Cologne War

E58868

The Cologne War was a late 16th-century conflict in the Holy Roman Empire sparked by a Catholic archbishop’s conversion to Protestantism, exemplifying the religious and political struggles of the European wars of religion.

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Statements (48)

Predicate Object
instanceOf European wars of religion
conflict
religious war
commanders Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma
Ernst of Bavaria
Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg
conflictType civil war within the Electorate of Cologne
endTime 1588
followedBy intensification of confessional tensions leading toward the Thirty Years' War
hasCause attempt to secularize the Electorate of Cologne
conflict over the ecclesiastical reservation in the Peace of Augsburg
conversion of Archbishop-Elector Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg to Calvinism
involves Army of Flanders
surface form: Spanish Army of Flanders

local territorial nobility of the Lower Rhine
troops from the Duchy of Bavaria
locatedIn Electorate of Cologne
Holy Roman Empire
Lower Rhine region
mainBelligerent Electorate of Cologne
surface form: Electorate of Cologne (Catholic faction)

Ernst of Bavaria
Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg
Protestant supporters of Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg
notableBattle Siege of Bonn (1587–1588)
Siege of Godesberg (1583)
opposedBy Dutch rebels
some Protestant German princes
partOf Counter-Reformation
European wars of religion
politicalConsequence prevention of a Protestant or secular Electorate of Cologne
reinforcement of Catholic control over an imperial electorate
precededBy Eighty Years' War
surface form: Dutch Revolt (early phases)
religiousConflictBetween Calvinism
Protestantism
Roman Catholicism
religiousConsequence consolidation of the Catholic Counter-Reformation in northwestern Germany
result Catholic victory
confirmation of Ernst of Bavaria as Archbishop-Elector of Cologne
expulsion of Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg as Elector
re-Catholicization of the Electorate of Cologne
strengthening of Catholic position on the Rhine
significance contributed to confessional polarization in the Holy Roman Empire
demonstrated limits of Protestant expansion into ecclesiastical principalities
first major test of the ecclesiastical reservation clause of the Peace of Augsburg
increased Spanish military presence in the Lower Rhine
startTime 1583
supportedBy Catholic League forces (proto-League alliances)
Duchy of Bavaria
Spanish monarchy
surface form: Spanish Monarchy

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.