The Thirty Years' War was fought between 1618 and 1648, principally on the territory of today's Germany, and involved most of the major European continental powers. Although it was ostensibly a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, the rivalry between the Habsburg dynasty and other powers was a more central motive, as shown by the fact that Catholic France under the de facto rule of Cardinal Richelieu supported the Protestant side in order to weaken the Habsburgs, thereby furthering France's position as the pre-eminent European power. This increased the France-Habsburg rivalry which led later to direct war between France and Spain.
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Noun 1. a series of conflicts (1618-1648) between Protestants and Catholics staring in Germany and spreading until France and Denmark and Sweden were opposing the Holy Roman Empire and Spain (hypernym) war, warfare (part-meronym) Lutzen, battle of Lutzen