The Escalation of the Thirty Years' War in the 1620s : The Threats to Habsburg Hegemony and the Rise of Wallenstein

Höbelt, Lothar (EDT)/ Marek, Pavel (EDT)

The Boydell Press（2026/08発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 320 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9781837652617

Full Description

A major reassessment of the first decade of the Thirty Years' War.

Much has been written on the Thirty Years' War, particularly the Bohemian Revolt of 1618 which started the war and the Congress of Westphalia which ended the war in Germany in 1648. This book focuses instead on the 1620s when although it seemed that the war might peter out it in fact escalated into a much more destructive war than it had been previously. 1625 was a key year: the Emperor Ferdinand II, seemingly under threat on all sides, from France, Denmark and England as well as Hungary, Italy and Germany, commissioned Wallenstein to raise a new army, an army to be financed not by taxes but by living off the land, preferably the land of your enemies. Although the threats turned out to be more potential than real, Wallenstein's new army existed and was instrumental in giving the war a new lease of life, massively enlarging the theatre of operations. Yet, the real escalation into a full-blown war encompassing almost all of Europe had to wait until French and Swedish intervention in 1629/30. Considering key aspects of the war in the 1620s, both the international situation from different countries' perspectives, and the nature of Wallenstein and his army, the book presents much new research and new thinking on the war and on why it turned out to be so long lasting and so hugely destructive.

Contents

Introduction: "Why not a Five Years' War?" - Lothar Höbelt and Pavel Marek

Part I: The Central European Perspectives

1. Bavaria and the Establishment of the Imperial Army in the Thirty Years' War - Robert Rebitsch
2. Pied Piper and "Flying Squadron": The Ambivalent Character of Wallenstein's Mission in 1625 - Lothar Höbelt
3. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Thirty Years' War: Wallenstein's Rise (1623-25): An Attempt at Systematisation - Aleksandra Ziober
4. Gabriel Bethlen in the Thirty Years' War - Gábor Kármán

Part II: The West European Perspectives

5. The Motives Behind King Christian IV's Decision to Enter the Thirty Years' War in 1625 and His Ensuing Defeat - Michael Bregnsbo
6. "Warr kindled in the very bowells of Christendom." England and the Opening of the Thirty Years' War - Thomas G. Otte
7. French Perceptions of the Rise of Wallenstein, 1624-26 - David Parrott

Part III: The Mediterranean Perspectives

8. Italy in Turmoil: Habsburg Hegemony Threatened (1624-25) - Gianvittorio Signorotto
9. Valtellina as a Breaking Point? Reflection of the Nuncio Carlo Caraffa and the Context of the Politics of Pope Urban VIII, - Tomáš Černušák
10. The Count Duke of Olivares, the Union of Arms, the Turn of 1624-25 - Manuel Rivero Rodríguez
11. Wallenstein, the Improbable Spanish Client - Rubén González Cuerva

Part IV: Wallenstein and Bohemia

12. The Rise and Fall of Wallenstein through the Eyes of His Aristocratic Contemporaries from Bohemia and Moravia, 1624-48 - Vítězslav Prchal
13. Albrecht von Wallenstein and His Monetary Policy - Petr Vorel
14. Wallenstein's Files in the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv: What We Have and How to Find It - Zdislava Röhsner

Summary: Escalation, Prolongation, Intensification of the War - Lothar Höbelt and Pavel Marek

Notes on Contributors
Index