After a brief account of the 1612 Defenestration of Prague, the generally accepted starting point of the Thirty Years War, Part One goes back to set the context. In 260 pages this covers the Holy Roman Empire, the imperial constitution, religious divides, and the core Hapsburg lands. It also looks at Spain, the Baltic, the Turkish war, and the Dutch Revolt, with the last two also encompassing an introduction to seventeenth century military technology and tactics. And it ends with an account of the thirty years leading up to 1612.
The five hundred pages of Part Two are a detailed, blow-by-blow account of the military campaigns, with accounts of all the major battles, including twenty five battle plans. This also covers the logistical, financial and political context of military operations, and steps back when necessary to look at broader European politics, Spanish, French and Dutch as well as Imperial. There is more in this than most people are going to want, with some of the material perhaps appealing primarily to military historians. But this density does help to bring out the complex, messy, and contingent factors shaping both the outcomes of battles and their effects.
The battle maps in this are excellent, but for the broader theatre of war there is just one two-page map, which is hard to use and doesn't show all the places referred to in the text. Half a dozen regional maps, showing battle locations and army movements, would have greatly enhanced the reading experience.
The hundred pages in Part 3 cover the 1648 Westphalian Settlement and its implementation, and provide a broad evaluation of the effects of the war, looking at its demographic and economic costs and political and cultural impacts. There is also a survey of the experience of war, as seen in surviving personal testimonies, and a brief look at how it was commemorated.
Europe's Tragedy is a magisterial account, with Wilson using his command of the fine detail to create a powerful panorama.
October 2025
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