The Schmalkaldic League (; ; or ) was a military alliance of Lutheran princes within the Holy Roman Empire during the mid-16th century. It received its name from the town of Schmalkalden, which is located in modern Thuringia.
Although created for religious motives soon after the start of the Reformation, its members later came to have the intention that the League would replace the Holy Roman Empire as their focus of political allegiance.
While it was not the first alliance of its kind, unlike previous formations, such as the League of Torgau, the Schmalkaldic League had a substantial military to defend its political and religious interests.
Origins
The League was officially established on 27 February 1531 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, and John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, the two most powerful Protestant rulers in the Holy Roman Empire at the time. It originated as a defensive religious alliance, with the members pledging to defend each other if their territories were attacked by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. At the insistence of the Elector of Saxony, membership was conditional on agreement to the Lutheran Augsburg Confession or the Reformed Tetrapolitan Confession.
Nuremberg religious peace
The formation of the Schmalkaldic League in 1531 and the threatening attitude of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who, in April 1532, assumed the offensive with an army of 300,000 men, caused Ferdinand of Austria to grant the religious peace.
Ferdinand had made humiliating overtures to Suleiman and as long as he hoped for a favourable response, was not inclined to grant the peace, which the Protestants demanded at the Diet of Regensburg in April 1532. However, as the army of Suleiman drew nearer, he yielded, and on 23 July 1532 the peace was concluded at Nuremberg, where the final deliberations took place.
Those who supported the Reformation obtained religious liberty until the meeting of a council and in a separate compact all proceedings in matters of religion pending before the imperial chamber court were temporarily paused.
Growth
In December 1535, the League admitted anyone who would subscribe to the Augsburg Confession, and Anhalt, Württemberg, Pomerania, as well as the free imperial cities of Augsburg, Frankfurt am Main, and the Free Imperial City of Kempten joined the alliance.
In 1538, the Schmalkaldic League allied with the newly reformed Denmark-Norway. In 1545, the League gained the allegiance of the Electoral Palatinate, under the control of Frederick III, Elector Palatine.
In 1544, Denmark-Norway and the Holy Roman Empire signed the Treaty of Speyer, which stated that during the reign of Christian III, Denmark-Norway would maintain a peaceful foreign policy towards the Holy Roman Empire. The league would also get limited support from Brandenburg under Joachim II Hector, but during the Schmalkaldic War he would send cavalry support to the Emperor against the league.
Activities
The League's members agreed to provide 10,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry for their mutual protection. They rarely provoked Charles directly but confiscated church land, expelled bishops and Catholic princes and helped spread Lutheranism throughout northern Germany.
Martin Luther planned to present to the League the Smalcald Articles, a stricter Protestant confession, during a meeting in 1537.
Luther attended the critical meeting in 1537 but spent most of his time suffering from kidney stones. The rulers and princes even met in the home at which Luther was staying. Though Luther was asked to prepare the articles of faith that came to be known as the Smalcald Articles, they were not formally adopted at the time of the meeting, but in 1580, they were included in the Book of Concord.
Political environment
For 15 years, the League existed without opposition because Charles was busy fighting wars with France and the Ottoman Empire. Overall, the Ottoman–Habsburg Wars lasted from 1526 to 1571.
In 1535, Francis I of France, despite vigorously persecuting Protestants at home, supported the Protestant princes in their struggle against their common foe, Charles.
The tactical support ended in 1544 with the signing of the Treaty of Crépy in which the French king, who was fighting the Emperor in Italy, pledged to stop backing the Protestant princes and the League in Germany.
In 1535, Charles led the Conquest of Tunis. Francis, in an effort to limit the power of the Habsburgs, allied with Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire and formed a Franco-Ottoman alliance. The Italian War of 1536–38 between France and the Holy Roman Empire ended in 1538 with the Truce of Nice.