Modern Imperial History: 1547-Present

Philip III: 1621-1665

OK, welcome back to class. Last week we talked a little bit about the beginning of one of the most drastic wars in Imperial history, the Thirty Years' War. Before going on to the war itself and the reign of Philip III, I feel as if many of you may be confused as to how an event like a bunch of priests being thrown into a pile of manure could have caused a continent wide war. Well, first of all, it wasn't this sole event that caused the war. The frustrations of Protestants in the Empire had been increasing, and a rebellion had been in the works for some time. And tensions with other nations in Europe were also rising, as they saw the Empire as an increasingly unbeatable behemoth. So when the Protestants across the Empire rose up in open revolt, other nations throughout Europe gladly joined in, seeing their chance to destroy the Empire. We have to understand that during it's "Golden Age," the Empire wasn't really as powerful as it seemed. It was multicultural, religious, and lingual, and history shows that empires such as that are doomed to fall. So, despite it's size and superficial strength, it was hanging by a thread, and the Defenestration of Prague cut that thread. But the Empire might have fallen much harder had it not been for the skilled Philip III, who we'll learn about today.



He was unlike his father and grandfather. He chose to stay in Vienna, and was considered the first true German emperor in a long time. By staying in Vienna, even when the entire area was surrounded by conflict and under threat, he inspired many to remain loyal to the crown. He was a military genius, who during the war was instrumental in directing troop movements and innovating strategies. After the war had ended, he went on to found a new capital in central Germany called Karlstadt, and excuse PowerPoint again that is actually the correct spelling. Karlstadt was indeed named after Charles V and Charlemagne, and its centralized location in Germany made loyal Germans feel that they had their empire back, but alienated many of the other cultures within the Empire.



Just a short slide on the Bohemian phase of the war. By 1621, outside interference in the war was minimal, with other nations only sending mercenaries and supplies. By the time Philip III was crowned, the Bohemian revolt had been put down, largely due to their devastating loss at the Battle of the White Mountain.



But the defeat of the Bohemians in 1621 did not stop the Brandenburgians and Dutch from continuing their rebellion. The Bohemian Protestants were a bit isolated, while the northern coast of the Empire was a Protestant stronghold. The Brandenburg revolt was not put down until they were defeated. Again, just like at the White Mountain, the Imperial mastermind Johann Tserclaes defeated the Protestants. But the Dutch, with the sea access allowing constant help from the Scandinavians and French, were actually able to hold out against Imperial incursions for the entire war.



While much of this was going on, Catholics revolted in southern France, led by a variety of pretender kings, many of whom names have been lost to history. Nevertheless, the Catholic Occitan revolt served as a distraction for the French, not to mention that it facilitated Occitan nationalism for years to come. The Occitan revolt did not end until the French finally captured the city of La Rochelle, and upon its capture a brutal razing took place. The British had invested so much into this revolt, that when it failed, they dropped out of the war.



The first major outside intervention was the Danish intervention, which lasted from 1625 to 1629. This stage of the conflict was a back and forth war all across northern Germany. And in keep in mind, that at this time, Imperial forces were holding back Ottoman raids on southern Italy. Again, Johann Tserclaes spearheaded Imperial victory, it is these victories that make him the Imperial hero we know today. He was actually even more famous in his day. After the Danes lost at Lutter in 1626, Tserclaes made some incursions into Denmark itself, laying a short siege on Copenhagen itself, before the Danes surrendered in 1629.



After the Danes failed to take down the Empire, the Swedes tried their hand, under their infamous, or famous king depending on which side your on, Gustavus II Adolphus. He served Tserclaes his first loss at Breitenfield in 1631, and Tserclaes died a year later. Without a strong general, the Swedes were able to run rampant across northern and central Germany, before laying siege to Prague in 1634. A year later, the city fell to Gustavus II, and with the road to Vienna now open, the Empire had to come to the negotiating table. Philip III and Gustavus II met in person, and Philip III was forced to swallow his pride and cede Pommerania.



