Siege of Godesberg (1583)
Encyclopedia
The Siege of Godesberg, 18 November – 17 December 1583, was the first major siege of the Cologne War
(1583–1589). Seeking to wrest control of an important fortification, Bavarian and mercenary soldiers surrounded the Godesberg (in German, Berg means mountain). The Godesberg gave its name to the village of Godesberg
, now called Bad Godesberg, or Godesberg Spa, located at its foot. On top of the mountain sat a formidable fortress, the similarly named Godesburg
(in German, Burg means castle), which had been built in the early 13th century during a contest over the election of two competing archbishops.
Towering over the Rhine valley, the Godesburg's strategic position commanded the roads leading to and from Bonn
, the Elector of Cologne's capital city, and Cologne
, the region's economic powerhouse. Over time, the Electors strengthened its walls and heightened its towers. They added a small residence in the 14th century and the donjon (also called a Bergfried or keep) developed as a stronghold of the Electoral archives and valuables. By the mid-16th century, the Godesburg was considered nearly impregnable and had become a symbol of the dual power of the Prince-elector
s and Archbishops of Cologne, one of the wealthiest ecclesiastical territories in the Holy Roman Empire
. The Cologne War, a feud between the Protestant Elector, Gebhard, Truchsess of Waldburg
, and the Catholic Elector, Ernst of Bavaria, was yet another schismatic episode in the Electoral and archdiocesan history.
The Godesburg came under attack from Bavarian forces in November 1583. It resisted a lengthy cannonade by the attacking army; finally, sapper
s tunneled into the basalt
core of the mountain, placed 1500 pounds (680.4 kg) of powder into the tunnel and blew up a significant part of the fortifications. The explosion killed many of the defending troops, but the resulting rubble impeded the attackers' progress, and the remaining defenders continued to offer staunch resistance. Only when some of the attackers entered the castle's inner courtyard through the latrine
system were the Bavarians able to overcome their opponents. The Godesburg's commander and a number of surviving defenders took refuge in the keep
; using prisoners held in the dungeons as hostages, the commander negotiated safe passage for himself, his wife and his lieutenant. The others who were left in the keep—men, women and children—were killed. Nearby Bonn
fell to the Bavarians the following month.
, to Calvinism
, and his subsequent marriage to Agnes of Mansfeld-Eisleben
in 1583. When he refused to relinquish the Electorate
, a faction of clerics in the Cologne Cathedral chapter
elected another archbishop, Ernst of Bavaria, of the House of Wittelsbach.
Initially, troops of the competing Archbishops of Cologne fought for control of the Electorate; within a few months, the local feud between the two parties expanded to include supporters from the Electoral Palatinate on the Protestant side, and the Duchy of Bavaria on the Catholic side. Italian mercenaries hired with papal gold augmented the Catholic force. In 1586, the conflict expanded further, with direct involvement of the Spanish Netherlands
for the Catholic side, and tertiary involvement from Henry III of France
and Elizabeth I of England
on the Protestant side.
At its most fundamental, it was a local feud between two competing dynastic interests—the Seneschal
s (Truchsess) of the House of Waldburg
and the dukes of the House of Wittelsbach—that acquired religious overtones. The dispute had broad implications in the political, social, and dynastic balance of the Holy Roman Empire
. It tested the principle of ecclesiastical reservation established in the religious Peace of Augsburg
(1555). The 1555 agreement settled religious problems in the Empire with the principle Cuius regio, eius religio
: the subjects of a secular prince followed the religion of their sovereign. Ecclesiastical reservation excluded the territories of the imperial prelates (bishops, archbishops, abbots or abbesses) from cuius regio, eius religio. In an ecclesiastical territory, if the prelate changed his religion, his subjects did not have to do so. Instead, the prelate was expected to resign from his post. Problematically, the 1555 agreement did not specify this detail.
ess (meaning that she was a woman living in a religious community, but not bound by a perpetual vow) at a convent
in Gerresheim
, today a district of Düsseldorf
. After 1579, she maintained a lengthy liaison with the Archbishop of Cologne, Gebhard of Waldburg-Trauchburg, Truchsess of Waldburg. In defense of her honor, two of her brothers convinced Gebhard to marry her, and Gebhard considered converting to Calvinism for her. Rumors spread throughout the Electorate of his possible conversion, and that he might refuse to relinquish his position. The Electorate had overcome similar problems. Hermann of Wied
had converted to Protestantism and resigned in 1547. Salentin of Isenburg-Grenzau, Gebhard's immediate predecessor, had resigned upon his marriage. In December 1582, Gebhard announced his conversion and extended equal religious rights to Protestants in the Electorate. In February, he married Agnes. At the end of March 1583, the Pope excommunicated him. The Cathedral chapter promptly elected a new archbishop, Ernst of Bavaria.
With two competing archbishops, both claiming the see and the Electorate, the contenders and their supporters gathered the troops. In numbers, Ernst had the advantage. The Pope hired 5,000 mercenaries from the Farnese
family to support the new Elector. Ernst's brother, the Duke of Bavaria, provided an army and Ernst arranged for his brother Ferdinand's
army to take possession of the so-called Oberstift
, the southern territory of the Electorate; his troops plundered many of its villages and towns.
With the support of Adolf von Neuenahr and the Count Solms
, Gebhard secured some of the northern and eastern portions of the Electorate, where he held a geographical advantage in his proximity to the rebellious Dutch provinces. In the south, however, Ferdinand's troops hunted the soldiers Gebhard had left in possession of such Oberstift villages as Ahrweiler
and Linz
; Gebhard's troops were forced out of their strongholds, hunted through the countryside, and eventually captured. By the fall of 1583, most of the Oberstift had fallen to Ferdinand's army and many of Gebhard's erstwhile supporters—including his own brother—had returned home. In some cases, they honored parole agreements made after their capture. A strong supporter, Johann Casimir of Simmern
, brother of the powerful Louis VI, Elector Palatine
, returned to the Palatine when his brother died. Other supporters were frustrated by Gebhard's chronic inability to pay his troops, or intimidated by threats of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
. By late October 1583, most of the Oberstift had fallen, although he still held the Godesburg, located near the villages of Godesberg and Friesdorf, the formidable fortress at Bonn, and the fortified village of Poppelsdorf.
, the Archbishop of Cologne, who was himself in disputed possession of the Electorate and fighting to keep his position. Although his competitors deposed Dietrich in 1212, his successors finished and enlarged the fortress; it featured in chronicles of the subsequent centuries as both a symbolic and physical embodiment of the power of the archbishop of Cologne in his many struggles for regional authority in secular and ecclesiastical matters. Furthermore, by the late 14th century, the fortress had become the repository of the Elector's valuables and archives. By the mid-16th century, with the inclusion of residential facilities, the castle was popularly considered the Lieblingssitz, or the favorite seat (home), of the Electors.
