The reasons why the Thirty Years War was so catastrophic can be seen in its origins. Once the Bohemians had been disposed of, a band of European rulers from Spain to Transylvania, goaded by motives holy, cunning or idiotic, saw good reasons to fight, golden if will-o’-the-wisp opportunities, political principles worth standing up for. In this churn of ambition and fear, the question of whether Ferdinand II was a sort of proto-Hitler can never be resolved.
