Battle of Dornbühl
Map of the municipality of Köniz, presumed site of the battle.
| date | March 2, 1298 |
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| place | Oberwangen BE , Canton of Bern |
| output | Bern victory |
| Peace treaty | 1308 |
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The Battle of Dornbühl , also known as the Battle of Oberwangen or the Battle of Jammertal , was an armed conflict between the cities of Bern and Freiburg that took place between the gates of the city of Bern and the town of Oberwangen BE .
Sources
The sources for this battle are rather narrow. The battle is mentioned in various sources, which speaks for its existence at all. The most important source is the Cronica de Berno , which was kept as a year book by the clergy of the Bernese St. Vinzenz Stift. The Latin source reports in a few lines when and where the battle took place, who was involved in the battle and how the battle ended. Information about troop strengths or the course of the battle were not given. Another source is the Middle High German chronicle by Conrad Justinger from the 15th century. It is inspired by the Cronica de Berno, but deviates from it in most of the information.
prehistory
The cities of Bern and Freiburg were both founded by the Dukes of Zähringen . After their extinction in 1218, the two cities shared their fortunes. Freiburg, which was founded on Zähringisches own land, came as heir to the Counts of Kyburg and in 1277 to the Habsburgs as a purchase . Bern, on the other hand, was founded on Reichsland, which the Zähringer had as a fief . After the death of the last Zähringer in 1218, this imperial fief came back to the emperor, who did not lend it, but gave Bern the Golden Handfeste , which allowed the city great freedom and made it a free imperial city . Bern and Friborg had good relations. Alliances were made in 1243 and 1271. Bern secured itself through further alliances with Burgundian cities and nobles ( Burgundian Confederation ). King Rudolf von Habsburg disliked this network of alliances; Bern, as its eastern outpost, was besieged twice by the king in 1288, without success. In 1289 Rudolf's son succeeded in defeating the Bernese in the battle of Schosshalde . This event was a cornerstone for the conflict at Dornbühl, which was triggered by the following reasons:
- Bern, which was abandoned by its Burgundian allies when it was defeated in 1289, was reconciled with the empire and turned away from the Burgundian Confederation and towards the newly elected King Adolf of Nassau in 1292 .
- Bern and Freiburg competed in a feud for supremacy in the Sense - Saane area , which, along with the imperial castles of Gümmenen , Laupen and Grasburg, was of great strategic importance.
- The city of Bern was weakened after the defeat at Schosshalde. Debts that the city had to borrow from Jewish moneylenders to pay fines to the king weighed on it. Internal tensions led to the fact that Schultheiss Ulrich von Bubenberg was deposed in 1293. Bern was also involved in a feud with the city of Freiburg.
- King Adolf von Nassau lost power in front of the imperial princes, Albrecht von Habsburg was proclaimed the anti-king. While Bern continued to support King Adolf, the Burgundian nobility and the city of Freiburg supported Albrecht von Habsburg.
Course of the battle
In spring 1298 an army was raised in Freiburg. He was joined by many French-Burgundian nobles such as the barons Wilhelm I and Ulrich von Belp - Montenach , the Lord of Vaud , the Count of Greyerz , the Barons of Weissenburg and the Count of Neuchâtel . On March 2, the Bernese, under the presumed leader Ulrich von Erlach , defeated the aristocratic army at Dornbühl, not far from the Bern city gates, with the help of the city of Solothurn , which had concluded an alliance with Bern three years earlier, Count Hartmann von Kyburg and Graf Wilhelm von Aarberg back.
After this battle, the Freiburgers and their aristocratic coalition withdrew to Rehhag, a hill over which the road to Freiburg led. There they stood up again. According to Konrad Justinger's chronicle , the Bernese troops rushed after them with a drum roll.
"(...) the ilt in the from bern to with a yell and with böggen and neckerlinslachen (...)"
Another fight broke out on Rehhag. After Conrad Justinger's transfer, the Freiburg Army Association turned to the Senseübergang to flee through the Wangental, Neuenegg. While the aristocrats on horseback escaped, the infantry was slain by the Bernese and their allies. The Cronica de Berno speaks of 60 opponents who died, according to Justinger 400 men were killed. The sources differ greatly. It should be noted that the Cronica de Berno was written at the time of the event, while Justinger wrote his chronicle a good 120 years later, which increases the credibility of the Cronica de Berno compared to the Justinger chronicle. Are the numerous fallen men perhaps the reason why Konrad Justinger calls this battle battle in the valley of tears ? Bern and its allies managed to capture 18 enemy standard symbols, which were gloriously hung up in the Bern Leutkirche and presented demonstratively.
Consequences of the battle
A peace treaty between Bern and Friborg has been preserved from 1308. However, it can be assumed that Bern, as Justinger claims, made peace as early as 1298 in order to be secure under the new King Albrecht of Habsburg in Burgundy. The Bernese destroyed the castles Belp, Geristein and Bremgarten and thus dealt another blow to the nobility in the vicinity. Baron Ulrich von Belp-Montenach had to pay for the war costs . The barons had to cede Belp to the city of Bern, but were later given back the baron as a fiefdom from the city of Bern. It can be assumed that the first Bernese land gain, which included the church games Muri , Bolligen , Stettlen and Vechigen , came into possession of the Aare city due to the battle. Due to the fact that the Weissenburgers took sides, Bern made an unsuccessful attack on Wimmis , the former Weissenburger rulership.
See also
literature
- Rainer C. Schwinges, Bern's courageous times, the 13th and 14th centuries rediscovered , 2003 Bern
- Dr. G. Studer, The Bern Chronicle of Conrad Justinger , 1871 Bern
- Richard Feller, History of Bern from its beginnings to 1516 , 1974 Bern
- Hans-Ulrich von Erlach, 800 years of Berner von Erlach , 1989 Bern
- Franz-Ludwig Haller, depiction of the strangest Swiss battles from 1298 to 1499 , Constance 1826
Web links
- [1] The Chronicle of Konrad Justinger and the Cronica de berno digitized