Religious Wars and the Absolutist Response

NilsenWorld History

French Religious Wars

• French Huguenots = Protestants

• Eight Wars between the Catholics and the Huguenots from 1563 to 1598

• Ended with Edict of Nantes

• Guaranteed religious freedom in France

Thirty Years’ War, Part I

• Peace of Augsburg• Revolt of Bohemia

(1618)• Winter King• Battle of White

Mountain (1620)

Thirty Years’ War, Part II

• Denmark intervenes (1625)

• Falls apart (1629)

Thirty Years’ War, Part III

• Gustavus Adolphus (1630)

• Peace of Prague (1635)

Thirty Years’ War, Part IV

• Cardinal Richelieu (1635-1648)

• Peace of Westphalia

Impacts of the Thirty Years’ War

• Czech population reduced by one third• German population reduced by 30%• Areas where half to two-thirds of population

died• One half of all German males killed• Swedish armies: destroyed 2000 castles,

18,000 villages and 1500 towns in Germany

English Wars of Religion

• Charles I

• Fights with Parliament about money

• Turns nasty

English Civil War

• War eventually breaks out in 1642 between Royalists and Parliamentarians

• Fight three civil wars through 1651

• Charles is beheaded in 1649 for treason

English Civil War

• England ruled by Oliver Cromwell until his death in 1658

Louis XIV

• Became king in 1643 at age of four

• Centralized power in the monarchy

Absolutism

• Attacked threats to his power:–Church–Huguenots–Nobles

• Copied throughoutEurope