The Thirty Years War was not one single war. It was, in fact, a series of both declared and undeclared wars which raged between the years of 1618-1648. The principal players were the House of Austria, the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperors [Ferdinand II]? and [Ferdinand III]? together with his Spanish cousin [Philip IV]?.
During the long course of the Thirty Years War the Habsburgs were opposed by the various international opponents of House of Austria: the Dutch, the Danish, France and Sweden. The Thirty Years War was also a German civil war. The principalities which made up Germany took up arms for or against the Habsburgs or, most commonly, both at different times during the war’s 30 years. The Thirty Years War was also, at least in part, a religious war betwen Catholic?s, Lutherans and Calvinist?s. Ferdinand II and, to a lesser degree, his primary ally [Maximillian I]? represented the renascent Catholic zeal of the Jesuit counter-reformation. Frederick V of the Palatinate represented the equally militant forces of Calvinism. It ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
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