German Peasants' War
Encyclopedia
The German Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe, 1524–1526. At its height in the spring and summer of 1525, the conflict involved an estimated 300,000 peasants: contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000. It consisted, like the preceding Bundschuh movement and the Hussite Wars
, of a series of both economic and religious revolts in which peasants, town-dwellers and nobles participated.
In mounting their insurrection, peasants faced several basic problems. The democratic nature of their organization complicated their military organization. They were further frustrated by lack of such important resources as artillery and cavalry. Most of them had little, if any, military experience and their resources were insufficient for them to hire mercenaries who did. Their opposition, on the other hand, had experienced military leaders and deep pockets with which to fund military operations against them. Despite the obstacles, the German Peasants' War was Europe's largest and most widespread popular uprising prior to the French Revolution
of 1789. It involved townspeople, rural dwellers and aristocrats; it incorporated rhetoric from the emerging religious reform
movement, through which the peasants sought legitimation. The war broke out in separate insurrections, beginning in the southwestern part of what is now Germany
and neighboring Alsace
, and spread in subsequent insurrections to the central and eastern areas of Germany and present-day Austria
. After the uprising in Germany was suppressed, it flared briefly in several of the Swiss Cantons.
In historiography, the German Peasants' War also formed the basis of Friedrich Engels
and Karl Marx
's concept of historical materialism
. Engels described the peasants' failure in 1524–1526, in his work, The Peasant War in Germany
. Engels ascribed the failure of the peasants revolt to the fundamental peasant conservativism. This led both Marx and Engels to conclude that the communist revolution, when it occurred, would be led not by a peasant army but by an urban proletariat. Since then, other historians have interpreted the economic aspects of the German Peasants' War differently and social and cultural historians continue to disagree on the nature of the revolt and its causes: whether it grew out of the emerging religious controversy centered on Martin Luther
; whether a wealthy tier of peasants saw their own wealth and rights slipping away and sought to re-inscribe them in the legal, social and religious fabric of society; or whether it was peasant resistance to the emergence of a modernizing, centralizing political state.
, in German, as Karl der Grosse, or Charles the Great at the beginning of the ninth century. Upon the death of Charles, his kingdom was divided among his grandsons. Though initially disputed among the Carolingian
rulers of Western Francia
, what we know today as France, (France
) and Eastern Francia
(Germany
), with first the western king (Charles the Bald
) and then the eastern (Charles the Fat
) attaining the prize. However, after the death of Charles the Fat in 888 the empire broke asunder, never to be restored. According to Regino of Prüm
, each part of the realm elected a "kinglet" from its own "bowels". After the death of Charles the Fat those who were crowned Emperors by the Pope
controlled only territories in Italy. The last of these such Emperors was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924.
In the early 11th century, the eastern kingdom was a "confederation" of the old Germanic tribes of the Bavarian
s, Alemanns
, Frank
s and Saxons. The Empire as a political union probably only survived because of the strong personal influence of King Henry the Saxon and his son, Otto. Although formally elected by the leaders of the Germanic tribes, they were actually able to designate their successors. This changed after Henry II
died in 1024 without any children. Conrad II
, the first of the Salian Dynasty, was then elected king in 1024 only after some debate. How exactly the king was chosen thus seems to be a complicated conglomeration of personal influence, dynastic quarrels, inheritance, and acclamation by those leaders that would eventually become the college of Electors
.
The dualism between the territories of the stem duchies rooted in the Frankish lands and the man representing the group of territories had become apparent. Each king preferred to spend most time in his own homelands; the Saxons, for example, spent much time in palatinates
near the Harz
mountains, among them Goslar
. This practice had only changed under Otto III
(king 983, Emperor 996–1002), who began to utilize bishoprics all over the Empire as temporary seats of government. During his travels, he could require these ecclesiastical territories to provide a locale at which he could hold a court and dispense justice; while there, he could also live at their expense, and keep potentially troublesome or ambitious clerics under observation. Exerting their own influence, his successors, Henry II
, Conrad II
, and Henry III
, apparently managed to acquire concessions for troops, hunting, or political support by negotiating with local men of influence. By negotiating with these local leaders, granting them local sovereignty and titles in exchange for military or political support, the early emperors, whose authority was tenuous, acquired more and more influence centered on the office of emperor, but at the expense of local authority. It is thus no coincidence that at this time, the terminology changes and the first occurrences of a regnum Teutonicum (German Kingdom) are found.
This geographic dispersal of authority led to the development of decentralized relationships of power and authority. Consequently, the Holy Roman Empire
, which Voltaire later described as neither Holy, nor Roman
, nor an Empire
, developed as a decentralized legal entity. Instead, it was divided into dozens—eventually hundreds—of individual secular and ecclesiastical entities. Dynastic houses
controlled the secular entities. These were governed by men who called themselves kings
, dukes
, counts, barons, and knights. They maintained power, influence
and authority
over territory during the course of generations. Most commonly the term is used specifically in reference to royal houses
and imperial dynasties
— their authority manifested itself as the sovereign
of a state or territory. Usually the dynasties of noble
houses were patrilineally
, with inheritance
and kinship
being predominantly viewed and legally calculated through descent from a common ancestor in the male line. The female line was normally considered only when the male lineage had died out.
Ecclesiastical territories were ruled by archbishops and bishops, abbots and abbesses. The position of archbishop was usually held by a scion
of nobility, but not necessarily a priest; this widespread practice allowed younger sons of noble houses to find prestigious and financially secure positions without the requirements of priesthood. The archbishop and prince-elector was chosen by a cathedral chapter
, the members of which also served as his advisers. As members of a cathedral chapter, they participated in the Mass
; in addition, they performed other duties as needed. They were not required to be priests but they could, if they wished, take Holy Orders
. As prebendaries
, they received stipends from cathedral income; depending on the location and wealth of the cathedral, this could amount to substantial annual income which, naturally, they drew from all their appointments, not simply one of them.
Beginning in the High Middle Ages
, then, the Holy Roman Empire was marked by an uneasy coexistence of individuals who held local authority and the Emperors, who sought to expand their own power
at the expense of the local territories. At the same time, the men who held local authority sought to expand their own influence at the expense of both neighbors and the emperor. To a greater extent than in such other medieval entities as France
and England
, the Holy Roman Emperors were unable to expand their own authority and consolidate their personal control. Instead, to maintain their own positions, emperors granted more and more autonomy to local rulers, to both dynastic houses (nobility) and ecclesiastical states. This process began in the 11th century with the Investiture Controversy
and was more or less concluded with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia
. Several Emperors attempted to reverse this steady dissemination of their authority, but were thwarted both by the papacy and by the princes of the Empire.
and the Bubonic Plague of 1348 through 1350. The Hanseatic League began as a series of trade connections between merchants in various cities along the coast of Northern Europe. First use of the term "Hansa" in relation to this network of commercial conntections occurred in 1267. Gradually these connections grew and strengthened until the Hanseatic League actively monopolized sea faring and trade in Northern Europe. The period of time that the Hanseatic League dominated the sea trade in Northern Europe was very short—only about 100 years from about 1350 until about 1490. However, during that time the Hanseatic League had the effect of bringing an early "Renaissance" to northern Europe and in particular to northern Germany.
Prior to 1267, industry in northern Germany had been limited to coarse woolen fabrics created under a strictly feudal system. However, the trade brought through northern Germany by the Hanseatic League created new more refined types of manufacture. Soon finer woolens, linens and even silks were being manufactured in northern Germany. Additionally, improvements in the technology of other industries were also made. Finer methods of etching, wood carving, armour making, engraving of metals and wood turning were all noticeable during this period of time. More importantly, the method under which these items were produced tended to be the guild
system rather than the old feudal system.
The primary origins of the German Peasants' War lay partly in this unusual power dynamic and in the agricultural and economic contradictions and expansions of the previous decades. Shortages of labor in the last half of the 14th century had allowed peasants to sell their own labor for a higher price; food and goods shortages had allowed them to sell their products for a higher price as well. Consequently, some peasants, particularly those who had limited allodial requirements, were able to accrue significant economic, social, and legal advantages. Peasants were not necessarily deprived and burdened; instead, the relative improvements in their life's condition in the previous 75 years had encouraged them to preserve their prosperity. Thus, a factor in the outbreak of the war was the need to preserve what they had acquired in the previous decades—to defend established social, economic, and legal positions—and to throw off older burdens that may not have been recently enforced, but were seen as oppressive in the light of recent improvements, such as when the peasants of Mühlhausen refused to perform their duties as serfs to collect snail shells around which their lady could wind her thread. The reiteration of the signeurial system, which had weakened in the previous half century, reformed peasant subjection into serfdom at the time when many peasants felt they were breaking out of the status of serf.
These economic shifts occurred at a time during which people at all layers of the social hierarchy—serfs or city dwellers, guildsmen or farmers, knights and aristocrats—started to question the established hierarchy of authority. The so-called Book of one hundred chapters, for example, written between 1501 and 1513, promoted religious and economic freedom in a vocabulary of hatred toward the governing establishment and glowing pride of the virtuous peasant. The Bundschuh revolts of the first 20 years of the century offered another avenue for the expression of anti-authoritarian ideas, and for the spread of these ideas from one geographic region to another. Martin Luther's revolution of religion added intensity to these movements, but did not necessarily create them; the two events, Martin Luther's Reformation and the German Peasants' War, were separate events, intertwined by sharing the same years, but each occurring separately of one another. On the one hand, Luther's doctrine of the priesthood of all believers could be interpreted as proposing greater social equality than Luther meant to. Thomas Müntzer's apocalyptic visions, though not responsible for the War, served as an inspiration in the later stages.
was executed, by order of the Council of Constance
(6 July 1415), Bohemia
n and Moravia
n knights and nobles sent a protest to the Council of Constance on (2 September 1415), The protestatio Bohemorum condemned the execution of Hus in the strongest language. Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor
sent threatening letters to Bohemia declaring that he would soon drown all Wycliffites and Hussites and angered Hus's followers and the Bohemian and Moravian nobility. Almost immediately, local uprisings in Bohemia directed anger and frustration on the Church and insurgents drove many Catholic priests from their parishes. After the death of King Václav IV (en: Wenceslaus in English; de: Wenzel), fighting between the Hussites and the royal mercenaries destroyed much of Prague
. In the course of the rioting, protesters tossed several magistrates out a window of the city hall in the First Defenestration of Prague. Jan Žižka, a Hussite leader, marched to southern Bohemia, and defeated the Catholics at the battle of Sudoměř (25 March 1420) in the first pitched battle of the Hussite wars. Employing the Wagenburg (Wagon fortress) defensive system, Hussites enticed enemy cavalry and infantry into battle. Sigismund engaged in three anti-Hussite campaigns; the Hussites responded with campaigns against Sigismund and his allies. Major battles occurred at Ústí nad Labem
and Tachov
, and Battle of Domažlice
. The war lasted from 30 July 1419 – 30 May 1434; although it resulted in the defeat of the radical portion of the Hussite communities, the moderate Hussite organization remained intact.
was a localized series of peasant rebellions, centered in what is today southwestern Germany and northeastern France (Alsace
) during the last quarter of the 15th century and the first quarter of the 16th. It acquired its name from the peasant shoe, which the peasants displayed as their symbol of unity and defiance. Under the symbol of the Bundschuh, or the tied shoe, peasants and town dwellers sought relief from oppressive taxes, arbitrary justice, and costly ecclesiastical privileges. In particular, the local lord could assess an oppressive death tax and take between a quarter and a half of the decedent's property. In a situation in which several family members died within weeks, months or even a couple years of one another, this tax could destroy a family's wealth within a generation.
