Cologne War

Cologne War
Part of Wars of Religion
Destruction of Godesberg during the Cologne War 1583
Date 1583-1588 Location Electorate of Cologne Result Catholic victory
Belligerents
Various Protestant troops	Bavarian, Spanish
Commanders and leaders
Louis VI, Elector Palatine, d. 1583, Adolf von Neuenahr, William I, Prince of Orange, d. 1584	Ernst of Bavaria

The Cologne War, 1583-1588, also called the Seneschal War or the Seneschal Upheaval, was fought primarily by selected troops of the archbishop of Cologne and his allies, primarily the Palatine, against those of the Duchy of Bavaria and its ally, Spain.

The war was a major test of the principles of, first, Cuius regio, eius religio (literally, whose realm, his religion, or, figuratively, in the Prince’s land, the Prince’s religion) and, second, ecclesiastical reservation, two important agreements established by the Augsburg Religious Peace (1555).

The conflict occurred within the larger context of the Eighty Years War, also called the Dutch Revolt, from about 1550 to 1650. The territory of the Electorate of Cologne lay strategically on the Rhine and close to the borders of the Spanish Netherlands and the United Provinces; this proximity led to the involvement of both the Spanish, the Dutch, the English, and the French in Cologne affairs. The competing election of Ernst of Bavaria as archbishop in 1583 insured that the Wittelsbach family's diplomatic, military, and dynastic resources would also be engaged. The war resulted in the consolidation of Wittelsbach authority in northwestern German territories, the establishment of a Catholic stronghold on the lower Rhine, and the consolidation of Spanish bridgeheads on the Rhine river.

Background

Further information: Peace of Augsburg

The idea of religious pluralism, in which individuals could adhere to a faith dictated by conscience, is a modern invention. Prior to the 16th century, there was one faith in a European Christian land, and that was the Catholic faith. The church was holy, ordained by God, and universal. Martin Luther’s agenda called for the reform of the church, but not necessarily of the faith. Initially dismissed by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V as “argument between monks,” the idea of reformation of the Church accentuated controversies and problems in many of the territories of the Holy Roman Empire. The reform theology galvanized social action in the Peasant Revolts (1524 1526), which were brutally repressed. In 1531, several of the Lutheran princes formed the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance in which they agreed to protect themselves and each other from territorial encroachment, and which functioned as a political alliance against Catholic princes and armies.

It was broadly understood by princes and clergy alike that institutional abuses hindered the practices of the faithful. A council to examine abuses and to suggest and implement reforms had been called by Pope Paul III for 1537; despite efforts by Charles V and Pope Paul, who initiated several internal institutional reforms, efforts to unify the two strands of belief failed, largely of different concepts of “Church” and justification. The Schmalkaldic League called its own ecumenical council in 1537, and set forward several precepts of faith; in addition, Philipp Melancthon wrote a scathing condemnation of the papal authority, labeling the pope as the anti-Christ. By the mid 1540s, Catholic and Lutheran adherents seemed further apart than ever; in only a few towns and cities were Lutherans and Catholics able to live together in any sort of harmony, such as Augsburg, Donauwörth and Donaueschingen. Political disagreements overlapped with religious issues, making any kind of peace seem remote.

The Treaty of Augsburg, then, became a primary mechanism for peace, if not unity, in the German states. Through it, three important principles were established. First, the principle of Cuius regio, eius religio provided for internal religious unity within a state: the religion of the prince became the religion of the state and all its inhabitants. Those inhabitants who could not conform to the prince's religion were allowed to leave, an innovative idea in the 16th century. The second principle covered the special status of the ecclesiastical states, ecclesiastical reservation. If the prelate of an ecclesiastic state changed his religion, the men and women living in that state did not have to do so. Instead, the prelate was expected to resign from his post, although this was not spelled out in the Treaty. The third primary principle, know as Ferdinand's declaration (named after Charles V's brother, who negotiated the treaty), exempted knights and some of the cities of ecclesiastical princes, if the reformed religion had been practiced there since the mid-1520s. Furthermore, it allowed for a few mixed cities and towns, where Catholics and Lutherans had lived together. Thus the Treaty of Augsburg became the legitimating legal document governing the co-existence of Lutheran and Catholic faiths in the German lands of the Holy Roman Empire.

