Battle of Kleverhamm
| date | June 7, 1397 |
|---|---|
| place | on the Neerveld near Kleve |
| output | Victory of the Counts of Cleves and of the Mark |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Count Dietrich von der Mark and his brother Count Adolf von Kleve |
Duke Wilhelm II. Von Berg and his cousin, Duke Wilhelm von Jülich and Geldern |
Coordinates: 51 ° 48 '54.5 " N , 6 ° 8' 41.2" O The Battle of Klever Hamm , alt: Clever Hamm , found on the on June 7, 1397 Neerveld between the districts and Kellen Warbeyen in Klever Hamm in Kleve place . At that time the opponents were Duke Wilhelm II von Berg on the one hand and Count Dietrich von der Mark and his brother Count Adolf von Kleve on the other.
reasons
The dispute concerned an annual pension of 2,400 gold guilders from the Rhine toll near Kaiserswerth . The town, castle and customs of Kaiserwerth were acquired by Gerhard von Jülich , Count von Berg around 1360 and pledged in 1368 by his son, Count Wilhelm II von Berg .
Count Dietrich von der Mark was awarded this pension in 1393. But his cousin Margarete von der Mark (daughter of Engelbert III. Von der Mark ) and her husband Philipp von Falkenstein also made claims on this income.
After they could not enforce their demands, in 1395 Wilhelm II von Berg, who had meanwhile been declared Duke, made his old claims. Perhaps because of the ongoing quarrel he had disadvantages, and perhaps he felt threatened by the counties of Kleve and Mark , which were under fraternal rule . In 1395 he announced that he would also enforce these claims with the weapon if necessary.
The war
In the spring of 1397, Duke Wilhelm von Berg, together with his cousin, Duke Wilhelm von Jülich and Geldern, and numerous other noble lords, invaded the County of Kleve and plundered down the Rhine to Lobith Castle and then on to Kleve.
The battle
Count Adolf von Kleve and his brother Count Dietrich von der Mark faced the enemy troops and were finally able to defeat Duke Wilhelm and his allies on the Neerveld. 90 knights and 2,000 armed Bergisch men were taken prisoner.
The consequences
Duke Wilhelm von Berg, his allies and feudal men were released for a huge ransom, which was only possible through extensive pledges. As a result, a number of counts and knights lost their fiefdoms or received new liege lords. Because of the debts and probably for fear of losing their inheritance, Duke Wilhelm was disempowered by his own sons. The dispute influenced the entire sphere of power of the Klevian count. The position of the later Dukes of Kleve was strengthened, as only one year later Dietrich von der Mark was killed in the siege of Elberfeld Castle . Count Adolf then united the counties of Mark and Kleve in personal union .
Bernd von Strünkede (1334–1419), up to this point the influential feudal man of Kleves on the Emscher , turned in the dispute against the Count in 1397 and contractually made his castle available to Duke Wilhelm von Berg. For the Strünkeder knight, Berg's defeat meant that he only got his fief back from Adolf von Kleve in 1399. However, the counts apparently did not want to permanently renounce the nobles who had been loyal to them for a long time.
Others
The battle in Klever Hamm remembered still for centuries an armed Cross , which is recorded in old cadastral maps and stood in the field of Klever tax office.
Web links
literature
- E. v. Schaumburg: The battle in Cleverhamm, June 7, 1397. In: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine (AHVN) 9/10 (1861), pp. 81-106.
- Karl vom Berg and Wilhelm Fülle: Bergische Fürsten and Heimatbilder, Düsseldorf and Barmen , 1926.