The Thirty Years' War was not so much a single conflict as
a series of conflicts, which ultimately involved nearly all western Europe. It
began in Bohemia, where Protestantism had not been extinguished by the Hussite
wars. The Bohemian nobles, many of whom were Calvinists, revolted against
Hapsburg rule and proclaimed the independence of Bohemia. The German Lutherans
gave them no aid, however, and the emperor, Ferdinand II, easily put down the
insurrection. Many thousands of Protestants were now driven into exile. Those
who remained in Bohemia were obliged to accept Roman Catholicism. Thus one more
country was lost to Protestantism.
DANISH INTERVENTION
The failure of the Bohemian revolt aroused the greatest
alarm in Germany. Ferdinand threatened to follow in the footsteps of Charles V
and to crush Protestantism in the land of its birth. When, therefore, the king
of Denmark, who as duke of Holstein had great interest in German affairs, decided
to intervene, both Lutherans and Calvinists supported him. But Wallenstein, the
emperor's able general, proved more than a match for the Danish king, who at
length withdrew from the contest.
