The Thirty Years War

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the war in Europe which begain in 1618 and continued on such a scale and with such devastation that its like was not seen for another three hundred years. It pitched Catholics against Protestants, Lutherans against Calvinists and Catholics against Catholics across the Holy Roman Empire, drawing in their neighbours and it lasted for thirty gruelling years, from the Defenestration of Prague to the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. Many more civilians died than soldiers, and famine was so great that even cannibalism was excused. This topic was chosen from several hundred suggested by listeners this autumn.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Peter Wilson No other episodes
  Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford
• Ulinka Rublack 3 episodes
  Professor of Early Modern European History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John's College
• Toby Osborne No other episodes
  Associate Professor in History at Durham University

Reading list

• The Ashgate Research Companion to the Thirty Years' War
  Olaf Asbach and Peter Schroder (eds.) (Ashgate Press, 2014) Google Books →
• The Thirty Years War: The Holy Roman Empire and Europe, 1618-1648
  Ronald G. Asch (Palgrave, 1998) Google Books →
• The Thirty Years War 1618-1648
  Richard Bonney (Osprey Publishing, 2002) Google Books →
• German Histories in the Age of Reformations, 1400-1650
  Thomas A. Brady (Cambridge University Press, 2009) Google Books →
• 1648: War and Peace in Europe
  Klaus Bussmann and Heinz Schilling (eds.) (Westfalisches Landesmuseum, 1998) Google Books →
• Westphalia: The Last Christian Peace
  Derek Croxton (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) Google Books →
• Richelieu and Olivares
  J. H. Elliott (Cambridge University Press, 1991) Google Books →
• The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus
  Hans Jakob Christophell Grimmelshausen (Penguin, 2018) Google Books →
• The Thirty Years War: A Documentary History
  Tryntje Helfferich (ed.) (Hackett Publishing Co, 2009) Google Books →
• A Companion to the Reformation World
  R. Po-chia Hsia (ed.) (Wiley-Blackwell, 2003) Google Books →
• Experiencing the Thirty Years War: A Brief History with Documents
  Hans Medick and Benjamin Marschke (Bedford Books, 2013) Google Books →
• Wallenstein: The Enigma of the Thirty Years War
  Geoff Mortimer (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) Google Books →
• Gustavus Adolphus: A History of Sweden 1611-1632
  Michael Roberts (Longmans, 1953) Google Books →
• The Astronomer and the Witch: Johannes Kepler's Fight for His Mother
  Ulinka Rublack (Oxford University Press, 2015) Google Books →
• Reformation Europe
  Ulinka Rublack (Cambridge University Press, 2017) Google Books →
• The Holy Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction
  Joachim Whaley (Oxford University Press, 2018) Google Books →
• The Thirty Years War: A Sourcebook
  Peter H. Wilson (Palgrave, 2010) Google Books →
• Lutzen: Great Battles
  Peter H. Wilson (Oxford University Press, 2018) Google Books →
• Europe's Tragedy: A History of the Thirty Years' War
  Peter H. Wilson (Allen Lane, 2009) Google Books →

Related episodes

• The Spanish Civil War
  
  3 Apr, 2003 940 History of Europe
• The Siege of Munster
  
  5 Nov, 2009 270 History of Christianity
• 1848: Year of Revolution
  
  19 Jan, 2012 900 History
• The Wars of the Roses
  
  18 May, 2000 940 History of Europe
• The Treaty of Limerick
  
  7 Nov, 2019 940 History of Europe
• Baltic Crusades
  
  24 Nov, 2016 940 History of Europe
• The Congress of Vienna
  
  19 Oct, 2017 940 History of Europe
• The Trial of Charles I
  
  4 Jun, 2009 940 History of Europe
• The Diet of Worms
  
  12 Oct, 2006 270 History of Christianity
• The Anarchy
  
  1 Nov, 2012 940 History of Europe
• The Concordat of Worms
  
  15 Dec, 2011 940 History of Europe
• Bohemia
  
  11 Apr, 2002 940 History of Europe
• New Wars
  
  13 Apr, 2000 350 Public administration and military science
• The Art of War
  
  12 Jun, 2003 350 Public administration and military science
• Bruegel’s The Fight Between Carnival and Lent
  
  15 Jan, 2015 750 Painting
• The Tudor State
  
  26 Oct, 2000 940 History of Europe
• The Putney Debates
  
  18 Apr, 2013 320 Political science
• The Interregnum
  
  27 May, 2021 940 History of Europe
• St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
  
  27 Nov, 2003 270 History of Christianity
• The French Revolution’s Legacy
  
  14 Jun, 2001 940 History of Europe

---

Programme ID: m0001fv2

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001fv2

Auto-category: 940.2 (Early Modern Europe (1453-1789))