'The Last Valley ' film (1971) directed by James Clavell

                        Fiction set in the Thirty Years War

Sack of Magdeburg 1631 -  by  Matthäus Merian de Oude  (1659)  In public domain courtesy of Wikipedia 

The Thirty Years War 1618- 1648 currently does not receive a great deal of attention in Britain. James I and Charles I were both keen to keep their realm out of the conflict, and then the  British and Irish Civil Wars dominated the mid 17th century. England and Scotland may been have drawn in if James elder son and  heir apparent Henry, an enthusiastic Protestant who died in 1612, had ascended the throne,  

Yet  the Thirty Years War brought devastating misery to central Europe.As well as hundreds of thousands of combatants being killed or wounded, the civilian casualties -caught in the conflict, but also facing famine and plague- numbered in their millions. The conflict is often portrayed as a religious war between Catholic forces  keen to maintain the centuries old privileges of the Holy Roman Empire ( covering modern day Germany and Austria) fighting German, Swedish, Danish  Dutch, Protestants. However there are complexities involved.  There could be a stark  division between Calvinism and Lutherism amongst the anti-Catholic forces. There were also the French Catholics who were opposed to Imperial power being more inclined toward the Protestant side. The territorial rivalry between different states has to be factored in, and the fighting began to spread to other lands. Certainly it is possible to argue that the Thirty Years War was the last major European war where religious division played a major role. 

I was interested to read some research from St Andrews University which suggested that as many as 50,000 men from England (alone) took part in the conficlt. There were also Scottish mercenaries led by James King, later Lord Eythin who were involved. The question of the military knowledge that they brought back is beyond the scope of this post. 

And the list of Thirty Years War veterans who later took part in the Civil Wars is quite long. Prince Rupert,was born in Prague in 1619, whose mother Elizabeth was daugther to James .  The whole family were soon exiled to the Dutch Republic. Rupert joined the conflict at the age of 14 in 1633.  He was captured after the battle of Vithlo in 1638 and  paroled after three years in prison. Lord Fairfax, General Monck,  Sydenham Poyntz, Colonel Massey, Lord George Goring, Sir William Waller, Sir Ralph Hopton, are amongst the other more famous Civil War soldiers who had previously  served on the continent during the Thirty Years War. Robert Monro, a Scot who served in the Danish and then Swedish armies wrote an acount of his experiences titled 'Monro his expedition with the worthy Scots regiment (called Mac-Keyes regiment' ), published in 1637. Munro fought in Scotland and ireland during the Civil Wars . 

It is hard to think of fiction set in the Thirty Years War written in  or translated into English.There is  Gunter Grass' 'Meeting at Telg' from 1979, which often is considered to be Grass' commentaries on the establishment of West German republic in 1961, rather than directly focusing on the 17th century.  There is also 'The Heaven's Pond' trilogy by Laura Libricz. I have read the first book 'The Master and the Maid', set on the eve of the Thirty Years War, and am about to start the second -'The Soldiers Return'. Not sure if the third book has been published yet. The there is Eric Fint's  '1632' or 'Ring of Fire' novels, where a village in the state of Virginia in the year 2000 suddenly gets transported to a German state during the Thirty Years War . There are now seven books in the series. 

Based on  the 1959 novel 'The Fat Valley' by J B ( John Barclay) Pick, the film 'The Last Valley' is  set in south west Germany around 1643 .Vogel ( played by Omar Sharif))  , a wandering scholar , is out begging on the road. He stumbles through a landscape devastated through war, starvation and plague. The captain of a largely Protestant  band of mercenaries  (played by Michael Caine)  are persuaded by Vogel to spend the winter in a relatiely sheltered tranquil valley, with its own shrine to the Virgin Mary.  The local , largely Catholic, peasants are spared the horrors of looting, rape and murder by agreeing to let said soldiers live amongst them, and offer enforced hospitality.  A number of the single women agree to be intimate with the soldiers.

Endless challenges emerge. The mercaneries themselves range from strict Protestants who want to destroy any Catholic iconaclism through to those who have lost their faith after seeing the horrors of war. The priest becomes meddlesome, maintaining that the strange uneasy peace that has been established is because the Virgin is protecting the Valley rather than acknowledging the  human cunning in negotiating a compromise. 

Both Vogel and The Captain emerge as atheists. Vogel appears to have lost his faith after the death of close family members during the 1631 sack of Magdeburg. The war weary Captain  eventually declares "There is no hell. Don't you understand? Because there is no God. There never was. Don't you understand. There is no God. It's a legend." 

 There is a Satanic witch portrayed quite sympathetically who is caught making spells. Although she  confesses, the priest has her tortured just to make sure that the Devil is  really driven out of her and gleefully intones Latin verses whilst the witch is bound to the stake. One of the most memorable scenes of the film.  In fact none of the religious believers seem to have any redeeming features about them. At best they are gullible and a bit vacant, at worst they are hypocrites and sadists. Overall a very hard hitting and challenging film. 

Worth catching on Youtube whilst it is still accessible. 

Links 

The Last Valley Full movie available on Youtube-without adverts ( accesssed on 2nd June 2022) 

Reading the Past blog  ' Writing novels about the Thirty Years War' by Laura Libriez (accessed 23rd May 2022) 

England, The English and the Thirty Years Wars, research from St Andrews Universiry (accessed 28th May 2022)

The song When Cannons are Roaring may have found its way from the Thirty Years Wars to the British and Irish Civil Wars

Other blogs from Michael Bully 

Bleak Chesney Wold   Charles Dickens /'dark' 19th century history blog launched 2nd February 2023 

1685 Monmouth Rebellion  Not currently updated 

13th century history   Not currently updated 

I would like to thank members of the British and Irish Civil Wars Facebook group for their help, also have consulted the British Civil Wars Project   database, However, any errors or schoolboy howlers are for me to own and not anyone else's responsibility. 

As ever welcome visitos from all around the world to this blog and thank you for your interest. 

Michael Bully 

5th June 2022. 

UPDATE 

Have had some great feedback on this post. With regard to Thirty Years War veterans who also took part in the British Civil Wars , an obvious contender that I totally left out was of course Prince Rupert's younger brother Maurice, who fought for the Dutch then the Swedish armies. Thank you (again) to the members of the British and Irish Civil Wars Facebook Group.

With regard to historical fiction set in the Thirty Years War, had some welcome references from another Blog reader : 'Magdeburg -A Novel' by Heather Richardson, 'Honour and the Sword'  (Chevalier 1) by A.L. Berridge, 'The Silver Wolf ' by J.C.Harvey.  Help much appreciated. 

Michael Bully

6th June 2022