The Schmalkaldic War was fought between the Catholic Habsburg Empire and the Protestant Schmalkaldic League from 1546 to 1547 amid the European Wars of Religion. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V defeated an alliance of German Lutheran states, but his attempts to force the reintegration of Protestants into the Roman Catholic Church led to the outbreak of the Second Schmalkaldic War in 1552 and, ultimately, the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, which enabled German princes to choose the religion of themselves and their subjects.
Background[]
In 1517, the Saxon priest Martin Luther published the Ninety-five Theses in protest against the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, sparking the Protestant Reformation. In 1525, Prussia secularized the lands of the Teutonic Order and became the first German territory to convert to Lutheranism, while the Electorate of Saxony made the Lutheran church the state religion in 1527. The Holy Roman Empire's ruling Catholic House of Habsburg viewed the conversion of the empire's princedoms as a challenge to central Imperial authority, and Emperor Charles V subjected Luther to an Imperial ban in 1521 and prohibited the sharing of his writings. The empire also threatened to confiscate the property of Lutherans, resulting in several Lutheran states forming the Schmalkaldic League at Schmalkalden, Thuringia in 1531. In 1532, Charles granted religious liberty to members of the Schmalkaldic League, but, after the Italian War of 1542-46, Charles forged alliances with Pope Paul III and with Lutheran princes like Duke Maurice of Saxony, the cousin of Elector John Frederick I. On 4 July 1546, the leaders of the Schmalkaldic League decided to strike the Empire first before Charles V could amass a mercenary army to crush them. Meanwhile, the Emperor slowly gathered an army of 20,000 Germans, 12,000 Italians, 10,000 Spaniards, and 10,000 Flemings to crush the League.
War[]
The war began with the Lutheran occupation of Fussen, a possession of the Prince-Bishopric of Augsburg. Imperial forces moved towards Ingolstadt in Bavaria, while the Schmalkaldic princes decided against an invasion of Tyrol to bar the Emperor from bringing up Italian troops. Duke William IV of Bavaria and Archduke Ferdinnad I of Austria declared themselves neutral, enabling Charles V to concentrate his large army.
However, Ferdinand eventually sided with Duke Maurice of Saxony as he invaded Ernestine Saxony. Elector John Frederick and his army returned to Saxony from Swabia, liberated the region, and invaded Albertine Saxony and Bohemia until the coming of winter brought about stalemate. The Hessian invasion of Saxony stalled, while Wurttemberg and the Electoral Palatinate chose to submit to the Emperor. On 28 March 1547, Charles V and his brother Ferdinand I joined forces in Bohemia, where the Bohemian Lutherans failed to rally to the Schmalkaldic cause. On 24 April 1547, the Imperials defeated the League's forces at the Battle of Muhlberg, capturing John Frederick I. Bremen and Magdeburg continued to resist the Habsburgs, defeating an invading army at the 23 May 1547 Battle of Drakenburg. Unresolved tensions between the Protestant states and the Catholic Habsburgs resulted in the outbreak of a Second Schmalkaldic War in 1552.