Schmalkaldic League

The Schmalkaldic League (English: ; German: Schmalkaldischer Bund; Medieval Latin: Foedus Smalcaldicum or Liga Smalcaldica) was a military alliance of Lutheran principalities and cities within the Holy Roman Empire during the mid-16th century. It received its name from the town of Schmalkalden, where the group was founded in 1531.

Although created for religious motives soon after the start of the Reformation, its members later came to have the intention that the League would replace the Holy Roman Empire as their focus of political allegiance.

While it was not the first alliance of its kind, unlike previous formations, such as the League of Torgau, the Schmalkaldic League had a substantial military to defend its political and religious interests.

Origins

The League was officially established on 27 February 1531 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, and John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, the two most powerful Protestant rulers in the Holy Roman Empire at the time. It originated as a defensive religious alliance, with the members pledging to defend each other if their territories were attacked by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. At the insistence of the Elector of Saxony, membership was conditional on agreement to the Lutheran Augsburg Confession or the Reformed Tetrapolitan Confession.

Nuremberg religious peace

The formation of the Schmalkaldic League in 1531 and the threatening attitude of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who, in April 1532, assumed the offensive with an army of 300,000 men, caused Ferdinand of Austria to grant the religious peace.

Ferdinand had made humiliating overtures to Suleiman and as long as he hoped for a favourable response, was not inclined to grant the peace, which the Protestants demanded at the Diet of Regensburg in April 1532. However, as the army of Suleiman drew nearer, he yielded, and on 23 July 1532 the peace was concluded at Nuremberg, where the final deliberations took place.