the last couple of videos we've been talking about the protestant reformation but you didn't think all the religious change in europe wasn't gonna cause christians to start killing each other in the name of jesus did you don't be crazy so if you're ready to get them brain cows milk then let's talk about europe's wars of religion i reckon we ought to start in france so in the first half of the 1500s most of the french people were catholic but by the 1560s protestantism had spread into france thanks printing press and again a pretty strong foothold now the particular flavor of protestantism that had taken root in france was calvinism and french calvinists were known as huguenots now this wouldn't have posed much of a problem except that something like half of the french nobility were now huguenot and they started agitating for recognition and rights within france but the catholic majority were in no mood to do so and that is when charles ix took the throne and he was a wee lad coming in at 11 years old so his mother catherine de medici essentially ruled in his place until he came of age now catherine was a very catholic and she was pretty saucy about these french noble huguenot demanding recognition and writing so she decided that she wanted to purge france of this cranky non-conforming nobility not least because they were a threat to her power and so the french wars of religion began in 1562 with an event known as the massacre of vastly essentially a group of huguenots were at a worship service you know just minding their own business and singing to jesus when a duke of the catholic geese family ordered them all killed now the huguenot were not a strong enough force to take over france at this point but they fought defensively for 10 years and held their own until the next massacre orchestrated by catherine de medici namely the saint bartholomew's day massacre at this point it's 1572 and all the religious tensions seemed to be solved in the marriage of the catholic sister of charles ix and the calvinist henry of nevada now because henry was the kind of de facto leader of the huguenot many of them came to paris for the wedding big mistake he's family who if you will remember were responsible for the huguenot massacre of vassi convinced catherine de medici that all these filthy calvinists were a threat to catholic friends so under her influence charles ix went ahead and ordered the mass killing of these huguenots and that unleashed a three-day killing spree in which catholics slaughtered thousands of huguenots throughout paris now henry of navarre the champion of the huguenot their leader went ahead and saved his own life by promising to convert to catholicism i admire your cowardice but don't worry he showed true moral fortitude by converting back to calvinism just in time for the next phase of france's wars of religion the war of the three henrys now class how many henries do you think were involved in this war three that is correct so as the religious and political tension continued to build three different henry's vied for the throne of france by 1574 henry iii was on the throne having succeeded charles ix but apparently he was not catholic enough for henry of geese who was the leader of the ultra catholic holy league and wanted to assume the throne himself so henry of geese with the help of the spanish throne took the french throne by force relegating henry iii to his chief minister as a result of that henry iii had henry of geese assassinated and then joined henry of navarre to rid paris of the holy league and he did it but in 1589 a disgruntled monk assassinated henry iii and that left henry of navarre to take the throne now remember he had converted back to calvinism but he understood that such an arrangement would be none too popular and so he went ahead and converted back to catholicism man doesn't know principles regardless by the time of his ascension in 1594 as henry iv the french wars of religion had come to an end one of henry of the fourth major achievements was the move towards religious toleration in france embodied in the edict of nant in 1598 it officially established france as a catholic state but also provided the hugo no freedom to worship without the fear that they will be massacred or otherwise harassed but my dear pupils religious wars were not just occurring in france spain was a major player too now spain was ruled by the habsburgs who have been in power across europe for a very long time and spain was as catholic as catholic can be now by the time philip the second rose to power in 1556 spain was having some ottoman empire trouble in 1453 the ottomans had completed their conquest of the byzantine empire by capturing its crown jewel constantinople and with that victory the ottomans decided that the next best thing to do would be to expand into central and eastern europe so spain with the help of the king of poland and the duke of lorraine repelled the ottoman forces and that put the kibosh on the ottoman expansion into europe now philip ii was pretty upset about the fracturing of christianity across europe and it's hard to overestimate just how much he hated protestants he decided that he wanted to restore catholic unity across europe and he set his sights on the netherlands and england to rid them of their filthy protestant influence in the netherlands there was a growing calvinist contention especially in the middle class now philip's dad charles v was relatively tolerant of this group and