But this treaty wasn't enough for the constantly paranoid French. Thought this is understandable, considering their entire nation was bordered by the Empire. So they intervened in the war from 1635 to 1648. Again, without Tserclaes, the remaining Imperial generals were incompetent, even with Philip III strategic directions. Though they had good orders, it was useless if they couldn't execute them properly. So the French were able to win many battle across the Low Countries and beyond, liberating the Dutch. After this, they moved into Germany proper, and began a slow phase of the war from 1638 to 1643. Back and forth warfare once again raged across the battered land of Germany, until the French broke through the Imperial lines and laid siege to Munich. In 1645, the Swedes, still under Gustavus II, intervened again and defeated the Empire at Jankau. And by the way, Gustavus ruled Sweden for 78 years, living for an astonishing 95 years, from 1594 to 1689. Anyway, Munich fell to the French in 1646. From 1646 to 1648, the French led campaigns in northern Italy and Catalonia, easily gaining victories there, considering the Imperial army was stuck in Germany, not to mention that many Imperial soldiers were dead.



Philip III swallowed his imperial pride once again and signed the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. He ceded Protestant Brandenburg to Sweden, gave the Dutch independence, and also ceded the occupied areas of northern Italy and Catalonia to the French.



Now some of you may begin to think of Philip III as a bad emperor because of the land losses the Empire suffered under his reign. But we have to understand that he did his best to hold together an Empire doomed to fall due to its diversity, and its problems that had only been exacerbated by his father's ineffective rule. While the Empire suffered greatly under Philip III, in fact it is estimated that the Thirty Years' War ended the lives of over 1.5 million people, Philip III stopped the outcome of the war from being much worse. The war could have absolutely torn apart the Empire or burnt Vienna or given the crown to Sweden. All of this would have certainly caused Spain to secede. All this alternate history is interesting, but the point is that Philip III held the basic fabric of the Empire together despite massive pressure. Now while the majority of his reign was spent fighting the Thirty Years' War, he also put down a Hungarian revolt from 1651 to 1653. The Hungarians wanted to break away from what they felt was an increasingly German empire. But Philip III ended the rebellion by instilling fear in the Hungarian people. The rebel leaders were rounded up, blindfolded, and made to kneel in a row. Then two riders on either side of the line, would each hold one end of a massive saw. As I'm sure you're all guessing, yes, they then rode across, beheading the entire line of freedom fighters in seconds. I'm sure you've all seen this brutal execution during that famous final scene of the movie "Lionheart", about the Hungarian rebel leader Zoltan Balogh. And as we discussed earlier, Philip III founded Karlstadt in 1654. It would serve as a main Imperial residence, but Vienna still remained a ceremonial capital.



And finally, here is a map of Europe upon Philip III's death in 1665. As you can see, and I forgot to mention this during the lesson, the personal union with Portugal ended in 1640, and since the Empire was at war, it didn't have the resources to keep Portugal within it. Also, much of north Africa was able to regain independence during the war, considering the Empire did not want to divert troops to save their hold over the Sahara. Only Tunisia was able to remain in Imperial hands, mostly due to the efforts of loyal Italian mercenary fighters. And as you might notice, the young Kingdom of Greece expanded at the cost of the Turks. Greece and Russia waged a simultaneous war against the Turk, in which Greece was able to regain Epirus and Thessaly. OK, that brings this long lesson to a close, tomorrow we'll talk about Emperor Charles VI.​

Charles VI: 1665-1700

Today we're gonna talk about the 35 year reign of Charles VI, a severely handicapped man who managed to reign from the age of four to when he died an early death, no doubt related to his sickliness, at the age of thirty nine.



OK, so as I said before, Charles VI was sickly, in both mind and body, from an early age. He was not educated, as court members did not want to "overload" what they considered to be a deficient brain. And he had various physical problems such as infertility as well, which were caused by generations of inbreeding. He ascended to the throne at the age of 4, though even when he came of age, the Imperial court still ran the Empire. As in the past, the lack of central authority caused the economy to stagnate. Economic depression caused widespread poverty and famine in Spain and Germany. This caused many Germans, mostly Protestant, to emigrate to Argentina. Argentina would become the only majority German Imperial colony in the New World.



