When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

30YearsWar #14: 'Bohemian Rampancy'

06.10.2020 - By Zack TwamleyPlay

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You know what those Bohemians needed? Historical fiction! Matchlock is a historical fiction series set during the Thirty Years' War, beginning in 1622, when Matthew Lock lands in Europe to investigate the brutal murder of his parents. Order your copy of Matchlock and the Embassy by clicking here.

Episode 14 of the Thirty Years War, 'Bohemian Rampancy', is out NOW!

Other than the ingenious title, what else does this episode offer? First and foremost, it offers and unparalleled look at Bohemia in the second decade of the 17th century. It is here that the Thirty Years War would be touched off, but precisely how would this transpire? At the heart of Bohemia’s problems, Wedgewood claimed, was a ‘dismal confusion’, but it certainly didn’t help that Bohemia itself was at the centre of the Habsburg hereditary lands. There could be no rest, and no relenting, from creating in Bohemia the kind of Kingdom Ferdinand II had always envisioned. Unfortunately for Ferdinand, the Bohemians had seen him coming.

Years of chafing under Habsburg rule had moved the Bohemians to demand a list of privileges, called the Letters of Majesty. This effectively granted Bohemia religious toleration before it was cool, though this was anything but cool to Ferdinand. In an era when religious uniformity and loyalty to the state were considered to be one and the same, it was impossible for Ferdinand to allow the religiously diverse Bohemia to continue on as it had under his cousins. Various trains were set in motion, the most ruinous of which lay in Ferdinand’s own intolerant personality, and which would explode into Prague in a matter of months. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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