Schmalkaldic War After Charles made peace with Francis, he focused on suppressing Protestant resistance within his empire. From 1546 to 1547, in what is known as the Schmalkaldic War, Charles and his allies fought the League over the territories of Ernestine Saxony and Albertine Saxony. Although the League's military forces may have been superior, its leaders were incompetent and unable to agree on any definitive battle plans. Despite the fact that Pope Paul III withdrew his troops from the Imperial forces and halved his subsidy, on 24 April 1547, the imperial forces gathered by Charles routed the League's forces at the Battle of Mühlberg, capturing many leaders, including, most notably, Johann Frederick the Magnanimous. Philip of Hesse tried to negotiate, but the emperor refused, and Philip surrendered in May. In theory, that meant that the residents of thirty different cities were returned to Catholicism, but that was not the case. The battle effectively won the war for Charles; only two cities continued to resist. Many of the princes and key reformers, such as Martin Bucer, fled to England, where they directly influenced the English Reformation. Aftermath In 1548, the victorious Charles forced the Schmalkaldic League to agree to the terms set forth in the Augsburg Interim. However, by the 1550s, Protestantism had established itself too firmly within Central Europe to be ended by brute force. A small Protestant victory in 1552 forced Charles to flee across the Alps to avoid capture; the heir Ferdinand (King of the Romans) signed the Peace of Passau, which granted some freedoms to Protestants and ended all of Charles' hopes of religious unity within his empire. Three years later, the Peace of Augsburg granted Lutheranism official status within the Holy Roman Empire and let princes choose the official religion within the domains that they controlled, according to the principle of Cuius regio, eius religio. See also Other Protestant leagues: League of Torgau (1526–1531), the earliest league of Protestant princes against the Catholic League of Dessau, succeeded by the Schmalkaldic League Protestant Union (1608–1621), a league of Protestant states against the Catholic League Heilbronn League (1633–1648), a league of western and southern Protestant German states under Swedish and French guidance Notes Bibliography External links The Schmalkaldic League (1530/1 – 1547) at about.com The Schmalkaldic War – World History at KMLA Schmalkaldischer Bund 1531 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire