The 1552 campaign of the German Protestant princes against Emperor Charles v, led by the Elector Maurice of Saxony, played a significant role in positioning the reformers more favourably than might have been expected at the outset of the decade to negotiate with the empire at the Diet of Augsburg in 1555. Five years earlier the German Protestants had appeared lost, with Charles's conclusive defeat of the Schmalkaldic League at the battle of Mühlberg and his capture of Philip of Hesse and John Frederick of Saxony. The events of 1552, propelled by Maurice's clever scheming and alliance-making with his fellow German princes, King Henry ii of France and Duke Hercules ii of Ferrara and the advance he led against Charles in the Tyrol, were crucial in turning the imperial and papal tide, paving the way for the religious peace concluded at the Diet of Augsburg three years later. This collection of essays presents the findings of recent research on the princes’ revolt, with interesting new material on the alliance between Maurice and Hercules of Ferrara, the financing of the Saxon campaign against Charles, the role of Margrave Albrecht Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, and the military defeat of Charles in the Tyrol in April and May 1552. Central to the book is the ambiguous figure of Maurice of Saxony; fittingly, this valuable consideration of the year in the history of the Holy Roman Empire that he did the most to shape is completed with a fascinating review of the elector's representation in German popular historical writing from the nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth century.