Battle of Kappel
The Battle of Kappel October 11, 1531
| date | October 11, 1531 |
|---|---|
| place | Kappel am Albis |
| output | Victory of the Catholic Places |
| consequences | Balance between the Catholic and Reformed forces until the Second Villmerger War , which played a key role in preventing the Confederation from participating in the Thirty Years' War . |
| Peace treaty |
Second state peace in Kappel November 20, 1531 |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
The Battle of Kappel took place on October 11, 1531 as part of the Second Kappel War near Kappel am Albis . Zurich was subject to the five places , which sealed the predominance of Catholic places in the Confederation until the Second Villmerger War in 1712.
prehistory
Due to the refusal of the central Swiss towns to support the three leagues in the second Müsserkrieg , Huldrych Zwingli pushed for a new war against Catholic central Switzerland. At the request of Bern , which was against a new armed conflict , the Reformed towns imposed a food ban on central Switzerland in May 1531. Since the common lords also took part and 1531 was a bad financial year, the consequences for the food supply for the cantons concerned were considerable. This in turn increased the aversions of the local population, especially against Zurich.
Preparations for war in the five places
Since a war seemed inevitable, the five places prepared for it. Between October 8 and October 10, 1531, their troops gathered in Zug . The first threat was directed against Zurich, but an occupation of the Reuss crossings from Bremgarten and Mellingen , which had only converted to the new faith in January 1529, would have been possible in order to prevent the Bernese and Zurich troops from uniting.
Preparations for war in Zurich
Zurich's defeat in the Battle of Kappel has causes that lie ahead of the battle. The old war councils were replaced by a 23-member war council with the order of war of 1529. This body was large and cumbersome and undermined the authority of the troop commanders. The competencies of the officers were also restricted, the wages for the men were reduced and Jörg Berger, the Zurich commander in the first Kappel War , which had proven itself at the Battle of Marignano , was not given a command this time.
In Zurich, the threat posed by the five locations was not taken seriously. It was not until a Lucerne unit marched into Hitzkirch on October 9, 1531 that the council met on the night of October 10. Two council members were sent to Kappel to find out whether - as previously reported by various messengers - the main opponent's forces were actually assembled in Zug. The most influential council members in Zurich still did not believe in an attack by the central Swiss. They believed the five locations' actions were a sham to get the food ban lifted. In the night of October 10th, however, further messengers came with the news that the enemy was in Zug and that there was only waiting for the Uri . The Zurich "Chief of Staff" Hans Schwyzer demanded the immediate dispatch of the advance guard under Jörg Göldi, who was on standby and the immediate deployment of the main power. Fearing that this would trigger the war, the Zurich council hesitated until the Rifferswil pastor finally reported the presence of the Catholic troops on October 10 at 7 a.m. This coincided with the messages that the two council members sent to Zurich that night. The council then decided to alert the towns associated with castle law and to send Jörg Göldi to Kappel with the vanguard of around 1200 men.
Due to the difficult responsibilities, Zurich failed to alert the main banner immediately and also to move it to Kappel. The decision to do so was made in the afternoon around 4 p.m., the alarm was finally issued at 7 p.m. and the main banner was only moved out on the morning of October 11 at 6 a.m.
Preparations for war in Kappel
The advance guard under Jörg Göldi, with the exception of the artillery, arrived in Kappel during October 10th. Göldi chose the position on Scheuren, since from there the Baarerboden, from where the enemy was to be expected, could be easily observed. The position was also favorable for the artillery, which only arrived in Kappel on October 11 between 2 and 3 in the morning, as it offered a wide field of fire. Göldi did not use the time on October 10 to expand the position and, for fear of an attack at dawn, had a vigil at 4 a.m. The report came around 11 a.m. that the people of Central Switzerland were approaching from Baarerboden. At 9 o'clock in the morning they set out from Zug and Baar with an army of 7,000 to 8,000 for Kappel.
The battle of Kappel
On October 11, 1531, around noon, the troops from the five towns on the edge of the forest marched southwest of Kappel via Goldisbrunnen and Islisberg towards the Zurich residents. The vanguard tried to get to the Haggenweid by bypassing the Sennhof in order to reach the Zurich's right flank from there. However, the Zurich artillery managed to repel this attack. The five-place vanguard withdrew and united with the main power below the monastery in Bidenloss. From there the Catholic troops advanced against the left flank, between Kalchofenwald and Buchwäldli. They were not even hindered by Göldi's vanguard by artillery fire, but the people of Zurich waited. Göldi only had the artillery pieces aimed at the Buchwäldli and sent messengers to the Albis to summon the main banner for faster support. This main force, which usually consisted of around 4,000 men, was only 700 men strong because of the rapid departure and detachment of troops to Bremgarten and Wädenswil, including Commander Lavater, Bannerherr Schwyzer and Huldrych Zwingli as field preacher . Due to logistical deficiencies, the main banner was only able to move six of nine guns over the Albis. In addition, the men rushed to Kappel without a rest, as the thunder of cannons from there and the messengers with Göldi's cries for help did not allow a rest.
