburg alliance was renewed and set on a stable course by the clearing of potential disputes. Spain dropped its dynastic claims which were compensated by transfer of Franche-Comte to Spain, the territory that covered the region between Switzerland and Burgundy. It heralded a major policy shift to an assertive foreign policy with the aim of winning the war against the Dutch Republic when the truce ended in 1621. Motivation was expressed by Zuniga: ‘In my view if a monarchy has lost its reputation, even if it has lost no territory, it is a sky without light, a sun without rays, a body without soul.’ Recovery would involve increased military spending and a second coup d’etat in Vienna.
The Habsburg dynastic alliance between Vienna and Madrid was therefore committed to a multi-faceted revanchist policy across Europe in parallel with the Counter-Reformation; an adventurist policy which would disturb the balance of power in Germany and in Europe, and test the strength, stability and supremacy of the Habsburg alliance.
HOLYROMANEMPIRE
OTTOMANEMPIRE TRANSYLVANIA
Adriatic Sea
Parma Modena
Genoa Florence
ENGLAND
Habsburg Europe Early 17th Century
Spanish Habsburg control
Artois Sedan Lorraine Luxemberg Alsace
Habsburg hereditary lands controlled directly by the Emperor
Portugal united with Spain under the Habsburgs
Poland linked to Habsburgs
FRANCE SPAIN
PORTUGAL
Non-Habsburg States
Habsburg controlled Empire
Steinau1632
Oder Frankfurt on Oder Glogau SILESIASweidnitz 1642
On the morning of 23 May 1618, rebellious nobles, their retainers, and a mob of citizens surged across the Charles Bridge then swept up the steep cobblestone path to the Hradčany Castle perched high in Prague’s Old Quarter. Pouring through the main gate conveniently left open, they stormed into the building, forcing an entry into the council chamber, a small wood panelled room with a large German-style tiled fireplace. There they confronted the four terrified Imperial councillors, including Slawata and Martinitz. There followed angry questioning as to the origins and authorship of the orders in respect of the Braunau incidents, where Protestant churches and congregations had been suppressed. According to Count Martinitz the Protestant delegation replied to the Imperial letter which had already been addressed to them; the reply went like this: ‘his Majesty declared all our lives forfeit, thereby greatly frightening all three protestant estates. … it is clear that such a letter came through the advice of some of our religious enemies. …’1 The Imperial councillors prevaricated amid the rising anger of their noblemen accusers who demanded, according to Martinitz’s testimony, ‘No no … we want to have a clear answer now from the four of your graces who are now present.’ 2
Pistols were produced from under a cloak by Litwin von Rican: after further heated declarations and an assault by Thurn on Martinitz who was thrown to the floor, Rican, Kinsky, and Smirizcky declared: ‘It is clear that the Imperial letter goes against our letter of majesty. … You are enemies of us and our religion, have desired to deprive us of our letter of Majesty, (1609 guarantee of rights) have horribly plagued your protestant subjects … and have tried to force them to adopt your religion against their wills or have them expelled for this reason. …3 (Martinitz).
Most notably the Government ‘had pulled down, razed to the ground, and levelled’ the newly built church at Klostergrab. This and other breaches… had legitimised the revolt. In the Hussite tradition, the angry mob of noblemen eventually rushed at the two councillors deemed the guiltiest intending to defenestrate them. Martinitz recounted that the rebels pinned him down then took him to the open window whilst they shouted, ‘Now we will take our just revenge on our religious enemies’; he feared that his end was nigh.4 When Martinitz realised the nature of his impending death he claimed in his embellished account to have called out loudly, ‘Since this concerns the will of God, the Catholic religion, and the will of the Emperor we will gladly submit…’ He was then thrown head first out of the window.
