Battle of Baesweiler
| date | August 22, 1371 |
|---|---|
| place | near Baesweiler , Holy Roman Empire |
| output | Victory of the Duke of Jülich |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| unknown | unknown |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
unknown |
The battle of baesweiler took place on August 22, 1371 in Baesweiler place and was the decisive battle in the Brabant feud .
Prehistory (Brabant feud)
Emperor Charles IV had established a " Hegemonic Kingdom" in the east of the Holy Roman Empire , based on his own power in Bohemia, Silesia and Brandenburg. In the west he planned something similar for his half-brother Wenceslaus I. First he raised his county of Luxembourg to a duchy and married him to the heiress of the powerful duchy of Brabant . However, Wenceslaus could not assume the rule there unchallenged, but in the Peace of Ath in 1356 he had to commit himself to hand over the city of Antwerp to the Duke of Burgundy and Count of Flanders, Philip the Bold, and - should Wenceslaus remain without an heir - Brabant too. To consolidate his power, Wenzel therefore turned to the east and achieved small territorial successes against Eduard , Duke of Geldern , and Wilhelm , Duke of Jülich . In 1366 he was appointed imperial vicar in the west by his brother, which also gave Wenzel the legal basis to take action against peace breakers. He took robbery on Brabant merchants in Jülich Land as an opportunity to take to the field again against Eduard and Wilhelm. On August 21 and 22, 1371, he invaded the Jülich duchy with a large army.
Course of the battle
After passing over the Wurm , Duke Wilhelm attacked the Brabant troops before the Geldrian troops arrived at Baesweiler. The fight dragged on for the whole morning, whereby after the initial distress the superior armed forces of Brabant succeeded in pushing back the Jülich. When the battle seemed already decided, Duke Eduard suddenly arrived on the battlefield with new troops. In the morning battle, the lines had been drawn far apart and partly disbanded, so that the Brabantians no longer had time to form and form battle lines in order to defend themselves against the rested Geldrian soldiers. The surprise was complete: 270 counts and knights of the Brabantians were taken prisoner. Wenzel himself fell into the hands of his enemies and was first brought to Jülich and then to Nideggen by Duke Wilhelm . However, the duke had fallen on the Geldrian side when he took off his helmet after the battle and was hit by one of the last arrows.
Effects of the battle
Charles IV. Spoke about the Wilhelm Reich night and was released in June 1372 Aachen , to free his half-brother. However, a military solution was out of the question. Because Wenzel's position could no longer be saved: “The defeat cost the duke in wages, compensation, ransom, etc. about 1,195,000 moutons with normal ducal annual income of 50,000-75,000 moutons. The Brabant estates took on the lion's share of this burden, but demanded such far-reaching political concessions that Wenzel had to be written off as a political power. ”(Janssen) In a realistic assessment of the forces, a Luxembourg hegemony in the West was no longer conceivable the emperor had to rely on the two remaining powers, namely the victor Wilhelm von Jülich and the Cologne archbishop Friedrich III. from Saar Werden . He therefore gave the latter the imperial vicariate.
A special solution was agreed: Wilhelm von Jülich submitted to the emperor and released Wenzel without a ransom. In return, the emperor enfeoffed the son of the victorious Duke Wilhelm von Jülich with the vacant Duchy of Geldern. Because after the battle death of Eduard in the same year his older brother Rainald III. von Geldern died childless, which is why the Duchy of Geldern and the County of Zütphen had no male heirs. Candidates for the duchy were the sisters of the two dukes, Mechthild and Maria, the latter being married to Duke Wilhelm von Jülich and having a son of the same name. The Emperor therefore enfeoffed Wilhelm , who was still underage, with the Duchy of Geldern and appointed his father as regent. The emperor also paid 50,000 florins for a protection treaty between Brabant and Jülich - a somewhat claused form of ransom.
literature
- Angelika Heinricks: Duke Rainald II of Geldern. Archbishop's Diocesan and Cathedral Library, Cologne 2004.
- Ralf G. Jahn: The battle near Baesweiler 1371. In: Geldrischer Heimatkalender 1997 , pp. 234-255.
- Wilhelm Janssen: Charles IV. And the lands on the Lower Rhine and Lower Untermaas. In: BDLG 114 (1978), pp. 203-241.
- Claudia Rotthoff-Kraus: The political role of the peace views between the Meuse and the Rhine in the second half of the 14th century (supplement to the magazine of the Aachener Geschichtsverein 3), Aachen 1990.
- Karl Zimmermann: The battle near Baesweiler on August 22, 1371. In: Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter Volume XI (1941) , pp. 270-277.