this letter will decide whether there will be peace after thirty years of bitter conflict will ferdinand the third give the negotiated peace his blessing. it is a plea for she left it was encrypted form of the imperial ambassador in minster was unable to decipher it because he didn't have the key. file in distress defeated. the coded passages are precisely those that will decide the fortunes of entire countries. will peace ultimately fail. pitched battles famines plague and cholera for thirty years from sixteen eighteen to sixteen forty eight brutal army leaders and marauding racin areas have devastated half of europe and turned it into hell on earth.