The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) Part 2

The Estates Uprising

What was it?
The Bohemian Estates Uprising of 1618-1620 was an uprising of the Bohemian Estates against the rule of the Habsburgs. It combined religious disputes with power disputes between the Estates and the King. The uprising eventually culminated in the White Mountain clash after several battles.

What happened after the Prague Defenestration?
The Czech Estates defended the act of defenestration as a correction of the mistakes of the royal administrators, not as a rebellion against the monarch. But their next steps showed the opposite.
On 23 May 1618, the compromised consuls, who owed their positions to the Habsburgs, were expelled from the New Town Hall.
Next, the participants in the uprising elected a government of thirty directors, replacing the administration of five governors. It was composed of three estates: the nobility, the knights and the bourgeoisie. This directorate acted as a provincial government. It was headed by the Calvinist Wenceslaus William of Roup (in 1609 and 1611), who was royal councillor, chamberlain and supreme ram under King Matthias.
They justified the legitimacy of the actions of the resistance states with a comprehensive Apologia, which they addressed to domestic and foreign politicians and important institutions. In it, they claimed that the rebellion was not directed against the monarch, but that it sought to correct the mistakes made by the monarch's advisers.

Meaning of the word Apologia
The term Apologia comes from Greek and means a defense, a defensive speech, or a defensive writing. The opposite of apologia as a defense is polemic as an attack or assault.
Apologies or apologetic writings, as defenses of the Christian faith, are among the earliest Christian writings. In the 19th century, apologetics became part of Catholic theology in particular.

Where to get the money?
The cities of Prague also joined the uprising. Appeals for help sent to other countries of the Bohemian Crown and abroad were little heeded. In Moravia, the Provincial Assembly refused, as the Catholic state was present there, which was absent in Bohemia. On the contrary, it tended to lean towards the imperial side.Charles the Elder of Žerotín also strenuously advocated the neutrality of Moravia, declaring that the Bohemians had always "always been the head and we the tail of their kingdom."
Only Savoy and Silesia provided aid. Moreover, the rebellion did not even have the support of all, many Estates were more inclined to an amicable solution to the conflict.

The rebellion needed money. Preparations for military conflict consumed considerable sums. The Directory was almost without resources. Few among the nobles and townspeople were willing to make personal financial embraces. The Directory therefore began to appropriate state money. It then proceeded to confiscate the property of its enemies. Already at the beginning of June, taxes, counter-taxes, loans, neutral taxes in grain and food were announced. The clash with state power had not yet begun and the rebel government was already drowning in debt.
But even the Habsburgs were not prepared for war. They were also short of money and troops. Therefore, until the end of the summer of 1618, there were suggestions from Matthias that the paths to reconciliation were open. But the evidence that the Bohemian kingdom was breaking away from the monarchy was quite clear. Fighting groups rallied around Ferdinand. Soon they also promoted the view that "the Bohemian uprising should actually be considered a boon", since the need for half-hearted solutions was eliminated. The Bohemian ulcer must be cut off with the sword. If the Emperor loses, he will only lose in honour what was worth nothing long ago...

In Bohemia, the people have grown weary of war. Throughout the 16th century, the country was free of fighting, even though the population had to endure, for example, the passage of troops to the Turkish battlefield.
Prague turned into a military camp. Regiments were sent to southern Bohemia as a precaution against a possible invasion from Austria.
It was still true that the uprising was not an uprising, but both sides knew their business.
In August 1618, the imperial army invaded Bohemia, which the rebels managed to repel. At first, the Bohemian uprising was only a matter for the nobility. At first it was unthinkable to negotiate with the lower estates. Later, when it became obvious that they could not handle the costly warfare alone, they persuaded the townspeople to support their resistance financially. Finally, it was only natural for the bourgeoisie to participate in diplomatic trips.
The problem with the whole war, however, was that only the elite, a narrow social stratum of non-Catholics, came out against the Habsburgs. The participation of the popular masses was prevented by the lords themselves in time. The Czech rabble was present on the battlefield, of course, but only out of duty, even out of compulsion. The lords allowed themselves to be represented on the battlefield, sitting alone in the warmth of their homes. The battles were fought for them by the poor, whose property was plundered at home by mercenary bands from both sides. The people had to finance the war through tolls, taxes and compulsory benefits in kind. They also took part in fortification work. Not a single political demand was remembered in the countryside or towns. The masses, therefore, had no interest in the rebellion. From the very beginning, state exclusiveness was evident.

Military clashes
The Habsburgs, with money from Spain, built two corps, Buquon's and Dampierre's. Boquero succeeded in capturing Budejovice and Krumlov. Dampierre passed through Moravia and the two commanders intended to march together on Prague.
Thurn and Hohenlohe, commanders of the Bohemian Estates, managed to hold back the first offensive at Čáslav. The Estates army was initially successful. Artillery General Petr Arnošt Mansfeld was responsible for the great victory when he managed to capture Pilsen.
9November 1618 saw the first clash between Thurn and Buquoy at the Battle of Lomnica, from which Thurn emerged victorious. The army did not stop and marched to Vienna, which it almost took, but had to withdraw after thethe defeat of the Protestant troops under Count Mansfeld against Marshal Buquoy at Záblatí. After that Count Thurn was cut off from Prague.
Winter came, and warfare was halted according to the custom of the time. No decision was therefore made at the end of 1618. However, the Bohemians' self-confidence was boosted, as Silesia sided with them, and from abroad the Savoyard Duke Charles Emmanuel sent them two thousand mercenaries under the command of Arnost of Mansfeld. They managed to capture Pilsen in November.
Both sides frantically sought allies, money and soldiers. Unfortunately, the Czech Directory pleaded for help from other states and nobles almost in vain. The Apology was very complicated and hardly anyone read or understood it. Do the Czechs really want Habsburgs on the throne as they say or not? In words they say yes and in deeds they say no!
Nobody cared about Bohemia, a forgotten corner of the continent, with a bloody history of the Hussite wars. Practically everywhere else, with the exception of the Bohemian state, the principle "cuius regio, eius religio" - whose government, whose faith" applied.

