Schmalkaldic League

Type Object Region Europe Time 1531–1547

A military-political alliance formed in 1531 by several German Protestant princes at Schmalkalden to jointly resist Catholic imperial suppression and…

Timeline

c. 1541–1545central Germany · Holy Roman EmpireIn the 1540s the league admitted more Protestant princes and cities, maintained mutual defense clauses and shared military funding, and served as collective bargaining and deterrent leverage during negotiations between Charles V and the Lutherans.
1546–1547battlefields of southern–central Germany · Holy Roman EmpireWar broke out in 1546 between the Empire and the Protestant league; league forces fought the coalition of Charles V and Catholic princes in Württemberg, Saxony, and elsewhere. After the defeat at Mühlberg in 1547 the league dissolved and the Protestant princes were harshly dealt with.

Sources

Brady, Thomas A. Jr. German Histories in the Age of Reformations, 1400–1650. Cambridge University Press, 2009. — Thomas A. Brady Jr. (2009)