The Schmalkaldic League had quickly become more of a territorial political movement, as breaking from the Catholic Church offers significant economic advantages.

The league in December 1535 admits anyone who will subscribe to the Augsburg Confession, thus Anhalt, Württemberg, Pomerania, as well as the free imperial cities of Augsburg, Frankfurt am Main, and Kempten join the alliance.

Francis I of France, while vigorously persecuting Protestants at home, has nevertheless supported the Protestant princes from 1535  in their struggle against their common foe.

The Schmalkaldic League had allied in 1538 with newly reformed Denmark, and in 1539 the League acquires Brandenburg, which is under the leadership of Joachim II Hector.

Philip of Hesse is, with John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, a cofounder of the Schmalkaldic League, a defensive alliance of Lutheran princes within the Holy Roman Empire that has enabled the Reformation to take hold throughout Germany.

It had originated in 1531 as a defensive religious alliance, with the members pledging to defend each other should Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, attack their territories.

The League had quickly become more of a territorial political movement, as breaking from the Catholic Church offers significant economic advantages.

The league had in December 1535 admitted anyone who would subscribe to the Augsburg Confession, thus Anhalt, Württemberg, Pomerania, as well as the free imperial cities of Augsburg, Hanover, Frankfurt am Main, and Kempten have joined the alliance.

Francis I of France had joined the League against the Habsburgs in 1535, but later retracted due to religious conflicts from within.

It had allied in 1538 with newly reformed Denmark.

The League had in 1539 acquired Brandenburg, which is under the leadership of Joachim II Hector.

Philip, in effecting a bigamous marriage in 1540 to Margaret of Saale, has lost the support of many reformers, forcing him to make peace in 1541 with Emperor Charles.

The union of Protestant princes, formed at the beginning of the dispute over the duchies of the late and childless duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, still lacks several powerful Protestant rulers, such as the Elector of Saxony.

The conduct of the Union in the Jülich dispute and the warlike operations of the Union army in Alsace appear to make inevitable a battle between the Union and ...

...the military league of important Catholic states formed in response.

When Austria and Salzburg finally join in 1613, at Ratisbon, the assembly now appoints no less than three war-directors: Duke Maximilian, and Archdukes Albert and Maximilian of Austria.

The object of the League is now declared "a Christian legal defense."

The Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg have sought to expand their power base from their relatively meager possessions, although this brought them into conflict with neighboring states.

After John William, Duke of Julich-Cleves-Berg, died childless in 1609. his eldest niece, Anna, Duchess of Prussia, the wife of John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, had promptly claimed the inheritance; Brandenburg had sent troops to take hold of some of John William's holdings in the Rhineland.

Unfortunately for John Sigismund, this effort will become tied up with the Thirty Years' War and the disputed succession of Julich.

The cities of Cleves, Mark, Jülich, Berg, and Ravensburg, after the month-long War of the Jülich Succession, had rejected the Dortmund Recess since the accord had been developed without the consent of all five cities.

Overall, the five cities prefer to be represented by one prince rather than two.

The Dortmund Recess is ultimately replaced by the Treaty of Xanten, signed on November 14, 1614, and ending the Julich-Cleves War, today recognized as a precursor to the Thirty Years' War.

Palatinate-Neuburg takes the duchies of ...

...Jülich and ...

...Cleves and ...

...the County of Mark.