Battle of Gammelsdorf

Battle of Gammelsdorf

date	November 9, 1313
place	Gammelsdorf
output	Victory of Ludwig of Bavaria
consequences	Strengthening the Upper Bavarian Wittelsbacher

Parties to the conflict
Bavaria Upper Bavarian nobles / knights, Lower Bavarian townspeople	Habsburg / Austria Austrian and Lower Bavarian nobles / knights
Commander
Ludwig IV of Upper Bavaria	Marshal Pilichendorf (Austria) Albrecht von Hals (Niederbay.)

One of the last knight battles

Coordinates: 48 ° 33 ′ 0.4 ″  N , 11 ° 56 ′ 42.3 ″  E

Memorial to the memory of the Battle of Gammelsdorf

Bavaria's Duke Ludwig as German Emperor

The battle of Gammelsdorf took place on November 9, 1313 near Gammelsdorf in Upper Bavaria . It was carried out between the Wittelsbach Duke Ludwig IV of Upper Bavaria and the Habsburg Frederick the Fair for supremacy in the Duchy of Bavaria .

prehistory

After the death of the Wittelsbach dukes Stephan I and Otto III. of Lower Bavaria disputes arose because their cousin Ludwig IV of Upper Bavaria claimed the guardianship of their two sons and occupied the important Lower Bavarian cities of Landshut and Straubing . The widows of the deceased princes and the Lower Bavarian nobility felt that their rights were diminished. They called on the Habsburgs, against whom they had fought heavy battles the decade before, and offered Frederick the Fair the guardianship of the Hereditary Prince. In autumn 1313 the dispute between the Habsburgs and the Upper Bavarian Wittelsbachers escalated in the battle of Gammelsdorf.

course

The Austrian army marched from the east towards Upper Bavaria. It consisted mainly of the Lower Bavarian nobility who had allied themselves with the Habsburgs and were led by Albrecht von Hals . Ludwig von Oberbayern's contingent was composed mostly of Upper Bavarian aristocrats and Lower Bavarian townspeople. At the battle of November 9, 1313 south of Gammelsdorf, Duke Friedrich's army, together with the Lower Bavarian knights , suffered a clear defeat against the troops of Duke Ludwig IV of Upper Bavaria, who later became Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian. Its victory withdrew the wealthy Lower Bavaria from the Habsburg ambitions and consolidated Ludwig's rule in Bavaria.

Meaning and sources

The Battle of Gammelsdorf was later seen as the prelude to a series of disputes over the supremacy between the House of Wittelsbach and the House of Habsburg in the Holy Roman Empire . It also went down in history as one of the last great knight battles, in which armored riders competed against each other and no firearms were used.

Only documented and historiographical sources provide information about the battle. Archaeological remains have not yet been found.

Commemoration

To commemorate the victory of Ludwig of Bavaria, a memorial initiated by the local priest, Anton Gottstein, was inaugurated in Gammelsdorf in 1842 and financed from private funds . Memorial services were held regularly at the memorial. In the glass windows of the Gammelsdorf parish church of St. Vitus , built in 1880/81, scenes from the battle of Gammelsdorf and the coats of arms of the Bavarian cities involved in the battle are depicted. The Bavarian Prime Minister Alfons Goppel gave a speech in 1963 to mark the 650th anniversary . In 2013 for the 700th anniversary, Prime Minister Horst Seehofer's speech was given after a large festive service with Cardinal Reinhard Marx .

In Bavarian historiography, it is unanimously spoken of a decisive battle. On the other hand, Heinz Thomas , who has so far presented the only scientific biography of Ludwig the Bavarian, viewed the dispute as a minor skirmish.

literature

• Bernhard Lübbers : Briga enim principum, que ex nulla causa sumpsit exordium… The battle of Gammelsdorf on November 9, 1313. Historical events and aftermath. In: Hubertus Seibert (ed.): Ludwig the Bavarian (1314-1347). Empire and rule in transition. Regensburg 2014, ISBN 3-7954-2757-6 , pp. 205-236.
• Malte Prietzel : Warfare in the Middle Ages. Actions, memories, meanings. Schöningh, Paderborn 2006, ISBN 3-506-75634-6 .
• Sigmund von Riezler : History of Baierns. Volume 2, Gotha 1880, pp. 298-301 ( digitized version ).
• Max Spindler , Andreas Kraus : The rise of Duke Ludwig IV. In: Max Spindler / Andreas Kraus (Hrsg.): Handbook of Bavarian history. Volume 2: Old Bavaria. The territorial state from the end of the 12th century to the end of the 18th century. Munich 2nd edition 1988.
• Heinz Thomas : Ludwig the Bavarian (1282-1347). Emperors and heretics. Pustet, Regensburg 1993, ISBN 3-222-12217-2 .

Web links

• Depiction of the battle of Gammelsdorf in the Bavarian Historical Lexicon
• Description on a local website
• Regesta Imperii: Regest of a document from King Ludwig, including a tax collection to settle damage from the Battle of Gammelsdorf (June 22, 1315)
• 700 years of the battle of Gammelsdorf. Original sources from the 16th century. in the wording, u. a. Aventinus

Remarks

1. ^ Bernhard Lübbers: Briga enim principum, que ex nulla causa sumpsit exordium… The battle of Gammelsdorf on November 9, 1313. Historical events and aftermath. In: Hubertus Seibert (ed.): Ludwig the Bavarian (1314-1347). Empire and rule in transition. Regensburg 2014, pp. 205–236, here: p. 221 note 90.
2. ↑ Hans Gumberger: The monument to the battle of Gammelsdorf - prehistory, construction, anniversary celebrations and its founder, Pastor Anton Gottstein. In: Negotiations of the Historical Association for Lower Bavaria, Vol. 137 2011, pp. 71–192.
3. ^ Bernhard Lübbers: Briga enim principum, que ex nulla causa sumpsit exordium… The battle of Gammelsdorf on November 9, 1313. Historical events and aftermath. In: Hubertus Seibert (ed.): Ludwig the Bavarian (1314-1347). Empire and rule in transition. Regensburg 2014, pp. 205–236, here: p. 234.
4. ↑ Hans Gumberger: The monument to the battle of Gammelsdorf - prehistory, construction, anniversary celebrations and its founder, Pastor Anton Gottstein. In: Negotiations of the Historical Association for Lower Bavaria, Vol. 137 2011, pp. 71–192, here: p. 166.
5. ↑ Sueddeutsche Zeitung: 700 Years of the Battle of Gammelsdorf , accessed on December 29, 2015.
6. ^ Bernhard Lübbers: Briga enim principum, que ex nulla causa sumpsit exordium… The battle of Gammelsdorf on November 9, 1313. Historical events and aftermath. In: Hubertus Seibert (ed.): Ludwig the Bavarian (1314-1347). Empire and rule in transition. Regensburg 2014, pp. 205–236, here: p. 205 with further references.
7. ^ Heinz Thomas: Ludwig the Bavarian (1282-1347). Emperors and heretics. Pustet, Regensburg 1993, pp. 40-42. Same assessment by Karl Borromäus Murr: Battle of Gammelsdorf, 1313. In: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns , URL: < http://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/artikel/artikel_45486 > (October 20, 2010).