(2) Holy Roman Empire / Germany: Military History and Notable Events (from 962 to 1806)

939 - Battle of Andernach (All Facts)

• Battle in which Otto the Great defeated Eberhard of Franconia and other rebellious dukes who rebelled against him

  • The rebellion began when the dukes resented Otto the Great’s ambitions to rule not just Saxony but all of Germany

  • Otto the Great’s approach upset Bavarians, Franconians, and even Saxons

  • Otto' the Great’s own brother Henry even joined in the rebellion against him

  • However, all these rivals and opposing forces were crushed

  • Otto did this to gather and unite the Saxons (Saxony), Franconians (Francia), and Bavarians (Bavaria) into one German Kingdom

955 - Battle of Lechfeld (All Facts)

• Battle in which Otto the Great and his German forces decisively defeated the Magyars and consolidated his nobles as a result

• Battle in which 50K Magyar troops besieged the city of Augsburg in Bavaria, but its bishop had held them off until Otto the Great arrived with only 10K German troops

• Battle in which Otto the Great’s mail-clad cavalry inflicted heavy losses on the lightly-protected Magyar army, which fled in disarray as its survivors limped back to their homeland

982 - Battle of Stilo (All Facts)

• Battle in which Otto II and the Germans and Holy Roman Empire were defeated by the Fatimid Caliphate, who had called a Holy War against the Germans to provoke the conflict

1003 - 1018 - German-Polish Wars (All Facts)

• Series of conflicts fought between Boleslaw and his namesake forces and kingdom and Henry II and his forces of the Holy Roman Empire

• Series of conflicts which ended with the Peace of Bautzen

1018 - Peace of Bautzen (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between Boleslaw of Poland and Henry II of Germany / the Holy Roman Empire which ended the German-Polish Wars of 1003

• Treaty in which Boleslaw of Poland consolidated his territorial gains from the War

1076 - 1122 - Investiture Controversy (All Facts)

• Conflict between the Church and the Holy Roman Empire over the ability to choose and install bishops, abbots of monasteries, and the Pope himself

  • Involved disputes between the Popes (religious leaders) and Holy Roman Emperors (secular leaders) and whether religious or secular leaders could appoint bishops and other ecclesiastical positions with the symbols of office

• A series of popes, beginning with Pope Gregory VII, sought to curb the power an authority of the Holy Roman Emperors, beginning with Henry IV, from being able to appoint bishops, abbots, and the Pope

• Conflict which began with the power struggle between Pope Gregory VII and Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV

• Conflict which ended with the Concordant of Worms, where the Church essentially achieved autonomy from secular authorities and was allowed to appoint bishops and other ecclesiastical positions with symbols of office

1083 - Siege of Rome (All Facts)

• Battle in which Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV conquered a part of the namesake city

1084 - Sack of Rome (All Facts)

• Event in which Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV came to the namesake city and besieged and conquered a part of it as part of a continued power struggle and waged attack on Pope Gregory VII after he had dealt with his rivals in Germany

  • However, Pope Gregory VII held out in the Castel Sant’Angelo until he was rescued by Robert Guiscard and the Normans

  • When he realized he was outnumbered by the Norman invaders, he fled from the namesake city and took his antipope Clement III, which he had initially installed there, with him

• Event which saw a pall of smoke cover the namesake city as thousands of bodies lie putrefied in the streets

1159 - 1160 - Siege of Crema (All Facts)

• Battle in which Frederick Barbarossa and the Holy Roman Empire attacked the namesake city, in which Barbarossa ordered

  • Prisoners, including children, to be tired to huge siege machines and hurled at the walls of the namesake city

  • The mass hanging of prisoners, only to see his own soldiers swinging from gallows

  • Child hostages to be brought to the front line

• Battle which ended the namesake city’s status as one of the many powerful independent Italian city-states at the time

  • When the namesake city opened its gates, its inhabitants watched as their city was razed to the ground

• Battle in which the namesake city’s inhabitants, shocked by the sight of the heads of decapitated prisoners being thrown around by Barbarossa’s troops, fiercely retaliated by tearing their prisoners literally limb from limb on the city walls

1167 - Battle of Tusculum (All Facts)

• Battle in which Frederick Barbarossa and his Holy Roman forces defeated the Romans and papal forces and captured the Vatican

• Battle in which 10K knights and mercenaries set out in two columns to fiercely defeat the Romans and papal forces

• Battle after which antipope Paschal III was enthroned

• However, the Holy Roman army was soon decimated by malaria and 2,000 of Frederick Barbarossa’s knights were believed to have died as a result

• Battle after which Barbarossa submitted to Pope Alexander III and papal authority and kissed his feet in symbolism of his acceptance of that papal authority as thousands watched him do so in St. Mark’s Square