Under this flag, peasants and city dwellers had protested feudal dues, taxes, and obligations (1439–1444) and had defeated the troops of the French count of Armagnac
along the upper Rhine in three battles in 1439, 1443 and 1444. Individual uprisings in which peasants sought relief from resurgence of old feudal obligations, many of which had fallen into abeyance in the previous decades. Grievances against ecclesiastical and feudal obligations merged with popular religious observances. In 1476, in Niklaushausen, the shepherd, Hans Böhm, experienced a vision of Holy Mary, which established Niklaushausen as a pilgrimage site. He spoke against the vanities of the ecclesiastical leadership, and his preaching attracted thousands of pilgrims to sites in the Tauber
river valley. In 1476, he was executed by burning, and his ashes strewn in the Main river. By 1493, other uprisings had occurred in Schlettstadt, in Alsace
, in 1502 to Bruchsal
and nearby Untergrombach, in 1513 to Lehen in the Breisgau, and in 1517 along the upper Rhine.
Formed in 1487, this alliance of German princes included dukes and nobles who belonged to the Company of the Shield of St. George, several of the Free Imperial Cities and several towns of the region, including Ulm
, Esslingen, Reutlingen
, Überlingen
, Lindau
, Nordlingen
, Memmingen
, Ravensburg
, Gmünd
, Biberach
, Dinkelsbühl
, Pfullendorf
, Kempten
, Kaufbeuren
, Isny, Leutkirch, Giengen
, Wangen
, and Aalen
. In the months immediately following its initial formation, Augsburg
, Heilbronn
, Wimpfen
, Donauwörth
, Weil der Stadt
, and Bopfingen
also joined, and, later, the Bavarian territories of the House of Wittelsbach, the territories of the Duchy of Württemberg, and lower Austria.
, later known as Bauernjörg for his role in the suppression of the revolt. He was also known as the scourge of the peasants. (25 January 1488 – 29 May 1531), The league headquarters was based in Ulm, and command was exercised through a war council which decided the size and contingents of troops to be levied from each member. Depending on their size and capability, members contributed a specific number of mounted knights and foot soldiers, called a contingent, to the League's army. The Bishop of Augsburg, for example, had to contribute 10 horse (10 mounted men), and 62 foot soldiers, which would be the equivalent of a half-company. A standing contingent of close to 200 horse and 1000 foot, however, could not deal with the size of the disturbance. By 1525, the uprisings in the Black Forest, the Breisgau, Hegau, Sundgau, and Alsace alone required a substantial muster of 3,000 foot and 300 horse.
Foot soldiers were drawn from the ranks of the Landknechts. These were mercenary soldiers, usually paid a monthly wage of four guilders, organized into regiments, called Haufen, and companies, of 120-300 men, called Fähnlein, or little flag, which differentiated the companies from one another. Each company, in turn, was composed of smaller units, a squad of 10-12 men, known as Rotte. The Landsknecht clothed, armed and fed themselves, and were accompanied by a sizable train of sutlers, bakers, washerwomen, prostitutes, and sundry individuals with occupations needed in a military community. The trains, or Tross, were sometimes larger than the fighting force, but their presence required organization and discipline. Landsknechts maintained their own structure, called the Gemein, or community assembly, which was symbolized by a ring. The Gemein had its own officer, known as the Schultheiss, and an officer called the Provost, who policed the ranks and maintained order.
The League relied on the heavy armored cavalry of the nobility for the bulk of its strength; the League had both a heavy cavalry force, and a light cavalry, known as the Rennfahne, which acted as a vanguard, or advanced guard. Typically, the Rehnnfahne were the second and third sons of poor knights, the lower and sometimes impoverished nobility with small land-holdings, or, in the case of second and third sons, no inheritance or social role. These men could often be found roaming the countryside, looking for work, or, short of finding it, engaging in highway robbery.
To be effective, however, the cavalry needed to be mobile, and needed to oppose a force not heavily armed with pikes.
Haufen were formed from companies: typically 500 men per company, subdivided by platoons of 10–15 peasants. Like the Landsknechts, the peasant bands used similar titles: Oberster Feldhauptmann, or supreme commander, similar to a colonel
, and Lieutenants, or Leutinger. Each company was commanded by a captain and had its own Fähnrich, or ensign
who, naturally, carried the company's standard (its ensign). The companies also had a sergeant or Feldweibel, and squadron leaders called Rottmeister, or masters of the Rotte. Officers were usually elected, particularly the supreme commander and the Leutinger.
The democratic principle of the peasant army governed its organizing structure and the so-called ring, in which peasants gathered in a circle to debate tactics, troop movements, alliances, and the distribution of spoils, dominating the organization. Despite this democratic principle, there was a hierarchy and every peasant band had a supreme command and a marshal (Schultheiss), who maintained law and order. Each company also had lieutenants, captains and standard-bearers, a master gunner, a master of the wagon-fort, a master of the train (transportation), four watch masters, four sergeant majors to arrange the order of battle, a Weibel (sergeant) for each company, two quartermasters, farriers, quartermasters for the horses, a communications officer, and, importantly, a pillage master for each company.
of the previous century. Wagons would be chained together in a suitable defensive location. Cavalry and draft animals were placed in the center. Peasants dug ditches around the outer edge of the fort and used timbers to close the gaps between and underneath the wagons. In the Hussite wars, artillery was usually placed in the center, on raised mounds of earth that allowed them to be fired over the wagons. Wagon forts could be erected quickly and taken down quickly; they were relatively mobile, but they also had drawbacks: they required a fairly large area of flat terrain, they were not the ideal offensive deployment, and they had been used 75 years earlier to great effect, when artillery was less sophisticated. By 1525, artillery had greater range and power.
Peasants served in rotation, sometimes for one week in four, and returned to their villages after their service. They were replaced by another man. While the men were gone, other men absorbed the workload of the missing men. Ironically, this sometimes meant producing wealth or resources that supplied their opponents, such as in the Archbishopric of Salzburg
, where men worked to extract silver, which was used to hire fresh contingents of Landsknechts for the Swabian League's army.
Notably, however, the peasants lacked an essential element that the Swabian league had: cavalry. Certainly, some peasants arrived with horses, and any mounted troops that the peasants did have seem to have been used for reconnaissance. The lack of cavalry with which to protect their flanks, and with which to penetrate massed Landsknecht squares proved to be a long-term tactical and strategic problem.
, south of the Black Forest
, the Countess of Lupfen ordered serfs to collect snail shells for use as thread spools. This was the final straw in a series of difficult harvests, and within days, 1,200 peasants had gathered, created a list of grievances, elected officers, and raised a banner. The disturbance spread quickly, and within a few weeks, most of southwestern Germany was in open revolt. The uprising stretched from the Black Forest, along the Rhine, to Lake Constance
, into the Swabian highlands, along the upper Danube River, and into Bavaria
.
rebelled, demanding of the Memmingen magistrates (city council) improvements in their economic condition and the general political situation. Their complaints touched subjects like peonage, land use, easements on the woods and the commons as well as ecclesiastical requirements of service and payment.
The city set up a committee of villagers to discuss their issues, expecting to see a checklist of specific and trivial demands: for example, the payment of such and such for so and so's lost wood; the settlement of a boundary dispute relative to four measures of land between two villages; the re-establishment of fishing rights, or permission to release hogs in a wooded area; or release from trivial duties during peak labor seasons (harvest, sowing). Unexpectedly, the peasants delivered a uniform declaration that struck at the pillars of the peasant-magisterial relationship. Twelve articles clearly and consistently outlined their grievances. Many of those demands did subsequently not prevail in the city council. Historians have generally assumed that the articles of the ordines provinciales una congregati (the representatives of the communities) of Memmingen became the basis of discussion for the Twelve Articles agreed on by the Upper Swabian Peasants
Confederation of 20 March 1525.
, the Allgäuer Haufen, and the Lake Constance Haufen (Seehaufen)—met in Memmingen
iterate a common cause against the Swabian League
. One day later, after difficult negotiations, they proclaimed the Christian Association, an Upper Swabian Peasants' Confederation
. The peasants met again on 15 and 20 March 1525 in Memmingen
and, after some additional deliberation, adopted the Twelve Articles and the Federal Order (Bundesordnung). Their banner, the Bundschuh, or a laced boot, served as the emblem of their agreement. These Twelve Articles were printed over 25,000 times in the next two months, and quickly spread throughout Germany
.
The Twelve Articles iterated specific community rights, largely relating to community self-governance. These included the right to retain or remove the community's pastor, the limitation of tithes and what the tax will pay for, the expansion of hunting, fishing and gathering rights, the establishment of fair and usual leases, rents, and payments, and the elimination of the Todfall, or death tax.
Kempten im Allgäu
was an important city in the Allgäu
, a region in southern Germany in modern day Bavaria
, near the borders with Württemberg
and Austria
. In the early eighth century, Celtic monks established a monastery there: Kempten Abbey. In 1213, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II
declared the abbots members of the Reichstand, or Imperial estate and granted the abbot the right to bear the title of Duke. However in 1289, King Rudolf of Habsburg also granted special privileges to the urban settlement in the river valley, making it a Free imperial city
. In 1525 the last property rights of the abbots in the Imperial City were sold in the so-called “Great Purchase”, marking the start of the co-existence of two independent cities bearing the same name next to each other. In this multi-layered authority, during the Peasants' War, the Abbey-peasants revolted, plundering the abbey and moving on the town.
On 4 April 1525, 5,000 peasants, the Leipheimer Haufen (literally: the Leipheim Bunch) gathered near Leipheim
to rise against the city of Ulm. A band of five companies, plus approximately 25 citizens of Leipheim, assumed positions to the west of the town. League reconnaissance reported to the Truchsess that the peasants were well-armed. They had powder and shot for their cannon, and they were 3,000-4,000 strong. They also had an advantageous position on the east bank of the Biber
. On the left stood a wood, and on their right, a stream and marshland; behind them, they had erected a wagon fortress, and they were armed with Hook guns and some light artillery pieces.
As he had done in earlier encounters with the peasants, the Truchsess negotiated while he continued to move his troops into advantageous positions. Keeping the bulk of his army facing Leipheim, he dispatched detachments of horse from Hesse and Ulm across the Danube
to Elchingen
. The detached troops encountered a separate group of 1,200 peasants engaged in local requisitions, and entered into a lively combat, dispersing them and taking 250 prisoners. At the same time, Truchsess broke off his negotiations, and received a volley of fire from the main group of peasants. He dispatched a guard of light horse and a small group of foot soldiers against the fortified peasant position. This was followed by his main force; when the peasants saw the size of his main force—his entire force was 1,500 horse, 7,000 foot, and 18 field guns—they began an orderly retreat. Of the 4,000 or so peasants who had manned the fortified position, 2,000 were able to reach the town of Leipheim itself, taking their wounded with them in carts. Others sought to escape across the Danube, and 400 drowned there. The Truchsess' horse units cut down an additional 500. This was the first decisive battle of the war.
An element of the conflict drew on resentment toward some of the nobility. The peasants of Odenwald had already taken the Cistercian Monastery at Schöntal
, and were joined by peasant bands from Limburg
and Hohenlohe
. A large band of peasants from the Neckar
valley, under the leadership of Jack Rohrbach, joined them and from Neckarsulm
, this expanded band, called the Bright Band
(in German, Heller Haufen), marched to the town of Weinsberg
, where the Duke of Helfenstein had his seat. Here, the peasants achieved a major victory, in which they were aided by the duke's own subjects. The peasants assaulted and captured his castle; most of his own soldiers were on duty in Italy, and he had little protection. Having taken the Duke as their prisoner, the peasants took their revenge a step further: They forced the Duke, and approximately 70 other nobles who had taken refuge with him, to run the gauntlet of pikes, a popular form of execution among the Landsknechts. Rohrbach ordered the band's piper to play during the running of the gauntlet. The Duke died horribly.
This was too much for many of the peasant leaders of other bands; Rohrbach's actions were repudiated, he was deposed, and replaced by a knight, Götz von Berlichingen
, who was subsequently elected as supreme commander of the band. At the end of April, the band marched to Amorbach
, joined on the way by some radical Odenwald peasants out for Berlichingen's blood. Berlichingen had been involved in the suppression of the Poor Conrad
uprising 10 years earlier, and these peasants had a long memory. In the course of their march, they burned down the Wildenburg castle, a contravention of the Articles of War to which the band had agreed.
