Battle of the Stoss
Map of the municipality of Gais, site of the battle
| date | June 17, 1405 |
|---|---|
| place | the Stoss pass near Gais |
| output | Appenzell victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
|
|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 1200 | 400 |
| losses | |
|
330 |
20th |
Vögelinsegg - Rotmonten - Stoss - Bregenz - Herisau
The Battle of the Stoss was a military conflict between Appenzell and Habsburg during the Appenzell Wars . It took place on June 17, 1405 at the Stoss , between Altstätten and Gais in what is now the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden .
prehistory
The direct trigger for the battle was the siege of Altstätten by the Appenzell people. Appenzell had long had a dispute with the abbot of the St. Gallen monastery, Kuno von Stoffeln (1379–1411), which culminated in the battle of Vögelinsegg in 1403. Since the Lake Constance cities allied with the abbot withdrew from the conflict after this battle, the abbot sought rapprochement with Duke Leopold IV of Austria, the son of Leopold III. who died in the Battle of Sempach in 1386.
Leopold IV was interested in establishing a link between the Habsburg rulers in Vorarlberg and Thurgau . Due to its interference in the conflict, the state of Schwyz , which had been in an alliance with Appenzell since the beginning of 1403, left the conflict because the Confederation had made a twenty-year peace with the House of Habsburg in 1394. The Appenzeller remained in Schwyz land law . Leopold IV even tried to win the Confederates for his campaign against the Appenzeller, but they refused, since the borders of the old arch enemy Habsburg would have shifted back in the direction of the Confederation if successful. To this end, the city of St. Gallen allied itself again with Appenzell in order to break away from the St. Gallen monastery .
Leopold IV commissioned his younger brother Friedrich IV , the regent of the Habsburg possessions in Upper Austria , with a campaign against the Appenzell people. This offered a strong knightly armed force in front of Austria and gathered them in Arbon and Rheineck. It consisted mainly of members of the Swabian nobility and contingents from the Habsburg country towns and the allied imperial towns. The organizational focus was the Habsburg city of Schaffhausen , the Duke's most important urban ally was the city of Constance .
The Appenzeller went on the offensive in mid-June 1405 before Frederick IV's preparations were complete and advanced with reinforcements from the city of St. Gallen into the Rhine Valley , where they besieged the city of Altstätten. For this reason, Friedrich divided his armed forces in order to take the land of Appenzell into pincers by attacking St. Gallen and Altstätten. From Arbon , the numerically stronger army turned against the city of St. Gallen with Governor Johann von Lupfen and devastated all the country. A siege of St. Gallen was hopeless without siege equipment, which is why Friedrich felt compelled to threateningly pause in front of the city in order to at least tie up the St. Gallen troops on site. On June 17, the ducal army withdrew and suffered great losses in the battle near Rotmonten due to an attack on the city of St. Gallen on the Hauptlisberg . The other part of the army moved into the Rhine Valley to relieve Altstätten . However, when the Austrian units approached, the besiegers withdrew to the pass on the Stoss in the direction of Appenzell on June 16, and the St. Gallers returned to the city. Altstätten fell into the hands of Frederick IV's troops without a fight.
On June 17, the Habsburg armed forces moved on on a rainy and cold day to pursue the Appenzell people. The army allegedly consisted of 4,000 men, including numerous knights and their entourage, large contingents from the cities of Winterthur , Constance and Feldkirch .
course
As with Vögelinsegg, the Appenzell people put their defense behind the undefended Letzi , who blocked access a few hundred meters below the top of the pass. The approximately 400 Appenzell miners let around 1200 men advance through the Letzi and surprised the enemy above the border hill, already tired from the long ascent. First they let boulders roll down the slope and then threw their halberds down from the heights in a wedge formation at the enemy, according to the concept of the Confederates in the Battle of Morgarten . The Habsburg archers could not use their weapons because of the wet weather, as the bowstrings could not be stretched. The heavily armored fighters found no hold in the wet terrain and could not withstand the force of the attack. The clash was therefore only followed by a short battle, after which the Habsburg army streamed down into the valley in unbridled flight. The narrow passage through the Letzi was the undoing of many Habsburg fighters, here most fighters are said to have died from the crowd and the halberds of the Appenzell people.
Although the Austrians outnumbered the Appenzellers by three times, they left around 330 dead on the battlefield, including 95 from the city of Winterthur and 80 from Feldkirch. The Appenzellers lost around 20 men, but captured 170 armor and the banners of the cities Winterthur, Feldkirch and Schlandersberg. Laurenz von Sal , Schultheiss von Winterthur and leader of the Winterthur troops, who previously played an important mediating role in the conflict between the abbot and Appenzell, had also fallen .
consequences
The result of the battle was largely discouraging, especially for Duke Friedrich and his helpers, but then a considerable rise in Appenzell's expansion. Soon after the battle, the Appenzeller attacked across the Rhine. Three months after the Battle of the Stoss, the city of Feldkirch joined them, the Schattenburg was besieged and conquered by Appenzell and Feldkirch citizens. Bludenz followed, and the so-called Bund ob dem See was created under the leadership of Appenzell and St. Gallen . The town of Altstätten and other communities were accepted into the league, which they gladly accepted in order to be safe from the hostility of the increasingly feared mountain farmers. The farmers in Walgau and Montafon followed , the people from Bludenz, Rankweil , Lustenau and many others. Feldkirch was to have federal leadership east of the Rhine.
Sargans that resisted was destroyed. The area around Lake Walen , the March , was also conquered by the Appenzell people and given to the Schwyzers. The Thurgau was also devastated and the property of the nobility plundered. 64 castles fell into the hands of the Appenzeller, 30 of them were destroyed. A crowd of Appenzellers moved over the Arlberg , and Wil was besieged and captured , during which Abbot Kuno von Stoffeln was taken prisoner. He was brought back to his monastery under much abuse. Thereupon he renounced all rights to the Appenzellers and promised to obey their general Bundestag.
The conquest of Bischofszell followed , as well as a failed attempt at conquering Frauenfeld . In the two years after the battle, the covenant was expanded more and more.
They regained control of Count Rudolf von Werdenberg , their ally, but Werdenberg Castle itself remained in Habsburg hands, and Count Rudolf, who was involved in the Stoss victory, ultimately only had Zwingenstein Castle. Angry about it, he fell out with the Appenzell residents in 1407 and sent them a feud.
Legend
This second great victory of the Appenzell War is still celebrated every year with a pilgrimage to the battle chapel. The report on the mythical Appenzell hero Ueli Rotach is related to the Battle of the Stoss . He was attacked in a house alone by an Austrian crowd, fought valiantly and killed a few opponents. Eventually the house was set on fire and he was "undefeated" in the flames.
Battle memorial
Battle Chapel and Inn
literature
- Rainald Fischer: The art monuments of the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden . The Inner Land: Battle Chapel on Stoss . Birkhäuser AG, Basel 1984, ISBN 3-7643-1629-2 . (= The Art Monuments of Switzerland , Volume 74.) pp. 556–558.
Web links
- Karl Heinz Burmeister: Battle of the Stoss. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Otto Feger , The Battle of the Shock / The Bund above the Lake
- Brandenberger 2004, doi: 10.5169 / seals-405395
Remarks
- ^ Hans Rudolf Kurz: Swiss battles . Second, revised and expanded edition. Francke: Bern 1977, p. 56f.