1176 - Battle of Legnano (All Facts)

• Battle in which Frederick Barbarossa and his forces were defeated by the Lombard League over control of Lombardy in modern-day Italy

• Battle whose terms of peace was completed between Frederick Barbarossa and Pope Alexander III at Agnani

• Battle after which Frederick Barbarossa acknowledged Pope Alexander III as the one and only true pontiff

  • Barbarossa finally succumbed to papal authority and accepted Pope Alexander III after he had kissed the feet of the pope as thousands watched him do so in St. Mark’s square

1183 - Peace of Constance (All Facts)

• Peace treaty which ended conflict between Frederick Barbarossa and the Holy Roman Empire and the Lombard League

1189 - 1192 - Third Crusade (All Facts)

• Crusade organized by Frederick Barbarossa of the Holy Roman after it was declared by Pope Gregory VIII

• Crusade whose troops were assembled by Frederick Barbarossa of the Holy Roman Empire along with Philip Augustus of France and Henry II of England

• Crusade in which Frederick Barbarossa and his Holy Roman forces left the Dardanelles straits only to be constantly harried by Turkish tribesmen and whom suffered badly from hunger and intense heat

• Crusade in which Frederick Barbarossa of the Holy Roman Empire died, and upon his death, his forces, demoralized, turned back

• Crusade which thus failed

1217 - 1221 - The Fifth Crusade (All Facts)

• Crusade called by Pope Innocent III

• Crusade in which Al-Kamil offered to surrender Palestine to the Crusaders if they gave them back control of the Port of Damietta in Egypt

  • Crusade in which the Crusaders were trapped in the marshes of the Nile River Delta and were forced to buy retreat by conceding the Port of Damietta

1229 - Treaty of Jaffa (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire and Al-Kamil of the Ayyubid Sultanate which ended the Sixth Crusade

• Treaty in which Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire forced Al-Kamil of the Ayyubid Sultanate to concede Bethlehem, Nazareth, and a corridor of Jerusalem to the Crusaders / Holy Roman Empire; effectively making Jerusalem and nearby territories under the control of Frederick II and the Holy Roman Empire

1246 - Battle of Nidda (All Facts)

• Battle in which Henry Raspe and his forces with the help of Pope Innocent IV and his forces defeated Conrad IV, the rightful heir to the throne and son of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II

1298 - Battle of Gollheim (All Facts)

• Battle in which Albert of Habsburg and his forces defeated Adolf of Nassau and his forces, thus allowing Albert of Habsburg to succeed Adolf of Nassau as King of Germany

1349 - Erfurt Massacre (All Facts)

• Large-scale massacre of Jews encouraged by and associated with the activities of the Flagellants / Flagellant Brethren

  • Many Jewish survivors of the massacre fled to Poland

1356 - Diet of Nuremberg (All Facts)

• Diet under which the Golden Bull of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV was issued

1370 - Treaty of Stralsund (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty between the Hanseatic League and the Kingdom of Denmark which ended the Danish-Hanseatic War

• Peace Treaty between the Hanseatic League and the Kingdom of Denmark which gave the Hanseatic League of German towns trading privileges with and in the Kingdom of Denmark

1474 - Treaty of Utrecht (All Facts)

• Treaty which gave the Hanseatic League generous trading privileges within England

1493 - 1527 - Bundschuh Movement (All Facts)

• Series of peasant rebellions that led to the Peasants’ War, named as the namesake due to the rebels’ symbol of a laced boot

• In 1502, it broke out in the bishopric of Speyer

1494 - 1559 - Italian Wars (All Facts)

• Series of conflicts between the Valois (France) and the Habsburgs (Spain and Holy Roman Empire) that began with the First Italian War and ended with the Ninth Italian War and mostly took place in (Northern) Italy

1494 - 1498 - First Italian War (All Facts)

• Conflict in which the Habsburgs (Spain), with support from the Papacy and League of Venice, defeated the Valois (France)

• Conflict that began with King Charles VIII of France’s invasion of the Kingdom of Naples

• Conflict in which King Charles VIII and his army infected the Kingdom of Naples with the “French Pox” disease

• Conflict in which King Charles VIII and his army was forced to retreat from Italy, thus halting French expansion and preventing France from securing a permanent foothold in the Kingdom of Naples

1508 - 1516 - Fourth Italian War / War of the League of Cambrai / War of the Holy League (All Facts)

• Conflict in which the Valois (France) and Venice defeated the Habsburgs (Spain and the Holy Roman Empire) and England

• Conflict in which the Valois (France) and Venice defeated the Habsburgs (Spain and the Holy Roman Empire) and England