Cause of the war

The conversion of the Archbishop of Cologne Gebhard, Seneschal of Waldburg to Protestantism, and the subsequent implication that this conversion would transform the important city into a secular, dynastic duchy, triggered repercussions throughout the Holy Roman Empire. His conversion had widespread implications for the future of the Holy Roman Empire’s electoral process: the Imperial Electors chose the successors of to the imperial crown of the Empire. Established by the Golden Bull of 1356, seven electors selected the future emperor. This included four secular electors of Bohemia, Brandenburg, Palatine of the Rhine, and Saxony balanced with three spiritual electors: the Archbishop of Mainz, the Archbishop of Trier, and the Archbishop of Cologne. Each elector controlled some of the richest territories in the Holy Roman Empire. The presence of at least three Catholic electors, who oversaw some of the most prosperous territory in the empire, guaranteed the delicate balance of Catholic and Protestant in the college.

Furthermore, under the established principle of ecclesiastical reservation, Gebhard’s conversion raised questions of leadership within the city and the chapter of ecclesiastics at the cathedral. Other archbishops of Cologne had also converted to Protestantism, but Hermann von Wied and Salentin von Isenburg-Grenzau had resigned from their office upon their conversion. Unlike his predecessors, Gebhard proclaimed the Reformation, in the style of Calvinism, from the city’s Catholic cathedral, angering the city’s Catholic leadership and alienating the Cathedral chapter. He placed the evangelical confession on parity with the Catholic one; furthermore, Gebhard adhered to the teachings of John Calvin, not Martin Luther; Calvinism was not a form of religious observation approved in the Augsburg conventions of 1555.

Gebhard von Waldburg-Trauchburg, whose conversion to Protestantism triggered the war

When Gebhard married the Protestant countess Agnes von Mansfeld-Eisleben, a former abbess with whom he had conducted an affair since circa 1579, Pope Gregory XIII excommunicated him on February 2, 1583 and the chapter deposed him. The chapter elected the 29 year old canon, Ernst of Bavaria, brother of the William V, Duke of Bavaria, to fill the vacancy, thus insuring the involvement of Wittelsbach diplomacy, troops, and funds in any potential military conflict.

Course of the war

The war was fought between the supporters of Gebhard, and with him the allied troops of the Protestant Palatine, against Bavarian troops and Bavaria’s allies, the Spanish Netherlands. Gebhard had the foresight to gather some troops around him, and planned to recruit support from the Lutheran princes. Unfortunately for him, he had converted to another branch of the Reformed faith; such cautious Lutheran princes as Augustus I, Elector of Saxony balked at extending their military support to Calvinists and the Elector Palatine was unable to persuade him to join the cause. Efforts to engage other important cities, such as Strasbourg, failed. Eventually Gebhard called upon William of Orange for assistance, drawing in the troops of the United Netherlands as well.

The course of the war was incredibly destructive, although concentrated in the region around Cologne. Entire regions of states and cities were besieged and plundered, and several were destroyed. In the initial weeks of fighting, three regions were completed overrun: Wevelinghoven, Hülchrath, Deutz, which lay across the Rhine River from the Cologne itself, Rheinberg and Linz am Rhein, and a line of small towns and villages the Neuss region, from present-day Dusseldorf to Nordrhein Westfalen. Spanish and Bavarian troops over-ran Godesberg in 1583. A month later, under the command of Ernst, the newly elected archbishop of Cologne, they drove Gebhard to Westphalia, where he took refuge in the fortress Werl. By 1586, Gebhard’s forces were hard pressed and outnumbered by the Bavarian and Spanish forces and after the destruction of Bonn in late 1587, Gebhard retreated to The Hague, where he gave up the war in 1588.

Aftermath

His victory confirmed Ernst of Bavaria as the new archbishop of Cologne, giving the Wittelsbach family a foothold on the northern Rhine, and confirming the Catholic oligarchy in the city. Ernst's presence there, and the presence of his four Wittelsbach successors until 1761, also strengthened the position of the family in Imperial politics. The victory of the Catholic party further strengthened the Catholic counter-reformation in the northwest territories of the Holy Roman Empire, especially in the bishoprics of Liege, Munster, Paderborn, Osnabruck and Minden, which were surrounded by Protestant territories. In addition, the use of troops from the Spanish Netherlands, on the Catholic side, and the Netherlands, on the Protestant side, „internationalized“ the German confessional problem, which came to a crisis in the Thirty Years War, and was not resolved until 1650.

Weblinks

Short explanation of the war (in German)