The fortification originally had been constructed in the medieval style. In the reign of Siegfried II of Westerburg
(1275–1295), it successfully resisted a five-week siege by the Count of Cleves. Successive archbishops continued to improve the defenses with stronger walls, adding levels to the central Bergfried
, which was cylindrical, not square like many medieval donjons. In addition to the construction of the small residence, these archbishops also expanded the inner works to include dungeons and a chapel; they fortified the walls with towers and crenelations, added a curtain wall
, and improved the roads that led to the entrance in a series of switchbacks
. By the 1580s, the Godesburg was not only the favorite residence of the Elector, but also an elaborate stone fortress. Although it retained some of its medieval character, it had been enhanced partially in the style made popular by Italian military architects. The physical location on the mountain did not permit the star-shaped trace italienne; nevertheless, the Godesburg's cordons of thick, rounded walls and massive iron-studded gates made its defenders formidable adversaries. Its height, some 400 feet (121.9 m) above the Rhine on the peak of a steep hill, made artillery assault difficult. The approach road, with its hairpin turns, made battering rams impractical. The turns, overlooked by the castle wall, made foot assault dangerous and slow. Defenders could fire down on attackers from many angles.
Fortifications such as this, and the star-shaped fortresses more commonly found in the flatter lands of the Dutch Provinces, increasingly made 16th-century warfare both difficult and expensive; victory was not simply a matter of winning a battle over the enemy's army. Victory required traveling from one fortified and armed city to another and investing time and money in one of two outcomes. Ideally, a show of extraordinary force convinced city leaders to surrender. If the show of force did not intimidate a city, the alternative was an expensive siege that reduced the city to rubble and ended with storming the ruins. In the case of the former, when a city capitulated, it would have to quarter troops at its own expense, called execution, but the soldiers would not be permitted to plunder. In the case of the latter, no quarter
was given to the defenders and the victorious soldiers were released to pillage, plunder, and sack.
The Godesburg was defended by Lieutenant Colonel Felix Buchner, Captain of the Guard Eduard Sudermann, a garrison of soldiers from the Netherlands, and a few cannons. Sudermann was a patrician from Cologne, and the son of Cologne's Bürgermeister (mayor) Dr. Heinrich Sudermann (1520–1591), a jurist and ambassador, and one of the most influential men in the imperial city and throughout the merchant capitals of the northern German states. According to contemporary sources, around 180 people lived in the facility, including a number of peasants, the Dutch soldiers defending it, and an unknown number of women and children. The fortress was also home to several of Gebhard's prisoners. The Abbot of Heisterbach, Johann von St. Vith, had been taken prisoner in July 1583 when Sudermann's troops sacked a number of villages in the region and plundered the Heisterbach monastery. Other prisoners held in the Godesburg included Gebhard von Bothmer, the suffragan (auxiliary bishop) of Hildesheim, and Captain Ranucino from Florence
, the captured commander of Deutz, across the Rhine from Cologne.
To besiege the fortress, Ferdinand brought more than 400 Fussvolk (foot soldiers) and five squadrons of mounted soldiers, plus a half dozen heavy caliber cannons, called culverin
s. His soldiers, among them Spanish and Italian mercenaries, took up quarters in neighboring villages, a process accompanied by pillage, arson
, murder and rape. On 18 November, the first day of the siege, Ferdinand sent a trumpeter and formally asked the fortress to surrender; the defending garrison replied that they had sworn their allegiance to Gebhard and would fight to the death for him.
, the trebuchet
, and the crossbow
—would be ineffective. The distance between the curtain wall and the valley floor and the angle of the hill placed the Godesburg out of range. The besiegers had no choice but to use expensive artillery, although the angle would decrease its effectiveness. Ferdinand initially placed three cannons at the foot of the mountain, in Godesberg village. Daily, cannonballs and mortar shells smashed against the castle's walls. Nightly, the defenders repaired the damage. At the following sunrise, the assault began anew. Ferdinand's cannons were ineffective against the fortification, as were his mortars; in the course of the cannonade, return fire even managed to destroy a few of his own pieces. From his place of safety in the north, Gebhard understood well the potential of the loss of the Godesburg, yet he was relatively helpless to help his garrison. In an effort to garner financial support from the Protestant states, in November 1583 he wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in London: "Verily, the Roman Antichrist moves every stone to oppress us and our churches ..."
Although financial help from the English was not forthcoming, Ferdinand could not break the defenses. On 28 November, ten days after the beginning of the siege, artillery fire had wasted several thousand pounds of powder in the ineffectual bombardment. Ferdinand moved his cannons to an elevated position in a hillside vineyard to the west of the Godesburg. The height offered a more advantageous trajectory with which to fire on the walls of the Godesburg's outer ward. Within a few hours, his cannonade had breached them. Ferdinand sent three Italian experts to examine the breach and to advise him on the next step; the Italians, having come under fire during their examination, concluded that storming the castle would incur many casualties. The defenders still had the advantage of height and would be able to shoot at attackers from multiple towers and defensive positions inside the walls. Ferdinand decided not to pursue this tactic. Unable to storm the castle, Ferdinand considered two options: abandon the siege, which he could not do, or blow up the fortress. This option of last resort usually made a fortress unusable. Furthermore while he considered his options, the defenders repaired the breaches caused by the cannonade and reinforced the walls, making them even stronger than they had been. The defenders also removed the roof of the St. Michael's Chapel in the castle's outer ward, filled the chapel with dirt to reinforce its walls, and placed some of their artillery pieces within the walls.
to be dug into the side of the mountain. The sapping was difficult and dangerous and the sappers worked under continuous attack from the castle's defenders, who fired on them with small arms and the castle's artillery and dropped rocks and debris on their heads. The forced labor of local peasants minimized losses among Ferdinand's own troops, but many of the peasants perished in the effort.
On 6 December, the sappers reached the south-eastern side of the fortress's outermost wall and then spent another ten days undermining the basalt on which the castle stood; they completed their work on 16 December and placed 1500 pounds (680.4 kg) of powder into the mine. Ferdinand reported on the siege's progress in a letter to his older brother, Duke Wilhelm, dated 15 December 1583: "The fortress stands on solid rock. ...[Y]esterday we had reached the outer wall of the castle, and in a day or two we hope to send the fortress into the sky."
Ferdinand ordered 400 men to enter the saps; these men would storm the castle once the mine had been detonated. The remainder of his foot soldiers and cavalry was to wait in the fields below. A number of sources assert that the fuse was lit at around 1:00 pm, although the 19th-century local historian Heinrich Joseph Floß
argued that these sources are mistaken, and that the explosion clearly occurred in the morning. All sources agree that the explosion, with a dreadful crack, propelled chunks of the towers and walls high into the air. Almost half the Godesburg collapsed instantly. According to a newspaper report dated 13 January 1584, debris raining on the valley below damaged a number of houses, destroying some of them completely.