• Conflict which began when King Louis XII of France, Pope Julius II and the namesake league sought to punish the Republic of Venice for annexing papal provinces on the Adriatic Sea and thus attacked and defeated the Republic of Venice as a result in the Battle of Agnadello

• Conflict in which Pope Julius II and the namesake league (including Venice, Spain, and Switzerland) then turned against France, whose foothold in northern Italy became too strong for the papacy and namesake league

  • Conflict in which Pope Julius II raised the cry to “clear the Barbarians out of Italy” (the French under King Louis XII), turning against the King of France after previously lifting the excommunication of Venice

• Conflict which saw protracted war in Lombardy, the Romagna, and Veneto in northern Italy

• Conflict in which King Francis of France secured the Duchy of Milan for the French

• Conflict triggered by a Genoese revolt against French forces that had occupied the city

• Conflict during which Matthäus Schiner dissuaded the Swiss (the Old Swiss Confederacy) from forming an alliance with the French against Pope Julius II

• Conflict which saw the following battles take place including

  • Battle of Agnadello

  • Siege of Mirandola

  • Battle of Ravenna

  • Battle of the Spurs

  • Siege of Tournai

  • Battle of Novara

  • Battle of Marignano

• Conflict which ended with

  • The Treaty of Fribourg

  • The Concordant of Bologna

1508 - 1511 - League of Cambrai (All Facts)

• (Temporary, short-lived) Military Alliance between King Louis XII of France, Maximilian of the Holy Roman Empire, Pope Julius II and the Papacy, and King Ferdinand of Spain aimed at conquering the Republic of Venice and its Italian possessions that initiated the Fourth Italian War / namesake War

• Alliance which was the brainchild of Pope Julius II, ostensibly set up as a “Holy League” against the Ottoman Turks

  • The pope’s more immediate use for the league was to recover for the papacy the towns of the Romagna region under Venetian rule

  • However, the French gained too strong a foothold in northern Italy; and the namesake league eventually turned against France during the Fourth Italian War / namesake War

1509 - Battle of Agnadello (All Facts)

• Battle in which Louis XII and his French forces, with support from France’s allies in the League of Cambrai (the Holy Roman Empire, the Papacy, and Spain) defeated the Republic of Venice during the Fourth Italian War / War of the League of Cambrai

• Battle which allowed Pope Julius II to reoccupy the Romagna

• Venice would eventually ally with France in the Fourth Italian War / War of the League of Cambrai

• Battle which gave France a much stronger foothold in northern Italy

• Battle after which the League of Cambrai turned against France, recognizing how strong it was becoming in the region of northern Italy

1512 - Battle of Ravenna (All Facts)

• Battle in which France defeated Spain and the League of Cambrai / Holy League during the Fourth Italian War

• Battle in which honors were declared even

1513 - Battle of the Spurs (All Facts)

• Battle in which Henry VIII of England and Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian and their forces defeated France during the Fourth Italian War / War of the League of Cambrai

1513 - Siege of Tournai (All Facts)

• Battle in which King Henry VIII and England and Maximilian and the Holy Roman Empire defeated France during the Fourth Italian War / War of the League of Cambrai

• Battle in which the namesake city, along with the city of Therouanne was captured

1513 - Battle of Novara (All Facts)

• Battle in which Milan, with help from Pope Leo X and his Holy League, along with Cardinal Matthäus Schiner and his Swiss forces, defeated France and the Republic of Venice during the Fourth Italian War / War of the League of Cambrai

1515 - Battle of Marignano (All Facts)

• Battle in which King Francis and France defeated Cardinal Matthias Schiner and Switzerland during the Fourth Italian War / War of the League of Cambrai

• Battle in which King Francis

  • initially tried to bribe the Swiss to avoid fighting them, but that approach failed and cemented the legacy of French kings as bad at bribing

  • thus planned to fight against the Swiss carefully knowing he was forced to fight

  • negotiated treaties with England, Austria, and Venice prior to it

  • assembled an army of 40K French artilleryman and German light infantry

  • crossed the Alps with his forces and drove the Swiss back into Lombardy, where he tried but failed to set up a last-ditch negotiation with the Swiss at Gallarate where he demanded the recognition of French claims to Lombardy and Milan and the withdrawal of the Swiss from Italy

• Battle in which the Swiss pikemen fought hard, but ultimately were defeated

• Battle after which King Francis and his forces marched towards and seized Milan in Italy

• Battle after which King Francis of France and Switzerland signed the Treaty of Fribourg

1518 - (First) Diet of Augsburg (All Facts)

• Imperial Diet at which martin Luther refused to retract his then-widely-circulated 95 Theses

