First battle of Villmergen
Depiction of the battle
| date | January 24, 1656 |
|---|---|
| place | Villmergen |
| output | Victory of the catholic places |
| Peace treaty | March 7, 1656 (Third Land Peace) |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Christoph Pfyffer (from Altishofen) |
|
| Troop strength | |
| 9,800 | 5,000 |
| losses | |
|
about 600 |
approx. 200 |
The First Battle of Villmergen was the decisive battle of the First Villmerger War between the Reformed and Catholic towns of the Swiss Confederation . It took place on January 24, 1656 around the village of Villmergen in the Free Offices (today Canton Aargau ). Despite numerical inferiority, the battle ended with the victory of the Catholics, with which the balance of power that had existed since the Second Kappel Peace of 1531 remained.
prehistory
The failure of the federal project of 1655 , a reform of the structures of the Confederation, led to considerable tensions between the Reformed and the Catholic places. When several new believers were executed in Arth , Zurich used this as an excuse to declare war on Schwyz on January 6, 1656. The people of Zurich besieged the city of Rapperswil unsuccessfully and tied up their forces.
Bernese troops moved in from the west to occupy the free offices - a narrow Catholic strip of territory between the territories of the two most powerful Reformed places. Later they wanted to move further east and support the people of Zurich. On January 20th they reached Lenzburg , where they carried out a comprehensive inspection . The following day they advanced to the Langelenfeld near Dintikon and occupied the villages of Dottikon and Hägglingen , which were looted and for the most part burned down.
The Catholic troops were under the leadership of Lucerne , with contingents from Zug . They gathered in Muri and united in Boswil with the contingents from the unoccupied part of the free offices. A few days earlier, the crews of the strategically important bridges over the Reuss in Bremgarten and Mellingen had been reinforced.
course
On the evening of January 23, the Bernese arrived in Villmergen and moved into night quarters. General Sigmund von Erlach and a number of senior officers stayed at Lenzburg Castle because they did not expect an attack for the time being. The troops were quartered in the houses and spent the night mainly looting the village, with residents of the Reformed neighboring villages also mingling with the looters. The officers present were able to prevent the village and especially the church from burning down, only eight buildings went up in flames.
Shortly before noon on January 24th, the Catholic troops arrived in Hilfikon and overpowered the Bern guard at Hilfikon Castle . They went into attack formation, and crossing the Hinterbach hampered their advance somewhat. On a front line around 350 meters wide, they opened fire on the Bernese with guns in the narrow valley . They had been surprised and had to form up first. A reserve unit of the Bernese, which was stationed around 800 meters away at Kirchhöhe, was never deployed and withdrew to Lenzburg early on. Only a few Bernese guns could be brought into position.
The actual battle began at 2 p.m., when the Bernese musketeers were able to hold their positions and inflicted considerable losses on the Catholics. Individual Catholic troops began to retreat when Commander-in-Chief Christoph Pfyffer ordered an assault with three wings. The left wing was held up and thrown back, but the other two advanced successfully in the hilly terrain where the Bern cavalry could do little. At 4 p.m., the Bern lines collapsed, mainly due to poor coordination. In addition, the mostly peasant foot troops of the Bernese were not very motivated from the start, as the harsh actions of the patricians after the Peasants' War of 1653 had alienated them from the command of the army.
After dark, the Bernese involved in the urban warfare were forced to retreat through the village. General von Erlach's regiment arrived too late and was swept away by the fleeing soldiers north of Villmergen. The Catholics won the battle despite being numerically and technically inferior. They chased the Bernese to Dintikon, plundered the village and then burned it down. Thereupon they withdrew in order to Muri, in Villmergen only one guard from the Freiämter remained.
consequences
After the Battle of Villmergen, there were isolated skirmishes and attacks on the population in the wider area. The last act of war was a storm attack by the people of Zurich on Rapperswil on February 3, but it failed. Through the mediation of France and Savoy , the warring parties concluded the Third Peace on March 7th . This essentially confirmed the balance of power that had existed since the Second Kappel Peaceful Peace , i.e. the political dominance of the Catholic places within the Confederation.
See also
literature
- Josef Brülisauer and Claudia Hermann: The depiction of the battle near Villmergen . In: Historisches Museum Basel (ed.): Wettstein. Switzerland and Europe 1648 . 1998, p. 224-227 .
- Gregor Egloff: The parable of the pious soldier. Experience of violence and stories from the battle of Villmergen from 14./24. January 1656 . In: The history friend . tape 159 , 2006, p. 81-131 .
- Hans Rudolf Fuhrer, Military Academy of the ETH Zurich: Villmerger Wars 1656/1712 . In: Military history at your fingertips . tape 19 . Federal Office for Buildings and Logistics , Bern 2005.
- Arnold Keller: The first battle near Villmergen, January 22, 1656 . In: Argovia . tape 23 , 1892.
- P. Gall Morel: Jacob Bislig, people priest in Lucern, and his report on the Villmerger battle of January 26, 1656 . In: The history friend . tape 19 , 1863, p. 240-248 .
- EL Rochholz: Description of the Battle of Villmergen 1656. After the simultaneous drawing of the year book of the Villmerger parish church . In: Argovia . tape 5 , 1866, pp. 193-215 .
- Dominik Sauerländer: Villmergen - A local history . Ed .: Municipality of Villmergen. 2000, p. 121-130 .
- Alfred Zesiger : The first battle near Villmergen on 14./24. January 1656 . In: Anzeiger für Schweizerische Geschichte . New series 10, 1909, p. 464-472 and 477-490 .
- Alfred Zesiger: Defense regulations and civil wars in the 17th and 18th centuries . In: Swiss War History . Issue 7. Bern 1918, p. 16-29 .