Armed Conflict in East-Central Europe: Protestant Noble Opposition and Catholic Royalist Factions, 1604–20

Abstract

On the night of 14/15 October 1604 an irregular troop of cavalry launched a sudden attack on the imperial army which was advancing—foot soldiers, horses and baggage trains—through eastern Hungary. In a series of clashes the ambushed imperialists were utterly routed. The surprise victory set ablaze the northern border zone of Hungary, the only region where the Habsburgs had succeeded in maintaining themselves against the Turks. This national uprising marked the beginning of sixteen years of turmoil during which—in a geographically coherent stretch of East-Central Europe—war flared up, sometimes in one place, sometimes in another, and occasionally in several places simultaneously. Civil wars broke out or could (as in the case of Bohemia in 1609) be narrowly avoided by major concessions. The last act was reached on the morning of 8 November 1620, when the dream of a Bohemian kingdom free from Habsburg control was finally crushed in the bombardment by Bavarian and imperial troops on the White Mountain near Prague.