1521 - Diet of Worms (All Facts)

• Imperial Diet called by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

• Imperial Diet during which Martin Luther

  • challenged the papal claim that the Papacy was to be the sole authority on the scriptures

  • questioned many of the rights of the priests

  • rejected the belief that bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ

  • affirmed Christians’ personal right to faith

• Imperial Diet in which

  • friends of Martin Luther feared for his life as he confronted the young Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and refused to retract his theological views

  • the welcome of the German crowd showed that he struck a popular chord

  • Holy Roman Emperor Charles V feared that the revolutionary spirit of Luther’s speech might affect his power

• Imperial Diet in which, as a result of Luther’s refusal to retract, denounced him and tried to have him executed

  • As a result, Luther was “kidnapped” for his own safety by Duke Frederick of Saxony a few weeks later

1521 - 1526 - Fifth Italian War / Four Years’ War (All Facts)

• Conflict in which Charles V and the Habsburgs (the Holy Roman Empire and Spain) defeated King Francis and the Valois (France)

  • Conflict upon which King Francis of France lost his war with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V for supremacy in Europe

• Conflict which saw the

  • Holy Roman Empire’s invasion of Champagne

  • Battle of Bicocca

  • Siege of Marseilles

  • Battle of Pavia

• Conflict which saw

  • a modernization of European military forces, especially with regards to new arms (guns), defenses (Bastion Fort), and tactics / strategies

  • new tactics being developed for mounted troops using new carbines (arquebus) and horse pistols, which became the masters of the battlefield, replacing and eventually contributing to the elimination of armored cavalry and knights in armor

  • the implementation of the Bastion / Star Fort (“trace italienne;” a circuit of low, thick walls punctuated by square bastions), which

    • replaced the high and thin walls of the Middle Ages as new defenses

    • were designed to absorb the punishment of the heavy siege guns which were a part of every successful army by that time

    • changed the entire pattern of warfare because the cities protected by them could no longer be taken by traditional methods of blowing a hole in the walls and pouring infantry through the breach and instead forced towns to be encircled by siege-works and batteries and starved and frightened into submission

    • essentially made warfare more a matter of engineering and logistics

  • the advent of the gun bring about great changes at sea since

    • ships no longer rammed and boarded each other, but pounded each other with formidable arrays of guns firing through ports in ships’ sides

    • gunships eventually set the pattern which all maritime nations must have followed if they wanted to avoid facing inevitable defeat

• Conflict which ended with the Treaty of Madrid

1522 - Battle of Bicocca (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Habsburgs (Spain and the Holy Roman Empire), supported by the Papacy and the Duchy of Milan, defeated the Valois (France), supported by the Republic of Venice and Switzerland, during the Fifth Italian War / Four Years’ War

• Battle after which the imperial army of the Holy Roman Empire occupied the Republic of Genoa, where a doge who supported Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was appointed

1522 - 1523 - Knights’ War / Knights’ Revolt (All Facts)

• Failed Revolt of small, landowning German Knights within but against the Holy Roman Empire led by Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen

  • They revolted over the loss of their power due to

    • changes in the art of war, with growing emphasis on

      • firearms and artillery

      • the use of mercenaries

    • the German princes’ growing political influence through their

      • councils

      • chancelleries

• The German Knights’ forces were eventually scattered at Landstuhl and their leaders fled

  • However, this conflict most likely inspired the German Peasants’ War a few years after it

1524 - 1525 - German Peasants’ War / German Peasants’ Revolt (All Facts)

• Failed Popular Revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe, especially in Germany (the Holy Roman Empire) amongst the peasants and common people against the German Princes and the Holy Roman Empire

  • Revolt which was the largest and most widespread popular uprising in Europe prior to the French Revolution

• Revolt which

  • began in Bavaria and spread rapidly to Hesse, Franconia, Thuringia, Saxony, and Tyrol

    • Revolt which consisted of a series of local uprisings against oppression by

      • German princes

      • German landlords

      • the German Catholic Church

  • was inspired by

    • Martin Luther’s teachings

    • the radical Christian communities springing up at the time like the one set up at Allstedt based on common ownership

• Revolt during which the “Twelve Articles” were drafted up by the peasants whom fought in it

• Revolt supported by Thomas Muntzer

• Revolt in which Thomas Muntzer was beheaded

• Revolt in which peasants speared the Count of Helfenstein in front of his wife and child at Weinsberg

  • This atrocity caused Martin Luther to condemn the namesake conflict in his work, “Against the Murdering Thieving Hordes of Peasants”

1524 - Siege of Marseilles (All Facts)

• Battle in which Charles de Bourbon, a Frenchman, became lieutenant for Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the Habsburgs and defeated the Valois (France) after invading Provence

