Meeting at Pfäffikon
Overview map of the Old Zurich War
| date | November 4, 1440 to November 5, 1440 |
|---|---|
| place | Pfäffikon , Schwyz , Switzerland |
| output | Victory of the Confederates |
| consequences | Devastation and occupation of the Zurich landscape |
| Peace treaty | Peace of Kilchberg |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
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| Commander | |
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| Troop strength | |
| 6000 men | 3000 men |
| losses | |
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unknown |
unknown |
Etzel · Pfäffikon · Grüningen I · Freienbach · Blickensdorf · Hirzel · Bremgarten · Regensberg · Grüningen II · St. Jakob an der Sihl · Greifensee · St. Jakob an der Birs · Erlenbach I · Koblach · Sargans · Wil · Kirchberg · Wolfhalden · Obertoggenburg · Wigoltingen · Erlenbach II · Männedorf · Wollerau · Ragaz
The meeting at Pfäffikon was a military conflict that took place on November 5, 1440 during the Old Zurich War in what is now Canton Schwyz . The opponents were on the one hand troops of the federal places and their allies, on the other hand troops of the imperial city of Zurich . As a result of this and the subsequent events, the war broke out on a larger scale for the first time and Zurich was completely on the defensive, so that it had to submit to the unfavorable peace conditions of the Kilchberg Peace on November 18, 1440.
prehistory
Without a declaration of war, an army marched from Schwyz and Glarus on October 24, 1440 to conquer the Sarganserland for Count Heinrich II von Werdenberg-Sargans , who had land rights with them, and drove the Zurich garrison there until October 28. On this day, the imperial city of Bern decided to support Schwyz in the event of war, but for the time being refrained from declaring war. The next day, the 800 strong contingent moved from Sargans to Walenstadt , where they stayed for three days. From October 27, the main contingents of the two towns gathered on the Etzel to await the reaction of the people of Zurich to this military action. This urged her with them verburgrechteten sphere of influence, the city of Chur , the Bishop of Chur Konrad von Rechenberg and the municipalities to Bergün , Shams , steins and Domleschg and let teams from Grüningen and Greifensee of about 600 men that lie near the borders Places Ruti and Occupy Bubikon , the county of Kyburg was secured with 1200 men in the town of Elgg . The castle in Pfäffikon (nominally belonging to Rudolf III von Hohensax , the abbot of Einsiedeln , who renewed his lifelong castle rights with Zurich on February 3, 1439) was well fortified. On the other hand, an extract from the Zurich contingent was waived for the time being, since apparently both sides wanted to give time to try to mediate.
On December 1, the contingent in Walenstadt, taking the large Zurich rifle stolen there, moved to Lachen , where they met the embassies of the Confederates, the Basel Council and their friendly cities. The negotiations lasted from October 31 to November 2. Antipope Felix V sent a bishop and two knights, and the up to now uninvolved federal towns of Lucerne , Uri , Unterwalden , Zug , Bern and Solothurn , some of which had already decided to support Schwyz and Glarus in the event of war, also sent their delegations the negotiations and a majority pleaded for the preservation of the peace. Due to the strengthened position of the Schwyz, who had apparently already decided to go to war at the time, they made very tough demands on Zurich: 30,000 Rhenish guilders compensation and the complete waiver of all claims in the Sarganserland, Gaster and the county of Uznach . In addition, the Gräpplang Castle in Flums was to be kept open until the solution by the Chur bishop, the large rifle conquered in Walenstadt was to be ceded and the trade embargo lifted. The Zurich leadership understandably refused these unacceptable demands.
On Wednesday, November 2nd, Schwyz and Glarus sent their declarations of war after the city of Zurich had unsuccessful mediation efforts. Further declarations of war came on that day from Weggis in Lucerne and the Gersau Republic, which had been free since 1433, and - as the first support from Bern, which initially avoided this step - from Saanenland (nominally part of the county of Gruyères ) and Frutigen . In the last days of October 74 men from Saanen had already joined the Schwyzers under their banner , 20 from Gersau and some Weggis and volunteers from Nidwalden . Schwyz immediately warned their ally, Petermann von Raron , who had land rights with them and had been lord of Toggenburg since 1437 , as well as the city of Wil (nominally belonging to the abbey of St. Gallen ) to take action against Zurich. In addition, the country folk from Gaster and Uznach were informed that “the war was open”. The Zurich captain Oberhofer in the castle in Pfäffikon heard about the Schwyzer-Glarus declaration of war on the same day and let the storm bells ring , whereupon the Zurich rural people from the villages on the Albis moved there.
