Thirty Years' War - White Mountain 1620 DOCUMENTARY

[Music] the European Wars of Religion had been progressively raging for two centuries gradually growing in intensity from the hussite wars of the early 15th century to the French Wars of Religion in the late 16th century it seemed as though a decisive conflagration was inevitable the 30 Years War concluded as one of the most devastating conflicts in the history of the world but began as a local religious conflict by its end Europe its religion and its borders had been forever changed and upwards of 8 million people had perished what is the story of this cataclysmic conflict and how did it begin we shall begin our series on the 30 Years War with the Bohemian revolt and the Battle of White Mountain the 1st bohemian unrest against Catholic rule the hussite revolt concluded in 1434 at the Battle of Liberty delaying the Reformation for a century in 1516 a Dominican friar came to the Holy Roman Empire city of Wittenberg in order to sell indulgences material ways to reduce the amount of punishment one had to undergo due to their sins in the late Middle Ages this practice had become corrupt and commercialized a German theologian monk and priest Martin Luther objected and famously nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg Church perhaps his most revolutionary work was his translation of the traditionally Hebrew and Greek Bible into common German allowing laymen to read it for themselves rather than relying on their priests this began the Protestant Reformation [Music] the sixteenth century conflicts precipitated by this Reformation began with the massive German peasants war of 1524 to 1525 a religious conflict exacerbated by political and economic factors a precursor of what was to come this period of violence which also included the munster rebellion of 15 32 to 1535 and the Shmuel Caddick Wars of 1546 to 1555 seemingly came to an end with the Peace of Augsburg during which holy roman emperor ferdinand ii the first established the key principle of korea's regio EIU's religio this allowed the many princes of the various provinces of the Empire to impose their own religion either Catholicism or Lutheranism on their own territory it stabilized the situation at first but there were problems the 1580s saw the situation deteriorate even further under the rule of rudolf ii the causes of this are complex but it was probably a combination of severe climatic stresses on the European economy external conflicts such as the ongoing eighty Years War and an intensification of religious extremism in 1606 another key moment came when the Treaty of Sheet Vetrov was signed between the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire monarchy and the Ottoman Empire this marked a decrease in pressure against the Empire spoken border due to the necessity for Ottoman soldiers to quell internal rebellion and to fight against the Safavids this seemed like a victory for Christendom but it also took away a unifying factor between the various religious groups in the Habsburgs German territories giving them breathing room to focus on their internal rivals in 1608 Protestant Prince's declared the Protestant Union a military alliance to defend the religious interests of their co-religionists under Frederick the forth of the palate Annette feeling threatened by this Catholic princes under duke of bavaria maximilian the first formed the Catholic League one of the largest provinces in the Empire bohemia' had enjoyed comparative religious freedom since the end of the hussite wars and was one of the most tolerant lands in Europe in 1609 rudolf ii issued the letter of majesty a text which guaranteed freedom of conscience for all and liberty of worship for nobles essentially allowing bohemia the right to control its religious affairs free from imperial interference but it was clear that this was a fragile compromise rudolf ii died in 1612 and was replaced by matias that who was more radical in his religious policies and began to slowly roll back to the right the new emperor also has no children so the succession was an open question as a four-year dispute over the guardianship of the electoral Palatinate concluded in 1614 frederick v became the elector he was a talented military leader and a zealous Calvinist who firmly believed in a Catholic conspiracy to annihilate German Protestantism and positioned himself as a leader of the Protestant Prince's by 1617 Mattias fell ill and Ferdinand of Styria had been elected as the heir designate to the dread of the Bohemians they had heard tales of Ferdinand's vicious count of Reformation as Archduke of Austria and feared that he would not allow non Catholics in Bohemia On June 6th 1617 he ascended to the Bohemian throne as ferdinand ii to the fury of the protestant Bohemians what happened next is debated which the Bohemians either wanted to perform a preemptive strike in anticipation of Ferdinand's predicted persecution or violence was already done against the Protestants the issue of Habsburg rule over Bohemia was also a key factor on the 23rd of May 1618 an assembly of Protestants went to the rad ship the Royal Castle and insisted on seeing the Imperial governors after a heated exchange of words between the Assembly led by count turn and the Imperial Representatives the