The 30 Years' War (1618-48) and the Second Defenestration of Prague - Professor Peter Wilson

Professor Wilson will examine the causes, conduct and consequences of the Thirty Years War, Europes most destructive conflict prior to the two 20th-century world wars. The talk takes place on the 400th anniversary of the defenestration of three Habsburg officials by Bohemian malcontents in Prague. This violent act triggered a crisis which expanded into general war despite the best efforts of most of those involved to contain it.
Why it took so long to make peace, and what extent the conflict can be considered a religious war will also be discussed.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-an...
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[@barryjive1104]

"Defenestrated almost as an after thought" is not the sort of epitaph anyone strives for. I'd certainly prefer a proper and purposeful defenestration as a final comforting thought before making lethal contact with the pavement.

[@theccpisaparasite8813]

They weren't killed.

[@MrShitcakes69]

He lived!

[@antonludwigaugustvonmacken8680]

This man's books have changed my standard of history books forever

[@serazatackgoz4522]

greetings from turkey, as a young person at seventeen. thanks for this inspirational speech.I wish ı shall have sufficient time to learn and read so many languages and books.

[@romaimparatoru4905]

i wish you the best

[@silver_cord]

Thanks for uploading this.

[@jeffrrryyy]

Thank you Professor Wilson and Gresham College for publishing this lecture - as a history nerd i loved the discussion!

[@coyotebones1131]

Not that big of a nerd I guess lol

[@crogeny]

Thanks to Gresham for posting this very interesting lecture.

[@CM-bi6oy]

A good primer. Hope there are more lectures about this important war that has disappeared from popular memory outside of Germany. Seems that when one side was victorious it overplayed its hand prolonging the struggle. Another issue that delayed peace was the question of payment for the mercenary armies.

[@tommyodonovan3883]

Gotta feed the monkey

[@stephenmoerlein8470]

Thank you for the comprehensive lecture on this topic.

[@ashleyhyatt6319]

Splendid! He deserved more time to lecture on this very interesting subject.

[@warwickmcleod9993]

66r6rýe6e666t666666r6r669r6r6r66r66ý6ý66r6677eeeeýye7r7r67r7t7ry7a7aaaaayry6r7r7yr6ar6ry77rrr7767r77e7e66r7rtyre766rr7ryaa6aaaaa66r7re76a6r6y66ý7eer6eeeeà77r6e

[@elfin2865]

@@warwickmcleod9993 couldn’t have said it better myself

[@demilembias2527]

@@warwickmcleod9993 39999999999999weqkaiwoi999933399eeeeeeeeee890q0w0ww0www0000w0w0w334999999eepwqwqpwowqpoqwpq :)

[@coyotebones1131]

Warwick said it better than the speaker or commenter

[@emmcee662]

Very interesting - as a non-European I am intrigued by this period of history and keen to learn more

[@kakashi101able]

Something else interesting is that this war has a higher death toll than what he said. He gave the lowest figure which is 5 million. While the best estimate is to be around 8 million dead. And the highiest is 12 million dead. It was the 2nd deadliest war of the 1600s.

[@donaldedward4951]

All you need to know if you are a Roman Catholic and are being interviewed by Protestants on the fourth floor is to have a big pile of soft manure under the window so that if you are defenestrated you have a nice soft landing. I may have a detail or two wrong however cos I wasn't actually there at the time. In those day they took religion very seriously. These days only one religion is that serious. No cigar if you guess correctly.

[@blueberrybuttercake2942]

@@kakashi101able Is Manchu conquest the first?

[@kakashi101able]

@@blueberrybuttercake2942 Yes. Transition from Ming to Qing (1618-1683) claimed around 20-40 million lives. Best estimates believed the death toll was around 25 million.

[@oskarfabian5200]

Check out the first defenestration and what followed if you are interested.

[@v.g.r.l.4072]

Excellent explanation of a so much transcendent event. Congratulations.

[@tommyodonovan3883]

It's worth watching twice, maybe three times.

