Thirty Years of War Trivia Quiz

Answer: Being thrown out a window

The three men who were defenestrated were Count Vilem Slavata of Chlum, Count Jaroslav Borzita of Martinice, and their secretary, Philip Fabricius, who represented the Catholic side in a dispute within the Holy Roman Empire. The three men survived the fall although which reason one believed seemed to depend on the side taken in the conflict. Supporters of the Catholic side said that miraculous intervention was responsible for the men's survival. Supporters of the Protestant side said that the men survived because they landed in a conveniently placed dung cart.


"Defenestration" is a neo-Latin word from "de" meaning out of or from and "fenestra" meaning window or opening. The event I described in the question is sometimes called the Second Defenestration because a similar incident occured in Prague in 1419 when a mob threw several individuals out a window who all, unfortunately, died from the fall.

Answer: The Winter King

Frederick V (1596-1632) was crowned King of Bohemia on November 04, 1619. His army disastrously lost the Battle of White Mountain--which effectively ended his reign--on November 08, 1620, Printed pamphlets from as early as 1619 described him as the Winter King.

He was more successful as the Elector of the Palatinate, ruling from 1610 to 1632. Frederick's wife, Elizabeth Stuart, was the daughter of James I of England/James VI of Scotland.

Answer: Catholic or Lutheran

Under the terms of the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, a local ruler could choose between Roman Catholicism or Lutheranism. This was not religious freedom as it would be understood today. Rather, this was the idea of "cuius regio, eius religio" ("whose region, his religion") or the ruler choosing which religion everyone in the area would practice. If the local ruler chose a religion that someone in the area did not want to follow, that person had a grace period to freely move to an area where the religion of his/her choice was practised. Calvinism was not an option under the Peace of Augsburg--a fact that helped to stir religious tensions in the Holy Roman Empire in the early seventeenth century.

Answer: France

Spain was ruled in the seventeenth century by a branch of the Habsburg Family and Austria (as well as the Holy Roman Empire) was ruled by another branch. Bohemia was also part of the Holy Roman Empire. France was surrounded on two sides by Habsburg lands (Spain to the south/southwest and to the north in the Spanish Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire to the east) and chose to ally with several nations including the United Provinces (today's Netherlands), Sweden, and England.

Answer: Sweden

Gustavus Adolphus (1596-1632) ruled Sweden from 1611 to his death and was known as "The Lion of the North" during his lifetime. He is generally considered a very successful monarch both militarily and politically. Eric Flint's "1632" series of alternate history novels includes Gustavus as an important secondary character who did not participate in the 1632 Battle of Lützen (where he lost his life).

Answer: Portugal

Portugal was held in union with Spain from 1580 to 1640 under the Spanish monarchs Philip II, Philip III, and Philip IV. The House of Braganza took the Portuguese throne and held it until 1910. During this time Norway was ruled by the Danish kings, Serbia was part of the Ottoman Empire, and Brittany was part of France.

Answer: John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough

John Churchill (1650-1722) was an important military leader during the Nine Years' War (1688-1697) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1714). Tilly was a field marshal who served the Catholic League. Wallenstein was a Bohemian nobleman who led his personal army on behalf of the Holy Roman Emperor. Christian IV was an active military commander in the early years of the war.

Answer: Holy Roman Empire

Estimates suggest that perhaps 20-30 percent of the population of the Holy Roman Empire died during the conflict. This is only an average as some areas were relatively lightly touched whereas in other areas the mortality rate may have been over 50 percent.

While battles accounted for a significant number of deaths, the spread of various diseases (including the plague) and starvation also played important roles in the mortality rate.

Answer: Peace of Westphalia

The Peace of Westphalia includes the Treaty of Münster and the Treaty of Osnabrück, both signed in 1648. Under the Peace of Westphalia, the Peace of Augsburg was expanded to include Calvinism along with Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism. The Congress of Vienna was an assembly in the 1814-1815 that met at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars.

The Treaty (singular) of Versailles was a peace treaty between the Allies and Germany at the end of World War I.

Answer: The Holy Roman Empire was strengthened

The Holy Roman Empire was in fact rather weaker at the end of the war. In addition to the recognized independence of Switzerland and the Netherlands (or Dutch Republic), many areas within the Empire had greater autonomy than they did before. The Portuguese played an important role in Ceylon (modern-day) Sri Lanka in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries before the Dutch gained an increased role in the mid-seventeenth century.

The Dutch also gained temporary control of parts of Brazil (then a Portuguese colony) during the Thirty Years' War.