Catholic League (1609)

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Catholic League flag
The founding of the Catholic League (1609 in Munich), historical painting by Carl Theodor von Piloty from 1870

The Catholic League was founded in Munich in 1609 as an alliance of Catholic imperial estates a few years before the start of the Thirty Years' War .

history

founding

The founding of the Catholic League, promoted by Maximilian I of Bavaria , was intended as a counterpart to the Protestant Union , which was founded in Auhausen in 1608 as a reaction to the execution and annexation of the city of Donauwörth carried out by Maximilian I (Bavaria) . In response to this alliance of Lutheran and Calvinist imperial estates, Maximilian I founded the Catholic League in 1608 based on the former Landsberger Bund (1556) as a defensive alliance to defend the peace and the Catholic cause. The alliance was initially limited to nine years. The founding meeting took place from July 3 to 10, 1609 in Munich and was closed with the founding declaration.

In addition to Bavaria , the League initially included the Catholic monasteries Hochstift Würzburg , Hochstift Konstanz , Hochstift Augsburg , Hochstift Passau and Hochstift Regensburg , as well as the imperial monasteries Kempten and Ellwangen . In the years that followed, almost all the Catholic estates in southern Germany, as well as the clerical electoral principalities of Cologne , Trier and Mainz, joined the league. However, some Catholic principalities, such as the Archdiocese of Salzburg , stayed away from the league. This was one of the reasons for Maximilian of Bavaria's action against Salzburg Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau .

Activities until 1617

The alliance agreement provided for mutual help in the event of an attack, but also the exclusion of a federal member in the event of unjustified aggression. Federal Colonel became Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria. Independent negotiations by members of the league in the event of an alliance were prohibited. The federal government raised its own troops, whereby the financial contributions of the members for the maintenance of the army were based on the registers of the Reich . In 1610 the league was organizationally subdivided into an Oberland directorate under Bavarian and into a Rhenish directorate under Electoral Mainz leadership.

In the Jülich-Klevian succession dispute , the league supported Wolfgang Wilhelm von der Pfalz-Neuburg , who had converted to Catholicism against his father's will, and Maximilian's brother-in-law from 1613 through the marriage of Magdalenes von Bayern . After the imperial side tried to have more permanent influence on the league, Maximilian of Bavaria formed a closer league in 1614, which only consisted of Bavaria, Würzburg, Bamberg, Eichstätt, Augsburg and Ellwangen. Due to disagreements with Archduke Maximilian of Front Austria , the Bavarian Duke Maximilian resigned from his post as Federal Colonel in 1616. This actually meant the temporary end of the league.

Establishment and activities until the end of the league in 1635

In 1617 the weakened league began to be re-established. On the initiative of Maximilian I, the so-called Munich Bund was initially created. The Rhenish part of the former league was re-established in 1619. The unification with the Munich Confederation and thus the re-establishment of the former league took place when the September 9th. Ferdinand II, elected emperor in 1619, stopped in Munich on his return from the coronation of the emperor from Frankfurt to Vienna. With the help of the Bavarian Duke Maximilian and with the help of the League, the emperor wanted to cope with the militarily threatening situation in Austria and Bohemia. He renounced a share in the leadership of the league and presented the league with substantial financial subsidies. On October 8, 1619, the emperor concluded the Munich Treaty with the league , in which the league undertook to provide military support to the emperor in the Bohemian uprising in return for reimbursement of costs . On the League Day in December 1619, the League decided to set up an army of 25,000 men under the command of General Tilly . In addition to Bavarian funds and members' contributions, the army was also financed by papal subsidies . At the suggestion of France, which wanted to prevent Spanish occupation of imperial territories, the League and the Protestant Union succeeded in agreeing mutual neutrality in the actual imperial territory in the Ulm Treaty . But that had no effect, because the desired defense against Spanish attacks on Reich territory was a French miscalculation.

The troops of the league contributed significantly to the victories of the Catholic-Imperial side in the first phases of the Thirty Years' War. So they defeated the army of the Bohemian rebels on the White Mountain in 1620 . With the help of Spanish troops, the Palatinate was then conquered. Then the League Army advanced to northern Germany and in 1626 defeated the troops of the Danish King Christian IV in the battle of Lutter am Barenberge . After the emperor began to raise his own troops under the command of Wallenstein from 1626 , the importance of the league declined. After Tilly's death, Johann von Aldringen was his successor in 1631. After Aldringen's death on July 22, 1634 while defending Landshut , Otto Heinrich Fugger († October 12, 1644) succeeded him. In this phase the army of the league was supported almost entirely by Bavaria.

As a result of the Peace of Prague , the League and League Army were dissolved in 1635. The troops were integrated into the new Imperial Army as a special Bavarian corps.

Members of the Catholic League

Founding Members (1609)   Later joinings
Duchy of Bavaria
Hochstift Würzburg
Hochstift Konstanz
Hochstift Augsburg
Hochstift Passau
Hochstift Regensburg
Fürststift Kempten
Fürstpropstei Ellwangen 		Electorate of Cologne
Electorate of Mainz
Electorate of Trier
Hochstift Bamberg
Hochstift Speyer
Hochstift Strasbourg
Hochstift Worms
other imperial prelates  

Personalities of the Catholic League

Tilly monument in Altötting / Bavaria

literature

  • Albrecht Ernst, Anton Schindling (ed.): Union and League 1608/09. Confessional Alliances in the Reich - Setting the Course for Religious War? (Publications of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies Series B, Volume 178). W. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-17-020983-1 .
  • Franziska Neuer-Landfried: The Catholic League . Publishing house Michael Laßleben, Kallmünz 1968.
  • Gerhard Taddey (ed.): Lexicon of German history . People, events, institutions. From the turn of the times to the end of World War II. 2nd, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-520-81302-5 , p. 738.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Source on the founding assembly of the Catholic League, 1609
  2. ↑ CV Wedgewood: The 30 Years War . Cormoran Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-517-09017-4 , p. 57f.