[@michaldevetsedm1882]

It weren't just the huge property confiscations and nobility expulsion that followed the battle of the White Mountain. There was also an on purpose spectacular, "mass" execution of 27 bohemian nobles at the Old town square in Prague, something unheard of in the contemporary Europe, and that no doubt deepened and accelerated the conflict too.

[@djmills2040]

The first race war in modern day Europe, the killing of the black nobility is that what this lecture started with? Please stop, tell the truth we are not children we want to hear the truth so everyone will know the truth . Know the truth and truth shell set you free.

[@giovanniacuto2688]

The beginning of making the Czech people second class citizens in their own country and the domination there by Germans which lasted until they were expelled in 1945

[@dormoisjean-pierre1436]

The speaker keeps mentioning "Britain." I was taught the term in its political meaning is only of relevance after the Act of Union, 1707.

[@ChrisJohnsonELP]

Strictly speaking, sure. But there was a personal union of the kingdoms and a more or less unified foreign policy. James VI & I liked to call himself the King of Great Britain, however legally inaccurate that was.

[@CourtneySchwartz]

It’s also the name of the island, not only shorthand for the polity “Great Britain.”

[@HhHh-oc1yv]

it’s the island and england and scotland had the same monarch

[@danielevans8728]

Not a mention of: 1) there was a fundamental power shift in how armies were raised.. from any noble with money (levying peasants and hiring mercenaries) towards the central authority(monarch, nation etc) 2) the suffering of the population: famine, widespread disease.. it is the reason why soooooo many died. 1 in 5 people in what is now basically Germany, Czechia, Belgium, Netherlands. I read somewhere that in parts of Germany like 2 out of every 5 villages ceased to exist

[@knapsack]

He did mention #1 at 11:00, briefly

[@cascadianapplications7124]

The guy wrote a thousand plus page book on the issue and you crap on him for not touching on these points in a 40 minute lecture? Regarding a 30 year war and its multi generational lead up? Cut him some slack

[@PalleRasmussen]

You are off by a bit. In both Denmark and Brandenburg (those are the ones I know best), 30- 60% of the population died.

[@kakashi101able]

The death toll was much higher! While 5,000,000 deaths is not wrong to say, to was the lower deaths estimates. While death figures could of been as high as 12,000,000. Historians agree that the true death toll war around 8,000,000. Nevertheless great video, it was very educational!

[@windostar2622]

Wow!

[@tdmthomas]

Thank you for posting this full lecture. I watched it in preparation of reading the German novel “Tyll” by Daniel Kehlmann (in the Italian translation).

[@tommyodonovan3883]

Thanks, Will do! *Tyll* by Daniel Kehlmann

[@DAVIDDOWNEY23]

I always know how much I have enjoyed a lecture when it seems to end too quickly. That 45 minutes flew by...Thank you, Professor Wilson.

[@ricdavid7476]

Excellent video thanks and some comparisons with the current madness going in Europe again the UK seems to be out of mainland Europe much like they were in the 30 years war. It would have been interesting to hear more about what England were actually up to during those 30 years

[@selvoselvo1]

It is not a description of events in the war, more of a comment on the causes of war and the Westfalian peace.

[@stephenmeier4658]

Westphalian

[@talos2384]

The shear fact that ‘defenestration’ exists makes me happy

[@stephenmeier4658]

Sheer

[@credera]

...and what have we now learned about religion for the future? ...the problem is that we are not learning from the mistakes made in the past.

[@BalotelliFan713]

oh, please, do go on

[@MrMustang13]

… and what have we learned about atheism for the future? After seeing what it had done in Russia, China, North Korea and the bloodshed in France during their revolution? The only time religion has been an issue is when it was used to push secular gains.

[@Thomas...191]

​@@MrMustang13... mmm.. let's see how that's going at the epicentre of all the Abrahamic religions right now. A glance at the birthplace of these religions and there is a check in the hitch's column of: religion poisons everything. I live in northern Ireland and have a very different experience of these things to you.