1525 - Battle of Frankenhausen (All Facts)

• Battle in which Thomas Muntzer and the German Peasants’ Army was defeated by the Holy Roman Empire and German princes during the German Peasants’ War / German Peasants’ Revolt

• Battle after which Thomas Muntzer was beheaded

1525 - Battle of Pavia (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Habsburgs (Spain and the Holy Roman Empire) defeated King Francis and the Valois (France) during the Fifth Italian War / Four Years’ War

• Battle which took place in Lombardy in Italy

• Battle before which

  • Pope Clement VII tried and failed to mediate between its two parties and battle was joined before first light in the morning

• Battle which began when

  • King Francis of France decided to lay siege to the namesake city; with an army of French and Italian infantry, German and Swiss mercenaries, and a strong train of artillery

• Battle during which

  • the siege initially went well; the French guns having broke down the defenses and King Francis’s regiments having stormed into the breaches

  • Antonio de Levya, the Spanish governor of the namesake town, had built new fortifications inside the walls, making it so that the French were routed by the namesake town’s defenders

  • the French forces retreated to mount a classic siege throughout the winter

  • King Francis, reinforced by Venetian troops, became sure of victory as the namesake town ran short of food and ammunition

  • the imperial forces of the Holy Roman Empire had been gathering at the town of Lodi, near the namesake, and had had marched on the namesake earlier in the month catching King Francis between the anvil of the namesake and the hammer of the attacking imperial army

  • the French guns have King Francis and France the advantage at first, but, he eventually ordered his forced to cease fire, since he believed in chivalry rather than guns

  • King Francis led his knights in a disorganized charge without waiting for the infantry and in the shambles that ensued 6K Frenchmen died

• Battle which ended when

  • King Francis of France had his horse shot from under him by an arquebus (a new type of gun at the time) and demounted, fought on foot, only to have his face blooded and his having surrendered his sword to the enemy

• Battle after which

  • King Francis of France was held captive by Lannoy (the viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples)

  • King Francis of France essentially lost his war with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V for supremacy in Europe

  • King Francis of France was forced to sign a humiliating peace treaty with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

1526 - Treaty of Madrid (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between King Francis of France (Valois) and Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain (Habsburgs), which ended the Fifth Italian War / Four Years’ War

• Peace Treaty in which

  • Holy Roman Emperor Charles V agreed to

    • release King Francis of France from captivity

  • King Francis of France agreed to

    • abandon and concede Burgundy to the Holy Roman Empire

    • give up claims to Flanders, Artois, Tournai, and all of Italy

    • pardon the rebel Charles of Bourbon

• Peace Treaty which was declared null and void by King Francis of France following his release from captivity

1526 - 1530 - Sixth Italian War / War of the League of Cognac (All Facts)

• Conflict in which Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the Habsburgs (the Holy Roman Empire and Spain) defeated King Francis and the Valois (France), supported by the League of Cognac (England, Switzerland, and the Italian city-states of Florence, Venice, Milan, and Genoa)

• Conflict which ended the Republic of Florence (it was no longer a republic after the namesake conflict)

• Conflict during which the Papacy switched sides, initially supporting the League of Cognac against Charles V and the Holy Roman Empire, but then defecting to the Habsburgs and Charles V and the Holy Roman Empire

• Conflict which saw

  • The Sack of Rome

• Conflict which ended with

  • The Treaty of Cambrai / Ladies Peace / “Pax de Daimes”

1526 - 1529 - League of Cognac (All Facts)

• Anti-Habsburg military alliance formed by France, Venice, Florence, and Milan; as well as England, Switzerland, and most importantly, the Papacy, to curb the overwhelming dominance in Italy of Charles V and the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, and Italian city-states that supported him

• It was initially formed by the Papacy, but the Papacy, by the end of the namesake conflict / Sixth Italian War, switched to the side of Charles V and the Holy Roman Empire

1526 - (First) Diet of Speyer (All Facts)

• Imperial Diet which allowed each prince to decide the religious allegiance of his state

• Imperial Diet which found that because an agreement could not be obtained in the prior Imperial Diet of Worms, each city and territory involved was still independent from the authority of the empire via their prince’s decision of religious allegiance and thus could allow Protestantism to continue unaffected if the prince deemed it so

1527 - Sack of Rome (All Facts)

• Conflict in which 15K German mercenaries sacked the namesake city and burned, looted, and raped in an orgy of destruction there

• Conflict in which the Vatican Palace was occupied by Lutheran troops, in which

  • its chapels were used as stables

  • Raphael’s paintings in the papal apartments were covered with graffiti

• Conflict in which Pope Clement VII beseeched Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to call of the men who were destroying the city