Amidst the flames and rubble, Arenberg's and Ferdinand's troops tried to storm the castle, but found their way blocked by masses of debris created by their own explosives. Furthermore, although close to half of the garrison had perished in the explosion and subsequent collapse of the fortifications, those who remained offered staunch resistance by throwing rocks on the approaching attackers, causing a large number of casualties. In frustration, 40 or 50 of the attackers tied together two ladders and crawled through the sluice-ways of the garderobe
(latrines) that emptied on the hillside, thus gaining access to the interior of the castle. There they killed around 20 of the defenders in fierce fighting; the remaining defenders, approximately 70 men, among them Buchner and Sudermann, the garrison commander and his lieutenant, sought refuge in the castle's keep. In this way, Ferdinand's infantry at last gained unopposed access to the fortress. Storming the castle had taken about two hours.
Out of options, Buchner opened negotiations, using those interred in the castle as hostages. Presenting them at the keep's door, he made clear that they would be killed unless Ferdinand promised to spare his, his wife's and Sudermann's lives. Ferdinand acceded to Buchner's demand; some sources maintain that the Abbot of Heisterbach, one of the prisoners, had been treated decently by Buchner throughout his imprisonment in the castle and himself asked for Buchner's life to be spared. The prisoners were released. With much difficulty, given the state of mind of the besiegers, Ferdinand and Arenberg brought the Buchners and Sudermann out of the castle alive. Once the Buchners, Sudermann, and the hostages were clear of the fortress, Ferdinand released his troops, who were in an ugly mood and hungry for blood and plunder. All those who remained in the keep—soldiers, men, women and children—were killed, some inside the keep, some in the courtyard below; the slaughter lasted well into the night. The castle's 178 dead were buried in two mass graves whose locations remain unknown. Among those who perished in the destruction and storming of the castle was also one of the prisoners, a vicar from Hildesheim. The Hildesheim suffragan, too, was not among the rescued prisoners; he had died during his incarceration, a short while before the castle was stormed.
Gebhard lost an important stronghold in the Oberstift and Ernst's forces had acquired a ruin. The residence was unusable, and the fortifications were mere rubble. The keep had survived the blast and various armies used it as a watch tower in the Thirty Years' War
. Ernst's troops, under his brother's command, saturated the region, and the 7.3 kilometres (4.5 mi) between Godesberg and Bonn bore a greater resemblance to a military camp than to a road. Walloon
riders and squadrons of Italian cavalry, paid for by the pope, galloped back and forth. Forty companies of infantry trudged toward Bonn, including Walloons and Bavarians. They looked forward to besieging Bonn, the Elector's capital city, to which they laid siege on 21 December 1583, and which they took on 28 January 1584.
, Neuss
and Werl
. Several smaller fortified towns such as Gelsenkirchen
, Unkel
and Brühl
were also either heavily damaged or destroyed before, during and after the siege. In addition to damage to the towns and cities, Ernst's supporters managed to restrict imports and exports to and from the Electorate, not only crippling Gebhard's financial resources but resulting in economic hardship for the inhabitants.
Advances in military architecture over the previous century had led to the construction or enhancement of fortresses that could withstand the pounding of cannonballs and mortar shells. For both Gebhard and Ernst, winning the war required mobilizing enough men to encircle a seemingly endless array of enemy artillery fortresses. These could be protected with relatively small garrisons, but taking them required both expensive artillery and enough men to storm the battlements. Furthermore, the victor had to maintain and defend all his possessions as they were acquired. Even the ruin of the Godesburg required a garrison and a defensive strategy; as a strategic point on the north-south road from Bonn to Koblenz, it came under siege in 1586 and again in 1588. The Cologne War, similar to the Dutch Revolt
, was not a war of assembled armies facing each other on a field, but a war of artillery sieges. It required men who could operate the machinery of war, which meant extensive economic resources for soldiers to build and operate the siege works, and a political and military will to keep the machinery of war operating.
The destruction of so prominent a fortress was also news. When Frans Hogenberg and Georg Braun
compiled their Civitates Orbis Terrarum, a collection of important scenes and locales, they included Hogenberg's engraving of its destruction as not only an important sight, but an important event (see Info Box, top). Hogenberg lived in Bonn and Cologne in 1583, and likely saw the site himself. After overwhelming the Godesburg, the Bavarians found a large marble slab in the ruins: the castle's foundation stone, which had been displaced by the explosion. The stone is a block of black marble with a Latin inscription commemorating the construction of the fortress by Dietrich I von Hengebach
in 1210: ANNO · D(OMI)NI · M·C·C·X · GUDENSBERG · FUNDATUM · E(ST) · A · TEODERICO · EP(ISCOP)O · I(N) · DIE · MAUROR(UM) · M(A)R(TYRUM). A gold inscription was added to the back of the stone, noting that it had been found "on the very top of the blasted wall." Ferdinand took the stone to Munich, where it was kept in a museum beside a fresco painting in an arcade commemorating the siege. Today, the foundation stone is in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum
in Bonn.
to hold the position. Wittelsbach authority in northwestern German territories endured until the mid-18th century, with the election of a succession of Bavarian princes to the archbishop's throne and to the Prince-Elector's seat. This gave the family two voices in the choice of imperial candidates, which had ramifications in the 18th century. In 1740, Charles Albert, Duke of Bavaria
, laid claim
to the imperial title; his brother Klemens August of Bavaria, then the Archbishop and Prince-elector, cast his vote for Charles and personally crowned him at Frankfurt am Main. The shift of the emperor's orb from the House of Habsburg to the Wittelsbach family, albeit a brief event, was only resolved by the ascension of Maximilian III Joseph who, with the Treaty of Füssen
, eschewed any imperial pretensions.
Gebhard's defeat also changed the religious balance in the northwestern states. Although the Peace of Augsburg
(1555) addressed the problem of religious pluralism, the solution potentially converted simple, and usually local, legal disputes into dynastic and religious warfare, as the Cologne War itself demonstrated. The result of the Cologne War gave the Counter Reformation a foothold in the lower Rhine. Ernst was a product of Jesuit education. Once his position was secured, he invited Jesuits into the territory to help re-establish Catholicism, a task which the Order approached zealously. They ejected Protestant pastors from parishes, sometimes by force, and re-established catechism education and pastoral visitations. Even when communities appeared to be reconverted, the Jesuits maintained strict supervision to identify recalcitrant Protestants or backsliders. The Jesuit reintroduction of Catholicism postponed the solution of Germany's religious problems for another half century.
Finally, the German tradition of local and regional autonomy created structural and cultural differences in the Holy Roman Empire, compared to the increasingly centralized authority of such other European states as France, England, and Spain. The unabashed intervention of Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, English and Scots mercenaries in the war, as well as the influence of papal gold, changed the dynamic of internal German confessional and dynastic disputes. The great "players" of the Early Modern European political stage realized that they could enhance their own positions vis-a-vis one another by assisting, promoting or undermining local and regional competition among the German princes, as they did in the feud between Gebhard and Ernst. Conversely, German princes, dukes, and counts realized that they could acquire an edge over their competitors by promoting the interests of powerful neighbors.