[@DwRockett]

Interesting look on the conflict. Really seems to go against common descriptions of the conflict

[@Battleschnodder]

luckily, more recent depictions of this conflict in pop history have stopped depicting this conflict as a simple conflict between two denominations.

[@jtoneal3344]

Superb lecture on a very important war. Vive Le Winter King!!!

[@giovanniacuto2688]

King George I of England and Elector of Hanover was his grandson

[@enriquelescure9202]

Let's see. 20 seconds in, and the Holy Roman Empire is Europe's "largest state". I think that both Russia and Poland-Lithuania (if we exclude Spain's overseas territories) were territorially larger. As for the HRE being a "state", looking at its structure in the early 17th century would define it as something but not a state. It did have some proto-state institutions, but cannot be understood as a state in the early-modern sense (even if contemporaries made no distinction).

[@russellwest8767]

Famous last words: “NOT AGAAAAIIINNNNNnnnn…… (splat)”

[@lukashaupt8936]

Interesting point of view. But so little about Lands of Czech crown (Bohemia). The causes of Prague defenestration as same as the results were a bit different for Bohemia than for rest of Empire (where Bohemia or better Lands of Czech/Bohemian crown had always special state).

[@22fordfx49]

Thank goodness we have science now. People are not irrational like they were back then. Specifically targeting other people with opposing views because they were worried tolerance would affect their salvation. Now we understand things aren't revolved around god but scientific laws of which the world revolves around. No disrespect to Christianity however as I think a good mix between science and Christianity is not a bad thing.

[@skadiwarrior2053]

Now they worry that tolerance will affect their place in the political hierarchy of the ideologues!

[@scipioafricanus5871]

Exhibit A: the average Trump voter...

[@22fordfx49]

@@scipioafricanus5871 Funny as I'm a trump supporter. The people out looting and rioting in america aren't trump supporters

[@eddiel7635]

22fordfx4 how can you be a trump supporter and extol the virtues of science... aren’t you meant to be an anti vax creationist?

[@22fordfx49]

@@eddiel7635 Haha I'm going to have fun with you. A small fraction of conservatives dont believe in evolution. Dont you guys believe in 57 genders, late term abortion where the human fetus feels pain at 12 weeks, are triggered by even a statue of abe lincoln, mistakenly think white people kill black people all the time and ignore statistics or dont quite get them (either one), the list goes on

[@davidhilton2625]

The History Channel: Does this have anything to do with Hitler or aliens? No? Never mind then :/ Seriously though, this was an excellent presentation. Thank you!

[@olelarsen7688]

I am fan of a clever danish historian, he doesn´t live anymore, and he clamed that the defenestration too place from a groundfloor window. That would explain why nobody was killed.

[@strahaironscale571]

as a Prague local and someone who extensively studied this time period I say he is dead wrong. They were thrown out of the windows of so called "ceska kancelar" (czech office) and we know exactly where that was.

[@olelarsen7688]

@@strahaironscale571 Allright. My historian could be wrong. He only mentions the defenestration very shortly. But I have noticed that Wikipedia says it was from the top floor window, and Peter Wilson in this video says it was the floor under the top floor.

[@messagestovoidz3662]

@@olelarsen7688 if you go there you'll see that was impossible. Went there in 2016. Only one window where it could have been. Straha Ironscale is right.

[@warrengwonka2479]

@@messagestovoidz3662 I was in the room fifty years ago. It’s just off a large hall in the Palace, and they surely would have been killed lacking the soft landing.

[@indy_go_blue6048]

@@strahaironscale571 I read a book called "The Thirty Years War" by C. V. Wedgwood some 30 or so years ago, and it said they were tossed from an upper story window, but they landed on a trash heap and suffered only minor injuries. IF I remember correctly, lol.

