A Lifetime of War – Thirty Years War – Sabaton History 031 [Official]

i'm indy neidell and I'm from Sabbath on and this is Sabbath on history the 30 Years War 400 years ago faded Catholic Europe against Protestant Europe and 30 years was pretty much what you would call a lifetime a lifetime to waste the rule the world to justify the starting with the Protestant Reformation that kicked off the century earlier by 1618 the Holy Roman Empire had grown deeply divided into Protestant Lutheran Catholic territories but this mostly German Empire even though in reality more of a multicultural patchwork of many duchies and dioceses was still technically an empire ruled by a single emperor of the Habsburg dynasty and it was his duty to uphold the peace and the rights of his subjects and preferred NAT however who had promised religious freedom to the aristocracy upon his coronation was going back on his word and now pursued a new policy of rika Thal a cessation of his crown lands in mainly Protestant Bohemia this meant closing down Protestant churches and empowering the lesser Catholic clergy once again for the Bohemians this did not just threaten the open practice of their religion but the actual real power of the mainly Protestant landowners as their protests were repeatedly ignored powerful bohemian aristocrats finally came together against Habsburg rule in Prague the Bohemian capital on May 23rd 1618 they took action and through the Imperial officials out of the window yep this was the second defenestration of Prague the word comes from Fenster the German word for window so to defenestrate is to chuck someone out of one okay with this symbolic defenestration they had in actual fact openly declared war on the authority of the empire for the Czech Patriots and anti Habsburg radicals this was a welcome chance to take up arms rebellious provinces sprang up all over they secretly raised militias and hastily organized detachments of Bohemians Moravian zhh hungarians Silesians and hired mercenaries fell on Imperial outposts and blocked their supply lines hoping to gather support from yet other provinces with a series of quick successes Protestant rebels even stormed the Hofburg in Vienna in an attempt to physically seize the emperor and force him to sign their demands the rebels rejected Ferdinand and the Imperial Constitution and one of the Common Wealth of like that of Poland and Lithuania led by their own King in a constitutional monarchy their uprising failed however as the Habsburg Emperor was not without friends and support Imperial propaganda portrayed the Bohemian uprising as arts treachery that disturbed the peace of the Empire and many staunchly catholic dukes pledged their allegiance to the Emperor Ferdinand had been caught off guard sure but he had no intention of giving up the crowns of Hungary or Bohemia which might even jeopardize the structural integrity of his whole empire and he was determined to go on the offensive to quell the rebellion with fire and sword [Music] [Music] the war itself seems at first like localized rebellions over cultural and religious differences but in reality it revolved around the future of the Holy Roman Empire which was the primary Christian religion who had the power the Emperor or the Dukes and their possessions political unity under one belief or even more fragmentation with religious liberty Ferdinand's strongest ally came from Bavaria the zealous Duke Maximilian re-established the Liga covenant of Catholics and raised an army with the blessing of the papacy under the command of his paladin the count of Tilly they were eager to take the fight to the Protestants and forced them to battle in late 1620 the Battle of White Mountain was one of the first major engagements of the war and one of the most decisive ones Tilly's forces better led and supplied than their enemies won a major victory and then took prague that winter but as kings and dukes quarreled over cities estates and property rights for the common people living in Prague and the villages along the trail of armies the horrors that accompanied war became reality and this was not a temporary situation because this war is called the 30 Years War because that's how long it lasted and it is often said about the war but the longer it went on the more the violence and cruelty intensified but really the seeds of uncontrolled violence were already planted in the early stages discipline among the common soldiers was usually pretty low and more so on the side of the rebels irregular forces particularly raged among the local populations Polish skirmishers Hungarian Raiders and Croatian cavalryman terrorized panicked peasants and refugee columns Marauders and bandits roamed alongside the marching armies and the enlisted soldiers were often not much better behaved especially after long and dangerous sieges when pumped up and often drunk soldiers had been forced to storm a city under fire they would afterwards take out their rage and fear on the locals from house to house they plundered and stole everything they could carry if they did not find anything or if others were than they were because it was first-come first-serve when it came to plundering they would turn on the helpless citizens men women and even children were brutally tortured for the slightest chance of hidden valuables since this was often the only way the soldiers could make actual money to feed and equip themselves and their families they could not afford to show mercy many simply embraced boundless unchecked violence as a new way of life the fall of Prague marked the collapse of the bohemian Confederation but the war itself obviously did not end as the triumphant Ferdinand failed to take advantage of his victory he would not listen to any compromise of his demands to restore his full Authority there was no chance for religious equality after the revolt and instead he condemned captured rebels to an agonizing death while the escaped ringleaders were under an imperial ban together with the confiscation and distribution of rebel property this just further escalated the war and drove many new Protestant champions to the cause of the rebellion the war that began as a rather localized conflict in the east and center of the empire spread to the north in the 1620s Imperial and lega forces entered the zones of influence and interest of other great powers in 1625 Danish King Christian declared war on the Empire to secure his influence in northern Germany and portray himself as a Protestant Saviour the Hanseatic