The scale of involvement of such external mercenary armies as Spain's Army of Flanders set a precedent that internationalized contests of local autonomy and religious issues in the German states, a problem not settled until the Peace of Westphalia
in 1648. Despite that settlement, German states remained vulnerable to both external intervention and religious division, as they were in the Cologne War.
Cologne War
The Cologne War devastated the Electorate of Cologne, a historical ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire, present-day North-Rhine-Westphalia, in Germany...
(1583–1589). Seeking to wrest control of an important fortification, Bavarian and mercenary soldiers surrounded the Godesberg (in German, Berg means mountain). The Godesberg gave its name to the village of Godesberg
Bad Godesberg
Bad Godesberg is a municipal district of Bonn, southern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. From 1949 till 1990 , the majority of foreign embassies to Germany were located in Bad Godesberg...
, now called Bad Godesberg, or Godesberg Spa, located at its foot. On top of the mountain sat a formidable fortress, the similarly named Godesburg
Godesburg
The Godesburg is a castle in Bad Godesberg, a formerly independent part of Bonn, Germany.Built in the early 13th century on the Godesberg, a hill of volcanic origin, it was largely destroyed following a siege in 1583 at the start of the Cologne War...
(in German, Burg means castle), which had been built in the early 13th century during a contest over the election of two competing archbishops.
Towering over the Rhine valley, the Godesburg's strategic position commanded the roads leading to and from Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, the Elector of Cologne's capital city, and Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, the region's economic powerhouse. Over time, the Electors strengthened its walls and heightened its towers. They added a small residence in the 14th century and the donjon (also called a Bergfried or keep) developed as a stronghold of the Electoral archives and valuables. By the mid-16th century, the Godesburg was considered nearly impregnable and had become a symbol of the dual power of the Prince-elector
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...
s and Archbishops of Cologne, one of the wealthiest ecclesiastical territories in 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...
. The Cologne War, a feud between the Protestant Elector, Gebhard, Truchsess of Waldburg
Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg
Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg was Archbishop-Elector of Cologne. After pursuing an ecclesiastical career, he won a close election in the Cathedral chapter of Cologne over Ernst of Bavaria. After his election, he fell in love with and later married Agnes von Mansfeld-Eisleben, a Protestant...
, and the Catholic Elector, Ernst of Bavaria, was yet another schismatic episode in the Electoral and archdiocesan history.
The Godesburg came under attack from Bavarian forces in November 1583. It resisted a lengthy cannonade by the attacking army; finally, sapper
Sapper
A sapper, pioneer or combat engineer is a combatant soldier who performs a wide variety of combat engineering duties, typically including, but not limited to, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, demolitions, field defences, general construction and building, as well as road and airfield...
s tunneled into the basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
core of the mountain, placed 1500 pounds (680.4 kg) of powder into the tunnel and blew up a significant part of the fortifications. The explosion killed many of the defending troops, but the resulting rubble impeded the attackers' progress, and the remaining defenders continued to offer staunch resistance. Only when some of the attackers entered the castle's inner courtyard through the latrine
Latrine
A latrine is a communal facility containing one or more commonly many toilets which may be simple pit toilets or in the case of the United States Armed Forces any toilet including modern flush toilets...
system were the Bavarians able to overcome their opponents. The Godesburg's commander and a number of surviving defenders took refuge in the keep
Keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...
; using prisoners held in the dungeons as hostages, the commander negotiated safe passage for himself, his wife and his lieutenant. The others who were left in the keep—men, women and children—were killed. Nearby Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
fell to the Bavarians the following month.
Background
The Cologne War, 1583–1589, was triggered by the 1582 conversion of the Archbishop-Prince Elector of Cologne, Gebhard, Truchsess of WaldburgGebhard Truchsess von Waldburg
Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg was Archbishop-Elector of Cologne. After pursuing an ecclesiastical career, he won a close election in the Cathedral chapter of Cologne over Ernst of Bavaria. After his election, he fell in love with and later married Agnes von Mansfeld-Eisleben, a Protestant...
, to Calvinism
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
, and his subsequent marriage to Agnes of Mansfeld-Eisleben
Agnes von Mansfeld-Eisleben
Agnes von Mansfeld-Eisleben was Countess of Mansfeld and the daughter of Johann Georg I, of Mansfeld Eisleben. She converted Gebhard, Seneschal of Waldburg, the Prince-Elector of Electorate of Cologne and archbishop of the Diocese of Cologne to the Protestant faith, leading to the Cologne War...
in 1583. When he refused to relinquish the Electorate
Episcopal See
An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...
, a faction of clerics in the Cologne 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...
elected another archbishop, Ernst of Bavaria, of the House of Wittelsbach.
Initially, troops of the competing Archbishops of Cologne fought for control of the Electorate; within a few months, the local feud between the two parties expanded to include supporters from the Electoral Palatinate on the Protestant side, and the Duchy of Bavaria on the Catholic side. Italian mercenaries hired with papal gold augmented the Catholic force. In 1586, the conflict expanded further, with direct involvement of the Spanish Netherlands
Southern Netherlands
Southern Netherlands were a part of the Low Countries controlled by Spain , Austria and annexed by France...
for the Catholic side, and tertiary involvement from Henry III of France
Henry III of France
Henry III was King of France from 1574 to 1589. As Henry of Valois, he was the first elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the dual titles of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1573 to 1575.-Childhood:Henry was born at the Royal Château de Fontainebleau,...
and Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
on the Protestant side.
At its most fundamental, it was a local feud between two competing dynastic interests—the Seneschal
Seneschal
A seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. In the French administrative system of the Middle Ages, the sénéchal was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration in southern provinces, equivalent to the northern French bailli...
s (Truchsess) of the House of Waldburg
House of Waldburg
The House of Waldburg is a princely family of Upper Swabia, founded some time previous to the 12th century; the cadet lineages are comital families....
and the dukes of the House of Wittelsbach—that acquired religious overtones. The dispute had broad implications in the political, social, and dynastic balance of 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...
. It tested the principle of ecclesiastical reservation established in the religious Peace of Augsburg
Peace of Augsburg
The Peace of Augsburg, also called the Augsburg Settlement, was a treaty between Charles V and the forces of the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Lutheran princes, on September 25, 1555, at the imperial city of Augsburg, now in present-day Bavaria, Germany.It officially ended the religious...
(1555). The 1555 agreement settled religious problems in the Empire with the principle Cuius regio, eius religio
Cuius regio, eius religio
Cuius regio, eius religio is a phrase in Latin translated as "Whose realm, his religion", meaning the religion of the ruler dictated the religion of the ruled...