[@chrispaul4599]

My interest is Familial and Clan Based. In 1626 Charles I Chartered Lord Reay to form the MacKay Regiment that Landed on the Elbe River to Rescue Denmark from Wallenstein. Paul is a Sept of MacKay. These Highlanders went o the Spearhead Gustav Adolfo of Sweden in Thirty Years War. Two Generations Later, General Hugh MacKay had been fighting for the Venetians in The Levant. In 1688, backed by the "Dutch" Bsnkers, sam as Cromwell was, he lsned with William of Orange in Torbay and the Bank of England started in 1694. The MacKay Regiment is Historically the Royal Scots, First of Foot of the UK Army.

[@emceha]

Now use some silly filter on this man's voice and slap some drawings - this video now has 1000000 views

[@tripp8833]

Sadly true...

[@elvenkind6072]

Of some sillly video Edit of this is when it has 100K vies, I'm OK with that, as it brought it to my attention, and I serioisly wanted to know more about the subject. 😊

[@tedstarr1133]

The Ottomans joining the protestant league in eu4 makes so much more sense now

[@cavramau]

He should use the term war Lords rather than prince's and Nobel families. That's the contemporary term for a military strong man.

[@King_Edwards1605]

Go ahead and say they were Black warlords during the Dark ages when White people did not have any power since the emperor was Black at that time check the family crest come on now lol

[@King_Edwards1605]

@@cavramau He is lying to you all he needs to be ignored in I CAN debunk everything he said and clarify it he is deceiving his own people to keep this information hidden probably part of an elite family in Europe that who tells these lies to keep power over us but its over truth will prevail..... Some of King James bloodline is still in America today. Look at my name Edwards i checked my family background and can track every family to the early 1700's we got here in the 1600's. They lie about the timelines and make myths of their true being as wild men those are not myths they true... hair wild men shaved and became fake royalty

[@KurtisHord]

I’m gonna come down on the side of pro-throwing Hapsburgs out of windows every time I’m polled about it.

[@nyerineu3388]

the mayhem, destruction, and not with laser guided bombs, fighter jets, RPGs, but pure wanton HATE...horrible!

[@drdf7500]

It was not the Habsburgs that defeated Vienna from the Turks; it was the Poles

[@thomaslinton1001]

The Holy Roman Empire was never "a state" but a collection of states.

[@eddiel7635]

Thomas Linton piping up like you know more than the professional 😂

[@giovanniacuto2688]

The Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy nor Roman, nor an Empire. (Quote by Voltaire)

[@lawrencetate1329]

The description of this war fits WWI. Compress 30 years into 5 and, voila! Similar anamosities, Similar urge for war, similar loss of life, same old story, over and over and over. Then, not so much now. What we see now is mostly world police action.

[@custer264]

I love historical details. But, does anyone ever notice that there is one critical detail always missing from the “French” or “russian” revolution? How about the “Irish” potato famine or the “english” revolution?

[@Thomas...191]

You lost me there. What do you mean by "missing" from these events? That nationalism wasn't really solidified at those points? That those events did much to create the national identities we name them after?

[@custer264]

@@Thomas...191 the money. It’s common sense that nothing occurs without money. Who financed Cromwell? Who paid? The history books heretofore have treated every revolution as materializing organically. No way. No way. Even today, groups such as BLM cannot take a single step without someone writing a check, or authorizing a payment processor. Conversely, truly popular ground level organizations are completely oppressed by having accounts closed and payment methods blocked. Real people with real names can be identified.

[@wolfthequarrelsome504]

"Iover"

[@JoeHeine]

the split between the conservatives and liberals in the US mirrors this event

[@jamesmurphy9426]

Struggle for the taxes which religious group will get the taxes

[@kidmohair8151]

why, he asked (knowing the answer to the question, but asking anyway) are the Europeans so prickly and fractious? why has it been swept by war, more often, and for longer, than it has been swept by peace?

