Violence and retaliation: civilian agency in Thuringia during the Thirty Years' War

By analyzing the Chronicon Thuringiae, recorded by Volkmar Happe, councilor to the Count of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, this paper focuses upon the civilian response to and perception of the violence of the Thirty Years War. Happes work illuminates the repercussions of the conflict upon the civilian population and their attempt to comprehend it. This project seeks to assess the agency of civilians in response to the pervasive hostility which characterized much of the interactions between soldiers and civilians. Many civilians chose to resist with equally ferocious acts of violence, demonstrating a level of agency not often ascribed to non-combatants. The chronicle reveals a world turned upside downviolence extending through all levels of society, often irrespective of religious creed or ostensible political loyalties. This paper will seek to address these issues of war, society, and religion from the level of the civilians caught up in the Thirty Years War.