: the subjects of a secular prince followed the religion of their sovereign. Ecclesiastical reservation excluded the territories of the imperial prelates (bishops, archbishops, abbots or abbesses) from cuius regio, eius religio. In an ecclesiastical territory, if the prelate changed his religion, his subjects did not have to do so. Instead, the prelate was expected to resign from his post. Problematically, the 1555 agreement did not specify this detail.
Controversy of conversion
Agnes of Mansfeld-Eisleben was a Protestant canonCanon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
ess (meaning that she was a woman living in a religious community, but not bound by a perpetual vow) at a convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
in Gerresheim
Düsseldorf-Gerresheim
Gerresheim is one of the City of Düsseldorf, Germany's forty-nine boroughs. It is located in the eastern part of the municipality. Gerresheim is much older than Düsseldorf itself, having been an independent city with a rich history for over 1,000 years...
, today a district of Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
. After 1579, she maintained a lengthy liaison with the Archbishop of Cologne, Gebhard of Waldburg-Trauchburg, Truchsess of Waldburg. In defense of her honor, two of her brothers convinced Gebhard to marry her, and Gebhard considered converting to Calvinism for her. Rumors spread throughout the Electorate of his possible conversion, and that he might refuse to relinquish his position. The Electorate had overcome similar problems. Hermann of Wied
Hermann of Wied
Hermann of Wied was the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne from 1515 to 1546.-Biography:The fourth son of Frederick, count of Wied , Hermann was educated for the Church, he became elector and archbishop in 1515. He supported the claims of Charles V, whom he crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1520...
had converted to Protestantism and resigned in 1547. Salentin of Isenburg-Grenzau, Gebhard's immediate predecessor, had resigned upon his marriage. In December 1582, Gebhard announced his conversion and extended equal religious rights to Protestants in the Electorate. In February, he married Agnes. At the end of March 1583, the Pope excommunicated him. The Cathedral chapter promptly elected a new archbishop, Ernst of Bavaria.
With two competing archbishops, both claiming the see and the Electorate, the contenders and their supporters gathered the troops. In numbers, Ernst had the advantage. The Pope hired 5,000 mercenaries from the Farnese
Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma
Alexander Farnese was Duke of Parma and Piacenza from 1586 to 1592, and Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1578 to 1592.-Biography:...
family to support the new Elector. Ernst's brother, the Duke of Bavaria, provided an army and Ernst arranged for his brother Ferdinand's
Ferdinand of Bavaria (soldier)
-Youth:In 1565, the 15 year old Ferdinand made a widely publicized journey to Florence, to attend the wedding of his maternal aunt, Johanna of Austria, to Francesco I de' Medici, and to visit with other maternal aunts in the city. Johanna's marriage to the Medici was a politically expedient one:...
army to take possession of the so-called Oberstift
Destruction of the Oberstift (Linz and Ahrweiler)
The destruction of the Oberstift , which included Linz, Ahrweiler, and other small towns and villages, occurred in the opening months of the Cologne War, from Christmas Day, 1582 until the end of March, 1583...
, the southern territory of the Electorate; his troops plundered many of its villages and towns.
With the support of Adolf von Neuenahr and the Count Solms
Solms
Solms is a town west of Wetzlar in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis, Hesse, Germany.In the constituent community of Burgsolms once stood the ancestral castle of the Counts and Princes of Solms, whose main lines were Solms-Braunfels, with their seat in Braunfels, and Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, with their seat in...
, Gebhard secured some of the northern and eastern portions of the Electorate, where he held a geographical advantage in his proximity to the rebellious Dutch provinces. In the south, however, Ferdinand's troops hunted the soldiers Gebhard had left in possession of such Oberstift villages as Ahrweiler
Ahrweiler
Ahrweiler is a district in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the districts Euskirchen, Rhein-Sieg and the city Bonn in the state North Rhine-Westphalia, and the districts of Neuwied, Mayen-Koblenz and Vulkaneifel.- History :The region was conquered by the Romans under...
and Linz
Linz am Rhein
Linz am Rhein is a municipality in the district of Neuwied, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the river Rhine near Remagen, approx. 25 km southeast of Bonn and has about 6,000 inhabitants...
; Gebhard's troops were forced out of their strongholds, hunted through the countryside, and eventually captured. By the fall of 1583, most of the Oberstift had fallen to Ferdinand's army and many of Gebhard's erstwhile supporters—including his own brother—had returned home. In some cases, they honored parole agreements made after their capture. A strong supporter, Johann Casimir of Simmern
Johann Casimir of Simmern
John Casimir of the Palatinate-Simmern was a German prince and a younger son of Elector Frederick III, Count Palatine of the Rhine. A firm Calvinist, he was a leader of mercenary troops in the religious wars of the time, including the Dutch Revolt...
, brother of the powerful Louis VI, Elector Palatine
Louis VI, Elector Palatine
In the history of the Holy Roman Empire, Louis VI, Elector Palatine was an Elector from the Palatinate-Simmern branch of the house of Wittelsbach. He was the first-born son of Frederick III, Elector Palatine and Marie of Brandenburg-Kulmbach...
, returned to the Palatine when his brother died. Other supporters were frustrated by Gebhard's chronic inability to pay his troops, or intimidated by threats of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
Rudolf II was Holy Roman Emperor , King of Hungary and Croatia , King of Bohemia and Archduke of Austria...
. By late October 1583, most of the Oberstift had fallen, although he still held the Godesburg, located near the villages of Godesberg and Friesdorf, the formidable fortress at Bonn, and the fortified village of Poppelsdorf.
Fortress
The Godesburg foundation stone was laid on 15 October 1210 upon the order of Dietrich of HengebachDietrich I von Hengebach
Dietrich I von Hengebach was the Archbishop of Cologne. He was elected in 1208. He supported Otto of the House of Welf as Holy Roman Emperor and was excommunicated in 1212 by Innocent III. Upon his excommunication, he lost the Episcopal see and he brought suit in Rome...
, the Archbishop of Cologne, who was himself in disputed possession of the Electorate and fighting to keep his position. Although his competitors deposed Dietrich in 1212, his successors finished and enlarged the fortress; it featured in chronicles of the subsequent centuries as both a symbolic and physical embodiment of the power of the archbishop of Cologne in his many struggles for regional authority in secular and ecclesiastical matters. Furthermore, by the late 14th century, the fortress had become the repository of the Elector's valuables and archives. By the mid-16th century, with the inclusion of residential facilities, the castle was popularly considered the Lieblingssitz, or the favorite seat (home), of the Electors.
The fortification originally had been constructed in the medieval style. In the reign of Siegfried II of Westerburg
Siegfried II of Westerburg
Siegfried II of Westerburg was Archbishop of Cologne from 1275 to 1297.Siegfried was the second son of Siegfried IV, Count of Runkel in Westerburg...
(1275–1295), it successfully resisted a five-week siege by the Count of Cleves. Successive archbishops continued to improve the defenses with stronger walls, adding levels to the central Bergfried
Keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...
