The Treaty of Ryswick - The End of the Nine Years' War

The Nine Years' War, also know by many as the War of the Grand Alliance, was a major conflict fought in the late 17th Century between King Louis XIV of France and a European wide coalition, which was led by the Anglo-Dutch Stadtholder-King Wiliam III, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, King Charles II of Spain, Victor Amadeus II of Savoy and many other minor princes in the Holy Roman Empire.

The War itself was main fought in mainland Europe and in its surrounding water ways, but it also spread to Ireland and Scotland, and spread between English and French settlers in the Americas. It is largely classified as the second of Louis XIV's three major wars.

The War was fought between September 1688 and September 1697, and ended with Louis XIV accepting William III of Orange as the King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The Treaty of Ryswick officially ended the war. Negotiations started in May. The French wanted it to take place in The Hague, while the Allies wanted it to take place in Delft. They settled on a location in between the two towns, at the Huis ter Nieuburg Palace in Ryswick.

After a few weeks, negotiations had gone nowhere, and many believed the war would continue for years to come. This was when William III of Orange and Louis XIV agreed to let a representative from each party meet in private. Almost as if no conflict every existed, the two drew up terms of an agreement. The only problem was that Spain and the Holy Roman Empire would not agree to all the terms of the Peace Treaty.

Fearing a continued conflict, Spain reluctantly agreed to the terms and three of the four parties signed the Treaty on September 20th. Once the treaty was signed the battlefields went quiet, as the only belligerent power left was the Holy Roman Empire, but they had no enemy left to fight. William III of Orange quietly convinced Leopold to make peace with France, and the Holy Roman Empire signed on to the treaty, just over one month later, on October 30th.

The main basis of the treaty was that all towns and districts taken since the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1679 would be restored, as well as several other territorial sessions.

The Map of Europe Following the Nine Years' War

Remembering History - The Treaty of Ryswick

The Thirty Years War - An all European Conflict

CC 2.5, 2.0 and 1.0 

Throughout history there have been numerous conflicts that encompassed large portions of Europe, yet there very few that compare to the scale of warfare seen during the Thirty Years War.

The Thirty Years War was a smaller series of wars, very much like the Northern Wars (previously written about) that were fought between 1618 and 1648 mainly in Central Europe (Modern. Germany) and involved most of the European Powers of the era. The Thirty Years War is remembered as one of the longest and most destructive in European history prior to the two World Wars. It is also one of the longest continuous wars in modern history.

Pinpointing the cause of the war is highly debated among historians, and no one can truly agree on a single cause that accurately explains the cause for war. Originally it was described as a religious war between Protestantism and Catholicism in the Holy Roman Empire, yet this theory weakens when it is realised that disputes within both religions over internal politics and the balance of power played a significant part in the wars escalation over the years.  As the years went on, the war became less about religion than it did about the continuation of the Bourbon-Habsburg Rivalry to control Europe.

The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 ended the war between German Lutherans and Catholics but did not resolve the underlying religious issues, which were made worse by the spread of Calvinism throughout Germany in the following years. Calvinism became a third major religion in the region that was not recognised by Augsburg.  The Holy Roman Empire, which was already fragmented in hundreds of small city states began to rival each other over religious beliefs, leading to what is considered to be a spill into surrounding states.

Without going in into extreme details, as you can study the conflict for yourself, the warfare within the Holy Roman Empire led to the Bohemian Revolt between 1618 and 1621 and again between 1621 and 1625, followed by the Huguenot Rebellion between 1620 and 1628, all of which had the support of the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottoman support led to the Danish Intervention (1625-29), the Swedish Intervention (1630-35), and the French Intervention (1635-48).



By the time of the Peace of Westphalia, an estimated 8,000,000 people were dead, and much of Europe lay in ruins. The Habsburg supremacy was curtailed, the rise of the Bourbon Dynasty began, the Rise of the Swedish Empire began its climax. The War led to the decline of feudalism, and the decentralisation of the Holy Roman Empire, and a decline in the influence of the Catholic Church in Europe.

List of Belligerents:

The Protestant States and Allies:

Sweden

France

Bohemia

Denmark-Norway (1625-1629)  

Saxony  

United Provinces of the Netherlands

Electorate of the Palatinate  

Brunswick-Luneburg

England  

Scotland  

Brandenburg-Prussia  

Transylvania  

Zaporozhian Cossacks  

Ottoman Empire  

Hungarian Anti-Habsburg Rebels

Against

Roman Catholic States and Allies:

Holy Roman Empire  (Catholic League, Austria, Kingdom of Hungary, and Kingdom of Croatia)

Spanish Empire  (including the Spanish Netherlands)

Denmark-Norway (1643-1645)

To learn more about the Thirty Years War please see: ]

The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy (2009) by Peter H. Wilson

The Thirty Years War (1982) by C.V. Wedgwood

The Thirty Years War (2002) by Stephen J. Lee  

Remembering History - the Thirty Years War, an All European Conflict with more than 8,000,000 Casualties