The massacre at Weinsberg was also too much for Luther to tolerate; this is the deed that drew his ire, in Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants
in which he castigated peasants for unspeakable crimes, not only for the murder of the nobles at Weingarten, but also for the impertinence of their revolt.
On 29 April 1525, the peasant grumbling and protests in and around Frankenhausen culminated into an open revolt. Large parts of the citizenry joined the uprising. Together they occupied the town hall and stormed the castle of the Counts of Schwarzburg. In the following days, an even larger number of insurgents gathered in the fields around the town. When Thomas Müntzer arrived with 300 fighters from Mühlhausen
on 11 May, several thousands more peasants of the surrounding estates camped on the fields and pastures: the final strength of the peasant and town force is unclear, but estimated at 8,000–10,000. The Landgrave, Philip of Hesse
and Duke George of Saxony
were on Müntzer's trail and directed their Landsknecht
troops toward Frankenhausen. On 15 May 1525, joint troops of Landgraf Philipp I of Hesse and George, Duke of Saxony
defeated near Frankenhausen
in the County of Schwarzburg
the peasants under the Anabaptist
leader Thomas Müntzer.
The Princes' troops included close to 6,000 mercenaries
, the Landsknecht. As such they were well equipped, well trained and had good morale. They were also experienced. The peasants, on the other hand, had poor, if any, equipment, and except for those 300 fighters who had arrived with Müntzer, many had neither experience nor training. Furthermore, many of the peasants disagreed over their options. Should they fight the Princes' troops, or should they negotiate? On 14 May, they had been able to ward off some smaller feints of the Hesse and Brunswick troopers, but failed to reap the benefits from their victory. Instead the insurgents arranged a ceasefire and withdrew into a wagon fort
.
The next day Philip's troops united with Saxon army of Duke George and immediately broke the truce, starting a heavy combined infantry, cavalry and artillery attack. The peasants were caught off guard and fled in panic to the town, followed and continuously attacked by the mercenaries. Most of the insurgents were slain in what turned out to be a massacre. Casualty figures are unreliable but peasant losses have been estimated at 3,000–10,000 and the Landsknecht casualites estimated as low as six (two of whom were only wounded). Müntzer himelf was captured, tortured and finally executed at Mühlhausen on 27 May 1525.
(12 May 1525) was the one with the greatest losses throughout the whole German Peasants' War.
When the peasants came to know that the Truchsess of Waldburg pitched camp at Rottenburg, they marched towards them and took the city Herrenberg (10 May 1525). Avoiding advances of the Swabian League to retake Herrenberg, the Württemberg band set up three camps between Böblingen and Sindelfingen. There they formed four units, standing upon the slopes between the cities. Their artillery (18 pieces)stood on a hill called Galgenberg, facing the hostile armies. The peasants were though overtaken by the Leagues horses which encircled and pursued them for kilometres.
While the Württemberg band lost approximately 3000 peasants (numbers alternate from 2000 to 9000), the League lost no more than 40 soldiers.Peasants' War museum Böblingen
, on 2 June 1525, the peasant commanders Wendel Hipfler and Georg Metzler had set camp outside of town. Upon identifying two squadrons of League and Alliance horse approach on each flank, now recognized as a dangerous Truchsess strategy, they redeployed the wagon-fort and guns to the hill above the town. Having learned by now how to protect themselves from a mounted assault, peasants assembled in four massed ranks behind their cannon, but in front of their wagon-fort, intended to protect them from a rear attack. The peasant gunnery fired a salvo at the League advanced horse, which attacked them on the left. The Truchsess' infantry made a frontal assault, but without waiting for his foot soldiers to engage, he also ordered an attack on the peasants from the rear. As the knights hit the rear ranks, panic erupted among the peasants. Hipler and Metzler fled with the master gunners. Two thousand reached the nearby woods, where they re-assembled and mounted some resistance to the League horsemen. In the chaos that followed, the peasants and the mounted knights and infantry conducted a pitched battle and by nightfall, only 600 peasants remained. The Truchsess ordered his army to search the battlefield, and the soldiers discovered approximately 500 peasants who had feigned death. The battle is also called the Battle of the Turmberg, for a watch-tower on the field.
arrived at Kirchartzen with over 8,000 men at Kirzenach, near Freiburg. Several other bands arrived, bringing the total to 18,000, and within a matter of days, the city was encircled and the peasants made plans to lay a siege.
near Würzburg
, who was also called Gotz of the Iron hand. An imperial knight and experienced soldier, although he had a relatively small force himself, the peasants did not stand a chance against him. In approximately 2 hours, more than 8,000 peasants were killed.
and Karl Marx
's concept of historical materialism
. Marx and Engels attributed the peasant failure in 1524–1526, described in their work, The Peasant War in Germany
, to peasant conservativism; this led them to conclude that the revolution, when it occurred, would be led not by a peasant army but by an urban proletariat. In this interpretation of class warfare, Engels identified the peasants as traitors to the cause of freedom, although at a lesser level of development.
Since the 1930s, Günter Franz’s work on the peasant war dominated interpretations of the uprising. Franz understood the Peasants’ War as a political struggle in which any social and economic aspects played a minor role. Key to Franz’s interpretation is the understanding that peasants had benefited from the economic recovery of the early 16th century and that their grievances, as expressed in such documents as the Twelve Articles, had little or no basis in the economic reality of the time. He interpreted the uprising’s causes as essentially political, and secondarily economic: the assertions by princely landlords of control over the peasantry through new taxes and the modification of old ones, and the creation of servitude backed up by princely law. For Franz, the peasant uprisings of 1525 were a political conflict between “revolting peasants” and princes in which the peasants were horribly crushed and disappeared from view for centuries. A different economic interpretation challenges Franz's work has been challenged in the 1950s and 1960s. This interpretation, informed by analysis of economic data of harvests, wages, and general financial conditions of the participants, suggested that economic improvements in the early 15th century reflects and improvement in peasant conditions; in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, peasants saw these advantages slipping away, with concessions to the landed nobility and military groups. The war is thus an effort to wrest these social, economic and political advantages back from the ruling class while, on the other hand, the nobility tried to affirm concessions made in the previous decades.
Since the 1970s, research on the German Peasants’ War has benefited from the interest of social and cultural historians. Utilizing various sources such as letters, journals, religious tracts, city and town records, demographic information, family and kinship developments, and so on, historians have in turn challenged the long-held assumptions about German peasants and the authoritarian tradition to hypothesize alternatives. Peasant resistance occurred in two forms. The first, spontaneous (or popular) and localized revolt that drew on traditional liberties and old law for its legitimacy. In this way, it could be explained as a conservative and traditional effort to recover lost ground. The second saw the conflict as an organized inter-regional revolt that claimed its legitimacy from divine law, and found its ideological basis from the Reformation. Historians, particularly those studying local histories of southwestern German territories have refuted both Franz’s view of the origins of the war, and the Marxist view of the course of the war, and both views on the outcome and consequences. One of the most important has been Peter Blickle’s emphasis on communalism as a factor. Although Blickle agrees with Franz and the Marxists in that he sees a crisis of feudalism in the latter Middle Ages in southern Germany, this has political and social and economic features and originated in efforts by peasants and their landlords to cope with long term climate, technological, labor, and crop changes during the 15th century, particularly the extended agrarian crisis and its drawn out recovery. For Blickle, the possibility of peasant rebellion is contingent upon the existence of a parliamentary tradition in southwestern Germany and the coincidence of a tier of individuals with significant political, social and economic interest in agricultural production and distribution. These individuals had had a great deal to lose.
This view, which asserts the uprising grew out of the participation of groups within the agricultural system in the economic recovery, has in turn been challenged by Scribner, Stalmetz and Bernecke. They assert that Blickle’s analysis of the peasant economic recovery is based on dubious form of the Malthusian principle, and that the peasant economic recovery was significantly limited, both regionally, and by the depth to which it extended into peasant ranks. A few peasants had participated in the recovery in a few areas, but as a group, participation was spotty and regional, and did not extend to the greater portion of the agricultural workforce. Blickle and his students have modified their ideas about peasant wealth. A variety of local studies show that peasants did participate in the economic recovery, but the participation was not as broadly based as formerly thought.
The course of the war also demonstrates the importance of a congruence of events: the new liberation ideology, the appearance within peasant ranks of charismatic and military-trained men like Munzer and Gaisman, a set of grievances with specific economic and social origins, a challenged, although not fatally weakened, set of political relationships, and a communal tradition of political and social discourse. The traditional take Franz offers on the slaughter of peasants in the final battles, and the execution of the leaders, suggests a total failure on the part of the peasants to achieve their goals: the peasants disappeared, then, from historical discussion for centuries. Yet the new studies of localities and studies examining social relationships through the lens of gender and class shows that peasants were able to recover, or even in some cases expand many of their rights and traditional liberties, to negotiate these in writing, and force their lords to guarantee them. If many of the more radical demands were not met, this is not unusual; given the nature of historical change, some of the less controversial demands are usually met first.
}}
Hussite Wars
The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars involved the military actions against and amongst the followers of Jan Hus in Bohemia in the period 1419 to circa 1434. The Hussite Wars were notable for the extensive use of early hand-held gunpowder weapons such as hand cannons...
, of a series of both economic and religious revolts in which peasants, town-dwellers and nobles participated.
In mounting their insurrection, peasants faced several basic problems. The democratic nature of their organization complicated their military organization. They were further frustrated by lack of such important resources as artillery and cavalry. Most of them had little, if any, military experience and their resources were insufficient for them to hire mercenaries who did. Their opposition, on the other hand, had experienced military leaders and deep pockets with which to fund military operations against them. Despite the obstacles, the German Peasants' War was Europe's largest and most widespread popular uprising prior to the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
of 1789. It involved townspeople, rural dwellers and aristocrats; it incorporated rhetoric from the emerging religious reform
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
movement, through which the peasants sought legitimation. The war broke out in separate insurrections, beginning in the southwestern part of what is now Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and neighboring Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
, and spread in subsequent insurrections to the central and eastern areas of Germany and present-day Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. After the uprising in Germany was suppressed, it flared briefly in several of the Swiss Cantons.
In historiography, the German Peasants' War also formed the basis of Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
and Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
's concept of historical materialism
Historical materialism
Historical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, first articulated by Karl Marx as "the materialist conception of history". Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans...
. Engels described the peasants' failure in 1524–1526, in his work, The Peasant War in Germany
The Peasant War in Germany
The Peasant War in Germany by Friedrich Engels, 1850, is an account of 16th century uprisings.This book was written by Friedrich Engels in London, during the summer of 1850, following the revolutionary uprisings of 1848-1849. The book draws a parallel between the uprisings of 1848-1849 and the...
. Engels ascribed the failure of the peasants revolt to the fundamental peasant conservativism. This led both Marx and Engels to conclude that the communist revolution, when it occurred, would be led not by a peasant army but by an urban proletariat. Since then, other historians have interpreted the economic aspects of the German Peasants' War differently and social and cultural historians continue to disagree on the nature of the revolt and its causes: whether it grew out of the emerging religious controversy centered on Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
; whether a wealthy tier of peasants saw their own wealth and rights slipping away and sought to re-inscribe them in the legal, social and religious fabric of society; or whether it was peasant resistance to the emergence of a modernizing, centralizing political state.
Social and political organization of the Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire had its roots in the medieval kingdom created by CharlemagneCharlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
, in German, as Karl der Grosse, or Charles the Great at the beginning of the ninth century. Upon the death of Charles, his kingdom was divided among his grandsons. Though initially disputed among the Carolingian
Carolingian Empire
Carolingian Empire is a historiographical term which has been used to refer to the realm of the Franks under the Carolingian dynasty in the Early Middle Ages. This dynasty is seen as the founders of France and Germany, and its beginning date is based on the crowning of Charlemagne, or Charles the...
rulers of Western Francia
Western Francia
West Francia, also known as the West Frankish Kingdom or Francia Occidentalis, was a short-lived kingdom encompassing the lands of the western part of the Carolingian Empire that came under the undisputed control of Charlemagne's grandson, Charles the Bald, as a result of the Treaty of Verdun of...
, what we know today as France, (France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) and Eastern Francia
Eastern Francia
East Francia , also known as the Kingdom of the East Franks or Francia Orientalis, was the realm allotted to Louis the German by the 843 Treaty of Verdun...
(Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
), with first the western king (Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.-Struggle against his brothers:He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder...
) and then the eastern (Charles the Fat
Charles the Fat
Charles the Fat was the King of Alemannia from 876, King of Italy from 879, western Emperor from 881, King of East Francia from 882, and King of West Francia from 884. In 887, he was deposed in East Francia, Lotharingia, and possibly Italy, where the records are not clear...
) attaining the prize. However, after the death of Charles the Fat in 888 the empire broke asunder, never to be restored. According to Regino of Prüm
Regino of Prüm
Reginon or Regino of Prüm was a Benedictine abbot and medieval chronicler.-Biography:According to the statements of a later era, Regino was the son of noble parents and was born at the stronghold of Altrip on the Rhine near Speyer at an unknown date...
, each part of the realm elected a "kinglet" from its own "bowels". After the death of Charles the Fat those who were crowned Emperors by the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
controlled only territories in Italy. The last of these such Emperors was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924.
In the early 11th century, the eastern kingdom was a "confederation" of the old Germanic tribes of the Bavarian
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
s, Alemanns
Alamannia
Alamannia or Alemannia was the territory inhabited by the Germanic Alamanni after they broke through the Roman limes in 213.The Alamanni expanded from the Main basin during the 3rd century, raiding the Roman provinces and settling on the left bank of the Rhine from the 4th century.Ruled by...
, Frank
Frank
Frank may refer to:* A member of the medieval Germanic people, the Franks* Frank * Frank * Crusaders or any persons originating in Catholic western Europe, in medieval Middle Eastern history...
s and Saxons. The Empire as a political union probably only survived because of the strong personal influence of King Henry the Saxon and his son, Otto. Although formally elected by the leaders of the Germanic tribes, they were actually able to designate their successors. This changed after Henry II
Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry II , also referred to as Saint Henry, Obl.S.B., was the fifth and last Holy Roman Emperor of the Ottonian dynasty, from his coronation in Rome in 1014 until his death a decade later. He was crowned King of the Germans in 1002 and King of Italy in 1004...
died in 1024 without any children. Conrad II
Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor
Conrad II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1027 until his death.The son of a mid-level nobleman in Franconia, Count Henry of Speyer and Adelaide of Alsace, he inherited the titles of count of Speyer and of Worms as an infant when Henry died at age twenty...
, the first of the Salian Dynasty, was then elected king in 1024 only after some debate. How exactly the king was chosen thus seems to be a complicated conglomeration of personal influence, dynastic quarrels, inheritance, and acclamation by those leaders that would eventually become the college of Electors
Prince-elector
The Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Roman king or, from the middle of the 16th century onwards, directly the Holy Roman Emperor.The heir-apparent to a prince-elector was known as an...
.
The dualism between the territories of the stem duchies rooted in the Frankish lands and the man representing the group of territories had become apparent. Each king preferred to spend most time in his own homelands; the Saxons, for example, spent much time in palatinates
Palatinate (disambiguation)
- United Kingdom :*County palatine in England*Palatinate , student newspaper of Durham University*Palatinate , student sporting award of Durham University*Palatinate , a shade of purple used in the colours of the County of Durham...
near the Harz
Harz
The Harz is the highest mountain range in northern Germany and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The name Harz derives from the Middle High German word Hardt or Hart , latinized as Hercynia. The legendary Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz...
mountains, among them Goslar
Goslar
Goslar is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Goslar and located on the northwestern slopes of the Harz mountain range. The Old Town of Goslar and the Mines of Rammelsberg are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.-Geography:Goslar is situated at the...
. This practice had only changed under Otto III
Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor
Otto III , a King of Germany, was the fourth ruler of the Saxon or Ottonian dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire. He was elected King in 983 on the death of his father Otto II and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 996.-Early reign:...
(king 983, Emperor 996–1002), who began to utilize bishoprics all over the Empire as temporary seats of government. During his travels, he could require these ecclesiastical territories to provide a locale at which he could hold a court and dispense justice; while there, he could also live at their expense, and keep potentially troublesome or ambitious clerics under observation. Exerting their own influence, his successors, Henry II
Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry II , also referred to as Saint Henry, Obl.S.B., was the fifth and last Holy Roman Emperor of the Ottonian dynasty, from his coronation in Rome in 1014 until his death a decade later. He was crowned King of the Germans in 1002 and King of Italy in 1004...
, Conrad II
Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor
Conrad II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1027 until his death.The son of a mid-level nobleman in Franconia, Count Henry of Speyer and Adelaide of Alsace, he inherited the titles of count of Speyer and of Worms as an infant when Henry died at age twenty...
, and Henry III
Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry III , called the Black or the Pious, was a member of the Salian Dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors...
, apparently managed to acquire concessions for troops, hunting, or political support by negotiating with local men of influence. By negotiating with these local leaders, granting them local sovereignty and titles in exchange for military or political support, the early emperors, whose authority was tenuous, acquired more and more influence centered on the office of emperor, but at the expense of local authority. It is thus no coincidence that at this time, the terminology changes and the first occurrences of a regnum Teutonicum (German Kingdom) are found.
This geographic dispersal of authority led to the development of decentralized relationships of power and authority. Consequently, the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
, which Voltaire later described as neither Holy, nor Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
, nor an Empire
Empire
The term empire derives from the Latin imperium . Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy....
, developed as a decentralized legal entity. Instead, it was divided into dozens—eventually hundreds—of individual secular and ecclesiastical entities. Dynastic houses
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...
controlled the secular entities. These were governed by men who called themselves kings
Kings
Kings may refer to:*Kings: The Sovereign Heads of states and/or nations*One of several works known as the "Book of Kings":**The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts**The Shahnama, an 11th century epic Persian poem...
, dukes
Dukes
-Albums:-EPs:-Singles:...
, counts, barons, and knights. They maintained power, influence
Sphere of influence
In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence is a spatial region or conceptual division over which a state or organization has significant cultural, economic, military or political influence....
and authority
Authority
The word Authority is derived mainly from the Latin word auctoritas, meaning invention, advice, opinion, influence, or command. In English, the word 'authority' can be used to mean power given by the state or by academic knowledge of an area .-Authority in Philosophy:In...
over territory during the course of generations. Most commonly the term is used specifically in reference to royal houses
Royal family
A royal family is the extended family of a king or queen regnant. The term imperial family appropriately describes the extended family of an emperor or empress, while the terms "ducal family", "grand ducal family" or "princely family" are more appropriate to describe the relatives of a reigning...
and imperial dynasties
Empire
The term empire derives from the Latin imperium . Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy....
— their authority manifested itself as the sovereign
Sovereign
A sovereign is the supreme lawmaking authority within its jurisdiction.Sovereign may also refer to:*Monarch, the sovereign of a monarchy*Sovereign Bank, banking institution in the United States*Sovereign...
of a state or territory. Usually the dynasties of noble
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
houses were patrilineally
Patrilineality
Patrilineality is a system in which one belongs to one's father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritance of property, names or titles through the male line as well....
, with inheritance
Inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights and obligations upon the death of an individual. It has long played an important role in human societies...
and kinship
Kinship
Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....
being predominantly viewed and legally calculated through descent from a common ancestor in the male line. The female line was normally considered only when the male lineage had died out.
Ecclesiastical territories were ruled by archbishops and bishops, abbots and abbesses. The position of archbishop was usually held by a scion
Kinship
Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....
of nobility, but not necessarily a priest; this widespread practice allowed younger sons of noble houses to find prestigious and financially secure positions without the requirements of priesthood. The archbishop and prince-elector was chosen by a cathedral chapter
Cathedral chapter
In accordance with canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese in his stead. These councils are made up of canons and dignitaries; in the Roman Catholic church their...
, the members of which also served as his advisers. As members of a cathedral chapter, they participated in the Mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
; in addition, they performed other duties as needed. They were not required to be priests but they could, if they wished, take Holy Orders
Holy Orders
The term Holy Orders is used by many Christian churches to refer to ordination or to those individuals ordained for a special role or ministry....
. As prebendaries
Prebendary
A prebendary is a post connected to an Anglican or Catholic cathedral or collegiate church and is a type of canon. Prebendaries have a role in the administration of the cathedral...
, they received stipends from cathedral income; depending on the location and wealth of the cathedral, this could amount to substantial annual income which, naturally, they drew from all their appointments, not simply one of them.
Beginning in the High Middle Ages
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
, then, the Holy Roman Empire was marked by an uneasy coexistence of individuals who held local authority and the Emperors, who sought to expand their own power
Political power
Political power is a type of power held by a group in a society which allows administration of some or all of public resources, including labour, and wealth. There are many ways to obtain possession of such power. At the nation-state level political legitimacy for political power is held by the...
at the expense of the local territories. At the same time, the men who held local authority sought to expand their own influence at the expense of both neighbors and the emperor. To a greater extent than in such other medieval entities as France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the Holy Roman Emperors were unable to expand their own authority and consolidate their personal control. Instead, to maintain their own positions, emperors granted more and more autonomy to local rulers, to both dynastic houses (nobility) and ecclesiastical states. This process began in the 11th century with the Investiture Controversy
Investiture Controversy
The Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest was the most significant conflict between Church and state in medieval Europe. In the 11th and 12th centuries, a series of Popes challenged the authority of European monarchies over control of appointments, or investitures, of church officials such...
and was more or less concluded with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia
Peace of Westphalia
The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October of 1648 in Osnabrück and Münster. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the...
. Several Emperors attempted to reverse this steady dissemination of their authority, but were thwarted both by the papacy and by the princes of the Empire.
Social and economic conditions in the late 15th century
Two of the most important influences on the social and economic conditions setting the stage for the German Peasant War were the Hanseatic LeagueHanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
and the Bubonic Plague of 1348 through 1350. The Hanseatic League began as a series of trade connections between merchants in various cities along the coast of Northern Europe. First use of the term "Hansa" in relation to this network of commercial conntections occurred in 1267. Gradually these connections grew and strengthened until the Hanseatic League actively monopolized sea faring and trade in Northern Europe. The period of time that the Hanseatic League dominated the sea trade in Northern Europe was very short—only about 100 years from about 1350 until about 1490. However, during that time the Hanseatic League had the effect of bringing an early "Renaissance" to northern Europe and in particular to northern Germany.
Prior to 1267, industry in northern Germany had been limited to coarse woolen fabrics created under a strictly feudal system. However, the trade brought through northern Germany by the Hanseatic League created new more refined types of manufacture. Soon finer woolens, linens and even silks were being manufactured in northern Germany. Additionally, improvements in the technology of other industries were also made. Finer methods of etching, wood carving, armour making, engraving of metals and wood turning were all noticeable during this period of time. More importantly, the method under which these items were produced tended to be the guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
system rather than the old feudal system.
The primary origins of the German Peasants' War lay partly in this unusual power dynamic and in the agricultural and economic contradictions and expansions of the previous decades. Shortages of labor in the last half of the 14th century had allowed peasants to sell their own labor for a higher price; food and goods shortages had allowed them to sell their products for a higher price as well. Consequently, some peasants, particularly those who had limited allodial requirements, were able to accrue significant economic, social, and legal advantages. Peasants were not necessarily deprived and burdened; instead, the relative improvements in their life's condition in the previous 75 years had encouraged them to preserve their prosperity. Thus, a factor in the outbreak of the war was the need to preserve what they had acquired in the previous decades—to defend established social, economic, and legal positions—and to throw off older burdens that may not have been recently enforced, but were seen as oppressive in the light of recent improvements, such as when the peasants of Mühlhausen refused to perform their duties as serfs to collect snail shells around which their lady could wind her thread. The reiteration of the signeurial system, which had weakened in the previous half century, reformed peasant subjection into serfdom at the time when many peasants felt they were breaking out of the status of serf.