Around three in the afternoon the first soldiers with the main banner joined the Zurich vanguard on the Scheurenhöhe, and the commanders held a council of war there. Since the Buchwäldli came very close to the Zurich lines, but was not secured by its own troops, it was decided to move the position from Scheuren to the Mönchbühl. Since it was late afternoon, the Zurich commanders considered an attack by the enemy to be ruled out.
When the Catholic side noticed the opponent's retreat, the attack took place after lengthy discussions, initially on the right flank. The Zurich residents initially managed to repel this attack, but when the violence from the five towns penetrated deep into the Zurich lines, the Zurich residents retreated further and further and the back rows began to flee. By this point about 40 Reformed people had fallen. After a last resistance, however, they started to flee, which led to great losses in the swampy terrain between Scheuren and Mönchbühl. Within a very short time, in addition to Zwingli, 26 members of the small and large councils, 25 clergymen and around 400 Zurich residents were wounded or killed. The refugees from Zurich were pursued via Hausen up to the Albis . It was only when night fell that the pursuers returned to the battlefield. Huldrych Zwingli is said to have been dealt "the last blow by the hand of the opponent by torchlight".
Consequences of the battle
Zwingli's plan to bring the entire Swiss Confederation to the Reformation had finally failed with the defeat at Kappel. The confederation was weakened by the religious split internally and externally. In the Second Kappeler Landfrieden of November 20, 1531, which was still moderate in view of the reformed defeat, the Catholic towns recognized the denominational division of the Old Confederation. However, he allowed the Reformed to return to the old faith in the common rulers and protected the Catholic minorities. Rapperswil , Gaster , Weesen , Mellingen , Bremgarten , the Freiamt , the Fürstenland of St. Gall, the Rhine Valley and parts of Thurgau and Toggenburg were in part forcibly recatholicized. The Catholic hegemony in the Swiss Confederation was consolidated on December 17, 1533 by a castle law of the five inner towns as well as Solothurn and Freiburg with the bishop and the seven Zenden des Valais, in which the defense of the Catholic faith was a central aspect.
Contemporary representations
The events of the Second Kappel War were remembered in contemporary chronicles - by Aegidius Tschudi and Heinrich Bullinger , among others - as well as in numerous eyewitness reports: Hans von Hinwil names the names of thirty Zurich councilors who died and the number and type of guns lost on the Zurich side. The Zurich cannon founder and artillery captain Peter Füssli - he, too, an old believer and on the side of the Zurich residents - justified his military and personal behavior in the context of a detailed description of the battle. In his autobiography , Thomas Platter the Elder described the return of the war-disabled Zurich residents and the fear of Zwingli's surviving Zurich supporters of a further advance of the enemy .
Literary adaptations
The battle of Kappel is a motif in works of Swiss literature, for example in Gottfried Keller's novella Ursula , but also in Conrad Ferdinand Meyer's unfinished novel Der Komtur and his ballad Der Rappe des Komtur (both about Komtur Konrad Schmid, who died in the second battle ).
See also
literature
- Theodor Müller-Wolfer: The Century of the Separation of Faiths. In: Swiss War History. Issue 5, Bern 1925.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Swiss War History, Volume 5, p. 27
- ↑ Josef Ivo Höchle: History of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in the city and county of Baden until 1535. (PDF; 16 MB) Buchdr. JF Kobold-Lüdi, Zurich 1907.
- ↑ Swiss War History Volume 5, p. 25
- ↑ Swiss War History Volume 5, p. 28
- ↑ Uri had hesitated for a long time before sending troops for fear of an attack by the Protestant Graubünden.
- ↑ Swiss War History Volume 5, p. 31
- ↑ Swiss War History Volume 5, p. 40
- ^ Gilg Tschudi's description of the Kappelerkrieges, edited by Theodor von Liebenau, Lucerne: Schill, 1903.
- ↑ Notes on the Second Kappel War: Zurich Central Library, Ms. F 178, Bl. 54 r– 78 v. Cf. Christian Moser: The Dignity of the Event. Studies on Heinrich Bullinger's Reformation historiography, Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2012.
- ↑ Hans von Hinwil's report on the Kappelerkrieg. Edited for the first time from the manuscripts by Father Gabriel Meier OSB, in: Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Kirchengeschichte 1, pp. 161–182.
- ^ Hermann Escher: Peter Füeßli's description of the Kappelerkrieges, in: Zürcher Taschenbuch NF 12, Zurich 1889.
- ↑ Thomas Platter. Biography. Ed. By Alfred Hartmann, 3rd edition. u. supplemented by Ueli Dill , Basel: Schwabe, 2006.