Siege of Rapperswil (1656)

Siege of Rapperswil

Part of: First Villmerger War

East view of Rapperswil from the perspective of the Zurich troops, below left General Hans Rudolf Werdmüller, 1855, drawing by Johann Jakob Oeri

date	January 7th to February 10th 1656
place	Rapperswil , the surrounding area and Lake Zurich
output	Siege canceled unsuccessfully
consequences	Bonding of Zurich troops, victory of the Catholics over the Bern troops on January 24, 1656 near Villmergen
Peace treaty	March 7, 1656 (Third Land Peace)

Parties to the conflict
Rapperswil SG Schwyz Unterwalden	Zurich
Commander
Hieronymus Riget	Hans Rudolf Werdmüller
Troop strength
	7,018 infantry, 326 cavalry, 19 guns, an unknown number of warships
losses
183 dead, 396 wounded	573 dead, 300 wounded

The siege on a colored pen drawing, Johann Bartholomäus Conrad, 1662

Johann Peter Dietrich, town clerk and mayor of Rapperswil, described the nine-week siege in great detail in a 260-page diary.

Memorial plaque for the 11-year-old Franz Rothenfluh von Rapperswil, who was fatally wounded on January 23, 1656 by a Zurich grenade

The siege of Rapperswil is a military conflict between the reformed city of Zurich and the Catholic towns of the Confederation during the First Villmerger War .

Starting position

After the attempt at federal reform by the Reformed towns failed due to the resistance of the Catholic towns in 1654/55 , Zurich urged its allies to go to war against the Catholics. Zurich used a dispute with the Catholic Schwyz about the property and rights of some of the new believers (Reformed) who had fled from Arth to force a federal decision.

Siege of Rapperswil

General Hans Rudolf Werdmüller moved with his troops via Hombrechtikon to Rapperswil , with the strategically important bridge connection over the Seedamm to Hurden in the Lower March in Schwyz . The mayor of Zurich, Johann Heinrich Waser, was at his side as an assistant councilor in the field . Werdmüller commanded a force of 7018 infantry , supplemented by 326  dragoons and 19  artillery pieces . The general, trained in France and fighting for Sweden towards the end of the Thirty Years War, closed the land-based siege ring from Busskirch to Kempraten . The houses in the surrounding villages were looted and the chapels devastated before Rapperswil was attacked. Rapperswil was occupied in time by Catholic troops who were subordinate to Hieronymus Riget from Schwyz. Guns secured the western, lake-side city ​​fortifications at the Schützenhaus (castle hill) and Endingerhorn , guarded by Unterwaldners and Rapperswil citizens.

On January 7th, the Rapperswilers hit the palisades in front of the Endingerhorn to secure the inner harbor against Zurich warships , while more troops moved into the city over the bridge from Hurden. On January 8, the Zurich-based artillery from the east opened the fortification located Kreuzli (Kreuzwiese) from the shelling of the city. The Zurich ships should have been shot at from the Kapuzinergarten , but they were stuck on Lake Zurich as the sea froze that began and remained out of range.

In his 260-page diary, Johann Peter Dietrich, town clerk and mayor of Rapperswil, describes how the city of Rapperswil “was besieged very hard by Zurich between the 7th Jenner 1656 to the 11th Merz 1656 by sea and on land, but in vain " has been. The first bombardment of the city began at 9 a.m. - the first shot is said to have hit the throat tower , but the bullet fell on the forecourt and was brought to the Capuchin monastery, where the brothers blessed it. Nine hours later, over 60 shots were counted; they weighed between three and 26 pounds, " but no one was harmed by that other than an honest man uss the March, for whom a Schenckhel was shot wake up on the Schantz and immediately brought in to death ".

Schwyzer groups defended the wooden bridge from their headquarters in Pfäffikon . Nocturnal operations kept the passage from the lower to the upper Lake Zurich to Altendorf free of icing. An intensive bombardment of the city began on January 24 , and the message of the victory at Villmergen over the Bernese troops arrived. On January 26, a doggedly led rush by the people of Zurich on the city walls failed. Days followed under heavy artillery fire with a total of 700 shells, which completely or partially destroyed 34 houses, until Werdmüller launched the decisive storm on February 3 and failed again. During the next few days the besiegers raged in the area and withdrew on February 10, 1656.

Victim

The unsuccessful siege of Rapperswil claimed 573 dead and 396 wounded on the Reformed side; material losses were eight flags, ten cannons and nine wagons . Rapperswil and the Catholic troops mourned 189 dead and around 300 wounded; how many of them among the civilian population needs clarification.

The city of Rapperswil was partially destroyed, the area around Rapperswil was devastated, plundered and the churches desecrated. The farms in Kempraten , Busskirch and Wagen also suffered severe devastation and looting .

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  Pen drawing from 1667, Rapperswil City Archives

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  Desecration of the Jona church by the Zurich troops, chronicle by Heinrich Rothenflue, pastor in Jona, 1679

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  Werdmüller after the failed siege, woodcut anonymous

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  Mock image from 1660 of the unsuccessful siege by Zurich

consequences

Meanwhile, the Catholic towns and their troops cut off the connection between Zurich and Bern . As the Zurich troops remained bound by the siege of Rapperswil and the Catholics were able to defeat the Bernese, led by General Sigmund von Erlach , on January 24, 1656 in the First Battle of Villmergen , Rapperswil played an important role in the First Villmergen War. The fighting was not finally stopped until March 3rd. The "Third Land Peace" of March 7, 1656 secured the agreements reached by the Second Kappel Land Peace of 1531 and the Catholic hegemony in the Confederation .

See also

• History of the city of Zurich
• History of the city of Rapperswil

literature

• Paul Heeb: The siege of the city of Rapperswil in 1656 from the perspective of town clerk Johann Peter Dietrich (1611–1681). Volume 17 of the series of publications by the Rapperswil City Museum. Published by the Rapperswil City Museum , Rapperswil 2006.
• W. Wahlen, E. Jaggi: The Swiss Peasant War 1653 and the development of the peasant class since then. Published by the Economic and Non-Profit Society of the Canton of Bern, Buchverlag Verbandsdruckerei, Bern 1952.
• Leo Weisz : The Werdmüller. Fates of an old Zurich family. Three volumes, Zurich 1949.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In the center of Johann Jakob Oeri's drawing from 1851, three cartoons and a stone mortar can be seen, protected by bulwarks and fascines . The fire of the Zurich artillery is returned from the bastion at Engelplatz - on the right the Halstor, behind it the Haus zum Alten Sternen and on the left the Halsturm with the houses that form the curtain wall . In the foreground is General Rudolf Werdmüller, in full armor, talking to officers, behind him his servant with his horse. Two sentinels in helmets and cuirass , armed with spears and halberds , flank the guns. Two soldiers bring a wounded comrade to safety, a third brings ammunition. The defoliated tree in the foreground and the roofs covered with snow are portraits of the freezing cold January 1656.
2. ↑ ^{a b} David Nüscheler: Website Villmergerkriege 1656 and 1712 , History of the Zurich Artillery , Fireworks Society, Zurich 1850, accessed on April 15, 2013.
3. ^ Website of the municipality of Hombrechtikon, history, accessed on April 28, 2008
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Website of the Capuchin monastery in Rapperswil, history, accessed on April 28, 2008
5. ^ State Archives of the Canton of St. Gallen: Rapperswil demands compensation for the siege of Zurich (1656) , single-sheet print in Latin.
6. ^ Website of the Hotel Schwanen, history, accessed on April 28, 2008