France and the Thirty Years' War

 France and the Thirty Years' War

What destroyed the peace of Prague was not so much the disinclination of the Protestant princes of Germany to accept its terms as the policy of Cardinal Richelieu of France. Richelieu was convinced that that French greatness depended on the defeat of the Austrian Hapsburgs. He was not willing to let the German princes make peace with the Emperor till he was convincingly defeated. Instead of giving assistance to Sweden and the German Protestant princes surreptitiously, he now decided to come into the open and engage in direct warfare with the Emperor and the Spanish king. Thus the fourth or the final period and lasted from 1635 onwards Phillip IV had to face violent attacks by the French in Belgian Netherlands, in Franche Comt, in Northern Italy, in Spain itself and the German Protestants. At first the Spanish armies Holland and the German Protestants. At first the Spanish armies proved superior and in 1636 a large Spanish force invaded Northern France and almost captured Paris and in 1637 another Spanish army entered Southern France after crossing the Phillip and the French began to push back the Spaniards in Netherlands, in Rhineland, in Northern Italy and in Southern France. By 1640 Phillips was faced with the break up of his dynastic empire. The Dutch co-operated with the French to end Spanish rule in Netherlands and a group of Portuguese nobles dethroned him. There were revolts in Naples, and in Aragon. Not the one to give up, Phillip bravely fought on, suppressed the Catalans in Aragon and so were the Neapolitans, Milan was successfully defended and the Belgian Netherlands were somehow retained. Phillip IV was unable to recover Portugal or to achieve success against Holland and France. In 1643 the Spanish prestige suffered a jolt by the French victory at Rocroi.

The fortunes of war continued to fluctuate in Germany. For a time the Austrian emperor continued to hold his own against the Protestant Germans and Swedes but the decline in the fortunes of Spain and the increasing French support eventually resulted in negotiations for peace being opened by Ferdinand III who became Emperor on the death of his father Ferdinand II in 1641. However no head way was made - Cardinal Richelieu was the stumbling block. He died in 1642 and in 1646, Bavaria was occupied by the French. At last in 1648 by a series of treaties signed at the towns of MUNSTER and OSNABRUCK in WESTPHALIA, the Thirty years' war ended and peace was restored within the Holy Roman Empire.