Battle of Döffingen
| date | August 23, 1388 |
|---|---|
| place | Döffingen |
| output | Victory of Count Eberhard and his supporters |
| consequences | Peace in the country of Eger |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Territorial lords |
|
| Commander | |
|
Konrad Besserer (Mayor of Ulm) |
|
| Troop strength | |
| 700 to 800 knights 1100 to 2000 soldiers |
600 to 1100 soldiers around 2000 farmers |
| losses | |
|
Around 1,800 dead |
Around 600 dead |
The Battle of Döffingen took place on August 23, 1388 and marked the end of the war among a series of hostilities between the city leagues, namely the Swabian league of cities on the one hand and the knight and prince leagues on the other, which in turn were strongly influenced by the activities of Count Eberhard II of Württemberg were influenced.
Today Döffingen is a district of Grafenau .
prehistory
The city leagues emerged as military leagues of imperial cities . Small and medium-sized in particular were concerned that the emperor, who was always in need of money, would pledge or even sell them to donors. This might have put them under direct subordination to the sovereign and lost their previous privileges. The objective was therefore to secure the imperial city freedom rights. The alliance was thus also directed against the efforts of the respective sovereigns for territorial expansion of Bavaria , Württemberg , Austria and other emerging territorial states .
In Württemberg the relationship between the Upper Swabian imperial cities and Count Eberhard II was particularly strained because he was by no means averse to the consolidation of his property around individual imperial cities. Upper Swabian imperial cities under the leadership of Ulm came together on July 4, 1376 to form the Swabian League of Cities . Just a year later the battle of Reutlingen took place , which the Reutlingen forces victorious over Count Eberhard's son, Ulrich von Württemberg .
In the following years, the association of towns grew to include more members. In 1381, after merging with the Second Rhenish Association of Cities, the South German Association of Cities was formed . The territorial lords, for their part, united in 1383 to form the “Nuremberg Lords Association”. The Roman-German King Wenceslaus took care of these conflicting interests late. The Association of Cities also included Archbishop of Pilgrim II. Of Salzburg, in a dispute with Duke Stephan III. was involved by Bavaria. The archbishop was captured by the Bavarian dukes in 1387. The refusal to release the archbishop again triggered the alliance case in the city camp and thus the deliberately provoked city war with Bavaria.
The battle
Augsburg and Ulm undertook a campaign against Count Eberhard II after a resolution of the city union. The army of the city union, commanded by the Ulm captain Konrad Besserer, advanced via Esslingen to Weil der Stadt . A fortification wall from this period can still be seen on a large meadow between Heimsheim and Mühlhausen . On their march, the mercenaries and soldiers set fire to cornfields, damaged the Württemberg farmers by looting and stealing their cattle and destroying farmsteads.
The news of approaching enemies spread quickly, and the peasants from the area around Döffingen sought protection from the Soldateska with their essential belongings in the cemetery there, protected by a wall . In the Middle Ages, it was agreed that cemeteries were to be regarded as “sanctuaries”, i.e. a non-combat zone. But that didn't matter to the warband coming from Weil der Stadt. They besieged Döffingen and its cemetery.
Count Eberhard had meanwhile not been idle. He had raised an army with knights, servants and peasants devoted to him near Leonberg . This troop moved to Döffingen on August 23. Because the sources are sparse, there is little information about the course of the battle there.
The vanguard was led by Ulrich von Württemberg with around 50 colleagues. Seized with the ambition to make amends for his old defeat, he and his men rushed at the enemy. The attack cost him his life (see Ulrichstein ) and his comrades-in-arms were also completely wiped out by urban fighters. Count Eberhard's main army then began a costly battle with the urban warriors. Your city governor, Konrad Besserer, died. When the Herrenberger Vogt Werner von Rosenfeld, coming from the south, intervened in the rear of the city army with a small team in the fray, confusion broke out in the enemy ranks. The mercenaries of the cities now fled behind the safe walls of Weil der Stadt.
The losses of the city armies are put at more than 1000 people. The bodies of the Württemberg armed forces are said to have been transported away with 40 truckloads, which could have been around 600 dead.
The military clashes in the rivalry between city federations and territorial lords had now reached their warlike climax. Count Eberhard II of Württemberg is said to have also belonged to Count Palatine Ruprecht , Burgrave Friedrich of Nuremberg and other nobles.
consequences
The Upper German cities could not recover from this toll and were unable to raise a new army anytime soon. Because shortly afterwards the troops of the Rhenish cities on November 6, 1388 at Worms lost out to Count Palatine Ruprecht, the smaller imperial cities began to decline in power. Given the large number of cities spread over a large area, interests were probably difficult to reconcile. In the country peace of Eger , which came from the Roman-German King Wenzel and which most imperial cities signed after his persuasion, all city federations were forbidden for the duration of its validity. The territorial rulers ultimately emerged stronger from the dispute.
literature
- Hansmartin Decker-Hauff / Wolfgang Schütz: 600 years of the battle of Döffingen , Heimatverein, Weil der Stadt 1989 (reports and communications / Heimatverein Weil der Stadt, Volume 38).
- Hermann Niethammer: The Battle of Döffingen . In: Württemberg. Monthly in the service of the people and homeland. 1932, pp. 497-503.
- Bernd Roeck: History of Augsburg . CH Beck Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-406-53197-0 , p. 82 .
Remarks
- ↑ Because the battle occurred on Bartholomew's Day , some sources also mention August 24th.
