Confessional (Reformation) Diplomacy

Osborne, Toby

Abstract

Confessional diplomacy is a term used by historians principally to characterize European diplomacy, especially in the Holy Roman Empire, in the wake of the Reformation, usually up to the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648. In a context where emerging Lutheran Protestant powers were seeking to protect themselves from the late 1520s onwards, alliances developed principally amongst Lutherans on the one hand, and Catholic powers on the other, and to a lesser degree, and further afield from the later sixteenth century, amongst Calvinist powers too as a third confessional grouping. Added to this, there was a persistent set of divisions between Christian powers and the Ottomans, bringing a broader set of religious issues to early modern diplomacy.

Citation

Osborne, T. (2018). Confessional (Reformation) Diplomacy. In G. Martel (Ed.), The encyclopedia of diplomacy. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118885154.dipl0404

• Online Publication Date: May 3, 2018
• Publication Date: May 3, 2018
• Deposit Date: Apr 11, 2018
• Publisher: Wiley
• Book Title: The encyclopedia of diplomacy.
• ISBN: 9781118887912
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118885154.dipl0404
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1636392