[@King_Edwards1605]

Check the Hapsburg family crest and Black man is on it.... lol

[@donaldedward4951]

Aristocrats threw some officials out of a window. Lots of hard to remember names but I did pick up on they found some officials mostly responsible for the policies and not others and got angry so threw them out of the window. I got that it was a war between the Catholics and Protestants. That made me want immediately to know what were those policies and the effects of those policies and why was that important. So this man assumes that I already know something but I know nothing and except he is not a good teacher. As a teacher myself I would have started at the beginning but it seems the story about throwing them from the window was the central intriguing idea in his mind. So I am off to another video because I know so very little about this time in history and area of Europe.

[@giovanniacuto2688]

Essentially a form of Protestantism had taken place in the Czech lands a century before Luther. By 1620 it was the religion of the majority there. However the rulers were Catholics who had not succeeded in suppressing Protestantism. Indeed the 2 emperors preceding the 30 years war had actually granted a measure of official toleration to the Protestants. At the outbreak of the 30 years war the Czech lands were ruled by the Habsburg Ferdinand II. He was a devout Catholic educated by the Jesuits. He began to institute policies designed to undermine Protestantism. The people who were defenestrated were his local representatives and themselves devout Catholics. There are articles on Wikipedia about Martinic and Slavata and the defenestration. They provide more information

[@davidrutter6761]

To bad the Christian Kingdom s did not join in an Alliances. Too impend dangers,from the middle East. The what its in history. Well done thanks for the info.

[@juzores1]

Wait, did he claimed that middle east problems is because of the religion?

[@TerraGenesis-bg1uh]

I don't think he claimed that, I believe he said that in Europe, the peace of Westphalia sort of signified the end of an era of religious war. He said that some politicians claim that they haven't had their "Westphalian moment" to leave religion out of politics. That is a large problem today, but I don't think it is because of the specific religion.

[@MsHburnett]

The explains a gap in my knowledge

[@Patrick3183]

At 7:19 , the answer should be, because they had no incentive to. Across Europe the culture was geared toward war, as always was, and as always would be. They lived for war. War was exciting and relevant to them as a new album by a pop megastar to any devoted fan. War was almost encouraged.

[@22fordfx49]

@Lord Azarkhan Lol I bet he is a liberal where only white people can do evil. Where I live in the United states, there is an old indian village they unearthed that had defensive fortifications around dated thousands of years ago. Fighting is human, in fact fighting is what animals do. It's a sorry state of life that the peaceful humans were always wiped out by the ones who were willing to fight and conquer.

[@jordangagat]

In XV Wrocław throw a window a hate people looks like a 1618 prague

[@ashthebash66]

Is it just me or does he often sound like Sean Lock? I kept waiting for a joke

[@somecunt8579]

Idk man, this presentation was a little all over the place

[@davidevans3227]

money

[@christopherellis2663]

Calvin has much to answer for.

[@poopoopdarkmarksonthefloor6294]

This was a war between Rome occupied Germania and mainly the Kingdom of Sweden. France was already invaded by rome and its decisive victory led to freedom for ltself and the protestant countries of europe. The protestants achievments secured the nation of france , the future nation of Germany and Holland.

[@jackreacher5667]

The war was the Northern Protestant states of the Empire, the "Spanish" Netherlands and latter Sweden ( under Gustavus Adolphus) backed by Catholic France, trying to curtail the Rising power of the Habsburgs in Austria and Spain who supported the Catholics side.

[@djmills2040]

I am very sorry but I was under the impression that the 30 year war started in about 1600 and it was a race war instead of a religious war, more about the newcomers not wanting to be ruled by the powers that be at that time, Or is this the cover-up of what it was really about?

[@cavramau]

Newcomers? Do you mean the Ottoman? They were a multi cultural multi national multi lingual empire. Look at thier great military leader who nearly took Vienna a Serbian.

[@blaisevillaume9051]

@@cavramau Anybody who leads with the term 'race war' has a deeply disturbed agenda

[@ashthebash66]

You might think that if you've studied this subject at university recently as everything is about race

[@indy_go_blue6048]

War between all white people is a race war? Is that what they're teaching in college these days?