Martinitz plunged down screaming ‘Jesus Maria Help!’ accompanied by the laconic comments of the rebels, ‘We will send a villainous Jesuit to follow you.’ 5 Slawata, scratching at the windowsill and crying in anticipation of death, ‘God have mercy on me a sinner,’6 followed soon after, having had a dagger jabbed at his fingertips to release his grip on the sill. As the rebels later remarked, and by way of a legitimising excuse, ‘we threw both of them out of the window in accordance with the old custom. …’ 7
Secretary Fabricius was also ejected for good measure. Later ennobled, he was given the title von Hohenfall (of the highfall). Cushioned by accumulated rubbish, they all survived with minor injuries. Seemingly a miracle of survival, Catholic propagandists published cartoons of the Imperial officials being held aloft by a flock of angels! The shocked Imperial councillors scampered quickly away as they heard cries from the window above, ‘Shoot them and finish them off.’ 8 Crack of pistol shots rang out as they fled and hurried them on their way. In the following days a revolutionary directorate was established to rule Bohemia and so began a jostling for power with leading aristocrats combining to prevent Count Thurn becoming the leader although he would secure generalship of the army. Having provoked the crisis, Emperor Matthias’s Imperial policy directed by Cardinal Klels now sought to calm matters and reach a compromise settlement. But the the emperor in waiting, Ferdinand of Styria, and the Spanish had another plan. Exploiting the crisis they would seek to crush the revolt as part of a general objective of strengthening the Emperor’s political power in the Holy Roman Empire and at the same time support the Counter-Reformation in Germany. A coup d’etat backed by the Spanish ambassador Onate saw Cardinal Klesl arrested and Emperor Matthias removed from power. For Spain the aim was geo-political positioning prior to the ending of the 1609 truce with the Dutch republic and consequent resumption of war in 1621. Spain’s vital interests included securing its lines of communication and reinforcement along the Spanish Road to Spanish Flanders which ran the length of the Rhine before debouching over the Alps to Spanish-controlled Milan and Genoa.
Background to the Holy Roman Empire and Habsburg supremacy
After his election as Emperor in 1519, a youthful Charles V was told by his chancellor, Gattinara, ‘God has set you on a path towards a world monarchy. ’ 9 There was nothing subtle or nuanced about the meaning of Imperial election to the Holy Roman Empire; its ambit extended well beyond Europe. Even before being elected emperor he styled himself, ‘Roman King, future Emperor, semper augustus, King of Spain, Sicily, Jerusalem, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, the Indies and the mainland on the far shore of the Atlantic, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Brabant, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Luxembourg, Limburg, Athens, and Patras, Count of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol, Count Palatine of Burgundy, Hainault, Pfirt, Roussillon, Landgrave of Alsace, Count of Swabia, Lord of Asia and Africa’. Charles had inherited vast territories and wealth from the New World, underpinned by the silver of the Cerro Rico mine that, since its founding at Potosi in the Andean highlands of Bolivia in 1645, continued to be scooped out in huge quantities, accounting for 60 per cent of world silver production.10 He had just become crowned head of the largest empire or polity that the world has ever experienced, before or since. It encompassed the globe: most of Europe and the Americas, and the Philippines. Within a generation the Habsburgs, through Charles’ son, Philip II of Spain,
would have added most of coastal Africa, the Persian Gulf, India, Ceylon and the most important trading regions of South east Asia and China, not to mention a monopoly on trade with Japan. All of this included monopolistic control of the international spice and bullion trades, including Japan’s. The Emperor was also the temporal leader and protector of Christianity who, theoretically at least, discharged this function in tandem with the Pope’s spiritual leadership.
The Habsburg Imperium in Europe and its associated ideas of ‘Universal Christendom’ or universal monarchy was based on a troika of concepts: power, tradition, and religion. It was an idea supported and built up through the late medieval period by vested interests within the papacy and the Habsburg family who held the title of Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Much earlier, Charlemagne, as King of the Franks and recent conqueror of Lombardy, attracted the interest of Pope Leo III because he was the most powerful political force in Europe. Pope Leo, who notified Charlemagne of his nomination as Holy Roman Emperor and sent him the keys of St Peter, needed Frank protection against his enemies; so began the close association and the idea of recreating the Roman Empire as a single unit detached from any claims of the rival at Byzantium (Constantinople) which was then ruled by Empress Irene in tandem with her son Constantine. They had the prime claim on legitimacy, but a Greek-speaking woman in distant Constantinople was not politically desirable in Rome, nor could Constantinople offer the sort of ‘temporal’ protection that Charlemagne could provide.