  • It was too late, however, as the imperial militias there mutinied as a result of not being paid, fed, or led by the Holy Roman Empire or any of its surviving commanders and fell upon one of the wealthiest cities in the world

  • The commanders of the armies sent to Italy had left before Pope Clement VII and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V had signed a truce

1529 - Treaty of Cambrai / Ladies Peace / “Pax de Daimes” (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between Louise of Savoy (on behalf of King Francis of France) and Margaret of Austria (on behalf of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) which ended the Sixth Italian War / War of the League of Cognac

• Peace Treaty in which

  • King Francis of France

    • renounced all its rights in Italy, Flanders, and Artois

    • agreed to pay a ransom of two million crowns

  • Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire

    • renounced any claims to Burgundy

1529 - (Second) Diet of Speyer (All Facts)

• Imperial Diet during which the “Protestation at Speyer” occurred and the term “Protestantism” / “Protestants” was coined

• Imperial Diet dominated by Catholics which condemned the First Diet of its kind and that Diet’s results and thus prohibited future reformation

• Imperial Diet in which 19 reformed states protested against the repeal of the edict that came out of the (First) Diet of Speyer

1529 - Protestation at Speyer (All Facts)

• Incident in which the letter, “A Protestation,” was signed by six of Germany’s (Protestant) Princes and the burghers of 14 cities, thus rejecting the (Second) Diet of Speyer and in which the signatories of the letter were dubbed “Protestants”

• Incident in which a petition was signed against an imperial ban of Martin Luther, as well as the proscription of his works and teachings, and called for the unhindered spread of the evangelical faith

• Incident which was seen as a challenge to the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

1529 - Marburg Colloquy (All Facts)

• Meeting organized by Philip of Hesse which sought to close the emerging gap in Protestant theology between Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli

  • Meeting in which Philip of Hesse invited the reformers of Wittenberg, Strasbourg, and Zurich to meet in the namesake castle and tried (and ultimately failed) to resolve their theological differences which emerged as divisions within the Protestant Reformation

• Meeting in which Philip of Hesse managed to persuade Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli to visit his castle in the namesake town in Germany to discuss their views, along with other Protestant reformers of the time including

  • Philip Melanchthon

  • Johannes Oecolampadius

• Meeting in which they all signed off on fifteen articles, agreeing on all items of doctrine except the Eucharist

  • Meeting in which Luther and Zwingli agreed and

    • renounced transubstantiation

    • renounced the belief that the eucharist was a sacrifice for the living and the dead

    • insisted on communion in both kinds of Christ

  • Meeting in which Luther and Zwingli disagreed on

    • whether or not Christ's body and blood are present in the Eucharist

• Meeting which ended badly, as Luther and Zwingli remained divided politically

  • Luther refused to move against Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

  • Zwingli was keen for the Swiss to revolt against the Holy Roman Empire

1529 - Treaty of Barcelona (All Facts)

• Treaty between Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Pope Clement VII of the Papacy, in which the two leaders settled their differences

1530 - (Second) Diet of Augsburg (All Facts)

• Imperial Diet in which the Catholics defeated the Protestants and decided that the Protestants (Lutherans) must recognize the Pope or would be threatened with force if they failed to do so

  • As a result, the more moderate Lutherans united with the more militant and radical Zwinglians (Swiss)

• Imperial Diet in which Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the Catholics and Philip of Melanchthon and the Protestants both wanted to achieve unity

  • They were keen on compromise and unity in order to defend themselves against the Muslim Ottoman Turks who had just besieged Vienna a year prior

  • However, close observers saw this as nothing more than window-dressing as their religious differences remained much deeper in reality

• Imperial Diet in which the namesake Confession was presented in an (failed) attempt to avoid a permanent split and thus achieve reconciliation with the Catholic Church

  • Imperial Diet attended by Philip Melanchthon as Martin Luther was still in exile from the Holy Roman Empire

1532 - Peace of Nuremberg (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the Schmalkaldic League in which the principalities in the League were granted freedom of worship in exchange for military aid of the Holy Roman Empire against the Ottoman Turks

1534 - 1535 - Anabaptist Munster Rebellion (All Facts)

• Incident in which the town of Munster was taken by an alliance of Catholic and Protestant troops after it had been controlled by the Anabaptist revolutionaries for two years

• Incident in which Anabaptists

  • killed anyone unbaptized

  • seized property

  • proclaimed world rebellion

• Incident in which the town of Munster’s Anabaptist inhabitants were massacred or forced into hiding as a tidal wave of disgust swept Germany as well as the Netherlands (where the Anabaptist movement spread) and Switzerland (where the Anabaptist movement started)

