Germany stands in the center of Europe, and on her soil all the great international struggles have been fought, – the Thirty Years' War, the early campaigns of the Spanish Succession War, the Seven Years' War, the gigantic wars against Napoleon. It is the custom for modern educators to recommend the study of the history of France as a guiding thread through the intricacies of general European history; but is this choice justifiable? The two great, omnipresent factors of the whole medieval period are the Papacy and the Empire; the Empire was German from the ninth to the nineteenth century, – from the days of Charlemagne until the days of Francis II., – and the Empire interfered in the affairs of the Papacy and of Italy far more than did France. When we come to the period of the Reformation, surely Luther and his kind were more prominent than the French reformers, and the Emperor Charles V. had more to do with the affairs of Europe than any of the French kings. In the Thirty Years' War, larger interests were at stake than in the Huguenot struggles, and the German Peace of Westphalia necessitated a recasting of the whole map of Europe.
Contents: The Early Germans. The Rise and Fall of the Carolingians. The Relations between Church and State under the Saxon and Franconian Emperors. The Popes and the Hohenstaufens. The Age of Chivalry. The Kings from Different Houses. The Rulers of the House of Luxemburg. The Teutonic Order and the Hanseatic League. The Era of the Church Councils. German Life on the Eve of the Reformation. Martin Luther and the Emperor Charles V. Friends and Allies of the Reformation. Anabaptism and Civil War. The Emperors Wars and the Protestant Party in Germany. Charles V at War with the Protestant Princes. The Roman Catholic Reaction. The Beginning of the Thirty Years' War. The Career of Wallenstein, the Intervention of Foreign Powers, and the Peace of Westphalia.
Contents: The Early Germans. The Rise and Fall of the Carolingians. The Relations between Church and State under the Saxon and Franconian Emperors. The Popes and the Hohenstaufens. The Age of Chivalry. The Kings from Different Houses. The Rulers of the House of Luxemburg. The Teutonic Order and the Hanseatic League. The Era of the Church Councils. German Life on the Eve of the Reformation. Martin Luther and the Emperor Charles V. Friends and Allies of the Reformation. Anabaptism and Civil War. The Emperors Wars and the Protestant Party in Germany. Charles V at War with the Protestant Princes. The Roman Catholic Reaction. The Beginning of the Thirty Years' War. The Career of Wallenstein, the Intervention of Foreign Powers, and the Peace of Westphalia.
