The Thirty Years Wars Part 2 The Danish Intervention

After the absolute defeat of the Protestant armies in the battle of Sablat, Hochst, and the disaster of Stadtlohn, the way for plans of Felipe II, new emperor of Germany, was cleared. Showing off a blind hatred and intolerance rayana in outrageous, far from reconciling the parties, took his advantage to imposed with cruelty. In January 1621, acting under a fully contrary to constitutional law sense, it retaliated for the elector of the Palatinate, Federico V, removing her actual condition to transfer its voting rights to its ally Maximiliano de Baviera, in payment to its most important military support in the war against the Protestants. Working in total darkness, he organized an illegal meeting in the city of Regensburg, which made the transfer of powers. Outside the brother of Maximilian, elector of Cologne, the disapproval of your measurement came from all sectors of the High German nobility.

Even the King of Spain, Felipe III, who knew the importance of pacifying and not raise more enmities, He was against the measure. Philip II, perhaps infatuated by his cunning and the successes achieved, did not stop at nothing. Before the national opposition, he sidestepped the qualms of the Electoral College and on February 23, 1621, Maximilian was invested with the noble titles of the vanquished. The protests were swift. Saxony and Brandenburg, the other Catholic electors of the school, disregarded the appointment. But before wind and tide, Felipe II did not his arm twisting. The Protestant dominated world felt deeply affected by such bravuconada.

Thereafter, the future elections of the emperors would have four Catholic votes and that meant in practice, absolute majority and Catholic supremacy. Not only that. The decision also directly affect their interests as ecclesiastical property. Maximilian could have all of them without problems, making the power of more than 120 abbeys and two Archbishoprics. With the laws accepted at the peace of Augsburg, this also meant that men who they lived under their territories should change of faith, or otherwise leave their possessions and emigrate.