| Battle of Wurzach Schlacht am Leprosenberg | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 View from the Grabener Höhe of the battlefield in 2012 | |||||
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| Belligerents | |||||
| Old Swabian Confederation | Swabian League | ||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||
| Pfaff-Florian of Aichstetten | George III, Truchsess of Waldburg-Zeil | ||||
| Strength | |||||
| 7,000 | 7,000 | ||||
The Battle of Wurzach (German : Gefecht bei Wurzach or Schlacht am Leprosenberg), [1] was a battle during the German Peasants' War that took place near Bad Wurzach in the present-day district of Ravensburg in Upper Swabia.
During Easter Week, on Tuesday 11 April 1525, Farmer George (Bauernjörg) and his army were still deployed on a line from Ulm to Leipheim. In the evening of that day he encamped in Baltringen, one of the bases of the rebellion. Three days later, the mercenaries ( Landsknechte ), armoured cavalry (Panzerreiter), and camp followers ( Tross ) of the Swabian League, financially supported by Jacob Fugger, encamped in the rather flat terrain west of the town towards Bad Waldsee, near the Leprosenberg ("Leper's Hill"). The peasants under their leader Pfaff-Florian of Aichstetten had oriented their positions south of the town on the hilly terrain of Auf der Bleiche below the Ziegelberg hill. Small skirmishes took place in the run-up to the battle. Both army commanders had considerable local knowledge as the battlefield was only 20 kilometres from each of their home towns. The peasants were unable to penetrate the town walls surrounding Wurzach or to convince the townsfolk to take their side.
On Good Friday, 14 April 1525, the positions of the peasant army were fired upon by the cannons of the Swabian League. The two forces each had about the same number of troops. However, the experienced Landsknechte and armoured riders of the Swabian League, with their better armament and training, were the decisive factors in the battle.
In the evening the overmatched peasants began to withdraw. Those peasants who fled to the west of the positions of the Swabian League were lucky. They could escape in the direction of Gaisbeuren. The fleeing peasants who tried to escape in the night in the direction of the Wurzacher Ried and Wurzacher Ach were probably killed, since they were also pursued by Farmer George's cavalry.
A series of further battles followed. By September 1525, all fighting and punitive action was over and Emperor Charles V and Pope Clement VII thanked the Swabian League for their intervention.
Pfaff-Florian was one of the survivors of the battle and fled to the Confederation after the Treaty of Weingarten was negotiated. As a rule, commanders and leaders were executed immediately upon capture. Captured rebel peasants had to pay a general bounty of 6 guilders in instalments and were later released. George and his cousin, William, were each appointed by Emperor Charles V on 27 July 1526 in Toledo as a Hereditary Imperial Steward (Reichserbtruchsess). The Lepers' Hospital (Leprosenhaus) and Lepers' Chapel (Leprosenkapelle), founded in 1505, may still be seen on the site of the battlefield today.
The Landsknechte, also rendered as Landsknechts or Lansquenets, were German mercenaries used in pike and shot formations during the early modern period. Consisting predominantly of pikemen and supporting foot soldiers, their front line was formed by Doppelsöldner renowned for their use of Zweihänder and arquebus. They formed the bulk of the Holy Roman Empire's Imperial Army from the late 15th century to the early 17th century, fighting in the Habsburg-Valois wars, the Habsburg-Ottoman wars, and the European wars of religion.
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Georg von Frundsberg was a German military and Landsknecht leader in the service of the Holy Roman Empire and Imperial House of Habsburg. An early modern proponent of infantry tactics, he established his reputation in active service during the Italian Wars under Emperor Maximilian I and his successor Charles V. Even in his lifetime, he was referred to as "Vater der Landsknechte" and legends about him as the patriarchal figure of the Landsknechte or his incredible physical strength surfaced. He achieved great prestige and fame for his role in the Habsburg victory at Pavia against France and during the war of the League of Cognac.
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The German Peasants' War, Great Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525. It was Europe's largest and most widespread popular uprising before the French Revolution of 1789. The revolt failed because of intense opposition from the aristocracy, who slaughtered up to 100,000 of the 300,000 poorly armed peasants and farmers. The survivors were fined and achieved few, if any, of their goals. Like the preceding Bundschuh movement and the Hussite Wars, the war consisted of a series of both economic and religious revolts involving peasants and farmers, sometimes supported by radical clergy like Thomas Müntzer. The fighting was at its height in the middle of 1525.
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