League outright refused cooperation with the Emperor and insisted on its autonomy and neutrality the Polish sovereign Sigismund on the other hand was sympathetic to the imperial cause and introduced the cossacks to european warfare but also attracted the attention of the swedes in 1630 under the king and lion of the north gustav adolf they set out to secure their interest in the Baltics a strong Catholic influence in the north could not be tolerated by the ambitious House of Vasa while Spain themselves busy with Calvinist rebels also sent out troops to help the Imperials the French who would rather see a fragmented Protestant Germany than a unified Catholic one at first supported the northern forces with money until in 1635 to prevent a peace treaty they entered the war themselves the war grew and grew as did the armies as did death and suffering new Knights appeared on the chessboard rich and ambitious men like von Mansfeld or Valentine aim to get even richer through the war for months felled tried to establish his own legend in the defense of Protestant liberty while Valentine on the opposing side raised thousands of men for the Emperor in his own pursuit of elevating his status among the nobility or was business war gave common but ambitious men a chance to rise in society experienced mercenary groups travelled from engagement to engagement and fought for the highest bidder but the way to the top was paved with the blood and lives of thousands then millions of men killing had become a normality an authority broke down everywhere as the war expanded harvests were confiscated cattle were slaughtered people starved on the streets and besieged cities even resorted to cannibalism peasants took to guerrilla fighting and formed robbery gangs and militias to fight off the Marauders but the major killer was disease where armies go sickness follows and for every battle thousands more died of a variety of diseases like plague or Hungarian fever rodents bred in the crowded cities wolves roamed the countryside and cats and dogs disappeared in the kitchen religious hatred rallied religious zealotry and many captured priests and nuns were murdered and mutilated popular acts of barbarism included pulling ropes so tight around people's necks that their eyes popped out the fade and trunk was especially disgusting forcing the victim to swallow large amounts of liquid excrement another fun game was to make criminals or deserters gamble for their lives and punishments the lucky throw of dice would decide if a man lost the hand his tongue or his life trees were full of the other unlucky ones there are only estimates as to how many people died as records naturally lack specific data the highest estimates are of a death rate of 40% of the population compared to the pre-war population numbers within the empire but even with the lower nowadays more often accepted numbers of around 15% we speak of a war that was possibly or even likely the deadliest that ever raged in Europe by percentage including both world wars in the public conscience it was not only a war though but a thirty-year tragedy that ravaged the German lands and killed so many people it would take many decades to replenish those lost a whole generation of people lived through 30 years of war from when they were born until when they were up to 30 years old they knew no life but constant war and terror and there were even soldiers that served from the beginning and six 18 to the end in 1648 often in different armies on changing sides but still serving and who could have predicted that the war would last so long between all the religious ideals and politics who could have made sense of all the violence who could have avoided it who wanted to and who didn't there was plenty of time to answer such questions thirty years thirty long years of war [Music] so para what are we gonna see now we have some really amazing footage that pretty much nobody have seen we shot a music video for like lifetime very few people know about it because nobody have seen it I don't know I haven't seen it I have not seen it because actually the footage was lost but lost like somebody left it on a train or something and now the guy disappeared the guy who filmed it he disappears and until today we have not been able to obtain the original footage okay so so he's out there maybe he can return the footage that would be great that'd be great but until then yeah we actually had our fantastic fan club in Poland the polish Panzer battalion who were there with us okay we were shooting this and they helped us to produce kind of hind the scenes of this okay during the video yeah what are we gonna see now is pretty much behind the scenes or music video but never be a mercy I feel dirty so [ __ ] dirty [Music] okay well and there you have it ladies and gentlemen we hope you enjoyed that today I certainly enjoyed that was totally new for me and that was supposed to be the music video for a lifetime of war which never happened which never happened and maybe one day we will actually get to see that video if that guy okay well thank you very much for today pare we'll see you next time on Sabaton history [Music] that's it for today hope you enjoyed this week's episode of sabaton History Channel there will be another one every week until we run out of songs it's gonna take a while so until then enjoy it support us become subscribers become patrons and see you soon [Music]

Channel: Sabaton History

Views: 107,975

Rating: 4.9844546 out of 5

Keywords: Sabaton, Sabaton History, TimeGhost, Indy Neidell, World War Two, Documentary, Historian, History, War, Powermetal, Band, Pär Sundstrom, Joakim Broden, Heavy Metal, Sabaton Music, Metal, Thirty Years War, Germany, Deutschland, Sweden, Sverige, Habsburg, Habsburg Empire, Holy Roman Empire, HRE, Christianity, Protestantism, Catholicism, Emperor, Empire, Bohemia, Gustavus Adolphus, Gustav Adolph, Stormaktstiden, Gustav Adolf, Medieval, Renaissance, Reformation, Martin Luther, Jan Hus, Knight, Holy War

Id: CN47IMBYesk

Length: 14min 22sec (862 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 05 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/kolaloka]

Sabaton opened for another band I wanted to see. I had no idea who they were, so when every single song was a history lesson about a battle, usually including the dates and locations in the refrain... I just laughed my ass off.

They should've just played Sabaton albums in my history classes. I would know way more than I do about that, I'm sure lol.