Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

Volume I: Maximilian I to the Peace of Westphalia, 1493-1648

Joachim Whaley

Oxford History of Early Modern Europe

The first single-author account of German history from the Reformation to the early nineteenth century since Hajo Holborn's study written in the 1950s
Provides a full account of the history of the Holy Roman Empire
Challenges historians of modern German nationalism to revise their ideas about the alleged lack of a German national identity before 1800
Gives a full account of German religious movements from the Reformation to the early nineteenth century, and of their implications for the development of the Holy Roman Empire and German society
Engages with historiographical debates of recent decades

Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

Volume I: Maximilian I to the Peace of Westphalia, 1493-1648

Joachim Whaley

Oxford History of Early Modern Europe

Description

Germany and the Holy Roman Empire offers a striking new interpretation of a crucial era in German and European history, from the great reforms of 1495-1500 to the dissolution of the Reich in 1806. Over two volumes, Joachim Whaley rejects the notion that this was a long period of decline, and shows instead how imperial institutions developed in response to the crises of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, notably the Reformation and Thirty Years War. The impact of international developments on the Reich is also examined.

The first volume begins with an account of the reforms of the reign of Maximilian I and concludes with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. It offers a new interpretation of the Reformation, the Peasants' War, the Schmalkaldic War and the Peace of Augsburg, and of the post-Reformation development of Protestantism and Catholicism. The German policy successfully resisted the ambitions of Charles V and the repeated onslaughtsof both the Ottomans and the French, and it remained stable in the face of the French religious wars and the Dutch Revolt. The volume concludes with an analysis of the Thirty Years War as an essentially German constitutional conflict, triggered by the problems of the Habsburg dynasty and prolonged by the interventions of foreign powers. The Peace of Westphalia, which ended the conflict, both reflected the development of the German polity since the late fifteenth century and created teh framework for its development over the next hundred and fifty years.

Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

Volume I: Maximilian I to the Peace of Westphalia, 1493-1648

Joachim Whaley

Oxford History of Early Modern Europe

I: Introduction: Narratives of Early Modern German History
II. Germany and the Holy Roman Empire in 1500
1. Origins and Frontiers
2. The Reich as a Polity
3. Fragmented Territories
4. The Reich and the German Nation
III. The Reform of the Reich and the Church c. 1490-1519
1. The Reformation Era in German history
2. The Reich under Maximilian I
3. Reich, Papacy, and Reichskirche
4. Religious Renewal and the Laity
5. Humanism in the Reich
6. The 'Print Revolution' and the Public Sphere
7. Economic Landscapes, Communities, and their Grievances
8. Martin Luther and the 'Luther affair' 1517-19
IV. Charles V and the Challenge of the Reformation in the 1520s
1. The Reich During the First Decade of Charles V
2. Luther and Imperial Politics, 1519-1526
3. Luther and the German Reform Movement
4. Alternative Reformations and the Dominance of Lutheranism
5. The Knights' War, 1522-23
6. The Peasants' War 1525
7. Reformation in the Cities
V. Mastering the Reformation c. 1526-1555
1. The Emergence of Protestant Territories
2. The Persistence of Catholicism
3. Charles V, Ferdinand, and the Reich in Europe
4. The Establishment of Protestantism, 1526-1530
5. The Schmalkaldic League, its Counterparts and the Politics of the Reich, 1530-1541
6. Charles V as 'Lord of Germany', 1541-58
7. The Triumph of the Reich, 1548-1555
VI. Managing the Peace 1555-1618
1. Contours of the 'Confessional Age'
2. Emperors, Imperial Officials, and Estates after the Peace of Augsburg
3. Constitutional developments after 1555: Reichstag, Kreise, Courts, and Legislation
4. The Reich in Europe
5. Managing the Domestic Peace, 1555-c.1585
6. The Consensus Falters, c. 1585-1603
7. Paralysis, 1603-1614
8. Problems of the Habsburg Dynasty
9. The Reich in the Reign of Emperor Matthias, 1612-19
10. The Crisis of the Habsburg lands
VII. The German Territories and Cities after 1555
1. Problems of Interpretation
2. A Benign Environment?
3. State Formation?
4. Domestic Order and Defence
5. Confessionalisation?
6. Finance, Taxation, and Estates
7. The Resurgence of the Courts
8. Imperial Cities
9. Responding to Crises
VIII. The Thirty Years War 1618-1648
1. The Thirty Years War in German History
2. What Kind of Conflict?
3. The Reconquest of Austria and Bohemia, 1618-1623
4. Ferdinand Victorious
5. Denmark and the War for the Reich, 1623-29
6. What Kind of Reich? Sweden and the Defence of German Liberties, 1630-35
7. Wallenstein and After
8. France, Sweden, and the German Way, 1635-48
9. The Peace of Westphalia
10. The Impact of the War on German Society
11. The Thirty Years War and the German Polity
Glossary
Abbreviations
Bibliography

Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

Volume I: Maximilian I to the Peace of Westphalia, 1493-1648

Joachim Whaley

Oxford History of Early Modern Europe

Author Information

Joachim Whaley is Senior Lecturer in German, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages, University of Cambridge. Whaley read History at Christ's College Cambridge. He held Fellowships in History at Christ's College and Robinson College before becoming a Lecturer in German in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge, where he teaches German history, thought, and language. He is the author of Religious Toleration and Social Change in Hamburg 1529-1819 and of numerous articles on early modern and modern German history. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1984.

Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

Volume I: Maximilian I to the Peace of Westphalia, 1493-1648

Joachim Whaley

Oxford History of Early Modern Europe

Reviews and Awards

"Joachim Whaley crowns a long generation's work of demystifying the empire's history with these two large, learned, and impressive volumes...[A] magnificent achievement."--Journal of Modern History

"These two volumes offer an historical survey of roughly three centuries such as I have never before encountered. Joachim Whaley has produced a masterpiece. He has not overlooked anything at all. The two volumes are perfectly researched and the price of 130€ is more than reasonable. Anyone interested in modern history and in particular the history of Germany must read this work."--Fachbuch Kritik (review of the German edition)

"[A] pleasure to read...Whaley shows how the efforts to create an intellectual and political framework in the pre-constitutional era had lasting effects to the present."--Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (review of the German edition)

"[A] great achievement that he has introduced the English-speaking public to German history before the twentieth century in such a comprehensive manner and that he shows so decisively how the old national narrative has been revised. The sheer volume of the material that he employs also commands respect."--Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (review of the German edition)

"The new standard work on the period in which people still spoke of 'German liberties.'"--Die Zeit (review of the German edition)