Thirty Years' War

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surnames/tags: Military_and_War Scotland European_History

The Thirty Years' War was a series of wars in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648. It was one of the longest, most destructive conflicts in European history, and percentage wise it remains the deadliest.

Initially a war between Protestant and Catholic states in the fragmenting Holy Roman Empire, it gradually developed into a more general conflict involving most of the great powers of Europe, becoming less about religion and more a continuation of the France–Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence.

The war can be hard to understand, but thankfully, there is a great series of professional quality videos on the YouTube channel Kings and Generals, covering several of the most important battles of the war, and also a video about the overall effects on the population of the area of conflict. This link is to the playlist of videos about the battles, and this link is to the video about the general effects, which is more relevant to genealogy.

The popular metal band Sabaton also wrote a song about this war, called "A Lifetime of War".

Thirty Years' War
Habsburg Alliance

• Holy Roman Empire
• Catholic League
• Austria
• Bohemia (after 1620)
• Spanish Empire
• Hungary
• Kingdom of Croatia
• Denmark (1643-1645)
• Poland
• Zaporozhian Sich (Cossacks)

Anti Hapsburg Alliance

• Sweden
• France
• Denmark
• Bohemia (1618 - 1620)
• United Provinces (Dutch Republic)
• Saxony
• Palatine of the Rhine
• Brandenburg-Prussia
• Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg
• England
• Scotland
• Principality of Transylvania
• Ottoman Empire
• Tsardom of Russia