Thanks for your support on Patreon, Michael Roman.

Michael led a charge on Bavaria's baggage train in the Battle of Zeus Marshhausen,

enriching himself and ruining Maximilian of Bavaria in the process.

Good pillaging, Michael.

This, of course, is all a lie.

But if you would like me to lie about you, you know where to go.

Patreon.com for slash when diplomacy fails, or there's that link in the description below.

Hello and welcome history friends, patrons all to episode 81, our penultimate episode of the 30 Years' War.

Last time, we made significant progress detailing how the final decisions of the peacemakers were arrived at. Cardinal

Matzer and we saw tended to flitter between determinately pacific and risk-averse to

holding out in the face of opposition. But it was in the case of German princes that the initiative

was truly seized. In the teeth of intrigue from the Swedish and the emperor, all moderate Germans

had apparently decided, enough was enough, and they had formulated a religious settlement in March 1648.

As we know that the year of peacemaking was at hand, we probably expect all involved to get down to

the practice of making that piece

of Westphalia already, but as with other matters, it wasn't so simple. Several prickly issues

still had to be addressed, and there remained a surprisingly active battlefield, where fortunes

could potentially be made, reverses affected, and leverage gained.

What were the potentates to do other than hope that, as they dallied in Moonster and Osnabrook,

the soldiers would vindicate their tactics and seize a victory? Well, the final year of the war,

it seemed, was refusing to go quietly, and now it's time we examined its fleeting

moments, as I take you all to 1648.

...