| Trier War | |||||
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| Belligerents | |||||
 Catholic Trier
| Protestant Trier
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||
| Ernst of Simmern
| Ferdinand the Desired
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The Trier War (1566-1574) was a conflict between Protestant and Catholic factions within the Archbishopric of Trier, an elector and traditionally ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire. The war was an important conflict during the Protestant Reformation, between the Peace of Passau and the Forty Years’ War, and was also a part of the Lotharingian Civil War.
The war occurred following the death of Archbishop Philip von Wied, who had converted Trier to Jungism in 1541. This conversion greatly disturbed the balance of power in the Imperial Electorate, and would have to be continually defended throughout Wied’s reign. Although the Peace of Passau had legalized Jungism within the Empire, under the principle of cuius regio, eius religio, or "whose rule, his religion", the eclesiastic principalities were envisioned as exempt from this privilege. Philip von Wied’s support for Henry X during the War of the Three Henrys allowed him to be accepted by the Emperor. However, upon the death of both Henry X and Philip von Wied this exception would be tested.
When the inevitable death of Philip von Wied came in 1566, a dispute arose over the future of Trier. Wied and his supporters had argued that Trier was formally converted to Jungism, and as such the next archbishop would likewise be a Jungist. This went unrecognized by the Catholics, who chose to view the tenure of Wied as a begrudgingly accepted but temporary blight in the history of the archbishopric, and sought to see him succeeded by a proper archbishop.
In particular the new elector of the Palatinate, Frederick IV, hoped to see Trier fall to one of his sons. This would unite the territories of the Catholic Wittelsbachs, as the lands of the Palatine and the Duchy of Jülich effectively surrounded Trier. Strategically this would lead to a solid bloc of Catholic territories on the western edge of the Empire, and would grant them control of the entire Rhine River.
Among the Protestants several nations had a vested interest in keeping Trier non-Catholic. Trier lied on the eastern border of Luxembourg in Belgica, and so Trier quickly became entangled in the Lotharingian Civil War. However, Belgica was also Wagnerist, worrying nearby Jungist nations such as Hesse that the Reformed faith would spread into the Rhineland.
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