Protestant Union

The Protestant Union or Evangelical Union (German: Protestantische Union) was a coalition of Protestant German states that was formed in 1608 by Frederick IV, Elector Palatine in order to defend the rights, lands and person of each member. It dissolved in 1621.

The union was formed after two events. First of all, the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II and Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria reestablished Roman Catholicism in Donauwörth in 1607. Secondly, in 1608, a majority of the Imperial Diet had decided that the renewal of the Peace of Augsburg of 1555 should be conditional upon the restoration of all church land appropriated since 1552. The Protestant princes met in Auhausen, near Nördlingen and on May 14, 1608, formed a military league of the Protestant states under the leadership of Frederick IV of the Palatinate. In response, the Catholic League was formed in the following year, headed by Duke Maximilian of Bavaria.

Members of the Protestant Union included the Palatinate, Neuburg, Württemberg, Baden-Durlach, Ansbach, Bayreuth, Anhalt, Zweibrücken, Oettingen, Hesse-Kassel, Brandenburg, and the free cities of Ulm, Strasbourg, Nuremberg, Rothenburg, Windhseim, Schweinfurt, Weissenburg, Nördlingen, Schwäbisch Hall, Heilbronn, Memmingen, Kempten, Landau, Worms, Speyer, Aalen and Giengen.

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