Editing Protestant Union (section)

{{Short description|Alliance in the Holy Roman Empire (1608–21)}}
{{about||the Dutch political party|Hervormd Gereformeerde Staatspartij|other uses|Protestant League (disambiguation){{!}}Protestant League}}
[[File:The Protestant Union within the Holy Roman Empire (c. 1610).svg|thumb|right|300px|Member states of the Protestant Union (blue) in the [[Holy Roman Empire]], c. 1610]]
[[File:HolyRomanEmpire 1618.png|thumb|right|300px|Many Protestant rulers were not members of the Union, most notably the Elector of Saxony. Religious fragmentation in [[Central Europe]] on the eve of the [[Thirty Years' War]] in 1618.]]

The '''Protestant Union''' ({{langx|de|Protestantische Union}}), also known as the '''Evangelical Union''', '''Union of Auhausen''', '''German Union''' or the '''Protestant Action Party''', was a coalition of [[Protestant]] German states. It was formed on 14 May 1608 by [[Frederick IV, Elector Palatine]] in order to defend the rights, land and safety of each member. It included both [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] and [[Lutheran]] states, and dissolved in 1621.