Siege of Bonn (1588)
The siege of Bonn lasted from March to September 1588. It took place during the Truchsessian War . The defenders on the part of the renegade Archbishop Gebhard I von Waldburg were led by Martin Schenk von Nideggen . The attacking and eventually victorious Spaniards were by Charles III. de Croÿ commands. The siege became a contemporary media event through pamphlets and newspaper-like reports .
prehistory
The city of Bonn was the residence of the Cologne electors . Their importance for the electorate was correspondingly great. After Archbishop and Elector Gebhard I von Waldburg converted to Protestantism, the Cologne War broke out, also known as the Truchsessian War. On Gebhard's side, troops from the Electorate of the Palatinate fought , on the other side, called for help by the Cologne Cathedral Chapter , including Bavarian and Spanish troops.
Gebhard had militarily occupied the city of Bonn in 1582. The following year it was besieged for the first time during this war. In the city, Karl Truchseß, a brother of the elector, was in command. Against his will, the occupation surrendered the city to the besiegers against free withdrawal at the beginning of 1584.
The Truchsessian commander Martin Schenk von Nideggen succeeded in winning the city back to Gebhard, who had been officially deposed long ago, by a coup at the end of December 1587. The other side tried to negotiate to get the troops to withdraw. This did not work. Instead, Spanish troops in particular, under the command of Charles de Croy, began the siege.
course
From the end of February 1588, Spanish troops appeared in front of the city and prepared for the siege. This turned out to be extremely tedious. For a long time the Spaniards lacked the necessary artillery. There was also a lack of supplies and the mercenaries were temporarily not paid. Instead, they plundered the surrounding area. In June the besiegers were reinforced by another regiment, mostly made up of Italian mercenaries. Finally the heavy cannons arrived.
Schenk von Nydeggen sought outside help. To this end, he even turned to Elizabeth I of England . The siege ring was evidently not very tight because he was able to travel to England in May. However, none of the Protestant princes sent him auxiliary troops for relief.
Occasionally there were minor incidents and fights between the two sides. Ernst von Bayern , who had been Gebhard's official successor since 1583 , tried in vain to mediate. Emperor Rudolf II's appeal for the surrender was also unsuccessful. The city has been systematically fired at since August. As a result, the besiegers succeeded in conquering parts of the fortifications, including the Beueler Schanze , in advance of the actual city. In addition, there were allegedly strong reinforcements for the attackers on the march.
Therefore Schenk was now ready to negotiate. The crew was granted an honorable withdrawal under arms. As a result, he handed over the city on September 24, 1588. Spanish troops remained stationed in Bonn until 1594.
Media event
Early modern mass media, such as Fugger newspapers and other pamphlets, reported extensively and regularly on all the details of the long siege. The report on the conquest of the city was apparently so popular that the corresponding newspaper was reprinted eight times. Numerous engravings, maps and other representations were also made on the occasion of the siege.
source
- Warhaffige Newe Zeytunge / On the siege and unification of the city of Bonn (...) Cölln [1588] digitized
literature
- Oswald Bauer: Newspapers in front of the newspaper. The Fugger newspapers (1568–1605) and the early modern news system. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2011, pp. 295–298, ISBN 978-3-05-005158-1 (also dissertation, University of Augsburg 2009)
- Friedrich Koch: The Jülich and Berg lands during the siege of Bonn in 1588. In: Zeitschrift des Bergisches Geschichtsverein , Jg. 1894, pp. 213-252, ISSN 0067-5792
- Eva-Maria Schnurr: Religious Conflict and Public. A media history of the Cologne war (1582 to 1590) (Rheinisches Archiv; vol. 154). Böhlau, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20395-5 .