, which was cylindrical, not square like many medieval donjons. In addition to the construction of the small residence, these archbishops also expanded the inner works to include dungeons and a chapel; they fortified the walls with towers and crenelations, added a curtain wall
Curtain wall (fortification)
A curtain wall is a defensive wall between two bastions of a castle or fortress.In earlier designs of castle the curtain walls were often built to a considerable height and were fronted by a ditch or moat to make assault difficult....
, and improved the roads that led to the entrance in a series of switchbacks
Hairpin turn
A hairpin turn , named for its resemblance to a hairpin/bobby pin, is a bend in a road with a very acute inner angle, making it necessary for an oncoming vehicle to turn almost 180° to continue on the road. Such turns in ramps and trails may be called switchbacks in American English, by analogy...
. By the 1580s, the Godesburg was not only the favorite residence of the Elector, but also an elaborate stone fortress. Although it retained some of its medieval character, it had been enhanced partially in the style made popular by Italian military architects. The physical location on the mountain did not permit the star-shaped trace italienne; nevertheless, the Godesburg's cordons of thick, rounded walls and massive iron-studded gates made its defenders formidable adversaries. Its height, some 400 feet (121.9 m) above the Rhine on the peak of a steep hill, made artillery assault difficult. The approach road, with its hairpin turns, made battering rams impractical. The turns, overlooked by the castle wall, made foot assault dangerous and slow. Defenders could fire down on attackers from many angles.
Fortifications such as this, and the star-shaped fortresses more commonly found in the flatter lands of the Dutch Provinces, increasingly made 16th-century warfare both difficult and expensive; victory was not simply a matter of winning a battle over the enemy's army. Victory required traveling from one fortified and armed city to another and investing time and money in one of two outcomes. Ideally, a show of extraordinary force convinced city leaders to surrender. If the show of force did not intimidate a city, the alternative was an expensive siege that reduced the city to rubble and ended with storming the ruins. In the case of the former, when a city capitulated, it would have to quarter troops at its own expense, called execution, but the soldiers would not be permitted to plunder. In the case of the latter, no quarter
No quarter
A victor gives no quarter when the victor shows no clemency or mercy and refuses to spare the life in return for the surrender at discretion of a vanquished opponent....
was given to the defenders and the victorious soldiers were released to pillage, plunder, and sack.
Investment of the Godesburg
On 13–14 November, Ferdinand of Bavaria (Ernst's brother) and the Count of Arenberg took the Elector's castle at Poppelsdorf; on 18 November, they moved to attack the Godesburg. This fortress was considerably stronger than the one at Poppelsdorf and of supreme strategic importance for the projected attack on Bonn, the capital city of the Electorate.The Godesburg was defended by Lieutenant Colonel Felix Buchner, Captain of the Guard Eduard Sudermann, a garrison of soldiers from the Netherlands, and a few cannons. Sudermann was a patrician from Cologne, and the son of Cologne's Bürgermeister (mayor) Dr. Heinrich Sudermann (1520–1591), a jurist and ambassador, and one of the most influential men in the imperial city and throughout the merchant capitals of the northern German states. According to contemporary sources, around 180 people lived in the facility, including a number of peasants, the Dutch soldiers defending it, and an unknown number of women and children. The fortress was also home to several of Gebhard's prisoners. The Abbot of Heisterbach, Johann von St. Vith, had been taken prisoner in July 1583 when Sudermann's troops sacked a number of villages in the region and plundered the Heisterbach monastery. Other prisoners held in the Godesburg included Gebhard von Bothmer, the suffragan (auxiliary bishop) of Hildesheim, and Captain Ranucino from Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, the captured commander of Deutz, across the Rhine from Cologne.
To besiege the fortress, Ferdinand brought more than 400 Fussvolk (foot soldiers) and five squadrons of mounted soldiers, plus a half dozen heavy caliber cannons, called culverin
Culverin
A culverin was a relatively simple ancestor of the musket, and later a medieval cannon, adapted for use by the French in the 15th century, and later adapted for naval use by the English in the late 16th century. The culverin was used to bombard targets from a distance. The weapon had a...
s. His soldiers, among them Spanish and Italian mercenaries, took up quarters in neighboring villages, a process accompanied by pillage, arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
, murder and rape. On 18 November, the first day of the siege, Ferdinand sent a trumpeter and formally asked the fortress to surrender; the defending garrison replied that they had sworn their allegiance to Gebhard and would fight to the death for him.
Cannonade (18–28 November 1583)
In response, Ferdinand took control of the village at the foot of the mountain and encircled the site. He surveyed the locale for two days to identify the most promising angle of attack. The customary equipage of siege warfare—the siege towerSiege tower
A siege tower is a specialized siege engine, constructed to protect assailants and ladders while approaching the defensive walls of a fortification. The tower was often rectangular with four wheels with its height roughly equal to that of the wall or sometimes higher to allow archers to stand on...
, the trebuchet
Trebuchet
A trebuchet is a siege engine that was employed in the Middle Ages. It is sometimes called a "counterweight trebuchet" or "counterpoise trebuchet" in order to distinguish it from an earlier weapon that has come to be called the "traction trebuchet", the original version with pulling men instead of...
, and the crossbow
Crossbow
A crossbow is a weapon consisting of a bow mounted on a stock that shoots projectiles, often called bolts or quarrels. The medieval crossbow was called by many names, most of which derived from the word ballista, a torsion engine resembling a crossbow in appearance.Historically, crossbows played a...
—would be ineffective. The distance between the curtain wall and the valley floor and the angle of the hill placed the Godesburg out of range. The besiegers had no choice but to use expensive artillery, although the angle would decrease its effectiveness. Ferdinand initially placed three cannons at the foot of the mountain, in Godesberg village. Daily, cannonballs and mortar shells smashed against the castle's walls. Nightly, the defenders repaired the damage. At the following sunrise, the assault began anew. Ferdinand's cannons were ineffective against the fortification, as were his mortars; in the course of the cannonade, return fire even managed to destroy a few of his own pieces. From his place of safety in the north, Gebhard understood well the potential of the loss of the Godesburg, yet he was relatively helpless to help his garrison. In an effort to garner financial support from the Protestant states, in November 1583 he wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in London: "Verily, the Roman Antichrist moves every stone to oppress us and our churches ..."
Although financial help from the English was not forthcoming, Ferdinand could not break the defenses. On 28 November, ten days after the beginning of the siege, artillery fire had wasted several thousand pounds of powder in the ineffectual bombardment. Ferdinand moved his cannons to an elevated position in a hillside vineyard to the west of the Godesburg. The height offered a more advantageous trajectory with which to fire on the walls of the Godesburg's outer ward. Within a few hours, his cannonade had breached them. Ferdinand sent three Italian experts to examine the breach and to advise him on the next step; the Italians, having come under fire during their examination, concluded that storming the castle would incur many casualties. The defenders still had the advantage of height and would be able to shoot at attackers from multiple towers and defensive positions inside the walls. Ferdinand decided not to pursue this tactic. Unable to storm the castle, Ferdinand considered two options: abandon the siege, which he could not do, or blow up the fortress. This option of last resort usually made a fortress unusable. Furthermore while he considered his options, the defenders repaired the breaches caused by the cannonade and reinforced the walls, making them even stronger than they had been. The defenders also removed the roof of the St. Michael's Chapel in the castle's outer ward, filled the chapel with dirt to reinforce its walls, and placed some of their artillery pieces within the walls.
