The Thirty Years' War - James Aitken Wylie

evolution of political results, however, is slow, and
they are often as quickly lost as they had been
tediously and laboriously won.
This great war divides itself into three grand
periods, the first being from 1618 to 1630. That
was the epoch of the imperial victories. Almost
defeated at the outset, Ferdinand II brought back
success to his standards by the aid of Wallensiein
and his immense hordes; and in proportion as the
imperial host triumphed, Ferdinand's claims on
Germany rose higher and higher: his object being
to make his will as absolute and arbitrary over the
whole Fatherland as it was in his paternal estates of
Austria. In short, the emperor had revived the
project which his ancestor Charles V had so nearly
realized in his war with the princes of the
Schmalkald League – namely, that of making
himself the one sole master of Germany.
At the end of the first period we find that the
Popish Power has spread itself like a mighty flood
over the whole of Germany to the North Sea. But
now, with the commencement of the second period
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