he let them do their thing but not phillip when dutch calvinist began destroying catholic religious images and the word for that is iconoclasm philip ii unleashed targeted persecution on them so william of orange rose to the leadership of the dutch calvinist and in 1581 they declared themselves independent of spanish rule now spain also had england problems by this point elizabeth the first was on the throne and she was all about the protestantism she supported the dutch protestant rebellion that i just mentioned and to that philip of spain said no no you didn't so because of that and because england had been messing with spain's merchant ships philip sent the spanish armada to invade england and teach them a lesson but as it turns out the english navy gave the spanish armada a smackdown and that victory combined with the dutch protestant rebellion meant that protestantism was gaining a foothold in europe now the last religious war you need to know might be the most significant and it was called the 30 years war and it occurred in the holy roman empire now in order to understand this you have to understand the piece of augsburg of 1555 which offered some degree of religious toleration in the holy roman empire this document decreed that the princes of the many territories of the holy roman empire could decide whether their subjects would be catholic or protestant but and here's the problem when i say protestant i mean lutheran now as you no doubt know by now calvinism and lutheranism were separate but related strains of protestantism and calvinism was exerting some major influence in the holy roman empire but since the peace of augsburg had only two options catholic or lutheran in the holy roman empire the calvinists were like yeah that ain't gonna work so when catholic ferdinand became king in the calves territory of bohemia things started getting saucy as ferdinand started a program of re-catholicizing bohemia the calvinist nobility were like and to emphasize their point the nobility threw two of ferdinand's messengers out a window in an event known as the defenestration of prague defenestration being a fancy word for throwing someone out a window now these officials fell something like 70 feet and survive catholics said they survived because of the intercession of the virgin mary protestants pointed out that their fall was broken by a giant pile of manure now whether it was mary's intercession or the poo i'm not qualified to answer but this event set off the 30 years war now there are four phases of this war you need to know and that can be confusing but the big idea to notice here is that as we go through the phases like as we move from phase one to phase four the motivations for fighting go from being primarily religious to primarily political so phase one the bohemian phase in this phase the holy roman emperor and catholic ferdinand ii defeated protestant forces led by frederick the first at the battle of white mountain the result of this phase is that the catholics gain the upper hand and re-establish catholicism across many places in the holy roman empire then came phase two namely the danish phase in this phase king christian iv of denmark you know that's the danish part he took up the protestant cause not least because he was involved in an anti-catholic anti-habsburg alliance with england you can see here the political motive starting to bleed in now despite this help on the protestant side the catholics still won this phase of the war and then came phase three the swedish phase in this phase the war begins to extend beyond the borders of the holy roman empire and king gustavus adolphus of sweden organizes the protestant cause and armies and scores a major victory for the protestants now one reason the protestants fared so well is because gustavus adolphus was a military genius but the other reason is because the protestants received no smaller financial help from france wait a minute if i remember correctly from the beginning of this video france was catholic so what in the fresh heck are they doing financing the protestant struggle against the catholics well this is the major turning point where we can see that the religious character of the war has clearly taken a back seat to political concern you see the only thing the catholic french leadership hated more than protestants was the habsburgs and so they didn't care that the protestants were fighting against them they just wanted to weaken the habsburg influence anyway the fourth and final phase of the war was the french phase and here france entered into the war on the side of the protestants and fought mainly with spain to assure that the habsburgs would not rebound from their defeats and in 1648 the 30 years war finally came to an end with the signing of the peace of westphalia and there are a couple of things you need to know about this major turning point in european history first it essentially marked the end of the religious wars of europe second it amended the peace of augsburg to include calvinism as a legitimate fate third with that further splintering of protestantism it officially marked the end of the medieval idea of a universal christendom and fourth it kept the holy roman empire weak and the rulers of individual states strong and in that way it hastened the decline of the holy roman empire i know that was a lot but if you need more help with unit 2 click here for the entire playlist also 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