These economic shifts occurred at a time during which people at all layers of the social hierarchy—serfs or city dwellers, guildsmen or farmers, knights and aristocrats—started to question the established hierarchy of authority. The so-called Book of one hundred chapters, for example, written between 1501 and 1513, promoted religious and economic freedom in a vocabulary of hatred toward the governing establishment and glowing pride of the virtuous peasant. The Bundschuh revolts of the first 20 years of the century offered another avenue for the expression of anti-authoritarian ideas, and for the spread of these ideas from one geographic region to another. Martin Luther's revolution of religion added intensity to these movements, but did not necessarily create them; the two events, Martin Luther's Reformation and the German Peasants' War, were separate events, intertwined by sharing the same years, but each occurring separately of one another. On the one hand, Luther's doctrine of the priesthood of all believers could be interpreted as proposing greater social equality than Luther meant to. Thomas Müntzer's apocalyptic visions, though not responsible for the War, served as an inspiration in the later stages.
Hussite Wars
The experience of the Hussite wars contributed to both the successes and failures of the German Peasant War. When Jan HusJan Hus
Jan Hus , often referred to in English as John Hus or John Huss, was a Czech priest, philosopher, reformer, and master at Charles University in Prague...
was executed, by order of the Council of Constance
Council of Constance
The Council of Constance is the 15th ecumenical council recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, held from 1414 to 1418. The council ended the Three-Popes Controversy, by deposing or accepting the resignation of the remaining Papal claimants and electing Pope Martin V.The Council also condemned and...
(6 July 1415), Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
n and Moravia
Moravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
n knights and nobles sent a protest to the Council of Constance on (2 September 1415), The protestatio Bohemorum condemned the execution of Hus in the strongest language. Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor
Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor
Sigismund of Luxemburg KG was King of Hungary, of Croatia from 1387 to 1437, of Bohemia from 1419, and Holy Roman Emperor for four years from 1433 until 1437, the last Emperor of the House of Luxemburg. He was also King of Italy from 1431, and of Germany from 1411...
sent threatening letters to Bohemia declaring that he would soon drown all Wycliffites and Hussites and angered Hus's followers and the Bohemian and Moravian nobility. Almost immediately, local uprisings in Bohemia directed anger and frustration on the Church and insurgents drove many Catholic priests from their parishes. After the death of King Václav IV (en: Wenceslaus in English; de: Wenzel), fighting between the Hussites and the royal mercenaries destroyed much of Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
. In the course of the rioting, protesters tossed several magistrates out a window of the city hall in the First Defenestration of Prague. Jan Žižka, a Hussite leader, marched to southern Bohemia, and defeated the Catholics at the battle of Sudoměř (25 March 1420) in the first pitched battle of the Hussite wars. Employing the Wagenburg (Wagon fortress) defensive system, Hussites enticed enemy cavalry and infantry into battle. Sigismund engaged in three anti-Hussite campaigns; the Hussites responded with campaigns against Sigismund and his allies. Major battles occurred at Ústí nad Labem
Ústí nad Labem
Ústí nad Labem is a city of the Czech Republic, in the Ústí nad Labem Region. The city is the 7th-most populous in the country.Ústí is situated in a mountainous district at the confluence of the Bílina and the Elbe Rivers, and, besides being an active river port, is an important railway junction...
and Tachov
Battle of Tachov
The Battle of Tachov or Battle of Mies was a battle fought on 4 August 1427 near the Bohemian towns of Tachov and Stříbro . It was part of the Hussite Wars, and it was the first battle in which war wagons were used by the crusaders. The battle showed that the Wagenburg could not be used...
, and Battle of Domažlice
Battle of Domažlice
The Battle of Domažlice or Battle of Taus was fought on August 14, 1431 as the part of the 5th crusade against Hussites. The crusade was sent to Bohemia after the negotiations they were held in Pressburg and Cheb between Hussites and the emperor Sigismund had failed.The Imperial army was...
. The war lasted from 30 July 1419 – 30 May 1434; although it resulted in the defeat of the radical portion of the Hussite communities, the moderate Hussite organization remained intact.
Bundschuh movement
The Bundschuh movementBundschuh movement
The Bundschuh movement was a loosely linked series of localized peasant rebellions in southwestern Germany. It played an important part in the German Peasants' War of the early 15th and 16th centuries. It was so called because of the peasant shoe the peasants displayed on their flag – symbolizing...
was a localized series of peasant rebellions, centered in what is today southwestern Germany and northeastern France (Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
) during the last quarter of the 15th century and the first quarter of the 16th. It acquired its name from the peasant shoe, which the peasants displayed as their symbol of unity and defiance. Under the symbol of the Bundschuh, or the tied shoe, peasants and town dwellers sought relief from oppressive taxes, arbitrary justice, and costly ecclesiastical privileges. In particular, the local lord could assess an oppressive death tax and take between a quarter and a half of the decedent's property. In a situation in which several family members died within weeks, months or even a couple years of one another, this tax could destroy a family's wealth within a generation.
Under this flag, peasants and city dwellers had protested feudal dues, taxes, and obligations (1439–1444) and had defeated the troops of the French count of Armagnac
Count of Armagnac
The following is a list of rulers of the county of Armagnac:-House of Armagnac:*William Count of Fézensac and Armagnac ?– 960*Bernard the Suspicious, First count privative of Armagnac 960– ?*Gerald I Trancaléon ? –1020*Bernard I Tumapaler 1020–1061...
along the upper Rhine in three battles in 1439, 1443 and 1444. Individual uprisings in which peasants sought relief from resurgence of old feudal obligations, many of which had fallen into abeyance in the previous decades. Grievances against ecclesiastical and feudal obligations merged with popular religious observances. In 1476, in Niklaushausen, the shepherd, Hans Böhm, experienced a vision of Holy Mary, which established Niklaushausen as a pilgrimage site. He spoke against the vanities of the ecclesiastical leadership, and his preaching attracted thousands of pilgrims to sites in the Tauber
Tauber
For the singer, see Richard Tauber.For the mathematician, see Alfred Tauber.The Tauber is a river in Franconia, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Main and is 122 km in length...
river valley. In 1476, he was executed by burning, and his ashes strewn in the Main river. By 1493, other uprisings had occurred in Schlettstadt, in Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
, in 1502 to Bruchsal
Bruchsal
Bruchsal is a city at the western edge of the Kraichgau, approximately 20 km northeast of Karlsruhe in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany...
and nearby Untergrombach, in 1513 to Lehen in the Breisgau, and in 1517 along the upper Rhine.
Aristocratic and magesterial protective alliances: Swabian League
Formed in 1487, this alliance of German princes included dukes and nobles who belonged to the Company of the Shield of St. George, several of the Free Imperial Cities and several towns of the region, including Ulm
Ulm
Ulm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and...
, Esslingen, Reutlingen
Reutlingen
Reutlingen is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous district of Reutlingen. As of April 2008, it has a population of 109,828....
, Überlingen
Überlingen
Überlingen is a city on the northern shore of Lake Constance . After the city of Friedrichshafen, it is the second largest city in the Bodenseekreis , and a central point for the outlying communities...
, Lindau
Lindau
Lindau is a Bavarian town and an island on the eastern side of Lake Constance, the Bodensee. It is the capital of the Landkreis or rural district of Lindau. The historic city of Lindau is located on an island which is connected with the mainland by bridge and railway.- History :The name Lindau was...
, Nordlingen
Nördlingen
Nördlingen is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Bavaria, Germany, with a population of 20,000. It is located in the middle of a complex meteorite crater, called the Nördlinger Ries. The town was also the place of two battles during the Thirty Years' War...
, Memmingen
Memmingen
Memmingen is a town in the Bavarian administrative region of Swabia in Germany. It is the central economic, educational and administrative centre in the Danube-Iller region. To the west the town is flanked by the Iller, the river that marks the Baden-Württemberg border...
, Ravensburg
Ravensburg
Ravensburg is a town in Upper Swabia in Southern Germany, capital of the district of Ravensburg, Baden-Württemberg.Ravensburg was first mentioned in 1088. In the Middle Ages, it was an Imperial Free City and an important trading centre...
, Gmünd
Schwäbisch Gmünd
Schwäbisch Gmünd is a town in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. With a population of around 62,000, the town is the second largest in the Ostalbkreis and the whole region of East Württemberg after Aalen...
, Biberach
Biberach
Biberach is the name of several locations in Germany.* Biberach an der Riss, a town in Upper Swabia* Biberach , which has Biberach an der Riss as its capital* Biberach, Baden, a municipality in the Ortenaukreis...
, Dinkelsbühl
Dinkelsbühl
Dinkelsbühl is a historic city in Bavaria, Germany and a former Free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. Now it belongs to the district of Ansbach, north of Aalen.-History:...
, Pfullendorf
Pfullendorf
Pfullendorf is a small historic city in the district of Sigmaringen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.-Geography:Its location is in the district of Sigmaringen, 25 km north of Lake Constance and south of the Danube valley and therefore on the continental divide between the watersheds of the...
, Kempten
Kempten
Kempten can refer to:* Kempten im Allgäu, a town in Bavaria, Germany* Kempten ZH, a district of the town of Wetzikon in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland* Kempton Park, Gauteng, a city in South Africa which was named after Kempten in Bavaria...
, Kaufbeuren
Kaufbeuren
Kaufbeuren is an independent city in the Regierungsbezirk of Schwaben, southern Bavaria. The city is completely enclaved within the district of Ostallgäu.- Culture and Objects of Interest :* Townhall * Crescentiakloster...
, Isny, Leutkirch, Giengen
Giengen
Giengen is a historic city in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is situated in the district of Heidenheim, north-east of Ulm, at the southern foot of the Swabian Alb....
, Wangen
Wangen
Wangen may refer to:* in Germany** Wangen im Allgäu, Ravensburg district, Baden-Württemberg** Wangen , Göppingen district, Baden-Württemberg...
, and Aalen
Aalen
Aalen is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, about east of Stuttgart and north of Ulm. It is the seat of the Ostalbkreis district, and its largest city, as well as the largest city within the Ostwürttemberg region. In spatial planning, Aalen is designated a Mittelzentrum...
. In the months immediately following its initial formation, Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
, Heilbronn
Heilbronn
Heilbronn is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is completely surrounded by Heilbronn County and with approximately 123.000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state....
, Wimpfen
Bad Wimpfen
Bad Wimpfen is an historic spa town in the district of Heilbronn in the Baden-Württemberg region of southern Germany. It lies north of the city of Heilbronn, on the river Neckar.-Geography:...
, Donauwörth
Donauwörth
Donauwörth is a city in the German State of Bavaria , in the region of Swabia . It is said to have been founded by two fisherman where the Danube and Wörnitz rivers meet...
, Weil der Stadt
Weil der Stadt
Weil der Stadt is a small town of about 19,000 inhabitants, located in the Stuttgart Region of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is about west of Stuttgart city center, and is often called "Gate to the Black Forest"...
, and Bopfingen
Bopfingen
Bopfingen is a small city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the Ostalbkreis, between Aalen and Nördlingen. It consists of the city Bopfingen itself and its suburbs Aufhausen, Baldern, Flochberg, Kerkingen, Oberdorf, Schloßberg, Trochtelfingen, and Unterriffingen.Bopfingen is famous...
also joined, and, later, the Bavarian territories of the House of Wittelsbach, the territories of the Duchy of Württemberg, and lower Austria.
Army of the Swabian League
The Swabian League fielded an army commanded by Georg, Truchsess von WaldburgGeorg, Truchsess von Waldburg
Georg III Truchsess von Waldburg-Zeil , also known as Bauernjörg, was a German Army Commander in the German Peasants' War.- Life :...