• Incident in which the Anabaptist Movement’s ringleaders were seized, including John of Leyden

1535 - Conquest of Tunis (All Facts)

• Conflict in which King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles and his forces defeated Hayreddin Barbarossa and his Ottoman forces and takes the namesake city from him

• Conflict in which 60K allied troops took the namesake city, along with the port of La Goleta and the bulk of Barbarossa’s fleet of 80 galleys

• Conflict in which King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles allowed his soldiers five days of pillaging and 30K inhabitants were reported to have been killed

• Conflict which began when King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles chose to invade after Barbarossa’s fleet had ravaged southern Italy at the behest of the Turkish sultan

  • As a result, King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles believed that Spanish possession of the namesake would effectively cut off Barbarossa from Constantinople

• Conflict in which a combined fleet of Spanish and Genoan galleys sailed from Barcelona to Sardinia, where more ships joined their fleet with 22K German and Italian troops

• Conflict in which King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles’ shock troops, the formidable “tercio” were the first to land at La Goleta, followed by artillery and a detachment of cavalry

• Conflict in which Barbarossa chose to remain behind the walls, trusting the extreme heat to wear down the enemy

  • War in which many of King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles’s forces dying of dysentery

• Conflict in which Barbarossa had not reckoned with the firepower of the fleet and land-artillery who pounded the walls for five hours before the infantry broke through, causing the namesake to fall more easily

1536 - 1538 - Seventh-Italian War (All Facts)

• Conflict between King Francis of France (Valois), with support from the Ottoman Turks; and Charles V of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire (Habsburgs) which ended in a stalemate

• Conflict which began when

  • King Francis of France tried to invade and pursue Piedmont

  • Holy Roman Emperor Charles V’s troops invaded Provence, in pursuit of the army of King Francis of France

• Conflict during which

  • Anne of Montmorency drove back Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his forces, having applied scorched-earth tactics

• Conflict which ended with the Truce of Nice

1538 - Truce of Nice (All Facts)

• Truce made between King Francis of France (Valois) and Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain (Habsburgs), which ended the Seventh Italian War / Four Years’ War

• Truce in which France gained Piedmont and Savoy from the Holy Roman Empire

1538 - Holy League (All Facts)

• Alliance of Pope Paul III and the Papacy, Charles V and the Holy Roman Empire, and the Republic of Venice formed to counteract the Ottoman Turks during the Third Venetian-Ottoman War

1539 - Treaty of Toledo (All Facts)

• Treaty between King Francis of France and Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, in which they agreed that neither of them would form future alliances with England; given King Henry VIII’s split with the Roman Catholic Church

1539 - Treaty of Frankfurt / Truce of Frankfurt (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty between Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the Catholics and Philip Melanchthon and the Protestants at the namesake German city

1541 - Battle of Algiers (All Facts)

• Battle in which Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his forces were defeated by the Ottomans of the Regency of Algiers during the Ottoman-Habsburg Wars

1542 - Treaty of Nuremberg (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty between Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the Duke of Lorraine at the time

• Peace Treaty which made the Duchy of Lorraine become independent of the Holy Roman Empire

1542 - 1546 - Eighth Italian War (All Facts)

• Conflict between King Francis of France (Valois), with support from the Ottoman Empire; and Charles V of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire (Habsburgs), with support from Italy and King Henry VIII and England; which ended in a stalemate

• Conflict which began when

  • King Francis of France reopened hostilities with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V after he had appointed his son Philip to claim the Duchy of Milan

  • Holy Roman Emperor Charles V violated the Treaty of Toledo and allied with King Henry VIII of England against King Francis and France

• Conflict which saw the

  • Siege of Nice

  • Battle of Ceresole

  • Siege of Saint-Dizier

  • Siege of Boulogne

• Conflict which contributed to the delay of the convention of the Council of Trent

• Conflict which ended with the Treaty of Crepy

1543 - Siege of Nice (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, and Italy (Habsburgs) defeated France and the Ottoman Empire during the Eighth Italian War

• Battle during which

  • Hayreddin Barbarossa and his Ottoman forces bombarded, besieged, and sacked the namesake Holy Roman imperial town in France, capturing the namesake gateway to Italy from France

  • the namesake town was captured and sacked by Hayreddin Barbarossa and Turkish pirates rampaged through its burning ruins, looting and raping and setting it ablaze

• Battle which strained relations between the French and Ottoman Turks given that the Turkish pirates violated the agreement made between the governor of the town and the joint French and Turkish forces, in which the French blamed the Turks and the Turks blamed the French

1544 - Battle of Ceresole (All Facts)

• Battle in which France defeated the Holy Roman Empire and Spain (in in the namesake city south of Turin, in Italy) during the Eighth Italian War