Imperials were thrown out of the council chambers windows and fell becoming infamously known as the second defenestration of Prague this was the trigger for the Bohemian revolt and Europe would consequently be embroiled in an apocalyptic conflict for the next thirty years this scandalous act in bohemia' and the brewing insurrection took the courts of all Europe by surprise including the Bohemians themselves despite the state of affairs they were cautious and refrained from demanding the deposition of Ferdinand for now instead addressing their demands to be sickly Holy Roman Emperor Matthias maintaining a pretence of loyalty nevertheless military preparations and actions began immediately by both sides in mid-june the Bohemians wrote to the Protestant Union asking them for full admittance and military support in the upcoming conflict in order to incentivize this further they offered Frederick v the leader of the Union the kingship of Bohemia for their support in a diplomatic mistake they offered the same to the rulers of Savoy Saxony and Transylvania which led to the wider union to declare neutrality in the conflict contradictory to their leader the elector of the palate Annette the ruler of Saxony the most powerful Protestant province of the Empire had never wanted a war with the Emperor and when Ferdinand offered him protection against any Protestant retaliation in return for neutrality he accepted and mobilized his forces to secure his border with Bohemia the Duke of Savoy however responded to the Bohemian call for help swiftly and sent a two thousand strong force under Ernst von Mansfeld along with financial aid for the conflict in May 1618 this protestant force captured the stronghold of Pilsen marking one of the first major engagements of the 30 Years War the Spanish Habsburgs at this moment in time headed by Philip the third-world Cupid by the eighty years war against the Dutch Republic and their allies despite internal problems they were still the most powerful state in Europe and their aid would be key to the Catholic course by mid 1619 seven thousand veteran Spanish troops would be sent from the Low Countries in order to support Ferdinand T the Austrian Archduke also received similar support from inside the Holy Roman Empire Bavaria the most powerful Catholic principality and its Duke Maximilian the first saw Protestant bohemia as a threat to its authority and also considered the elector Palatine a fellow member of the visuals back family as one of his main rivals for the position of elector however these preparations did not yet make war inevitable though they were taking military precautions it was not yet clear that the war would erupt so violently the Habsburgs viewed their insurrectionist bohemian subjects as rebellious children and themselves as the patient patriarchs willing to listen to their complaints in addition many Bohemians did not want to entirely reject the dynasty but instead wished to simply reinforce the religious toleration concessions gained in Rudolph's letter of majesty this relatively lack start to the conflict would end when Holy Roman Emperor Matthias died in March 16 19 days forced the Bohemians into a decision they would either have to lay down their arms and accept Ferdinand as their King or denounce him and risk open war they went with the second option and offered the crown to Frederick v of the palette inert instead in May 1619 the main army of the Protestants led by count Turan marched on Vienna and put the city under siege despite not having any siege weapons to launch a decisive assault these successes were not to last as on the 10th of June the Catholic commander the count of bagua routed Mansfeld and his 2,000 strong contingent at the Battle of Sublette in southern Bohemia this cut off communications between Prague and towns Percy Qing army forcing them to withdraw even worse Mansfield's correspondence was captured by the Imperials revealing in detail the duke of savoy s dealings with the Bohemians dutch Venetians and English he was embarrassed and now aware that he would not be elected the Bohemian King ended his support for the rebels on the 28th of August 1619 ferdinand ii was finally elected the holy roman emperor in frankfurt but he still had problems to deal with in late August the Prince of Transylvania beth len kapoor began the conquest of Habsburg Hungary and on October 13th defeated the last Habsburg army in the region soon afterwards he moved up the Danube and joined forces with turn moving in November to lay siege to Vienna a second time again this apparent success was not to last on the 27th of November 16 19 de Bourgh receives reports that a large Polish army assisting the catholic ferdinand had entered up a hungary and cut his communications with his Transylvanian heartland this ruined the second siege of Vienna and forced Gabor to rush back to Hungary and turn to move back to Bohemia Imperial diplomats then negotiated with Gabor to cease his support for the Bohemians and he accepted on the 20th of January 1620 [Music] a 16:20 progressed another Spanish army of 20,000 men began its march from the Low Countries into the Palatinate under the command of Ambrose Co Spinella aiming to secure Catholic League territories such as Bavaria at the same time an army of around 30,000 Catholic