The Federalist Papers - Alexander Hamilton [332]
p. 126. a war of thirty years, in which the emperor…was on one side, and Sweden…on the opposite side: The Thirty Years’ War was an intermittent conflict in the period from 1618 to 1648 that permanently weakened the Holy Roman Empire and established France as the major power in seventeenth-century European politics. The war began in Bohemia, whose Protestant inhabitants resisted religious persecution by imperial authorities. During much of the war Sweden and France opposed Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Although religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants triggered the war, the treaty of Westphalia that put an end to hostilities in 1648 reflected the participants’ recognition of the realities of European political power in the seventeenth century. Under the terms of the treaty, each prince determined the religion of his subjects, the Holy Roman Empire was forced to recognize the sovereignty of numerous small states within its domain, and the Netherlands and Switzerland gained official recognition of their independence from Hapsburg rule.
p. 127. We may form some judgment…froma sample given by Thuanus: Jacques Auguste de Thou (1553–1617), also known as Thuanus, was a French historian and statesman. He was councillor of state under Henry III, master of the Royal Library, and president a` mortier in the Parliament of Paris under Henry IV. He played an important role in framing the Edict of Nantes (a declaration of religious toleration in 1598). His best-known work, the History of His Own Time (published posthumously in 1620), was favorably received by the public at large but vehemently attacked by the Catholic Church. The "sample" cited in The Federalist is a description of an incident typical of the political turmoil in seventeenth-century Germany. L’Abb Millot, de St. Croix was a leader of the Catholic minority in the free city of Donauwörth, in the Swabian region of southwestern Germany. His mistreatment at the hands of the city’s Protestant majority caused the emperor to revoke the municipal privileges and provided the pretext for the Duke of Bavaria’s conquest and annexation of the city in 1608.
p. 127n. Pfeffel…says the pretext was to indemnify himself…: Christian Friedrich Pfeffel (1726–1807) was a German historian and jurist. His principal work is the Chronological Epitome of the History of the Public Law of Germany, published in French in 1754.
p. 128. The connection amongthe Swiss cantonsscarcely amounts to a confederacy…: The cantons are local governing units of Switzerland. In 1291, Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, the three forest cantons, formed a confederation for mutual defense against the ruling Austrian Hapsburgs. During the following two centuries, the remaining cantons joined the confederation, which was recognized, under the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, as an independent state.
p. 129. a clause in their treaty of 1683 withVictor Amadeusof Savoy…: Victor Amadeus II (1666–1732) was Duke of Savoy from 1675. Straddling the Alps between what is now France and Italy, the former state of Savoy abutted and had once ruled parts of Switzerland.
p. 129. ofBerne, as the head of the Protestant association…: During the sixteenth century, Berne was the leading member of the Protestant faction of the Swiss Confederation. Encouraged by Ulrich Zwingli (Protestant leader of Zurich), Berne joined Zurich and several other cantons in a union (1528) designed