The Thirty Years’ War is a war of religion still under way in 1648, “a war that has already lasted 30 years and has basically destroyed Europe”.
| Type | Event (war) |
| Date | Ongoing in 1648 |
| Sides | Protestants of Bohemia; the Habsburgs |
| Spanish entry | Guerra de los Treinta Años |
Situation
“The Thirty Years’ War has reached its 30” and is not over. “They are killing everyone in Europe”: the whole continent is its theater. “It is a world of religious wars”, and the sides are confessional.
The war is known through its effects: many soldiers on the roads (“they have seen many soldiers lately”), rising taxes, men raised in combat from childhood. Where it passes, it spares no one: “they took everyone: women and sons and daughters”. Hostilities pause and “in spring the campaigns begin again”.
Theaters
- Bohemia, site of the “worst Protestant wars of the Bohemia region”, where the two soldiers were raised.
- The War of Catalonia, under way, which explains the soldiers on the roads.
The campaign of Condé is mentioned in the same 1648 context.
The border
In the territory where part of this chronicle takes place, “the war has not reached here”. The war’s advance is expected: “the war is coming”.
Conflicting accounts
- The dead are put at “close to 4 million people for what that era was”; others say more, “probably double”.
Open questions
- Alliances and military objectives are not recorded.
- Whether Catalonia is a theater of the great war, a parallel conflict or something distinct is not established.
- The name of the territory the war has not reached, its distance from the front and what has spared it are unknown.
- How much taxes rise and who collects them is unknown.