THE RELIGIOUS WARS OF EUROPE
The international policy of the second half of XVI and the first half of XVII centuries was determined by the division of European States into two religious camps. Of them greater cohesion and a more aggressive character differed the Catholic camp, at the head of which stood the Habsburgs, first the Spanish (during the time of Philip II), then Austria (during the thirty years war). Protestantism had defenders in the face of such rulers and politicians as Elizabeth of England, William of orange, Henry IV of France, Gustav Adolf of Sweden, and in the face of entire Nations whose national independence was threatened by a Catholic reaction. …