[@HughJason]

Professor Wilson looks like Dominic Cummings

[@ashthebash66]

And sounds like Sean Lock

[@treerat7631]

Thrid worst war in history only world war 1,and 2 worse

[@mayena]

In European or Earthian history?. Taping Rebellion (1851-1864) estimated death toll was 20 million.

[@SomethingLegit1]

It wasn't a world war, as it never escaped the boundaries of Europe. WW1 was a world war largely due to colonialism, and the WW2 took place in the midst of the 2nd Sino-Japanese war, resulting in various major conflicts taking place around the globe.

[@Michal-mc6co]

Mongolian Conguests 50 milion

[@reuvenpolonskiy2544]

@@mayena The Russian civil war was worse then WW1

[@tomasznowicki7437]

This speech is all correct but sounds like a funerary speech. Hey, be more excited with what you do.

[@michaldevetsedm1882]

Nonsense. It's perfectly balanced, informed and professional. If you need something "exciting", go for some popular documentary on TV with all the fancy shots and sounds.

[@AkiraNakamoto]

No matter what caused the 30 Years' War, the military gift of Gustavus Adolphus saved lots of Europeans (and their descendants including the protestant colonists). Without Gustavus Adolphus, many territories of modern Germany, Netherland and perhaps Denmark, Sweden and Norway would be conquered by Catholics and join the PIGS nations (Portugal, Italy and Spain. Greece is an Orthodox nation spared here to save distractive discussions) to suffer and to be haunted by social corruption and low efficiency just like what happened in the Catholic colonies such as Latin America, Philippines and South Vietnam (before communist's takeover). Bohemia (nowadays Czech) is such an example. Gustavus Adolphus could not save Bohemia in his military campaign, so Bohemia had been de-protestantalized and out of luck. At the time of the Thirty Years' War, there was little difference between Protestant nations and Catholic nations in regard to technology power, social justice and economic efficiency. Nevertheless, after 400 years, the descendants of those Protestant nations (and their ex-colony nations) beat the shit out of the ones of those Catholic nations (and their ex-colony nations). There is no doubt which side is pro and which side is con against the human civilization.

[@TheSuperbCrow]

Such a ridiculous comment. Catholicism is superior and Gustavus was a failure.

[@AkiraNakamoto]

@@TheSuperbCrow . Superior your dumba$$. Look at those Catholic nations today, their engineering is a joke, their military power is a joke. For instance, France is the least Catholic nation because they had their own free will in the Thirty Years War (they didn't obey Vatican). Their military power was faded the last, nevertheless became a joke in WW2. Spain and Italy were long gone before France. Today, the engineering industry of all Catholic nations is a joke. I won't buy any car made in France, Italy and Latin America.

[@TheSuperbCrow]

JamesJ5664 Protestantism is both illogical and weak. Every flavor of it. Catholicism built western civilization.

[@TheSuperbCrow]

JamesJ5664 Look at Catholic Poland vs SwedenStan and LondonStan. Protestantism seems to be overran by Islam.

[@AkiraNakamoto]

@@TheSuperbCrow . You are an idi0t. The founding fathers of this nation were mostly puritans. To teach you some facts, Calvinists in England are called puritans, in Scotland are called presbyterians, in Europwan continent are called Huguenots. There were 2 principles in (medieval) Catholics: 1 the old and new testaments, and 2 Catholic church is the only agent of the paradise, anyone who disagrees to this rule is subject to Inquisition. Protestants inherit 1 and reject 2. Communists reject 1 and inherit 2 (commies rename the paradise to the communism society in the future far far away, and rename church to party). This is the hidden channel between Catholicism and Communism, and it explains the reason why Catholic regimes (e.g. South Vietnam in 1960s) and communist regimes (e.g. North Vietnam) are all plagued by corruption and lawless (per Anglo-Saxon legal system's perspective).

[@debraheggs4620]

When they chased all the black nobles out of Europe.