Led by the papacy, theological and political momentum developed into a coalition of interest from the Carolingian house as well. The idea and propaganda was cultivated by Alcuin of York who acted as a theologian to the Carolingian court. Alcuin saw a need for ‘a chief in whose shadow the Christian people repose in peace and who on all sides strikes terror into the pagan nations, a chief whose devotion never ceases to fortify the Catholic faith with evangelical firmness against the followers of heresy’.11 This sense of legitimacy, always highly prized by kings and political leaders, was enhanced still further in 800 ad when Charlemagne was designated protector of the Holy Sepulchre by the Patriarch of Jerusalem. From the start, the Roman Imperator title signified the papacy and the Emperor working in a mutually reinforcing temporal-spiritual tandem. Charlemagne built a suitably grand palace at Aachen, placing himself in a Germanic orbit, a tradition that continued to modern times.
By myth and tradition, the Empire traced itself back to the crowning of Charlemagne as Emperor in 800 on Christmas day; the reality was that Otto I may have been the real progenitor of the Holy Roman Empire, but the legend had already been recreated and established. The name was officially changed in 1512 by decision of the Diet of Cologne to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nations, although the title tended to be abbreviated to exclude the reference to Germany. By the mid-sixteenth century the Empire had a greater meaning than that, not least because the Habsburg Emperor’s personal
hereditary patrimony extended well beyond it. As the Habsburg dynasty spread, the narrow German definition became increasingly irrelevant and, in any case, it lacked the universal lustre that was sought after. It is important to consider that this vague, legalistic and traditional idea of Empire was an evolving one that became appropriated and adapted by the demands of realpolitik, as a front for the ambitions of the Habsburgs and the papacy.
We should note that the latest reincarnation and adaptation is the European Union, whose founders’ appropriation of the concept and legitimacy derived from Charlemagne’s Europe and the idea of ‘European Christendom’ were eagerly adopted by European Christian Democratic parties after the Second World War. It is no coincidence that the highest honours award of the European Union is the Charlemagne Prize, awarded to one individual annually in Aachen for work done for promotion of European unification.
The notion of Holy Roman Emperor came to fit neatly into the idea of an ordered feudal and hierarchical world. Ideas elaborated on this theme underpinned a Catholic world view as well as the temporal interests of the Habsburgs. How did this idea come about and flourish? Firstly, the concept was underpinned by the idea that temporal legitimacy of the Imperium had been legally transferred or inherited from the Roman Empire. It was an antique idea but it had a natural hold on the medieval mind. By way of example, Charles V, ever keen to associate the Empire with the Roman tradition, adorned Emperor Trajan’s monumental Roman bridge and triumphal arch over the Tagus, at Alcantara in Spain, with his shield and insignia.
The second factor in Habsburg success, by luck and calculation, was in building up a vast dynastic patrimony, a patchwork of territories, titles, constitutional entitlement and elective monarchical licences, not just in Germany but across Europe and extending to Spain, much of Italy, Burgundy (Flanders) and the Netherlands. The critical period of dynastic expansion occurred in the reign of Maximilian I (1459–1519). It was the successor dynasty to the Hohenstaufen. It more resembled a diversified property holding company than a state as such.
By 1600 the Habsburg Imperium encompassed both directly and indirectly the following territories: Germany, Austria, Bohemia (including Silesia), Lusatia, Moravia, Alsace, Hungary, Croatia, Switzerland and much of Northern Italy. There were no natural frontiers to this construct. From the Habsburgs in Madrid, control ran to Spain, Portugal (incorporated in 1568), the kingdom of Naples, Flanders and the Dutch provinces, Luxembourg, Franche-Comte and Roussillon (later Franche-Comte adjacent to Switzerland and Spain respectively), and Sicily.
