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50 free Thirty Years' War trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Thirty Years' War ran from 1618 to 1648 and killed somewhere between 4.5 and 8 million people, most of them civilians who died of plague and famine rather than battle. It began with two imperial officials being thrown from a window in Prague and ended with a congress in Westphalia that redrew the map of the Holy Roman Empire and, some argue, invented the modern sovereign state. These 50 questions walk through the whole conflict: the Bohemian Revolt and White Mountain, Christian IV's Danish gamble, Gustavus Adolphus landing in Pomerania, Breitenfeld and Lützen, Wallenstein's murder, Richelieu's money, Rocroi and the Swedish raid on Prague in the last months. Easy questions stick to dates, leaders and the big treaties; the expert tier asks about the Finnish shock cavalry, the Normaljahr, the Swedish village that lost 215 of 230 conscripts and the manuscript looted from Prague that now sits in Stockholm. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation that adds something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a history night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which years was the war fought?
1618 to 1648
The war's thirty years are usually dated from the Bohemian Revolt of 1618 to the Westphalian treaties signed in October 1648.
Q 02Where did most of the fighting take place?
Central Europe
Germany bore the brunt: parts of it reported population declines of more than 50 per cent.
Q 03Which 1648 settlement brought the war to an end?
Peace of Westphalia
Its terms included greater autonomy for Bavaria and Saxony, Swedish gains in northern Germany and Spain's acceptance of Dutch independence.
Q 04Which 1555 settlement split the empire into Catholic and Lutheran states?
Peace of Augsburg
Its principle was cuius regio, eius religio: a state's faith followed its ruler's. Calvinism, which it ignored, later undermined it.
Q 05Who replaced Ferdinand II as king of Bohemia in 1619, spreading the war to the Rhineland?
Frederick V of the Palatinate
Frederick was swiftly deposed, but his involvement dragged the Palatinate, and with it Spain and the Dutch, into the fighting.
Q 06Where were two of Ferdinand's officials thrown from a window in May 1618?
Prague Castle
Vilem Slavata, Jaroslav Borzita and their secretary Filip Fabricius all survived the fall in what became the Third Defenestration.
Q 07Which November 1620 battle destroyed the Bohemian army and sent Frederick fleeing?
White Mountain
After the defeat Frederick lived out his life in Dutch exile, dying in November 1632.
Q 08Who led the Imperial-Catholic League army that Maximilian funded against Bohemia in 1620?
Count Tilly
Tilly shared command with the Count de Bucquoy; the army pacified Upper and Lower Austria before marching on Prague.
Q 09Which Swedish king landed in Pomerania in June 1630 with nearly 18,000 troops?
Gustavus Adolphus
He had just finished a war with his Catholic cousin Sigismund of Poland, who also claimed the Swedish throne.
Q 10At which November 1632 battle was Gustavus killed?
Lützen
Some Swedish units lost over 60 per cent of their men, yet the Imperial army retreated at dusk and most historians call it a Swedish victory.
Q 11Which imperial generalissimo was assassinated by his own officers at Cheb in 1634?
Wallenstein
Rumours that he was about to switch sides led Ferdinand II to order his arrest; he was killed on 25 February.
Q 12Which French minister agreed to bankroll the Swedes under the 1631 Treaty of Bärwalde?
Cardinal Richelieu
French money bridged the gap between Sweden and wary German states like Saxony and Brandenburg.
Q 13Under the Treaty of Bärwalde, how many Reichstaler a year did France pay Sweden?
400,000
That was about one million livres, enough to keep 36,000 Swedish troops in the field.
Q 21Which Spanish commander needed to secure the Spanish Road before the Dutch truce expired?
Ambrosio Spinola
By 1618 the only stretch not in Spanish hands ran through the Electoral Palatinate, which is why Frederick's revolt mattered so much to Madrid.
Q 22What was the 'Spanish Road'?
An overland route from Italy to Flanders
It let Spain move troops by land rather than by sea, where the Dutch navy was dominant.
Q 23Which Dutch admiral beat the Spanish at the Downs in October 1639?
Maarten Tromp
Q 14Which city's sack in May 1631 became a warning of what imperial victory would mean?
Magdeburg
The diaries of Peter Hagendorf, a soldier who took part, remain one of the war's most vivid first-hand accounts.
Q 15At which September 1631 battle did Gustavus beat Tilly's traditionally organised army?
Breitenfeld
It is the textbook demonstration of the Swedish line formation with light artillery on each flank.
Q 16At which April 1632 battle was Tilly killed?
Rain
Rain on the river Lech opened Bavaria to the Swedes, whose supply lines were then cut at Fürth.
Q 17Which September 1634 defeat cost Sweden control of southern Germany?
Nördlingen
A Spanish army raised in Italy joined 15,000 Imperial troops and beat Horn and Bernard of Saxe-Weimar.
Q 18Ferdinand II's 1629 decree demanded the return of church lands taken after which year?
1555
Enforcing it would have redrawn nearly every state boundary in north and central Germany and denied Calvinism existed.
Q 19Which 1629 measure did Ferdinand II withdraw under the 1635 Peace of Prague?
Edict of Restitution
In exchange the German leagues dissolved their armies; the war stopped being a mainly inter-German religious fight.
Q 20In which year did France formally join the war as Sweden's ally?
1636
France had already opened its own war with Spain in May 1635; Sweden was by then heavily reliant on French money.
With the Spanish Road cut, Madrid had been forced to resupply Flanders by sea; the Downs ended that hope.
Q 24Which French commander crushed the Army of Flanders at Rocroi on 19 May 1643?
Condé
Rocroi ended any prospect of reopening the Spanish Road and finally made Madrid accept Dutch independence.
Q 25The Torstensson War began in December 1643 when Sweden invaded which Danish territory?
Jutland
Christian IV had been squeezing Dutch and Swedish trade with Baltic tolls; the Danes sued for peace after Fehmarn in 1644.
Q 26Christian IV of Denmark joined the war in 1625 as duke of which territory?
Holstein-Gottorp
The duchy made him a member of the Lower Saxon Circle, whose estates elected him their military commander.
Q 27Under the 1629 Treaty of Lübeck, Christian IV gave up which two bishoprics?
Bremen and Verden
He kept Schleswig and Holstein, which Denmark held until 1864, but its time as a major Baltic power was over.
Q 28At which August 1626 battle were the Danes comprehensively beaten?
Lutter
Mansfeld's army then retreated south towards the Ottoman Empire and dissolved after his death that November.
Q 29Which Scot did Gustavus send to hold Stralsund in 1628, also making him its governor?
Alexander Leslie
The imperial deputy von Arnim abandoned the siege on 4 August; it was the only port big enough to build an imperial Baltic fleet.
Q 30Frederick V married which daughter of James I of England in 1613?
Elizabeth
James later urged his son-in-law to refuse the Bohemian crown; Frederick accepted it anyway.