Europe Facing East in the Age of Ottoman Power

From 1526 to 1606, the Habsburg–Ottoman contest for control of Hungary dominated the external affairs of central Europe. This was not simply a religious war in Germany, Catholics and Protestants were at times fighting each other. But in the period covered here (1540–1580) no European state could withstand the sultan’s armies. Austria’s Protestant nobles commanded the forces of their Catholic sovereigns. and in the Holy Roman Empire, after 1555, Protestant and Catholic estates joined against a common threat. Historian James Tracy explores the relative strengths of forces, Habsburg military strategies, and the futility of negotiating from a position of weakness. As “composite”’ states, the Habsburg Monarchy and the Holy Roman Empire are not thought to have functioned well, yet both showed a surprising resilience.