European Wars of Religion

The European wars of religion were a series of wars waged in Europe from ca. 1524 to 1697, following the onset of the Protestant Reformation in Western and Northern Europe. Although sometimes unconnected, all of these wars were strongly influenced by the religious change of the period, and the conflict and rivalry that it produced.

Individual conflicts that can be distinguished within this topic include:

  • conflicts immediately connected with the Reformation of the 1520s to 1540s:
    • the German Peasants' War (1524–1525)
    • the battle of Kappel in Switzerland (1531)
    • the Schmalkaldic War (1546–1547) in the Holy Roman Empire
  • the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) in the Low Countries
  • the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598)
  • the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), affecting the Holy Roman Empire including Habsburg Austria and Bohemia, France, Denmark and Sweden
  • the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639–1651), affecting England, Scotland and Ireland
    • Scottish Reformation and Civil Wars
    • English Reformation and Civil War
    • Irish Confederate Wars and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
  • Nine Years' War (1688–97)

Read more about European Wars Of Religion:  The Holy Roman Empire, France, Great Britain and Ireland, Denmark

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