THIRTY YEARS' WAR 



5792 



THISTLE 



League under the great general Tilly, defeated 

 the Danish king, who withdrew after signing the 

 Peace of Lubeck (1629). Even before that the 

 emperor had issued the Edict of Restitution, 

 in accordance with which all Church lands and 

 possessions acquired by the Protestants since 

 the Peace of Augsburg must be returned to the 

 Catholic side. Here was a sure source of further 

 friction. 



The Swedish Period (1630-1635). The "Lion 

 of the North," Gustavus Adolphus, the great 

 hero-king of Sweden, now entered the combat. 

 He had two motives for interfering: his sincere 

 devotion to Protestantism; and his ambition 

 for Sweden, whose position on the Baltic would 

 be endangered if the emperor succeeded in his 

 plans. This was the first introduction of the 

 political element. In 1630, therefore, Gustavus 

 Adolphus sailed with 16,000 men the best 

 trained and disciplined army in all Europe. 

 He tried to relieve the city of Magdeburg, un- 

 der siege because of resisting the Edict of Resti- 

 tution, but arrived too late to prevent its cap- 

 ture. The sacking of the city was so frightful 

 a catastrophe that Tilly compared it to the 

 fall of Troy and Jerusalem. However, the 

 Swedish army defeated Tilly's forces in the 

 Battle of Breitenfeld (1631), and later in an- 

 other conflict in which Tilly was killed. 



Emperor Ferdinand was now forced to recall 

 Wallenstein, previously dismissed, and another 

 nondescript army from all over Europe gath- 

 ered together. It met the Swedish forces in 

 the famous Battle of Liitzen (1632). In a thick 

 mist that covered the field with darkness Gus- 

 tavus Adolphus lost his way and somehow met 

 his death; and the spot where he fell is now 

 marked by a splendid monument which the 

 Germans have erected in gratitude to the illus- 

 trious prince who saved the Protestant cause. 

 The Swedes won the day and continued the 

 struggle, with varying success, under the Chan- 

 cellor Oxenstierna. At about this time the 

 emperor, seeing cause to suspect Wallenstein of 

 treason, had him assassinated. 



Swedish-French Period (1635-1648) . The war 

 now lost the religious character entirely and 

 became purely political. Richelieu, the real 

 ruler of France at this time, was a Catholic, but 

 he determined to interfere in behalf of the 

 German Protestants as a means of blocking the 

 growth of Hapsburg power, for France and 

 Austria had been enemies for hundreds of 

 years. In fact, he had assisted Gustavus 

 Adolphus with influence and supplies. In 1635 

 he adopted direct tactics and flung a French 



army into Germany. This force united with 

 the Swedish army, and under the brilliant 

 leadership of Turenne and Conde, then just 

 winning their spurs r as well as the Swedish gen- 

 erals Torstensson and Wrangel, a long series of 

 victories was achieved. 



The Peace of Westphalia (1648). The people 

 had long been crying for peace and relief from 

 the misery this dreadful war brought upon 

 them. In 1645 the European powers sent repre- 

 sentatives to a peace conference, the Catholic 

 and Protestant delegates meeting separately 

 in two different cities of Westphalia. Things 

 dragged along until finally, in 1648, the news 

 that the Protestant armies were planning opera- 

 tions against Vienna brought certain concessions 

 from the emperor which made possible the 

 agreement known as the Peace of Westphalia. 



Effects of the War. Pitiable indeed was the 

 condition of Germany at the close of the war. 

 More than half the population had been killed, 

 and the survivors saw nothing but ruin 

 wherever they looked. Whole cities, villages 

 and farms had disappeared; two-thirds of the 

 property had been destroyed. Wild animals 

 that had- been driven out as the country became 

 civilized had returned to the wilderness which 

 war recreated. Art and science, commerce and 

 agriculture were dead. There had been no 

 time to educate the children. Thirty years of 

 fighting had brought a general drop in moral 

 standards, and attracted to Germany, as well 

 as developed within Germany, vicious charac- 

 ters from whom the country suffered for many 

 a decade. A.MC c. 



Consult Schiller's History of the Thirty Years' 

 War in Germany. 



Related Subjects. In connection with this 

 discussion of the Thirty Years' War, the follow- 

 ing articles in these volumes may be consulted: 

 Ferdinand (Holy Ro- Magdeburg 



man Empire) Reformation 



Germany, subhead The Richelieu, Cardinal 



Thirty Years' War Tilly, Count of 

 Gustavus, subhead Wallenstein 



Gustavus II Westphalia, subhead 



Liitzen, Battles of Peace of Westphalia 



THISTLE, this" I, the name applied to a 

 widely distributed group of plants bearing sharp 

 spines or prickles. They are members of the 

 composite family and are mostly weeds. Of the 

 numerous species the most troublesome is the 

 so-called Canada thistle, described and illus- 

 trated in these volumes on page 1138. Thistle 

 plants have tough, fibrous stems, much-divided, 

 prickly leaves, and soft, silky flowers of various 

 colors, usually borne in round heads that form 