Sapping (completed 16 December 1583)
Ferdinand reluctantly ordered sapsSapping
Mining, landmining or undermining is a siege method which has been used since antiquity against a walled city, fortress, castle or other strongly held and fortified military position.-Antiquity:...
to be dug into the side of the mountain. The sapping was difficult and dangerous and the sappers worked under continuous attack from the castle's defenders, who fired on them with small arms and the castle's artillery and dropped rocks and debris on their heads. The forced labor of local peasants minimized losses among Ferdinand's own troops, but many of the peasants perished in the effort.
On 6 December, the sappers reached the south-eastern side of the fortress's outermost wall and then spent another ten days undermining the basalt on which the castle stood; they completed their work on 16 December and placed 1500 pounds (680.4 kg) of powder into the mine. Ferdinand reported on the siege's progress in a letter to his older brother, Duke Wilhelm, dated 15 December 1583: "The fortress stands on solid rock. ...[Y]esterday we had reached the outer wall of the castle, and in a day or two we hope to send the fortress into the sky."
Destruction of the fortress (17 December 1583)
On 17 December, Ferdinand again asked the castle's defenders to surrender. They replied that they did not know the meaning of the word and would hold the Godesburg to the last man. A newspaper report dated 23 December 1583 relates that, having given Ferdinand a rude reply, the defenders went back to lunch.Ferdinand ordered 400 men to enter the saps; these men would storm the castle once the mine had been detonated. The remainder of his foot soldiers and cavalry was to wait in the fields below. A number of sources assert that the fuse was lit at around 1:00 pm, although the 19th-century local historian Heinrich Joseph Floß
Heinrich Joseph Floss
Heinrich Joseph Floß, or Floss , was a church historian and moral theologian in the 19th century. As a professor of theology at the University of Bonn, he edited a collection of the work of John Duns Scotus, the Franciscan theologian...
argued that these sources are mistaken, and that the explosion clearly occurred in the morning. All sources agree that the explosion, with a dreadful crack, propelled chunks of the towers and walls high into the air. Almost half the Godesburg collapsed instantly. According to a newspaper report dated 13 January 1584, debris raining on the valley below damaged a number of houses, destroying some of them completely.
Amidst the flames and rubble, Arenberg's and Ferdinand's troops tried to storm the castle, but found their way blocked by masses of debris created by their own explosives. Furthermore, although close to half of the garrison had perished in the explosion and subsequent collapse of the fortifications, those who remained offered staunch resistance by throwing rocks on the approaching attackers, causing a large number of casualties. In frustration, 40 or 50 of the attackers tied together two ladders and crawled through the sluice-ways of the garderobe
Garderobe
The term garderobe describes a place where clothes and other items are stored, and also a medieval toilet. In European public places, a garderobe denotes the cloakroom, wardrobe, alcove or an armoire. In Danish, Dutch, German and Spanish garderobe can mean a cloakroom. In Latvian it means checkroom...
(latrines) that emptied on the hillside, thus gaining access to the interior of the castle. There they killed around 20 of the defenders in fierce fighting; the remaining defenders, approximately 70 men, among them Buchner and Sudermann, the garrison commander and his lieutenant, sought refuge in the castle's keep. In this way, Ferdinand's infantry at last gained unopposed access to the fortress. Storming the castle had taken about two hours.
Out of options, Buchner opened negotiations, using those interred in the castle as hostages. Presenting them at the keep's door, he made clear that they would be killed unless Ferdinand promised to spare his, his wife's and Sudermann's lives. Ferdinand acceded to Buchner's demand; some sources maintain that the Abbot of Heisterbach, one of the prisoners, had been treated decently by Buchner throughout his imprisonment in the castle and himself asked for Buchner's life to be spared. The prisoners were released. With much difficulty, given the state of mind of the besiegers, Ferdinand and Arenberg brought the Buchners and Sudermann out of the castle alive. Once the Buchners, Sudermann, and the hostages were clear of the fortress, Ferdinand released his troops, who were in an ugly mood and hungry for blood and plunder. All those who remained in the keep—soldiers, men, women and children—were killed, some inside the keep, some in the courtyard below; the slaughter lasted well into the night. The castle's 178 dead were buried in two mass graves whose locations remain unknown. Among those who perished in the destruction and storming of the castle was also one of the prisoners, a vicar from Hildesheim. The Hildesheim suffragan, too, was not among the rescued prisoners; he had died during his incarceration, a short while before the castle was stormed.
Gebhard lost an important stronghold in the Oberstift and Ernst's forces had acquired a ruin. The residence was unusable, and the fortifications were mere rubble. The keep had survived the blast and various armies used it as a watch tower in the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
. Ernst's troops, under his brother's command, saturated the region, and the 7.3 kilometres (4.5 mi) between Godesberg and Bonn bore a greater resemblance to a military camp than to a road. Walloon
Walloons
Walloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
riders and squadrons of Italian cavalry, paid for by the pope, galloped back and forth. Forty companies of infantry trudged toward Bonn, including Walloons and Bavarians. They looked forward to besieging Bonn, the Elector's capital city, to which they laid siege on 21 December 1583, and which they took on 28 January 1584.
Aftermath
The siege of the Godesburg and its subsequent destruction were a mere taste of things to come. It was the first of many sieges in the Cologne War, and the castle's fall eventually led to the fall not just of Bonn, but of several other principal towns and cities in Electoral Cologne: HülchrathHülchrath
Hülchrath is a district of the municipality of Grevenbroich in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is known for its castle Schloss Hülchrath.-Position:...
, Neuss
Neuss
Neuss is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district and owes its prosperity to its location at the crossing of historic and modern trade routes. It is primarily known...
and Werl
Werl
Werl is a town located in the district of Soest in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-Geography:Werl is easily accessible because it is located between the Sauerland, Münsterland, and the Ruhr Area...
. Several smaller fortified towns such as Gelsenkirchen
Gelsenkirchen
Gelsenkirchen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the Ruhr area. Its population in 2006 was c. 267,000....
, Unkel
Unkel
Unkel is a municipality in the district of Neuwied, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, near Remagen, approx. 20 km southeast of Bonn....
and Brühl
Brühl, North Rhine-Westphalia
Brühl is a town in the Rhineland of Germany. It is located in Rhein-Erft-Kreis, 20 km south of Cologne city center and at the edge of Naturpark Kottenforst-Ville Nature Reserve.-History:...
were also either heavily damaged or destroyed before, during and after the siege. In addition to damage to the towns and cities, Ernst's supporters managed to restrict imports and exports to and from the Electorate, not only crippling Gebhard's financial resources but resulting in economic hardship for the inhabitants.