The Exchange of Kings
Emperor Matthias died on 20 March 1619 and was replaced by Ferdinand II. The Bohemian Estates accepted him as Matthias' successor in 1617. Now, however, the Estates strongly rejected Ferdinand, as well as his attempt at reconciliation, and on the contrary intensified their war preparations. When the Habsburgs saw that they could not avoid a military solution to the conflict, they began to look for allies. Spain provided Vienna with financial aid, and the Bohemian nobleman Albrecht of Wallenstein recruited an army for the emperor.
The Directory also raised money. It decided on compulsory levies in kind, especially of oats and rye. It then set about confiscating the considerable estates of publicly identified traitors.
These included the Supreme Chancellor Pavel Michna, the governor Jaroslav Bořita of Martinice, the abbot of Prague and others. Surprisingly, we would not find the name of Vilém Slavata. His relative Adam from Štembetrka put in a good word for him. The frightened Slavata promised to live in private and not to take part in political life.

At the end of April, Thurn's army invaded Moravia, occupied Znojmo and on 2 May 1619, the Moravian spokesman Ladislav Velen of Žerotín announced that Moravia was joining the uprising of the Bohemian Estates. It was in fact an intervention and a political coup. This also caused a coup in Brno, where, as in Bohemia, a handful of radicals took control of the political situation and formed the Moravian Directory. Two of the three regiments of the Moravian cash, Sedlicky's and Žerotín's, joined the action thanks to the anti-Habsburg sentiments of their commanders. Albrecht von Wallenstein's third regiment had no time to intervene. When the Silesians still supported the Czech intervention from the north, Wallenstein grabbed the provincial treasury with about 100,000 gold pieces and fled to Vienna with part of his army.
Metitím Thurn continued south, but his siege of Vienna was already unsuccessful. Mansfeld also failed and was defeated by Buquoy on 10 June 1619 at the Battle of Záblatí. After these setbacks, the Estates' army began to disintegrate and the Moravian radicals began to loseHowever, they were saved by the victory of Ladislav Velen of Žerotín over Dampierre in the Battle of Dolní Věstonice.
At the end of July 1619, the Estates' Assembly in Prague approved the New Constitution, the so-called Confederation Act, which changed the Bohemian land into a confederation of equal countries with an elective ruler whose power was significantly limited. On 19. A week later, Ferdinand Faltský, the ruler of the non-Catholic Union in the Empire, was elected the new King of Bohemia. The fact that he was married to the daughter of King James I of England also played a role. Elizabeth, and he was the main opponent of Catholic Spain.

Count Henry Matthias Thurn

Frederick of the Palatinate

Count Henry Matyas Thurn was one of the leaders of the Czech anti-Habsburg resistance during the Thirty Years' War. He initiated the second Prague defenestration of 1618. Despite his Catholic upbringing, Henry became a fervent Protestant. He became an Austrian diplomat, became involved in the imperial army fighting in Hungary against the Turks, and was heavily involved in the struggle for the Majesty for Religious Freedom later issued by Rudolf II, in 1611, he led the army of the Estates against the Pasovian troops of Bishop Leopold. After the death of King Rudolf, he acquired other estates and titles in the service of King Matthias, such as Purgrave of Karlštejn, a title he lost in 1617 when Ferdinand II refused to grant him the title. as King of Bohemia.
After the establishment of the Estates' government in Bohemia he was appointed lieutenant-general, yet on 1 May 1620 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Estates' army in Bohemia. After the Battle of White Mountain, to avoid punishment, Thurn left Bohemia.
He tried to win the favour of all the enemies of the Habsburgs abroad until his death. He died at the age of seventy-three on 26 January 1640 in Livonia (now Estonia).

Frederick the Great - He was known as the "Winter King" for his reign of only one year in the Bohemian lands.

Frederick the Great

It spoke for Frederick that he was a member of one of the most important families and ruler of a historically very important territory in the empire. He inherited the leadership of the Protestant Union from his father. Another advantage was his close connection to King James I of England, to whose daughter Elizabeth he was married. Indeed, Frederick had previously shown open sympathy for the leaders of the Estates' Rebellion and had tried to broker financial and military aid for them. However, the initial enthusiasm of all involved soon waned. As it soon became clear, however, Frederick was unable to take advantage of most of the advantages described above, and the words of the sceptics who had already described him in 1619 as the 'Winter King' were confirmed.
His initially ardent supporter, Krystov Harant of Polžice and Bezdružice, writes: "His entry into Bohemia caused all sorts of disorders in the country right from the beginning... It caused general outrage when the king, to his displeasure, mutilated the ancient shrine of the Bohemian nation, the Church of St. Vitus at Prague Castle, by clearing out and defacing all the altars, paintings and relics, and had it converted into a bare Calvinist house of prayer.After the Battle of White Mountain (8 November 1620), Frederick left Prague Castle and went to Wrocław. This happened one year and four days after his coronation.
He lost the Bohemian kingdom and gradually all the rest of his domains (Silesia, Moravia and both Palatinate) and was thrown into the imperial curse. Thanks to his relatives, Frederick built a court in The Hague. He died as an assassin in Mainz.