The Peace of Augsburg

(noun)

A treaty between Charles V and the forces of the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Lutheran princes, on September 25, 1555, at the imperial city of Augsburg, in present-day Bavaria, Germany. It officially ended the religious struggle between the two groups and made the legal division of Christendom permanent within the Holy Roman Empire.

Related Terms

Examples of The Peace of Augsburg in the following topics:

  • Religious Divide in the Holy Roman Empire

    • The northern Protestant states, angered by the violation of their rights to choose granted in the Peace of Augsburg, banded together to form the Protestant Union.
    • The Peace of Augsburg (1555), signed by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, ended the war between German Lutherans and Catholics.
    • Although the Peace of Augsburg created a temporary end to hostilities, it did not resolve the underlying religious conflict, which was made yet more complex by the spread of Calvinism throughout Germany in the years that followed.
    • This added a third major faith to the region, but its position was not recognized in any way by the Augsburg terms, to which only Catholicism and Lutheranism were parties.
    • The Peace of Augsburg began to unravel: some converted bishops refused to give up their bishoprics, and certain Habsburg and other Catholic rulers of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain sought to restore the power of Catholicism in the region.

  • Fragmentation of the Holy Roman Empire

    • The Peace of Augsburg ended the war in Germany and accepted the existence of the Protestant princes, although not Calvinism, Anabaptism, or Swiss Reformed.
    • Germany would enjoy relative peace for the next six decades.
    • The Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which ended the Thirty Years' War, gave the territories almost complete independence.
    • Francis' House of Habsburg-Lorraine survived the demise of the empire, continuing to reign as Emperors of Austria and Kings of Hungary until the Habsburg empire's final dissolution in 1918 in the aftermath of World War I.
    • The Holy Roman Empire after the Peace of Westphalia, 1648.

  • The Peace of Westphalia

    • The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster that ended the Thirty Years' War.
    • The end of the war was not brought about by one treaty, but instead by a group of treaties, collectively named the Peace of Westphalia.
    • All parties would recognize the Peace of Augsburg of 1555, in which each prince would have the right to determine the religion of his own state, the options being Catholicism, Lutheranism, and now Calvinism.
    • A simplified map of Europe in 1648, showing the new borders established after the Peace of Westphalia.
    • the Treaty of Münster between the Holy Roman Emperor and France was one of three treaties that made up the Peace of Westphalia

  • The Peace of Westphalia and Sovereignty

    • Although the Peace of Westphalia did not end wars in Europe, it established the precedent of peace reached by diplomatic congress and a new system of political order in Europe based upon the concept of co-existing sovereign states.
    • The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster.
    • The northern Protestant states, angered by the violation of their rights to choose granted in the Peace of Augsburg, banded together to form the Protestant Union.
    • According to the Peace of Westphalia, all parties would recognize the Peace of Augsburg of 1555, in which each prince would have the right to determine the religion of his own state (the principle of cuius regio, eius religio).
    • Historical map of Europe after the Peace of Westphalia.

  • Danish Intervention

    • After the Defenestration of Prague and the ensuing Bohemian Revolt, the Protestants warred with the Catholic League until the former were firmly defeated at the Battle of Stadtlohn in 1623.
    • Peace following the Imperial victory at Stadtlohn proved short-lived, with conflict resuming at the initiation of Denmark.
    • Christian's mishaps continued when all of the allies he thought he had were forced aside: France was in the midst of a civil war, Sweden was at war with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and neither Brandenburg nor Saxony was interested in changes to the tenuous peace in eastern Germany.
    • Moreover, neither of the substantial British contingents arrived in time to prevent Wallenstein defeating Mansfeld's army at the Battle of Dessau Bridge (1626) or Tilly's victory at the Battle of Lutter (1626).
    • At this point, the Catholic League persuaded Ferdinand II to take back the Lutheran holdings that were, according to the Peace of Augsburg, rightfully the possession of the Catholic Church.

  • Bohemian Period

    • The Bohemian Revolt (1618–1620) was an uprising of the Bohemian estates against the rule of the Habsburg dynasty, in particular Emperor Ferdinand II, which triggered the Thirty Years' War.
    • In 1555, the Peace of Augsburg had settled religious disputes in the Holy Roman Empire by enshrining the principle of Cuius regio, eius religio, allowing a prince to determine the religion of his subjects.
    • They preferred the Protestant Frederick V, elector of the Palatinate (successor of Frederick IV, the creator of the Protestant Union).
    • As the rebellion collapsed, the widespread confiscation of property and suppression of the Bohemian nobility ensured the country would return to the Catholic side after more than two centuries of Protestant dissent.
    • A later woodcut of the Defenestration of Prague in 1618, which triggered the Thirty Years' War.

  • Louis XIV and the Huguenots

    • The persecution of the Huguenots became one of the critical factors in Louis XIV's consolidation of royal power and resulted in Catholicism being the only legally tolerated religion in France, despite Louis' conflict with the Pope.
    • It marked the end of the religious wars that had afflicted France during the second half of the 16th century.
    • After all, the Edict of Nantes was the pragmatic concession of his grandfather Henry IV to end the longstanding French Wars of Religion.
    • An additional factor in Louis's thinking was the prevailing contemporary European principle to assure socio-political stability was cuius regio, eius religio ("whose realm, his religion"), the idea that the religion of the ruler should be the religion of the realm (the principle originally confirmed in central  Europe in the Peace of Augsburg of 1555).
    • The revocation of the Edict of Nantes created a state of affairs in France similar to that of nearly every other European country of the period (with the brief exception of Great Britain and possibly the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), where only the majority state religion was legally tolerated.

  • Peace

    • Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict or war.
    • Other honorary awards around the world include the Gandhi Peace Prize and the Student Peace Prize.
    • Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict or war.
    • A peace movement is a social movement seeking to achieve ideals like the ending of a particular war (or all wars), while also minimizing inter-human violence with the goal of achieving world peace.
    • The peace sign, one of several symbols used to represent peace

  • William of Orange and the Grand Alliance

    • England and the Dutch Republic had their own commercial, strategic, and political interests within the Spanish empire and they were eager to return to peaceful commerce.
    • This European coalition, consisting at various times of various European states, was originally founded in 1686 as the League of Augsburg.
    • French and British ministers prepared the groundwork for a peace conference and in 1712 Britain ceased combat operations.
    • By the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) and of the Treaty of Rastatt (1714), the Spanish empire was partitioned between the major and minor powers.
    • Explain William's stake in the War of the Spanish Succession and the goals of the Grand Alliance.

  • France's Fiscal Woes

    • During his reign, France fought three major wars: the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg, and the War of the Spanish Succession.
    • There were also two lesser conflicts: the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions.
    • Fleury's rule was in fact the most peaceful and prosperous period of the reign of Louis XV.
    • After the financial and social disruptions suffered at the end of the reign of Louis XIV, the rule of Fleury is seen by historians as a period of "recovery."
    • In foreign relations, Fleury sought peace by trying to maintain alliance with England and pursuing reconciliation with Spain.