Additionally, there was the entirety of South America, the Caribbean and Mexico, as well as the Philippines and Formosa (Taiwan); the Portuguese element, which was mainly a fortress-based trading empire, ran from a myriad of coastal forts from Brazil to West and Southwest Africa, to East Africa up to the Red Sea. In the Indian Ocean and the Malay Archipelago fifty fortresses
Imperium and the Challenges 11 and unofficial colonies of the Estado da Indias spanned the Persian Gulf, India, the Bay of Bengal, Ceylon, Malacca, Java, Flores, the Moluccan ‘spice islands’, China (Macau) and Japan. The Habsburg Imperium was a colossus. Emperor Charles V needed to travel for almost half of his reign to oversee just his European domains. The vast acquisition of ‘New World’ territory in the Americas and in Asia emerged in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries through remarkable swashbuckling adventurers such as Columbus, Cortez and Pissarro in the west and the Portuguese Alfonso de Albuquerque’s crusader conquests in the east against the Asian sultanates, respectively drawn by the allure of bullion and spices.
South American silver, especially from the huge mine, the Cerro Rico Mountain at Potosi, located in a 3,000-metres-high-altitude desert, underpinned the entire Habsburg Imperium. Output was collateralised and leveraged to the hilt, which became a problem early on as yields reduced and production became more costly after the first halcyon years of 1545–1565 when the ore was scooped off the cone as if it were ice cream. Rivers of money flowed in this newly created high Andean city, the third biggest city in the world and by far the richest. It was a licentious, hedonistic Mecca of ‘36 casinos, a theatre, fourteen dance halls and eighty churches … . Fountains spouting wine …’.12 Laundry was sent back to Spain. Hard to reach even today, Potosi is located in a desolate mountain region of Bolivia. Speculation that millions of Incas were consumed inside this hell may well be exaggerated; modern scholarship explains that only a minority of workers were coerced ecomenderos under the mita system. However, even today the many artisanal mines on the mountain exploit child labour whose life expectancy is very low due to the appalling working conditions.
In the early years, the cone and upper parts of the mountain yielded silver purity of 90–100 per cent,13 but in the latter part of the century expensive mercury was needed to refine the ore. The nearest source was 500 kilometres distant. Of the mountain Philip II would boast, ‘For the powerful Emperor, for the wise King, this lofty mountain could conquer the whole world.’14 He seems to have believed his own propaganda.
The sheer size of the Imperium furthered Habsburg claims to universal monarchy and monopoly of power in the entire known world, not merely the European one. These global pretentions fused into one when the Spanish king inherited the Portuguese realm and empire in 1570. The concept had already been legitimised by Pope Alexander VI’s ruling on the division of the world between Spain and Portugal by the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1493, and then confirmed by the Treaty of Zaragoza of 1529. The mineral riches of the New World and the trading riches of the East underpinned the extraordinary agglomeration. Armed with this ‘legal right’ the Habsburgs would be intent on maintaining and expanding their interests.
In Germany, the myths and legal legacies of the Golden Bull of 1356 underpinned the legitimacy of the Imperial constitution, which was substantially
reformed in 1500 into the structures that remained more or less constant until the Empire’s demise in 1806. By 1600 the matter of elections for Emperor was becoming increasingly irrelevant. The Habsburgs, by degrees and the passage of time, were seeming to occupy some of the constituent kingships, such as Bohemia and Hungary, and the elective Imperial title itself, by right of longevity and continuous occupation, although the right to Bohemia was possibly ceded in 1529.
A radical challenge was made to the Habsburg succession in 1519 when Francis I of France put himself up as candidate for the Imperial Crown with the backing of the pro-French Pope and, at the outset, four out of seven Electors. That Charles should defend his candidacy with all his financial might was deemed essential by his advisers, notably Chancellor Gattinara, for the coherence of the Habsburg territory and dynastic prestige, ‘to maintain his hereditary lands’. 500,000 ducats had to be paid over to rival Francis I’s bribes. As the election approached the result was secured; brimming with confidence as to the outcome, and having offered very substantial bribes, Charles proclaimed ‘We will be able to accomplish many good deeds and great things, not only conserve and guard the possessions which God has given us, but increase them greatly…, upholding and strengthening our holy Catholic faith which is our principal foundation.’15 The words echoed those of Charlemagne’s theologian Alcuin in 796. It was a manifesto which described exactly the role and ideology of the Habsburgs in the Imperial structure. Charles chose the title ‘Imperator Romanorum’ The emphasis again on the role as protector of all Christians and the keeper of religious purity is highly significant, especially in the light of emerging Lutheran heresy.
