I got a question, but why keep seeing Non Protestant, Christian Nations joining on the Protestant side? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I've seen a Christian France, and GB join the Protestant league in the same game.
Religious leagues.
- Thread starter wildbillhdmax01
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It's mostly related to nations being rivals of the nations that are already in leagues. In general, you can expect all rivals of a catholic emperor to join the other league. I assumed you meant "catholics" instead of "christians".
Yes I meant christians. Anyways I understand, but I'm not sure if I agree that's how it should be. I mean at the time were christians, and Protestants not heavily divided?
They were, but for example, France didn't side with the emperor. The pope has been more anti French than anti protestant at times.
You should probably start by reading the wiki page for the thirty years wars.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years'_War
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years'_War
The historic religious league wars happened just like that... It was not as much about religion, as it was about a political place where nations tried to vie for more control ;-)
Furthermore I believe France actually joined on the Protestant side didn't they? Seeing an opportunity to weaken their Habsburg rivals. Also remember it was not only a war of Protestant vs Catholic but rather one of Emperor authority vs Prince authority over religion.
To overly simplify, it started over religious differences, and ended over who actually held the power in the HRE.
As with most wars, the stated cause for war was oftentimes quite different than the actual goal of the war.
You mean Catholic and Protestants were divided, both are christian denominations.
Secondly France tacitly fought on the protestant side because the major powers threatening France was Habsburg Spain and Austria that basically had encircled France, so the French were a lot more interested in weakening those than in the religious aspect. Though at home they persecuted the french protestants, which for instance led to the short war between France and England in 1627-29, despite both having promised to aid the danish king Christian IV in his participation in the thirty years war in the same period. England and France later helped the Swedish king Gustav Adolf in the same way that they had promised Christian IV.
France was virtually surrounded by Habsburg lands. So they allied the Ottomans and helped the Protestants keep the HRE decentralized.
As for the pope being more anti-French than anti-protestant, it is all about politics. French kings wanted no other power in their country than theirs and so for century opposed the pope on religious subjects. They never went so far than British kings by creating an independent church, but still waged several wars against the Church State in Italy during the 16th century, not for religious but for political reasons.
And the main purpose of the French intervention in the Thirty Years War was not to save the protestant faith, but to help Hasbourg's ennemies and weaken the HRE.
And the main purpose of the French intervention in the Thirty Years War was not to save the protestant faith, but to help Hasbourg's ennemies and weaken the HRE.
There are a lot of instances where religion was used as a reason to pursue political goals. Things like the year of the three popes says a lot. Or I can think of how the Papacy involved itself in Italian politics and tried to get Venice, France and others to press their agenda. Or the 4th Crusade.
Also more unexpected than Christians joining Protestants is Muslims (Ottomans) which historically played a role. So it started as a religious conflict but then every ruler joined the side that did fit their interest beyond beliefs. Maybe some did it in the name of God, but others just had a justification for weakening their rivals.