ABSTRACT
The abstention of all but a few historians from essaying a comprehensive account of the final period of the Thirty Years’ War reflects only too faithfully the weariness of the generation which, heartsick and hopeless, witnessed the last thirteen years of the struggle carried on in the central regions of Europe. War was actually declared by France against spain by a herald who made his appearance at Brussels on May 26, 1635; and the war which Richelieu had for some months been assiduously preparing was opened all along the line of the French eastern frontier. France was to carry on the war in the south-west, while the Austrian dominions were to be the concern of Sweden, who by accepting this arrangement implicitly renounced any claim to the undivided hegemony over the Protestant remnant in the Empire. Maximilian was, however, within a few months partly frightened, partly encouraged into a further change of policy.