, later known as Bauernjörg for his role in the suppression of the revolt. He was also known as the scourge of the peasants. (25 January 1488 – 29 May 1531), The league headquarters was based in Ulm, and command was exercised through a war council which decided the size and contingents of troops to be levied from each member. Depending on their size and capability, members contributed a specific number of mounted knights and foot soldiers, called a contingent, to the League's army. The Bishop of Augsburg, for example, had to contribute 10 horse (10 mounted men), and 62 foot soldiers, which would be the equivalent of a half-company. A standing contingent of close to 200 horse and 1000 foot, however, could not deal with the size of the disturbance. By 1525, the uprisings in the Black Forest, the Breisgau, Hegau, Sundgau, and Alsace alone required a substantial muster of 3,000 foot and 300 horse.
Foot soldiers were drawn from the ranks of the Landknechts. These were mercenary soldiers, usually paid a monthly wage of four guilders, organized into regiments, called Haufen, and companies, of 120-300 men, called Fähnlein, or little flag, which differentiated the companies from one another. Each company, in turn, was composed of smaller units, a squad of 10-12 men, known as Rotte. The Landsknecht clothed, armed and fed themselves, and were accompanied by a sizable train of sutlers, bakers, washerwomen, prostitutes, and sundry individuals with occupations needed in a military community. The trains, or Tross, were sometimes larger than the fighting force, but their presence required organization and discipline. Landsknechts maintained their own structure, called the Gemein, or community assembly, which was symbolized by a ring. The Gemein had its own officer, known as the Schultheiss, and an officer called the Provost, who policed the ranks and maintained order.
The League relied on the heavy armored cavalry of the nobility for the bulk of its strength; the League had both a heavy cavalry force, and a light cavalry, known as the Rennfahne, which acted as a vanguard, or advanced guard. Typically, the Rehnnfahne were the second and third sons of poor knights, the lower and sometimes impoverished nobility with small land-holdings, or, in the case of second and third sons, no inheritance or social role. These men could often be found roaming the countryside, looking for work, or, short of finding it, engaging in highway robbery.
To be effective, however, the cavalry needed to be mobile, and needed to oppose a force not heavily armed with pikes.
Peasant armies
The peasant armies were organized in bands, called Haufen, similar to the Landsknecht units. Each Haufen was organized into Unterhaufen, or Fähnlein and Rotten. The bands varied in size, depending on the numbers of insurgents available to join a force in a single locality; unlike the Landsknecht Haufen, the peasant Haufen united peasants by territory, whereas the Haufen of the Landsknecht drew men from a variety of territories. Some bands could number about 4,000; others, such as the peasant force at Frankenhausen, could gather 8,000. The Alsatian peasants who took to the field at the Battle of Zabern numbered 18,000.Haufen were formed from companies: typically 500 men per company, subdivided by platoons of 10–15 peasants. Like the Landsknechts, the peasant bands used similar titles: Oberster Feldhauptmann, or supreme commander, similar to a colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
, and Lieutenants, or Leutinger. Each company was commanded by a captain and had its own Fähnrich, or ensign
Ensign
An ensign is a national flag when used at sea, in vexillology, or a distinguishing token, emblem, or badge, such as a symbol of office in heraldry...
who, naturally, carried the company's standard (its ensign). The companies also had a sergeant or Feldweibel, and squadron leaders called Rottmeister, or masters of the Rotte. Officers were usually elected, particularly the supreme commander and the Leutinger.
The democratic principle of the peasant army governed its organizing structure and the so-called ring, in which peasants gathered in a circle to debate tactics, troop movements, alliances, and the distribution of spoils, dominating the organization. Despite this democratic principle, there was a hierarchy and every peasant band had a supreme command and a marshal (Schultheiss), who maintained law and order. Each company also had lieutenants, captains and standard-bearers, a master gunner, a master of the wagon-fort, a master of the train (transportation), four watch masters, four sergeant majors to arrange the order of battle, a Weibel (sergeant) for each company, two quartermasters, farriers, quartermasters for the horses, a communications officer, and, importantly, a pillage master for each company.
Peasant resources
Peasants possessed an important resource, the skills to build and maintain field works. They also used the wagon-fort effectively, a tactic that had been mastered in the Hussite WarsHussite Wars
The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars involved the military actions against and amongst the followers of Jan Hus in Bohemia in the period 1419 to circa 1434. The Hussite Wars were notable for the extensive use of early hand-held gunpowder weapons such as hand cannons...
of the previous century. Wagons would be chained together in a suitable defensive location. Cavalry and draft animals were placed in the center. Peasants dug ditches around the outer edge of the fort and used timbers to close the gaps between and underneath the wagons. In the Hussite wars, artillery was usually placed in the center, on raised mounds of earth that allowed them to be fired over the wagons. Wagon forts could be erected quickly and taken down quickly; they were relatively mobile, but they also had drawbacks: they required a fairly large area of flat terrain, they were not the ideal offensive deployment, and they had been used 75 years earlier to great effect, when artillery was less sophisticated. By 1525, artillery had greater range and power.
Peasants served in rotation, sometimes for one week in four, and returned to their villages after their service. They were replaced by another man. While the men were gone, other men absorbed the workload of the missing men. Ironically, this sometimes meant producing wealth or resources that supplied their opponents, such as in the Archbishopric of Salzburg
Archbishopric of Salzburg
The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical State of the Holy Roman Empire, its territory roughly congruent with the present-day Austrian state of Salzburg....
, where men worked to extract silver, which was used to hire fresh contingents of Landsknechts for the Swabian League's army.
Notably, however, the peasants lacked an essential element that the Swabian league had: cavalry. Certainly, some peasants arrived with horses, and any mounted troops that the peasants did have seem to have been used for reconnaissance. The lack of cavalry with which to protect their flanks, and with which to penetrate massed Landsknecht squares proved to be a long-term tactical and strategic problem.
Outbreak in the southwest
During the 1524 harvest, in StühlingenStühlingen
Stühlingen is a town in the Waldshut district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the border with Switzerland, with a border crossing to the village of Oberwiesen in Schleitheim municipality, 15 km northwest of Schaffhausen town....
, south of the Black Forest
Black Forest
The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres ....
, the Countess of Lupfen ordered serfs to collect snail shells for use as thread spools. This was the final straw in a series of difficult harvests, and within days, 1,200 peasants had gathered, created a list of grievances, elected officers, and raised a banner. The disturbance spread quickly, and within a few weeks, most of southwestern Germany was in open revolt. The uprising stretched from the Black Forest, along the Rhine, to Lake Constance
Lake Constance
Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee , the Untersee , and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps...
, into the Swabian highlands, along the upper Danube River, and into Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
.
Insurgency expands
On 16 February 1525, 25 villages belonging to the city of MemmingenMemmingen
Memmingen is a town in the Bavarian administrative region of Swabia in Germany. It is the central economic, educational and administrative centre in the Danube-Iller region. To the west the town is flanked by the Iller, the river that marks the Baden-Württemberg border...
rebelled, demanding of the Memmingen magistrates (city council) improvements in their economic condition and the general political situation. Their complaints touched subjects like peonage, land use, easements on the woods and the commons as well as ecclesiastical requirements of service and payment.
The city set up a committee of villagers to discuss their issues, expecting to see a checklist of specific and trivial demands: for example, the payment of such and such for so and so's lost wood; the settlement of a boundary dispute relative to four measures of land between two villages; the re-establishment of fishing rights, or permission to release hogs in a wooded area; or release from trivial duties during peak labor seasons (harvest, sowing). Unexpectedly, the peasants delivered a uniform declaration that struck at the pillars of the peasant-magisterial relationship. Twelve articles clearly and consistently outlined their grievances. Many of those demands did subsequently not prevail in the city council. Historians have generally assumed that the articles of the ordines provinciales una congregati (the representatives of the communities) of Memmingen became the basis of discussion for the Twelve Articles agreed on by the Upper Swabian Peasants
Swabia
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...
Confederation of 20 March 1525.
Statement of principle
On 6 March 1525, close to 50 representatives of the Upper Swabian Peasants Haufen, or circles— the Baltringer HaufenBaltringer Haufen
The Baltringer Haufen was prominent among several armed groups of peasants and craftsmen during the German Peasants' War of 1524-1525. The name derived from the small Upper Swabian village of Baltringen, which lies approximately south of Ulm in the district of Biberach, Germany...
, the Allgäuer Haufen, and the Lake Constance Haufen (Seehaufen)—met in Memmingen
Memmingen
Memmingen is a town in the Bavarian administrative region of Swabia in Germany. It is the central economic, educational and administrative centre in the Danube-Iller region. To the west the town is flanked by the Iller, the river that marks the Baden-Württemberg border...
iterate a common cause against the Swabian League
Swabian League
The Swabian League was an association of Imperial States - cities, prelates, principalities and knights - principally in the territory of the Early medieval stem duchy of Swabia, established in 1488 at the behest of Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg and supported as well by Bertold von...
. One day later, after difficult negotiations, they proclaimed the Christian Association, an Upper Swabian Peasants' Confederation
Confederation
A confederation in modern political terms is a permanent union of political units for common action in relation to other units. Usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution, confederations tend to be established for dealing with critical issues such as defense, foreign...
. The peasants met again on 15 and 20 March 1525 in Memmingen
Memmingen
Memmingen is a town in the Bavarian administrative region of Swabia in Germany. It is the central economic, educational and administrative centre in the Danube-Iller region. To the west the town is flanked by the Iller, the river that marks the Baden-Württemberg border...
and, after some additional deliberation, adopted the Twelve Articles and the Federal Order (Bundesordnung). Their banner, the Bundschuh, or a laced boot, served as the emblem of their agreement. These Twelve Articles were printed over 25,000 times in the next two months, and quickly spread throughout Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
The Twelve Articles iterated specific community rights, largely relating to community self-governance. These included the right to retain or remove the community's pastor, the limitation of tithes and what the tax will pay for, the expansion of hunting, fishing and gathering rights, the establishment of fair and usual leases, rents, and payments, and the elimination of the Todfall, or death tax.
Kempten Insurrection
Kempten im Allgäu
Kempten is the largest town in Allgäu, a region in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. The population was ca 61,000 in 2006. The area was possibly settled originally by Celts, but was later overtaken by the Romans, who called the town Cambodunum...
was an important city in the Allgäu
Allgäu
The Allgäu is a southern German region in Swabia. It covers the south of Bavarian Swabia and southeastern Baden-Württemberg. The region stretches from the prealpine lands up to the Alps...
, a region in southern Germany in modern day Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, near the borders with Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. In the early eighth century, Celtic monks established a monastery there: Kempten Abbey. In 1213, Holy Roman Emperor
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...
Frederick II
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...
declared the abbots members of the Reichstand, or Imperial estate and granted the abbot the right to bear the title of Duke. However in 1289, King Rudolf of Habsburg also granted special privileges to the urban settlement in the river valley, making it a Free imperial city
Free Imperial City
In the Holy Roman Empire, a free imperial city was a city formally ruled by the emperor only — as opposed to the majority of cities in the Empire, which were governed by one of the many princes of the Empire, such as dukes or prince-bishops...
. In 1525 the last property rights of the abbots in the Imperial City were sold in the so-called “Great Purchase”, marking the start of the co-existence of two independent cities bearing the same name next to each other. In this multi-layered authority, during the Peasants' War, the Abbey-peasants revolted, plundering the abbey and moving on the town.
