Palatinate-Neuburg

A coalition of Protestant German states from the Protestant Union or League of Evangelical Union (also known as the Evangelical Union or Union of Auhausen), to defend the rights, lands and person of each member following the establishment, by the Holy Roman Emperor and Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria, of Roman Catholicism in Donauwörth in 1607 and after a majority of the Reichstag have decided in 1608 that the renewal of the Peace of Augsburg of 1555 should be conditional upon the restoration of all church land appropriated since 1552.

Meeting on May 14, 1608, in Auhausen, near Nördlingen, the Protestant princes of the Palatinate, Anhalt, Neuburg, Württemberg, Baden, Ansbach, Bayreuth, Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), Brandenburg, Ulm, Strasbourg and Nürnberg form a military league under the leadership of Frederick IV of the Palatinate.

The Protestant Union is weakened from the start by the non-participation of several powerful Protestant rulers, such as the Elector of Saxony.

The Union is also beset by internal strife between its Lutheran and Calvinist members.

The throne of Jülich-Cleves-Berg is claimed by both Wolfgang William, Count Palatine of Neuburg, and Elector John Sigismund of Brandenburg, at the death of Duke John William on March 25, 1609, with no legitimate successors.

Both King Henry IV of France and representatives of the Dutch Republic are suspicious of the possibility that Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II of Habsburg will seize the throne of Jülich-Cleves-Berg.

Emperor Rudolph does contemplate annexing more territories to extend Habsburg possessions in the Low Countries.

Troops from the Holy Roman Empire ultimately occupy the fortress at Jülich.

Emperor Rudolf eventually retracts his claim to the throne of Jülich and for a brief time supports the House of Wettin (Duke of Saxony) and their claim to Jülich-Cleves-Berg.

However, the claim made by the House of Wettin is ultimately withdrawn.

The conflict gains momentum when Duke Wolfgang William and Elector John Sigismund establish their respective claims to the throne.

King Henry IV of France suggests that the lands be divided between both Duke William and Elector Sigismund.

The Count of Hesse recommends that both individuals rule Jülich-Cleves-Berg jointly.

Both claimants agree to rule together and they also promise to maintain religious tolerance enshrined in the Dortmund Recess developed on June 10, 1609.

The fortress at Jülich, although still occupied by Emperor Rudolph's forces, is eventually besieged on July 28, 1610, by Dutch, Brandenburg and Palatine forces.

The siege of Jülich ends on September 2, 1610, when the fortress surrenders and Imperial troops withdraw.

The conduct of the Protestant Union in the Jülich dispute and the warlike operations of the Union army in Alsace seems to make a battle between the Catholic League and Union inevitable.

Historically, the Jülich-Cleves War is recognized as a precursor to the Thirty Years' War.

The union of Protestant princes, formed at the beginning of the dispute over the duchies of the late and childless duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, still lacks several powerful Protestant rulers, such as the Elector of Saxony.

The conduct of the Union in the Jülich dispute and the warlike operations of the Union army in Alsace appear to make inevitable a battle between the Union and ...

...the military league of important Catholic states formed in response.

When Austria and Salzburg finally join in 1613, at Ratisbon, the assembly now appoints no less than three war-directors: Duke Maximilian, and Archdukes Albert and Maximilian of Austria.

The object of the League is now declared "a Christian legal defense."

The Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg have sought to expand their power base from their relatively meager possessions, although this brought them into conflict with neighboring states.

After John William, Duke of Julich-Cleves-Berg, died childless in 1609. his eldest niece, Anna, Duchess of Prussia, the wife of John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, had promptly claimed the inheritance; Brandenburg had sent troops to take hold of some of John William's holdings in the Rhineland.

Unfortunately for John Sigismund, this effort will become tied up with the Thirty Years' War and the disputed succession of Julich.

The cities of Cleves, Mark, Jülich, Berg, and Ravensburg, after the month-long War of the Jülich Succession, had rejected the Dortmund Recess since the accord had been developed without the consent of all five cities.

Overall, the five cities prefer to be represented by one prince rather than two.

The Dortmund Recess is ultimately replaced by the Treaty of Xanten, signed on November 14, 1614, and ending the Julich-Cleves War, today recognized as a precursor to the Thirty Years' War.