Advances in military architecture over the previous century had led to the construction or enhancement of fortresses that could withstand the pounding of cannonballs and mortar shells. For both Gebhard and Ernst, winning the war required mobilizing enough men to encircle a seemingly endless array of enemy artillery fortresses. These could be protected with relatively small garrisons, but taking them required both expensive artillery and enough men to storm the battlements. Furthermore, the victor had to maintain and defend all his possessions as they were acquired. Even the ruin of the Godesburg required a garrison and a defensive strategy; as a strategic point on the north-south road from Bonn to Koblenz, it came under siege in 1586 and again in 1588. The Cologne War, similar to the Dutch Revolt
Dutch Revolt
The Dutch Revolt or the Revolt of the Netherlands This article adopts 1568 as the starting date of the war, as this was the year of the first battles between armies. However, since there is a long period of Protestant vs...
, was not a war of assembled armies facing each other on a field, but a war of artillery sieges. It required men who could operate the machinery of war, which meant extensive economic resources for soldiers to build and operate the siege works, and a political and military will to keep the machinery of war operating.
The destruction of so prominent a fortress was also news. When Frans Hogenberg and Georg Braun
Georg Braun
Georg Braun was a topo-geographer. From 1572 to 1617 he edited the Civitates orbis terrarum, which contains 546 prospects, bird's-eye views, and maps of cities from all around the world....
compiled their Civitates Orbis Terrarum, a collection of important scenes and locales, they included Hogenberg's engraving of its destruction as not only an important sight, but an important event (see Info Box, top). Hogenberg lived in Bonn and Cologne in 1583, and likely saw the site himself. After overwhelming the Godesburg, the Bavarians found a large marble slab in the ruins: the castle's foundation stone, which had been displaced by the explosion. The stone is a block of black marble with a Latin inscription commemorating the construction of the fortress by Dietrich I von Hengebach
Dietrich I von Hengebach
Dietrich I von Hengebach was the Archbishop of Cologne. He was elected in 1208. He supported Otto of the House of Welf as Holy Roman Emperor and was excommunicated in 1212 by Innocent III. Upon his excommunication, he lost the Episcopal see and he brought suit in Rome...
in 1210: ANNO · D(OMI)NI · M·C·C·X · GUDENSBERG · FUNDATUM · E(ST) · A · TEODERICO · EP(ISCOP)O · I(N) · DIE · MAUROR(UM) · M(A)R(TYRUM). A gold inscription was added to the back of the stone, noting that it had been found "on the very top of the blasted wall." Ferdinand took the stone to Munich, where it was kept in a museum beside a fresco painting in an arcade commemorating the siege. Today, the foundation stone is in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum
Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn
The Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, or LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn, is a museum in Bonn, Germany, run by the Rhineland Landscape Association. It is one of the oldest museums in the country. In 2003 it completed an extensive renovation...
in Bonn.
Long-term consequences
Gebhard's eventual defeat changed the balance of power in the Electoral College of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1589, Ernst of Bavaria became uncontested Prince-elector of Cologne, the first WittelsbachWittelsbach
The Wittelsbach family is a European royal family and a German dynasty from Bavaria.Members of the family served as Dukes, Electors and Kings of Bavaria , Counts Palatine of the Rhine , Margraves of Brandenburg , Counts of Holland, Hainaut and Zeeland , Elector-Archbishops of Cologne , Dukes of...
to hold the position. Wittelsbach authority in northwestern German territories endured until the mid-18th century, with the election of a succession of Bavarian princes to the archbishop's throne and to the Prince-Elector's seat. This gave the family two voices in the choice of imperial candidates, which had ramifications in the 18th century. In 1740, Charles Albert, Duke of Bavaria
Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VII Albert a member of the Wittelsbach family, was Prince-elector of Bavaria from 1726 and Holy Roman Emperor from 24 January 1742 until his death in 1745...
, laid claim
War of the Austrian Succession
The War of the Austrian Succession – including King George's War in North America, the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear, and two of the three Silesian wars – involved most of the powers of Europe over the question of Maria Theresa's succession to the realms of the House of Habsburg.The...
to the imperial title; his brother Klemens August of Bavaria, then the Archbishop and Prince-elector, cast his vote for Charles and personally crowned him at Frankfurt am Main. The shift of the emperor's orb from the House of Habsburg to the Wittelsbach family, albeit a brief event, was only resolved by the ascension of Maximilian III Joseph who, with the Treaty of Füssen
Treaty of Füssen
The Peace of Füssen was a peace treaty signed at Füssen, Bavaria, between the Electorate of Bavaria and Habsburg Austria. Signed on 22 April 1745, it ended the participation of Bavaria on the French side in the War of the Austrian Succession.-Background:...
, eschewed any imperial pretensions.
Peace of Augsburg
The Peace of Augsburg, also called the Augsburg Settlement, was a treaty between Charles V and the forces of the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Lutheran princes, on September 25, 1555, at the imperial city of Augsburg, now in present-day Bavaria, Germany.It officially ended the religious...
(1555) addressed the problem of religious pluralism, the solution potentially converted simple, and usually local, legal disputes into dynastic and religious warfare, as the Cologne War itself demonstrated. The result of the Cologne War gave the Counter Reformation a foothold in the lower Rhine. Ernst was a product of Jesuit education. Once his position was secured, he invited Jesuits into the territory to help re-establish Catholicism, a task which the Order approached zealously. They ejected Protestant pastors from parishes, sometimes by force, and re-established catechism education and pastoral visitations. Even when communities appeared to be reconverted, the Jesuits maintained strict supervision to identify recalcitrant Protestants or backsliders. The Jesuit reintroduction of Catholicism postponed the solution of Germany's religious problems for another half century.
Finally, the German tradition of local and regional autonomy created structural and cultural differences in the Holy Roman Empire, compared to the increasingly centralized authority of such other European states as France, England, and Spain. The unabashed intervention of Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, English and Scots mercenaries in the war, as well as the influence of papal gold, changed the dynamic of internal German confessional and dynastic disputes. The great "players" of the Early Modern European political stage realized that they could enhance their own positions vis-a-vis one another by assisting, promoting or undermining local and regional competition among the German princes, as they did in the feud between Gebhard and Ernst. Conversely, German princes, dukes, and counts realized that they could acquire an edge over their competitors by promoting the interests of powerful neighbors.
The scale of involvement of such external mercenary armies as Spain's Army of Flanders set a precedent that internationalized contests of local autonomy and religious issues in the German states, a problem not settled until the 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...
in 1648. Despite that settlement, German states remained vulnerable to both external intervention and religious division, as they were in the Cologne War.