Battle of Leipheim
48°26′56"N 10°13′15"EOn 4 April 1525, 5,000 peasants, the Leipheimer Haufen (literally: the Leipheim Bunch) gathered near Leipheim
Leipheim
Leipheim is a town in the district of Günzburg, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the Danube, 5 km west of Günzburg, and 17 km northeast of Ulm. The village Riedheim and the hamlet Weissingen are districts of Leipheim...
to rise against the city of Ulm. A band of five companies, plus approximately 25 citizens of Leipheim, assumed positions to the west of the town. League reconnaissance reported to the Truchsess that the peasants were well-armed. They had powder and shot for their cannon, and they were 3,000-4,000 strong. They also had an advantageous position on the east bank of the Biber
Biber (Danube)
The Biber is a right tributary of the Danube in Bavaria, Germany. The source of the Biber is in the south of the hamlet Matzenhofen in Unterroth. The river is 36.8 km long....
. On the left stood a wood, and on their right, a stream and marshland; behind them, they had erected a wagon fortress, and they were armed with Hook guns and some light artillery pieces.
As he had done in earlier encounters with the peasants, the Truchsess negotiated while he continued to move his troops into advantageous positions. Keeping the bulk of his army facing Leipheim, he dispatched detachments of horse from Hesse and Ulm across the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
to Elchingen
Elchingen
Elchingen is a municipality about 7 km east of Ulm–Neu-Ulm in the district of Neu-Ulm in Bavaria, GermanyMunicipality parts:* Thalfingen: 4 211 residents, 8.83 km²* Oberelchingen: 3 024 residents, 7.31 km²...
. The detached troops encountered a separate group of 1,200 peasants engaged in local requisitions, and entered into a lively combat, dispersing them and taking 250 prisoners. At the same time, Truchsess broke off his negotiations, and received a volley of fire from the main group of peasants. He dispatched a guard of light horse and a small group of foot soldiers against the fortified peasant position. This was followed by his main force; when the peasants saw the size of his main force—his entire force was 1,500 horse, 7,000 foot, and 18 field guns—they began an orderly retreat. Of the 4,000 or so peasants who had manned the fortified position, 2,000 were able to reach the town of Leipheim itself, taking their wounded with them in carts. Others sought to escape across the Danube, and 400 drowned there. The Truchsess' horse units cut down an additional 500. This was the first decisive battle of the war.
Weinsberg Massacre
49°9′6"N 9°17′8"EAn element of the conflict drew on resentment toward some of the nobility. The peasants of Odenwald had already taken the Cistercian Monastery at Schöntal
Schöntal
Schöntal is a town and municipality in the district of Hohenlohe in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.It is principally known as the location of the former Schöntal Abbey, a magnificent Baroque monastery....
, and were joined by peasant bands from Limburg
Limburg an der Lahn
Limburg an der Lahn is the district seat of Limburg-Weilburg in Hesse, Germany.-Location:Limburg lies in western Hesse between the Taunus and the Westerwald on the river Lahn....
and Hohenlohe
Hohenlohe
Hohenlohe is the name of a German princely family and the name of their principality.At first rulers of a county, its two branches were raised to the rank of principalities of the Holy Roman Empire in 1744 and 1764 respectively; in 1806 they lost their independence and their lands formed part of...
. A large band of peasants from the Neckar
Neckar
The Neckar is a long river, mainly flowing through the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, but also a short section through Hesse, in Germany. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the River Rhine...
valley, under the leadership of Jack Rohrbach, joined them and from Neckarsulm
Neckarsulm
Neckarsulm is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, near Stuttgart, and part of the district Heilbronn. As of 2004, Neckarsulm had 27,296 inhabitants....
, this expanded band, called the Bright Band
Black Company
The Black Company or the Black Troops was a unit of Franconian mercenaries during the Peasant's Revolt in the 1520s during the Protestant Reformation in Germany.The original German name of the Black Company was "Schwarzer Haufen"...
(in German, Heller Haufen), marched to the town of Weinsberg
Weinsberg
Weinsberg is a town in the north of the German state Baden-Württemberg. It was founded ca. 1200 and is situated in the Heilbronn district. The town has about 11,800 inhabitants. It is noted for its wine...
, where the Duke of Helfenstein had his seat. Here, the peasants achieved a major victory, in which they were aided by the duke's own subjects. The peasants assaulted and captured his castle; most of his own soldiers were on duty in Italy, and he had little protection. Having taken the Duke as their prisoner, the peasants took their revenge a step further: They forced the Duke, and approximately 70 other nobles who had taken refuge with him, to run the gauntlet of pikes, a popular form of execution among the Landsknechts. Rohrbach ordered the band's piper to play during the running of the gauntlet. The Duke died horribly.
This was too much for many of the peasant leaders of other bands; Rohrbach's actions were repudiated, he was deposed, and replaced by a knight, Götz von Berlichingen
Götz von Berlichingen
Gottfried "Götz" von Berlichingen and also known as Götz of the Iron Hand, was a German Imperial Knight and mercenary....
, who was subsequently elected as supreme commander of the band. At the end of April, the band marched to Amorbach
Amorbach
Amorbach is a town in the Miltenberg district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany, with some 4,100 inhabitants .- Location :...
, joined on the way by some radical Odenwald peasants out for Berlichingen's blood. Berlichingen had been involved in the suppression of the Poor Conrad
Poor Conrad
The Poor Conrad was the name of a Peasant Rebellion in 1514 against Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg. The rebels called themselves Poor Conrads because this was the term used by the nobility to mock them, meaning poor fellows or poor devils...
uprising 10 years earlier, and these peasants had a long memory. In the course of their march, they burned down the Wildenburg castle, a contravention of the Articles of War to which the band had agreed.
The massacre at Weinsberg was also too much for Luther to tolerate; this is the deed that drew his ire, in Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants
Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants
Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants is a piece written by Martin Luther, related to The German Peasants' War. The Peasants' War took place between 1524 and 1526, as a result of a tumultuous collection of grievances in many different spheres: political, economic, social, and...
in which he castigated peasants for unspeakable crimes, not only for the murder of the nobles at Weingarten, but also for the impertinence of their revolt.
Massacre at Frankenhausen
- 51°21′21"N 11°6′4"E
On 29 April 1525, the peasant grumbling and protests in and around Frankenhausen culminated into an open revolt. Large parts of the citizenry joined the uprising. Together they occupied the town hall and stormed the castle of the Counts of Schwarzburg. In the following days, an even larger number of insurgents gathered in the fields around the town. When Thomas Müntzer arrived with 300 fighters from Mühlhausen
Mühlhausen
Mühlhausen is a city in the federal state of Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the Unstrut-Hainich district, and lies along the river Unstrut. Mühlhausen had c. 37,000 inhabitants in 2006.-History:...
on 11 May, several thousands more peasants of the surrounding estates camped on the fields and pastures: the final strength of the peasant and town force is unclear, but estimated at 8,000–10,000. The Landgrave, Philip of Hesse
Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse
Philip I of Hesse, , nicknamed der Großmütige was a leading champion of the Protestant Reformation and one of the most important of the early Protestant rulers in Germany....
and Duke George of Saxony
George, Duke of Saxony
George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony , was duke of Saxony from 1500 to 1539.Duke George was a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece.-Early life:...
were on Müntzer's trail and directed their Landsknecht
Landsknecht
Landsknechte were European, predominantly German mercenary pikemen and supporting foot soldiers from the late 15th to the late 16th century, and achieved the reputation for being the universal mercenary of Early modern Europe.-Etymology:The term is from German, Land "land, country" + Knecht...
troops toward Frankenhausen. On 15 May 1525, joint troops of Landgraf Philipp I of Hesse and George, Duke of Saxony
George, Duke of Saxony
George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony , was duke of Saxony from 1500 to 1539.Duke George was a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece.-Early life:...
defeated near Frankenhausen
Bad Frankenhausen
Bad Frankenhausen is a spa town in the German state of Thuringia. It is located at the southern slope of the Kyffhäuser mountain range, on an artificial arm of the Wipper river, a tributary of the Saale. Because of the nearby Kyffhäuser monument dedicated to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, it is...
in the County of Schwarzburg
County of Schwarzburg
The County of Schwarzburg was a state of the Holy Roman Empire from 1195 to 1595, when it was partitioned into Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen. It was ruled by counts from the House of Schwarzburg....
the peasants under the Anabaptist
Anabaptist
Anabaptists are Protestant Christians of the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe, and their direct descendants, particularly the Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites....
leader Thomas Müntzer.
The Princes' troops included close to 6,000 mercenaries
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
, the Landsknecht. As such they were well equipped, well trained and had good morale. They were also experienced. The peasants, on the other hand, had poor, if any, equipment, and except for those 300 fighters who had arrived with Müntzer, many had neither experience nor training. Furthermore, many of the peasants disagreed over their options. Should they fight the Princes' troops, or should they negotiate? On 14 May, they had been able to ward off some smaller feints of the Hesse and Brunswick troopers, but failed to reap the benefits from their victory. Instead the insurgents arranged a ceasefire and withdrew into a wagon fort
Wagon fort
A Laager, also known as a wagon fort, is a mobile fortification made of wagons arranged into a rectangle, a circle or other shape and possibly joined with each other, an improvised military camp....
.
The next day Philip's troops united with Saxon army of Duke George and immediately broke the truce, starting a heavy combined infantry, cavalry and artillery attack. The peasants were caught off guard and fled in panic to the town, followed and continuously attacked by the mercenaries. Most of the insurgents were slain in what turned out to be a massacre. Casualty figures are unreliable but peasant losses have been estimated at 3,000–10,000 and the Landsknecht casualites estimated as low as six (two of whom were only wounded). Müntzer himelf was captured, tortured and finally executed at Mühlhausen on 27 May 1525.
Battle of Böblingen
The battle of BöblingenBöblingen
Böblingen is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, seat of Böblingen District. Physically Sindelfingen and Böblingen are continuous.-History:Böblingen was founded by Count Wilhelm von Tübingen-Böblingen in 1253. Württemberg acquired the town in 1357, and on 12 May 1525 one of the bloodiest battles...
(12 May 1525) was the one with the greatest losses throughout the whole German Peasants' War.
When the peasants came to know that the Truchsess of Waldburg pitched camp at Rottenburg, they marched towards them and took the city Herrenberg (10 May 1525). Avoiding advances of the Swabian League to retake Herrenberg, the Württemberg band set up three camps between Böblingen and Sindelfingen. There they formed four units, standing upon the slopes between the cities. Their artillery (18 pieces)stood on a hill called Galgenberg, facing the hostile armies. The peasants were though overtaken by the Leagues horses which encircled and pursued them for kilometres.
While the Württemberg band lost approximately 3000 peasants (numbers alternate from 2000 to 9000), the League lost no more than 40 soldiers.Peasants' War museum Böblingen
Battle of Königshofen
At KönigshofenLauda-Königshofen
Lauda-Königshofen is a town in the Main-Tauber district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Tauber, 7 km southeast of Tauberbischofsheim, and 30 km southwest of Würzburg...
, on 2 June 1525, the peasant commanders Wendel Hipfler and Georg Metzler had set camp outside of town. Upon identifying two squadrons of League and Alliance horse approach on each flank, now recognized as a dangerous Truchsess strategy, they redeployed the wagon-fort and guns to the hill above the town. Having learned by now how to protect themselves from a mounted assault, peasants assembled in four massed ranks behind their cannon, but in front of their wagon-fort, intended to protect them from a rear attack. The peasant gunnery fired a salvo at the League advanced horse, which attacked them on the left. The Truchsess' infantry made a frontal assault, but without waiting for his foot soldiers to engage, he also ordered an attack on the peasants from the rear. As the knights hit the rear ranks, panic erupted among the peasants. Hipler and Metzler fled with the master gunners. Two thousand reached the nearby woods, where they re-assembled and mounted some resistance to the League horsemen. In the chaos that followed, the peasants and the mounted knights and infantry conducted a pitched battle and by nightfall, only 600 peasants remained. The Truchsess ordered his army to search the battlefield, and the soldiers discovered approximately 500 peasants who had feigned death. The battle is also called the Battle of the Turmberg, for a watch-tower on the field.
