Protestant Union of 1608

an alliance of the German Protestant princes of the Palatinate, Anhalt, Württemberg, and later Brandenburg, Hessen, and others and of the imperial cities of Strasbourg, Ulm, Nuremberg, and others.

The Protestant Union was in opposition to the Catholic League of 1609. The union had a common treasury and army and was supported by France, the Republic of the United Provinces (the Dutch Republic), and England. During the Bohemian Uprising of 1618–20, which began the Thirty Years’ War of 1618–48, the head of the Protestant Union, Frederick V of the Palatinate, was elected king of Bohemia. However, the union, whose members saw in the war primarily a means of expanding their possessions and political influence, did not give substantial assistance to Bohemia. In July 1620 the union concluded an accord with the Catholic League, granting the league complete freedom of action in Bohemia. In 1621, after the defeat of the Bohemian troops at White Mountain on Nov. 8, 1620, and the subsequent victories by the Hapsburg-Catholic bloc, the Protestant Union ceased to exist.