Siege of Sargans
Overview map of the Old Zurich War
| date | February 5, 1445 to February 12, 1445 |
|---|---|
| place |
Sargans , Canton St. Gallen , Switzerland 
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| output | The siege was unsuccessful |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
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| Commander | |
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| Troop strength | |
| about 600 men | about 4000 men |
| losses | |
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unknown |
unknown |
Etzel · Pfäffikon · Grüningen I · Freienbach · Blickensdorf · Hirzel · Bremgarten · Regensberg · Grüningen II · St. Jakob an der Sihl · Greifensee · St. Jakob an der Birs · Erlenbach I · Koblach · Sargans · Wil · Kirchberg · Wolfhalden · Obertoggenburg · Wigoltingen · Erlenbach II · Männedorf · Wollerau · Ragaz
The Siege of Sargans was a military conflict that took place from February 5 to 12, 1445 during the Old Zurich War in what is now Sarganserland . The opponents were on the one hand troops of the federal places and the surrounding area Appenzell , on the other hand troops of the Werdenbergs and their allies.
prehistory
In May and September 1444, the Swiss led two campaigns against the rebellious Sarganserländer by where they the reigns Nidberg and Freudenberg , under the protection of the since 30 January 1437 Schwyz and Glarus standing in a country right Count Henry II. Of Werdenberg-Sargans († approx. 1447) and Feldkircher Vogt Wolfhart V. von Brandis stood, took possession and asked the country folk to swear allegiance to them. In addition, they demanded that Count Heinrich, as their compatriot, keep the castle and city of Sargans open for the war against the Habsburgs and Glarus raised claims to the castles of Nidberg and Freudenberg. Count Heinrich then changed sides, probably also due to the distress from the country folk in his own territory - together with Wolfhart von Brandis - and declared the two places on November 30, 1444 "as a count des richs" , i.e. in the name of the king, the imperial war . He accused her of having robbed his people and invaded "our land of Sangans" without cancellation . Immediately afterwards, a well-planned major military action under the leadership of the Werdenbergers and the barons of Brandis took place when, on December 1st, an army of allegedly 6000 men advanced through the Seeztal from the east and occupied Walenstadt , where Heinrich's eldest son, Wilhelm von Werdenberg – Sargans, took over command.
After a military campaign undertaken by the Austrian side on January 28, 1445 under the command of Hans von Rechberg against the city of Wil , which was allied with the Confederates, they gathered in Appenzell in order to carry out a campaign of revenge against the Vorarlberg area, which was against the Austrians and especially the Count Heinrich who was perceived as faithless and directed against Wolfhart von Brandis.
On January 30, 1445, the army, which consisted of 2,000 Appenzellers, Toggenburgers and Wiler townspeople as well as a further 2,000 Swiss citizens from Schwyz, Glarus, Bern , Zug and Nidwalden , marched across the Rhine near Montlingen , where they were victorious after a battle near Koblach devastated the right-hand Alpine Rhine Valley . After that, they first switched back to the left bank of the Rhine and moved on February 3 via Altstätten against the county of Werdenberg , where a department was withdrawn to cross the river again and take action against the barons of Brandis; in the process, Gutenberg Castle and the associated town of Balzers ( County of Vaduz in what is now Liechtenstein ) were sacked.
The siege
On February 5, 1445, the entire army moved across the Schollberg in front of the Letzinen near Mels , whereupon the Sargans peasants fled and the siege of the town of Sargans was taken up. Sargans was defended by 600 mercenaries and the thick walls offered some protection; For some time, the Confederates stubbornly took action against the two Sargans city gates, where after two hours they managed to break open the city gates by force and get into the city, so that Count Heinrich and his defenders had to retreat to his eponymous castle after a few losses . Here, the Appenzell was the banner of the city Sargans hands.
The siege of the castle turned out to be more difficult because the Confederates had not carried any siege equipment on their campaign. Above all, there was a lack of artillery, so that they could not cause any serious damage to the castle walls; even a storm was out of the question, especially since there weren't even ladders. After a week, the Confederates decided to break off the siege and, after they had burned the town of Sargans to the ground, turned on February 12th against the Seeztal, where the villages of Mels and Flums , where there was an ironworks , each turned 1000 guilders protection money was extorted and a lot of iron and steel from the Gonzen iron mine as well as cattle and household appliances were taken away.
Then the army set off for home. The city of Walenstadt remained untouched on the way back, as it had a strong enemy garrison. The army, laden with booty , moved over the Letzi am Raischiben, partly over the Walensee to Weesen and over the Kerenzerberg to Glarus , where it dissolved.
consequences
On June 11, 1445, the Austrian side made two major advances against Appenzell and Toggenburg, which were repulsed by the latter in the battle near Kirchberg and the Battle of Wolfhalden . At the end of December 1445, the Appenzeller destroyed the small town of Rheineck , conquered the Vogtei Rheintal and thus pushed the federal-Austrian border de facto as far as the Rhine. The armistice of June 12, 1446 ended the fighting and thus the Old Zurich War de facto, although the peace negotiations lasted for another four years.
The federal campaign of February 1445 had a devastating effect on the areas directly affected due to the destruction, but in strategic terms fell short of expectations. Neither this campaign nor the previous one of the opposing side in December 1444 led to a breakthrough, the stalemate in the Sarganserland remained. The permanent locations of Walenstadt as well as the castles Flums and Sargans were held by the Zurich-Austrian coalition, while the landscape of the Seez Valley and the city of Sargans were defenselessly exposed to the federal raids. The last federal campaign in the Sarganserland in February 1446, which culminated on March 6 with the victorious Battle of Ragaz , was only able to change the situation for a short time, the Austrian and Werdenberg rule in the Sarganserland was restored in autumn 1446. Only after the Thurgau War in 1460 and the final sale of the County of Sargans did it come to the Confederation as common rule in 1483 .
See also
literature
- Peter Niederhäuser, Christian Sieber: A “fratricidal war” makes history. Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2006, ISBN 3-0340-0755-8
Web links
- Wolfgang Göldi: Sargans. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Wolfgang Göldi: Sarganserland. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Martin Illi: Old Zurich War. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fritz Rigendinger: A "civil war" makes history (2006), pp 111-122: "hertz Ir and meaningful stuond almost gen Zurich»: The old Zurich war from the perspective of regional Sargans Slingerlands
- ↑ Thomas Fassbind: History of the Canton Schwyz, Volume 2 1833, p. 364
- ↑ Johannes Wieland: History of the war events in Helvetia and Rhaetia, Volume 1 1827, p. 195
- ↑ Johannes Stumpf : Common praiseworthy Eydgnoschektiven Stetten Landen and Völckeren Chronik wirdiger thaaten beschreybung 1547/1548.
- ↑ Hans Fründ : Chronicle of the Old Zurich War from 1447.