Siege of Freiburg im Breisgau
Freiburg, which was an Austrian (Habsburg) territory, had a considerable amount of trouble raising enough conscripts to fight the peasants, and when the city did manage to put a column together and march out to meet them, the peasants simply melted into the forest, to reappear later. After refusal by the Duke of Baden, Margrave Ernst, to accept the 12 Articles of the Swabia Haufen, a sizable contingent of peasants attacked several abbeys in the Black Forest. The Knights Hospitallers at Heitersheim fell to them on 2 May; Haufen to the north also sacked abbeys at Tennenbach and Ettenheimmünster. In early May, Hans MüllerHans Müller von Bulgenbach
Hans Müller, also known as Hans Müller von Bulgenbach, , was a peasant leader during the German Peasants' War. After a career in the French military, he played a pivotal role in the initial peasant uprising at Stuhlingen, and organized peasant bands throughout southwestern Germany...
arrived at Kirchartzen with over 8,000 men at Kirzenach, near Freiburg. Several other bands arrived, bringing the total to 18,000, and within a matter of days, the city was encircled and the peasants made plans to lay a siege.
Second Battle of Würzburg (1525)
After the Black Forest corps of 18,000 men took control of Freiburg im Breisgau, Hans Müller took some of the group to assist in the siege at Radolfzell. The rest of the peasants returned to their farms to plant crops. On 4 June, by Würzburg, Müller and his small group of peasant-soldiers joined with the Franconian farmers of the Hellen Lichten Haufen. Despite this union, the strength of their force was relatively small. At Waldburg-Zeil they met the army of Götz von BerlichingenGötz von Berlichingen
Gottfried "Götz" von Berlichingen and also known as Götz of the Iron Hand, was a German Imperial Knight and mercenary....
near Würzburg
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
, who was also called Gotz of the Iron hand. An imperial knight and experienced soldier, although he had a relatively small force himself, the peasants did not stand a chance against him. In approximately 2 hours, more than 8,000 peasants were killed.
Battle of Schladming
Marx, Engels and the Peasant War
The German Peasants' War provided the basis of Friedrich EngelsFriedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
and Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
's concept of historical materialism
Historical materialism
Historical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, first articulated by Karl Marx as "the materialist conception of history". Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans...
. Marx and Engels attributed the peasant failure in 1524–1526, described in their work, The Peasant War in Germany
The Peasant War in Germany
The Peasant War in Germany by Friedrich Engels, 1850, is an account of 16th century uprisings.This book was written by Friedrich Engels in London, during the summer of 1850, following the revolutionary uprisings of 1848-1849. The book draws a parallel between the uprisings of 1848-1849 and the...
, to peasant conservativism; this led them to conclude that the revolution, when it occurred, would be led not by a peasant army but by an urban proletariat. In this interpretation of class warfare, Engels identified the peasants as traitors to the cause of freedom, although at a lesser level of development.
Place in historiography
Beyond Marx and Engels interpretation of the Peasant War, historians disagree on the nature of the revolt and its causes, whether it grew out of the emerging religious controversy centered on Martin Luther; whether a wealthy tier of peasants saw their own wealth and rights slipping away, and sought to re-inscribe them in the legal, social and religious fabric of society; or whether it was peasant resistance to the emergence of a modernizing, centralizing political state. Historians have tended to toward categorizing the German peasant war in two ways, either as an expression of economic problems, or as a theological/political statement against the constraints of feudal society.Since the 1930s, Günter Franz’s work on the peasant war dominated interpretations of the uprising. Franz understood the Peasants’ War as a political struggle in which any social and economic aspects played a minor role. Key to Franz’s interpretation is the understanding that peasants had benefited from the economic recovery of the early 16th century and that their grievances, as expressed in such documents as the Twelve Articles, had little or no basis in the economic reality of the time. He interpreted the uprising’s causes as essentially political, and secondarily economic: the assertions by princely landlords of control over the peasantry through new taxes and the modification of old ones, and the creation of servitude backed up by princely law. For Franz, the peasant uprisings of 1525 were a political conflict between “revolting peasants” and princes in which the peasants were horribly crushed and disappeared from view for centuries. A different economic interpretation challenges Franz's work has been challenged in the 1950s and 1960s. This interpretation, informed by analysis of economic data of harvests, wages, and general financial conditions of the participants, suggested that economic improvements in the early 15th century reflects and improvement in peasant conditions; in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, peasants saw these advantages slipping away, with concessions to the landed nobility and military groups. The war is thus an effort to wrest these social, economic and political advantages back from the ruling class while, on the other hand, the nobility tried to affirm concessions made in the previous decades.
Since the 1970s, research on the German Peasants’ War has benefited from the interest of social and cultural historians. Utilizing various sources such as letters, journals, religious tracts, city and town records, demographic information, family and kinship developments, and so on, historians have in turn challenged the long-held assumptions about German peasants and the authoritarian tradition to hypothesize alternatives. Peasant resistance occurred in two forms. The first, spontaneous (or popular) and localized revolt that drew on traditional liberties and old law for its legitimacy. In this way, it could be explained as a conservative and traditional effort to recover lost ground. The second saw the conflict as an organized inter-regional revolt that claimed its legitimacy from divine law, and found its ideological basis from the Reformation. Historians, particularly those studying local histories of southwestern German territories have refuted both Franz’s view of the origins of the war, and the Marxist view of the course of the war, and both views on the outcome and consequences. One of the most important has been Peter Blickle’s emphasis on communalism as a factor. Although Blickle agrees with Franz and the Marxists in that he sees a crisis of feudalism in the latter Middle Ages in southern Germany, this has political and social and economic features and originated in efforts by peasants and their landlords to cope with long term climate, technological, labor, and crop changes during the 15th century, particularly the extended agrarian crisis and its drawn out recovery. For Blickle, the possibility of peasant rebellion is contingent upon the existence of a parliamentary tradition in southwestern Germany and the coincidence of a tier of individuals with significant political, social and economic interest in agricultural production and distribution. These individuals had had a great deal to lose.
This view, which asserts the uprising grew out of the participation of groups within the agricultural system in the economic recovery, has in turn been challenged by Scribner, Stalmetz and Bernecke. They assert that Blickle’s analysis of the peasant economic recovery is based on dubious form of the Malthusian principle, and that the peasant economic recovery was significantly limited, both regionally, and by the depth to which it extended into peasant ranks. A few peasants had participated in the recovery in a few areas, but as a group, participation was spotty and regional, and did not extend to the greater portion of the agricultural workforce. Blickle and his students have modified their ideas about peasant wealth. A variety of local studies show that peasants did participate in the economic recovery, but the participation was not as broadly based as formerly thought.
The course of the war also demonstrates the importance of a congruence of events: the new liberation ideology, the appearance within peasant ranks of charismatic and military-trained men like Munzer and Gaisman, a set of grievances with specific economic and social origins, a challenged, although not fatally weakened, set of political relationships, and a communal tradition of political and social discourse. The traditional take Franz offers on the slaughter of peasants in the final battles, and the execution of the leaders, suggests a total failure on the part of the peasants to achieve their goals: the peasants disappeared, then, from historical discussion for centuries. Yet the new studies of localities and studies examining social relationships through the lens of gender and class shows that peasants were able to recover, or even in some cases expand many of their rights and traditional liberties, to negotiate these in writing, and force their lords to guarantee them. If many of the more radical demands were not met, this is not unusual; given the nature of historical change, some of the less controversial demands are usually met first.
Further reading
- Bak, János M.The German Peasant War of 1525. London: F. Cass, 1976.
- Christensen, Carl C., Bob Scribner, and Gerhard Benecke.1981. "Review of The German Peasant War of 1525: New Viewpoints". Church History. 50, no. 2: 215–216.
- Close, Christopher W. The Negotiated Reformation: Imperial Cities and the Politics of Urban Reform, 1525–1550. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
- Close, Christopher W. The negotiated Reformation: Swabian Imperial cities and urban reform (1530–1546). 2006.
- Dixon, C. Scott. The German Reformation: the essential readings. Blackwell essential readings in history. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 1999.
- Engels, FriedrichFriedrich EngelsFriedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
, and Leonard Krieger. The German Revolutions: The Peasant War in Germany, and Germany: Revolution and Counter-Revolution. Classic European historians. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967. - Forster, Marc R. Catholic Germany from the Reformation to the Enlightenment. European history in perspective. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
- Forster, Marc R. Catholic Revival in the Age of the Baroque: Religious Identity in Southwest Germany, 1550–1750. New studies in European history. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
- Foster, Helen Wright. The Peasant War in German Literature. 1908.
- Heal, Bridget. The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany: Protestant and Catholic Piety, 1500–1648. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
- Hsia, Po-chia, Bob Scribner, and Gerhard Benecke. "Review of: The German Peasant War of 1525, New Viewpoints". The Sixteenth Century Journal. 1980, 11, no. 4: 111.
- Jung, Jacqueline E.. "Peasant Meal or Lord's Feast? The Social Iconography of the Naumburg Last Supper". Gesta. 2003, 42, no. 1: 39–61.
- Midelfort, H. C. Erik. Mad Princes of Renaissance Germany. Studies in early modern German history. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1994.
- Moeller, BerndBernd MoellerBernd Moeller is a German Protestant theologian and church historian.Bernd Moeller studied Protestant theology as well as history. In 1956 he received his doctorate from the Protestant theological department of the University of Mainz with the dissertation Die Anfechtung bei Johann Tauler...
. Imperial Cities and the Reformation; Three Essays, trans. H. C. Erik Midelfort, and Mark U. Edwards. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972. - Oman, C. W. C.1890. "The German Peasant War of 1525". English Historical Review. 5, no. 17: 65–94.
- Pettegree, Andrew, and James M. Stayer.1994. "Review of The German Peasant War and Anabaptist Community of Goods". English Historical Review. 109, no. 432: 714-715.
- Plummer, Marjorie Elizabeth, Robin Bruce Barnes, and H. C. Erik MidelfortH. C. Erik MidelfortH.C. Erik Midelfort , is C. Julian Bishko Professor Emeritus of History and Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He is a specialist of the German Reformation and the history of Christianity in Early Modern Europe .He was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and attended Yale University where...
. Ideas and Cultural Margins in Early Modern Germany: Essays in Honor of H.C. Erik Midelfort. Farnham, England: Ashgate, 2009. - Reiland, Mark G.Martin Luther and Secular Authority in Relation to the German Peasant's War, 1524–1526. Thesis (M.A.)--Concordia University, Irvine, 2000, 2000.
- Rublack, Ulinka. Gender in Early Modern German History. Past and present publications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
- Schertlin, Sebastian von Burtenbach, Engelbert Hegaur, Samuel G. Shartle, and William W. Lockwood. Journal of Sebastian Schertlin Von Burtenbach (1496–1577): A Knight of the 16th Century Germany. 1951.
- Schindler, Norbert. Rebellion, community and custom in early modern Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
- Scott, Tom, Janos Bak, Bob Scribner, and Gerhard Benecke.1980. "Review of The German Peasant War of 1525 - New View-Points". English Historical Review. 95, no. 377: 900–901.
- Scribner, Bob, and G. Benecke. The German Peasant War of 1525: New Viewpoints. London: Allen & Unwin, 1979.
- Scribner, Robert W.Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany. London: Hambledon Press, 1987.
- Scribner, Robert W., and Gerhard Benecke. The German Peasant War of 1525. London: Allen and Unwin, 1979.
- Sea, Thomas F.1999. "The Swabian League and Peasant Disobedience Before the German Peasants' War of 1525". The Sixteenth Century Journal. 30, no. 1: 89–111.
- Sessions, Kyle, Janos Bak, and Thomas Muntzer. "Review of The German Peasant War of 1525". The Sixteenth Century Journal. (1978) 9:1, pp. 95–99.
- Stayer, James M.James M. StayerJames M. Stayer is a historian specializing in the German Reformation, particularly the anabaptist movement. He is also a Professor Emeritus at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada....
The German Peasant's War and Anabaptist Community of Goods. McGill-Queen's studies in the history of religion, 6. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1991.
External links
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