30YearsWar: #3 - "Dukes, Electors, Emperors and Kings"

When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Zack Twamley

Phd, International Relations, Korean War, European History, 17th Century, 18th Century, Politics, 20th Century, Thirty Years' War, History, 19th Century, War, First World War

4.8 • 773 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2020

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Long lists of characters are much easier to manage in fiction, and that's where my new series comes in! Matchlock is a historical fiction series set during the Thirty Years' War, beginning in 1622, when Matthew Lock lands in Europe to investigate the brutal murder of his parents.

Order your copy of Matchlock and the Embassy by clicking here.

If you thought you properly understood how the Empire worked at long last – then think again! There was always some wrinkle or exception to the rule, but perhaps no rules were more important than those concerning the role of Electors. We touched on them in the last episode, but here we place them in their proper context, and unwrap what specifically made them so important to the functioning of the Empire. The Habsburgs, powerful though they were, depended upon the Electors for their legitimacy, and after the Reformation, the seven invaluable votes which could be offered were split along these lines. What was the solution? To a generation of Habsburg rulers, it was quite simple – maintain such a monopoly on power that the votes come in regardless. How to manage this feat? Marriage, of course!

Into this examination we throw several wrenches, including the Julich-Cleve Crisis of 1609-14, which provided a dangerous training ground for the two ideological blocs of the Empire to square off. Another incident, the destruction of the city of Donauworth in 1608, and its capture by the Duke of Bavaria, also deserves mention. The Empire, stable though it somehow remained, was in danger of a major rupture if calmer heads did not prevail. Somewhere to the west, an individual was seeking an opportunity to capitalise, and bring his Kingdom to the front of the Emperor’s lists of problems. Henry IV, the King of France, had emerged triumphant from the French Wars of Religion, but this scion of the House of Bourbon had a way to go before he could sponsor the showdown with the Habsburgs that his son and grandson were to pursue. Tune into episode 3 to see exactly how Europe sustained such domineering personalities and powers!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome history friends, patrons, PhD pals all to the 30 Years' War episode three.
0:17.6	So last time we delved into some pretty heavy stuff. Don't worry for those of you worrying
0:23.7	when we're going to get into the fun details of diplomacy and intrigue and characters, etc.
0:30.7	That's all on the way. I know background has become something of a dirty word in the last
0:35.8	few months but these background episodes
0:38.3	really are important for laying the foundations of this story. You can't really just jump into
0:43.9	the 16th and 17th centuries without knowing who's who, what's what and how everything
0:49.0	works. The 30 years were didn't interrupt for a singular or straightforward reason. If it had, then Peter H. Wilson wouldn't have needed to write so many articles about the causes of the Thirty Years' War,
1:00.2	and his book on the Thirty Years' War wouldn't need to have been so freaking enormous.
1:05.0	As far as enormous books go, it's about half the size of my book on the Thirty Years' War, which is coming out soon, don't you worry.
1:12.9	The Thirty Years' War was sparked by several conflicting ideas and concerns. Much of these concerns
1:17.7	can be found in the cracking edifice of the Holy Roman Empire, but not quite all of them.
1:23.6	For now, in this episode, we're going to tackle an important aspect of our ongoing story.
1:28.2	Last time, we looked at a bit of the background of the Holy Roman Empire itself and how
1:34.3	religiously it was set up. But we didn't quite get to the point of looking at the electors.
1:40.2	And now we're going to do that, the seven electors in the Holy Roman Empire that are together
1:45.0	tasked with choosing the Emperor. It sounds kind of democratic in a way, but in actual fact,
1:51.0	the game was rigged from the start. Our attentions will also be given to the creation of the two
1:56.3	confessional alliance blocks in the Empire, which electors supported what side, and where the French, under King Henry IV, managed to fit into all of this.
2:07.4	This episode is somewhat involved, as is our custom, but if you're ready, then we'll begin.
2:20.3	Here we'll end. in. The Erele is
2:22.3	Oh According to the historian Brennan C. Purcell, the electors were the foundations and fixed pillars of the empire, and they were tasked with protecting the empire's constitution and ensuring its stability.
	...

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