History Western Civilization 2: Lesson 25 Essay- (1) “What was the key issue that led to the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War? What religious accomodation was reached by Catholics and Protestants in the Peace of Westphalia?” (2) “What was the English Civil War about?” (3) “Who were the Levellers, and what did they believe?”

The key issue that led to the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ Warnwas that Frederick V was elected as the King of Bohemia. Frederick V was a Protestant who already got to be one of seven voters and when he was elected king he would be allowed to vote again for who would become the Holy Roman Emperor. There were two other nations who would definitely vote for a Protestant emperor, so this gave the Protestants four votes and the Catholics three votes. Most of the Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire would not tolerate a Protestant emperor, so they supported Ferdinand, the previous king, in his war to take Bohemia back from Frederick V. The Peace of Westphalia said that no matter where a Protestant or Catholic lived he would be able to worship freely. An example would be that a Protestant living in a Catholic territory could worship without harassment and the other way around.

The English Civil War happened because people were concerned with King Charles I absolutist style of governing. People were upset because Charles wanted to get rid of Parliament. There was a small religious concern that Charles was trying to bring Catholicism back to England, but this was not the primary concern of the people.

The Levellers were people living in England during the English Civil War who had libertarian ideas. The Levellers believed that everyone has equality of rights. They believed that you own yourself and that you have the best claim to control your body how you want to. They believed that people should not be able to physically force you to do things you do not want to do.