Whenever Charles VI did get himself involved in running the Empire, it was often something eccentric. He presided over the largest single burning of heretics in 1680, when he oversaw the burning of 21 heretics, and the torture of one hundred others, in Toledo. This put him in good standing with the more conservative members of the Catholic hierarchy, while frustrating the large number of Protestants that still remained in northern Germany. But then, later in his reign, he strangely condemned the Inquisition, which further inflamed religious tensions. He committed many other strange acts. For example, he once dug up dead family members, only to weep at their sight, and had them quickly reburied.



The Ottomans had become very arrogant over the past half century or so, due to the weakening of the Empire. Now that the Empire lacked a strong emperor, the Turks felt they could wage and win a war against it. So in 1680, they invaded and reconquered Greece, Wallachia, and Moldavia. In 1683, they declared war on the Empire and swept through the Balkans. By the fall, they were at the gates of Vienna. Charles VI remained quiet in Karlstadt, and it is said that many began to forget they even had an emperor. He issued no statements, even while the court gained more and more power. Nevertheless, the Pope called for a new Holy League, one that encompassed all Catholic nations, and would later be joined by Orthodox Russia.



For the first few weeks of the siege, things were actually looking bleak for the Empire. By in early September, a massive relief army led by the King of Poland came to the Imperial capital's defense. On September 12, he led the largest cavalry charge in history, a massive charge of 20,000 mixed German and Polish riders. The sight itself must have been absolutely terrifying for the Turks. Over half of the Turks began a frantic retreat, while the chargers massacred them as they ran. The charge was certainly the inspiration for the charge of the Rohirrim that relieved Minas Tirith in JRR Tolkien epic "Lord of the Rings." So, the charge inspired the other defenders to charge out as well, and soon enough they were all chasing and killing the Turks until the sun went down. Estimated losses for the Ottomans are over 35,000.



After the victory at Vienna, Imperial forces spread out across the Balkans, trying to free the occupied territory from the outnumbering Ottomans. The Empire achieved another major victory at Mohacs in 1687, when they absolutely decimated an entire Ottoman army with less than 600 casualties. And as I mentioned, Russia joined soon after this victory, hoping to capitalize on Ottoman weakness. Russian troops soon poured into the Caucasus and Bulgaria.



For the next decade, fighting across the Balkans continued. Ottoman and Imperial forces remained even, due to the fact that many Imperial troops were diverted to the Holy Land, for another sort of crusade. In 1695, Jerusalem fell the Empire. Celebrations were held all across Europe, and for the first time, Protestants and Catholics openly celebrated together for weeks. The Ottomans suffered another defeat at Zenta in 1697. And in 1698, the Russians recaptured Constantinople rather anticlimactically and peacefully, as the Sultan had fled long before. The city was largely treated with respect, though the mosques were reconverted into churches and the minarets were removed from the Church of Holy Wisdom (Agia Sophia) which became the primary Orthodox cathedral once again. The fall of their capital finally convinced the Ottomans to come to the negotiating table in 1699. The Treaty of Karlowitz was signed that same year, and completely eliminated the Ottoman presence in Europe.



Charles VI died at the age of 39 the next year. He had a very ineffective rule, though the Empire did expand under his reign. But economic depression and religious tension furthered the gap between the "common" Spanish and the "elite" Germans. He was never able to produce an heir. Therefore upon his death, two lines had a claim on the throne. One was supported by the Spanish, that of the Bourbon Louis XIV, a line that would have united the Empire with France. The other was of Duke Leopold of Karlstadt, who was supported by the Germans. The dispute would begin the devastating War of Imperial Succession.



Finally, here is a map of Europe in 1700. As you can see, the Balkans have been divided up between the Empire and Russia, and the Holy Land has been occupied by the Empire. The strong leadership of Alexander Mavrocordatos, later King Alexander I of Greece, allowed for Greece to receive expansion in the Treaty of Karlowitz, and not lose Thessaloniki to the Empire or Russia. Also note the little passage the Ottomans were allowed to keep, to have a land route from Anatolia to Arabia. And the fact that the Persians were able to expand further in Mesopotamia, much to Turkish dismay. Also, keep in mind Swedish expansion along the Baltic, and final formation of a centralized Prussian state, free of Polish influence. We'll talk about the War of Imperial Succession tomorrow, and find out who became Emperor.​