THE 17TH CENTURY- A Time of Suffering

     Context is an important determinate of the joys and struggles we experience, and with that in mind, it is important to note that the 17th Century was a time of many struggles and few joys for our ancestors. Political power struggles and allegiances, personal ambitions and grudges, religious tension and violence, territorial disputes within Germany, and ordinary things like crop failures and disease beset the people of Germany... but none were more devastating the the Thirty Years War, which raged from 1619 to 1648. Initially a feud between Protestants and Catholics, the conflict rapidly became a power struggle between the King of France, the Habsburg rulers, and many other nations who thought they had a stake in the outcome. The Thirty Years War was the last major conflict over religion on the continent, and when it ended, all of the major participants in the struggle were nearly bankrupt and the population of Europe had been reduced considerably. Indeed, the population in the Palatinate fell by more than 50%... and their problems just kept coming.
      Louis XIV emerged from his war with the Dutch as the most powerful ruler in Europe, and he was driven to expand France's boundaries to their rightful place (which he considered to be the Rhine River). Thus, he ravaged southwest Germany in 1674, burning villages and destroying property as he went. His main interest was territorial expansion, but the fact that the Palatinate was predominantly Protestant made them an especially attractive target. Our ancestors were terrorized and victimized during the period, and after a brief period of peace... the French ravaged SW Germany again. In 1685, Louis XIV repealed the Edict of Nantes (which had given the Hugenots freedom to worship as they pleased), and thousands of these Protestants found safe haven in Germany and especially in SW Germany. This infuriated Louis and gave him an excuse to ravage the Palatinate again. The record shows that "villages without number were given to the flames" and that "many inhabitants were butchered." (Sanford Cobb, p 40)... and as if this wasn't trouble enough, the winter of 1709 was devastating. It is said that fire would not burn in the open air during this winter and that "birds fell dead in flight."
      All of these factors- the wars, heavy taxation needed to fund the wars, extraordinarily harsh winters, persistent religious tension..."pushed" our ancestors to America. There were factors that enticed them to immigrate as well- such as the desire for land, the quest for adventure, the cooperative spirit of Great Briton, and the attractive invitations offered by William Penn and others. But I am getting ahead of the story, and will turn to the 7th generation of Schuttenhelm's-Schittenhelms-Shedenhelms-et al,