Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/467

 The Wars of Religion 343 Philip by his father. In spite of its small size Holland was destined to play, from that time on, quite as important a part in European affairs as Spain, from whose control it had escaped. Spain itself had suffered most of all from Philip's reign. His domestic policy and his expensive wars had sadly weakened the country. The income from across the sea was bound to decrease as the mines were exhausted. After Philip IPs death Spain sank to the rank of a secondary European power. V. THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 583. The Thirty Years' War really a Series of Wars. The last great conflict caused by the differences between Catholics and Protestants was fought out in Germany during the first half of the seventeenth century. It is generally known as the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), but there was in reality a series of wars ; and although the fighting was done upon German ter- ritory, Sweden, France, and Spain played quite as important a part in the struggle as the various German states. 584. Opening of the Thirty Years' War (leis). Since the religious Peace of Augsburg, in 1555 (539), the Protestants had increased in numbers, and the seizure of Church property by the Protestant princes had continued. Bohemia and even Austria contained many Protestants, and this was a source of terrible anxiety to the Hapsburg rulers and their efficient helpers, the Jesuits. Bohemia, in 1618, determined to call a Calvinist prince from the Palatinate on the Rhine to be their king. But the emperor was able to put the usurping ruler to flight after a reign of a single winter. This was regarded by the Protestants as a serious defeat, and the Protestant king of Denmark decided to intervene. He re- mained in Germany for four years, but was so badly beaten by the emperor's able general Wallenstein that he retired from the conflict in 1629. 585. The Edict of Restitution (1629). The emperor was en- couraged by the successes of the Catholic armies in defeating