Schmalkaldic League

Connor, we're gonna record that, of course, as you know, in, like, two weeks from today, same time.

But in that, just for a sneak peek for our listeners, we'll be discussing the Augsburg Confession, the Small and Large Catechisms, uh, and if we have time, some of Ge- Luther's Genesis commentary and the formation of the Schmalkaldic League.

Uh, so those are, you know, uh, especially for, like, having...

I think you're the only Lutheran of the four of us who've been coming on this, on this series, Connor, [laughs] 'cause the other, the three of us are Episcopalian.

Francis had no intention of abiding by the Peace of Cambrai.

He had tried to intrigue with the Schmalkaldic League of Protestant princes in Germany, and was at the same time negotiating with the Pope, who, wishing to bring about the marriage of his kinswoman Catherine de Medici, then only thirteen years of age, with Henry of Orléans, the second son of Francis, was ready to agree to assist in the recovery of Milan and Genoa for the French king.

The marriage took place in 1533, but the death of Clement VII in September 1534, and the election of Cardinal Farnese as Pope Paul III, deprived Francis of the promised aid, and improved the position of Charles.

The French king, however, was determined to renew the war.

On his arrival, he adopted a conciliatory attitude toward the Protestant princes and talked of the reforms to be made by the Council of Trent.

For some time, failing to realize the Emperor's intentions, the League of Schmalkalde remained inactive, and when at last there could be no doubt that war would break out, the Protestants were divided in their councils.

Philip, the Landgrave of Hesse, the most beloved of all the German rulers, the one who had never feared the peasants but had been ready to listen to their requests, was the ablest commander of the Schmalkaldic League.

A Landgrave, however, could not command an elector, and John Frederick of Saxony, the most powerful member of the League and a loyal Protestant, was not a competent general.

He goes with Gardiner on an embassy to France in early fifteen thirty-two.

And then in the next year or two, he's used by the King to start to open up relations with the Schmalkaldic League.

Uh, the Schmalkaldic League was a, uh, an alliance of Protestants, uh, within the Holy Roman Empire who had formed an alli-- a military alliance to protect themselves if they came into conflict with the, the Catholic Charles V.

And Henry, as part of his campaign, was, was looking around for allies.

And he turns to the Schmalkaldic League in the early fifteen thirties, and Paget is the man he uses to make those first connections.

But then something goes wrong.

We don't quite know what.

Most of this document really deals with, with diplomacy.

1542 to 1544, France ended by Peace of Crepy.

1546 to 1547, Schmalkaldic League, Battle of Mühlberg.

1551 to 1562, Turkey ended by a seven years truce.

1552, War of Maurice's Succession ended by Convention of Passau.

Henry's fourth wife was Anne of Cleves, a German princess and sister to the Duke of Cleves.

Marriage negotiations were entered into as part of efforts to end England's international isolation by negotiating an alliance with the Schmalkaldic League, an association of small Lutheran principalities in Germany.

Henry commissioned the great Tudor court painter, Hans Holbein, to go to Germany and paint Anne's portrait.

When he received Holbein's depiction of her, Henry admired Anne's beauty and poise, but when she arrived in person to England, Henry expressed intense disappointment, screaming abuse at Thomas Cromwell, and exclaiming, "I like her not." Yet, because he had already alienated predominantly Catholic Europe, Henry did not wish to offend his new German allies, and so he duly married Anne of Cleves on the 6th of January, 1540.

Francis had no intention of abiding by the Peace of Cambrai.

He had tried to intrigue with the Schmalkaldic League of Protestant princes in Germany, and was at the same time negotiating with the Pope, who, wishing to bring about the marriage of his kinswoman, Catherine de Medici, then only thirteen years of age, with Henry of Orleans, the second son of Francis, was ready to agree to assist in the recovery of Milan and Genoa for the French king.

The marriage took place in fifteen thirty-three, but the death of Clement VII in September fifteen thirty-four, and the election of Cardinal Farnese as Pope Paul III, deprived Francis of the promised aid, and improved the position of Charles.

The French king, however, was determined to renew the war.

On his arrival he adopted a conciliatory attitude toward the Protestant princes and talked of the reforms to be made by the Council of Trent.

For some time, failing to realize the Emperor's intentions, the League of Schmalkalde remained inactive, and when at last there could be no doubt that war would break out, the Protestants were divided in their councils.

Philip, the Landgrave of Hesse, the most beloved of all the German rulers, the one who had never feared the peasants but had been ready to listen to their requests, was the ablest commander of the Schmalkaldic League.

A Landgrave, however, could not command an elector, and John Frederick of Saxony, the most powerful member of the League and a loyal Protestant, was not a competent general.

His plan was to compel the Pope to summon a general council at which the points in dispute between Catholics and Protestants should be settled.

But the Protestants refused to acknowledge such a council, and Charles, with the help of the Pope, declared war against the Schmalkaldic League in 1546.

Many Protestants helped him, for not all of them belonged to the League, and some hoped to get toleration without resistance to the authority of the state.

The chief leaders of the Schmalkaldic army were John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, and Philip, Landgrave of Hesse.

In Germany, it was terrible.

The Schmalkaldic League in 1546, in the year when Luther died, they fought the Catholics, and the Catholics fought the Protestants in Germany.

So it was terrible.

It was a mess.

If the Empire and France are possibly allied against him, there's no other powerhouse in Europe.

The closest that, that can come to that is something called the Schmalkaldic League, um, and this is a group of largely Protestant or Protestant-leaning, maybe sort of anti-papal city-states or other territories that have allied together, and, uh, Henry can now treat with them as a possibility against this, this larger force that is looming.

This is also part of Henry's need to have another wife.

It's not clear that he actually wants one immediately, strangely, but he does seem to have been relatively low of spirit in these years, and he spends his time doing the two things that occupy him best, which are correcting theological treaties and going hunting.