Charles V’s failure to deal with that ‘heresy’ problem, culminating in the recognition of Lutheranism at the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, would cast a long shadow over the Habsburg Imperium well into the first half of the seventeenth century. Charles abdicated in 1554–6 and retired to a monastery to reflect on the spiritual life, having divided the Empire between his son Philip II16 and his brother Emperor Ferdinand I. Philip became King of Spain and inherited the Spanish Empire based in Madrid, while Ferdinand became the Holy Roman Emperor with his seat in Vienna. Charles died in 1558.
Another binding duty, a mantle which Charles V felt as Advocatus Ecclesiae [Defender of the Faith], was resistance to the Ottomans: ‘The enemy [the Turks] has expanded so much that neither the repose of Christendom, nor the dignity of Spain, nor finally the welfare of my Kingdom are able to withstand such a threat. … unless I link Spain with Germany and add the title of Emperor to the king of Spain.’17
The Habsburg Imperium was not exclusively a temporal and material construct; its strength was reinforced and tempered by ideas of religion and social order which were thoroughly imbued in the medieval mind and ‘weltanshauung’. The feudal system did not separate politics from religion; the two were completely
fused. Any attack on the Habsburg system would therefore be an attack on the entire intellectual and belief system of Christian Europe. The idea of a United Christendom had a lasting appeal well into the Thirty Years War and beyond. The religious-political construct as an aspect of the war influenced Ruben’s painting; writing of his female figure in Allegory of Peace and War he wrote on 12 March 1638, ‘It’s about the tragedy of Europe after so many years of rape, outrages, unspeakable miseries. She holds up a globe supported by an angel surmounted by a cross, … .’18 (emphasis added) As for most Catholics in the Counter Reformation, Rubens was holding on to the mantra of Unified Christendom.
When Charles V ascended the Imperial throne in 1519, becoming ruler of most of Europe and vast swathes of the known world, he inherited an ideology that was steeped in religious symbolism and iconography; the Emperor as God’s vicar (Vicarius Dei) ‘who received his authority direct from “God” [and thus] endowed Kingship with celestial greatness’.19 Prime duties included protection of the faith and the administration of justice, which, apart from the aura of the title, was the Emperor’s prime source of power under the constitution. The authority of the Imperial courts, Reichskammergericht, and the Aulic council, Rechofracht, became a major issue in the run-up to the Thirty Years War. However, in the mid-sixteenth century, there was some shift in realpolitik power from the Habsburgs of Prague and Vienna to the Habsburgs of Spain after the split in the Empire following Charles V’s death, even though prime titular prestige remained in Vienna or Prague.
With unified Spain emerging as a superpower underpinned by New World conquests and bullion, the Spanish King, Philip II, tended to appropriate some of the ‘universal’ and ‘imperial’ mantle. Jealous of the title of Emperor belonging to his uncle, he had medals minted in Spain which ‘commemorated Philip’s Universal monarchy’. Some went so far as to state that ‘the world is not enough’ for the Spanish monarchy: ‘non suffit orbid’. 20 Courtiers suggested that Philip should take the title ‘Emperor of the Indies’; ‘the Roman Empire became a model and reference point for sixteenth century Castilians who looked upon themselves as heirs and successors of the Romans conquering an even more extended empire.’ 21 Spain would be the dominant partner in the Habsburg Imperium; for Spanish Kings the Austrian court was not merely a dynastic ‘junior’ brother-in-arms, but a key strategic interest needing protection and care, because the Emperor stood guard to Spanish Burgundian possessions and to Spain’s vital land communication links to them.
The ‘Spanish Road’ which passed through Genoa and Milan was the most common route and strategically the most secure, because it crossed through regions controlled under the aegis of the Vienna Habsburgs; it traversed the Valtellina, climbed over the Simplon pass, crossed the Inn, ran east-west past Lake Konstanz, before running the length of the upper and lower Rhine. To solidify the Imperium, the Onate Treaty was signed in 1617 between its two halves; Spain took possessions along the Spanish Road, from Liguria to Milan,