1544 - Siege of Saint-Dizier (All Facts)

• Battle in King Henry VIII and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and their combined forces defeated France and took the namesake city (having threatened Paris at the time) during the Eighth Italian War

1544 - Treaty of Crepy (All Facts)

• Peace Treaty signed between King Francis of France (Valois) and Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain (Habsburgs), which ended the Eighth Italian War

  • which was made in an effort to restore Catholic unity in Europe

  • in which King Francis of France

    • promised to support Holy Roman Emperor Charles V against the Protestants if they rejected the decisions made in the Council of Trent

    • had his son, the Duke of Orleans, be promised to be married to a Habsburg princess, either

      • Mary, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V with a dowry that is the Netherlands

      • Anne, daughter of Habsburg King Ferdinand of Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia with a dowry that is Milan

    • agreed to support Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in his war against the Ottoman Turks

  • in which a secret between them was agreed in which King Francis of France promised to help Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

    • reform the church

    • work towards bringing the German Protestants back into the Catholic fold, lending his army for the purpose if necessary

1545 - 1563 - Council of Trent (All Facts)

• First Council of the Catholic Church since the start of the Protestant Reformation

• Council presided over by Pope Paul III and maintained by his successors

• Council which

  • initiated the Catholic Counter-Reformation

  • debated the doctrinal controversies raised by the Protestant Reformation, which had been influential even within the Catholic Church including

    • sola fide (justification by faith)

      • Council which saw much disagreement even among Catholics as to whether man may receive grace by his own efforts and good works or receive grace by faith alone, as Protestants (Lutherans) argued

  • redefined Catholic dogma

  • worked to reunite Christendom

  • framed decrees which disdained any and all compromise with the Protestants (Lutherans)

• Council which

  • decreed that the scriptures are not the only source of divine revelation, as Protestants (Lutherans) claimed

  • decreed that apostolic tradition handed down by the Catholic Church is (was) sacred

  • decreed that Martin Luther’s doctrine of original sin is heretical

• Council attended by various groups who debated each other on these doctrinal issues including

  • Dominicans

  • Augustinians

  • Jesuits, who argued in this Council that man may attract divine mercy by his own efforts

• Council in which Holy Roman Emperor Charles V wished for the Papacy and Christendom to reconcile the Protestants (Lutherans), who were dividing Germany (the Holy Roman Empire) at the time by

  • reforming the Catholic Church’s practices

  • possibly permitting clergy to marry

• Council which

  • was attended by 60 or more Catholic bishops

  • had no Protestant (Lutheran) representatives

• Council which was postponed for several years due to the Italian Wars fought between King Francis of France and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, not starting until they were settled

• Council which took place in the namesake city and prince-bishopric of the Holy Roman Empire (Germany), chosen because, while close to Italy, it lay within the Holy Roman Empire and therefore met the demand that the council had to be on German soil

  • However, it was transferred to Bologna (in Italy) two years into its session

1546 - 1547 - Schmalkaldic War (All Facts)

• Civil War which began when Holy Roman Emperor Charles V formed an alliance with Maurice of Saxony against the namesake League of German Protestant princes and outlawed Philip of Hesse and John Frederick, two heads of the namesake league

• Civil War which caused the namesake league to dissolve

• Civil War in which the namesake league’s Protestants

  • at the outset, dominated the Danube River, capturing castle after castle as they advanced onto the County of Tyrol

  • had a plan to block the passes, ensuring that Italian troops could not get through to join Holy Roman Emperor Charles V’s forces

    • However, this plan failed due to lack of organization as most of Charles V’s opponents (Henry VIII of England, Francis of France, Martin Luther, and Barbarossa of the Ottoman Empire) by that time had died

• Civil War after which Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

  • assumed peak stature over Europe

  • systematically began to take German cities until his armies came to the banks of the Elbe River

• Civil War which saw

  • The Battle of Muhlberg

1547 - Battle of Muhlberg (All Facts)

• Battle in which Charles V and his Holy Roman forces defeated John Frederick of Saxony and his forces during the Schmalkaldic War

• Battle in which Charles V’s outnumbered army defeated and captured John Frederick of Saxony

• Battle after which John Frederick of Saxony was court martialed and sentenced to death but later imprisoned along with Philip of Hesse

1547 - Truce of Adrianople (All Facts)

• Truce made between Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Suleiman of the Ottoman Empire

1548 - (Third) Diet of Augsburg (All Facts)

• Imperial Diet in which the namesake “Interim” decree was issued by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

  • The Schmalkaldic League representatives at the namesake diet reluctantly accepted the “Interim” agreement which had a strongly Catholic bias