troops conquered Upper Austria led by the count of tiel while the croisé force had conquered Lower Austria this done the Imperial armies under pakua and tiel United and thrust into bohemia' seeking a decisive engagement on the 8th of November 1620 the Imperial Army met the rebels just beyond the walls of Prague at Villa hora the white mountain the rebels were around 21,000 strong with 11,000 footmen 5000 haka [ __ ] a horse 5,000 additional Hungarian light cavalry and 10 canons their army drew up in the Dutch style constituting two lines of battle with interspersing cavalry squadrons between each battalion of infantry half of the Hungarian light cavalry manned the extreme right wing while the other half functioned as a mobile reserve in the rear commanded by Christina van Holt the rebel army set up on the high ground of the white mountain ridge digging trenches in front of their line thick fog obscured the Imperial approach on the morning of Sunday the 8th of November and advance guard forces secured two crossings of a stream two kilometres in front of the rebel position after Ferdinand's army crossed they began to form up the Catholic League's forces commanded by teens set up on the left while the Imperial Army led by the choir took up position on the right 17,000 Habsburg footmen were organized into ten large plots known as turkey O's and were comprised mainly of pikemen and Musketeers the Imperial cavalry meanwhile consisted of six regiments of lightly armed haka buzias armed with a long haka bus carbine and four regiments of heavily armed chorus ears wielding wheel lock pistols and straight swords supplementing them were 300 light cavalry from Catholic Poland the army of ferdinand ii also had 12 canons in support [Music] the Imperial commanders knew that time was on their side so they did not have to attack immediately however the Duke of Bavaria Maximilian wanted a quick and decisive victory so they decided to attack ever since they had been brought up the Imperial cannon had been firing uphill without much impact at around fifteen minutes to mid-day all twelve guns fired at once to signal the advance Imperial Tokyo's and cavalry on the less steep right side advanced up the hill opposed by two cavalry regiments under an Holt's son Christie and the younger who wanted to perform an active defense meanwhile Terrans elite infantry division crashed into the habsburg infantry who were laboring up the slope the Bohemian army initially had success in their downhill advance breaking through the Imperial Casilla Cavalry and into one of their turkey O's by using their wheel lock pistols Pike's clashed and firearms sounded for a while however till then sent more Kyra Sears and dragoons to the right flank under buck wire and drove the rebel cavalry away rallying the tur thios to push forward in the process witnessing their horsemen retreating under the pressure the Bohemian infantry began to follow suit and the Hungarians in reserve scattered meanwhile the Catholic League's forces advanced up to the steeper slope on the Left towards the rebel right flank due to the unfavorable terrain on this area of the field the Bohemian contingents Manning it managed to hold the advancing leaf tertius however rumors of 300 Polish cavalry having already flanked the rebels spooked the remaining bohemian units and they attempted to flee the German mercenaries fighting on the right side of the rebel line were unable to flee due to the terrain and they had to fight to the last man a later legend would distort this occurrence and describes the heroic resistance of these men who refused to give up the Bohemian rebels had been utterly crushed in the field and Till's forces entered Prague the next day 47 leaders of the rebellion were put to death 27 of them being executed in the old town square commemorated by 27 crosses engraved into the modern-day cobblestones the estates of the treacherous nobility were sold off to Ferdinand's supporters and their possessions were plundered while the elector Palatine managed to flee however this was not the end of the conflict and the destruction of the Protestant cause would catalyze an intensification which would drastically increase the devastation caused by the wider war our series on the 30 Years War will continue so make sure you are subscribed to our channel and have pressed the bell button we would like to express our gratitude to our patreon supporters and channel members who make the creation of our videos possible now you can also support us by buying our merchandise via the link in the description this is the kings and Generals channel and we will catch you on the next one [Music]

Channel: Kings and Generals

Views: 625,589

Rating: 4.9417667 out of 5

Keywords: Thirty Years' War, 30 years war, White mountain, european wars of religion, hussite, hussite wars, lipany, eighty years war, ottoman wars, bohemia, austria, holy roman empire, thirty years war, gustavus adolphus, 17th century, full documentary, ferdinand ii, gustav ii adolf, battle of white mountain, ottoman empire, holy roman empire explained, full length documentaries, documentary film, kings and generals, military history, decisive battles, world history

Id: ZIEU_um0GfQ

Length: 18min 13sec (1093 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 07 2019