course
On the night of Thursday, November 3, the main army of Zurich, which was commanded by Mayor Rudolf Stüssi , set out under their banner and took 40 ships across Lake Zurich to Pfäffikon, where they set up camp. From there, Stüssi called the teams from the Knonaueramt to himself. The messenger Kuoni Möderli, who brought the declarations of war to Stüssi, was mistreated. On the same day, Zurich also received declarations of war from the city of Wil and from Petermann von Raron. At this point in time, the approximately 1000 strong contingent of Uri and Unterwalden, who had shown themselves to be mediating up to that point and were even unsure which side they wanted to support at all, appeared at the Devil's Bridge over the Sihl and tried to reach Schwyz and Glarus act moderately.
The acts of war were opened by Schwyz and Glarus with reference to the declaration of war that had already taken place on Friday, November 4th in the morning with around 2000 men from the south. The army commanded by Landammans Ital Reding and Jost Tschudi moved across the Enzenau, where the troops were sworn in, to the so-called Moosboden , the plain in front of Pfäffikon, where the camp was set up. From there, the area around the farms was plundered for cattle, food and household items to supply the troops . As a reaction to the opposing troop movements, Stüssi decided to bring the well-armored army, which was meanwhile 6,000 strong and had a considerable amount of artillery, out of Pfäffikon and set it up south of the village for defense. On the evening of that day, the two armies faced each other without fighting. But sometimes they got so close that provocations were exchanged.
On the same day, Petermann von Raron set out from the east with an army of 1,600 men from Wil and Toggenburg to take action against the County of Kyburg. He was accompanied by the well-known knight Beringer VIII from Landenberg-Greifensee (so-called Bös -Beringer), who had defected from Zurich. In addition, the Uznach and Gastermer troops gathered in the southeast near Eschenbach and St. Gallenkappel, which were joined by 400 men under Count Heinrich von Werdenberg-Sargans.
In this situation, Uri and Unterwalden - who for a short time even threatened to switch to the opposite side due to the arbitrariness of Schwyz and Glarus - finally, after lengthy discussions and some internal disputes, sent their declarations of war to the people of Zurich encamped in Pfäffikon and released their troops from Etzel Moving to the Schwyzerisch-Glarnerischen camp. This was obviously a big surprise for Stüssi, who was already aware of the disagreement between the two places. The people of Zurich replied that same day that night that the rejection alienated them, they had never acted against a warning from the confederates and also denied it Rumors that they took away the Schwyz wine. It was hoped that the two places would withdraw their declarations of war. At night, a side detachment of the opponents who were determined to go to war to secure their flank made a foray to Schindellegi , where the bridge over the Sihl was destroyed and some houses were set on fire , and some damage was also done on the Sihlegg (municipality of Wollerau ). The plan of the Schwyz and Glarus was clear to advance against the enemy the following day.
On Saturday night, the people of Zurich secretly shipped the rifles and heavy military equipment back to Zurich. At daybreak, the actually superior army withdrew in a disorderly manner - to the complete surprise of their opponents - to the now 52 ships in Zurich, which was like a real escape. Then the people of Zurich drove to Uerikon (municipality of Stäfa ) to discuss how to proceed. There was a disagreement there; Some of the troops seemed ashamed of the hasty retreat and voted to stay, while the greater part voted for an immediate retreat to Zurich, which was then carried out just as disorderly and fleeing.
As a result of the hasty retreat, the area around the farms was largely exposed; A detachment of 500 people from Zurich from the lake district, who were stationed in Wollerau and were supposed to stab the enemy in the back, turned to flee. The residents of Schwyz and Glarus then moved into Pfäffikon, where the hermit Abbot Rudolf , who had previously been in Rapperswil, and the villagers asked for peace and paid homage to the Schwyzers. As a result, the village was spared from an occupation, but then the Uri and Unterwaldner contingents moved there to maintain order. Wollerau and Freienbach also paid homage to the Schwyzers. The village of Hurden , opposite Rapperswil, was occupied by 200 men who sailed across the lake in four ships and plundered and damaged the area around Rapperswil. The Uznacher and Gastermer, stationed near St. Gallenkappel, carried out an attack against the forest at night , during which they were looted and 110 head of cattle fell into their hands. They then withdrew to their original positions.
On November 5th, Lucerne also declared war, which pushed Zurich further on the defensive, so that the Zurich countryside found it difficult to fight off the invasion that followed from different sides.
Invasion of the Zurich countryside
Western theater of war
On Sunday, November 6th, the 1200-strong Lucerne army marching over Schwyz and Einsiedeln arrived in Freienbach , where they moved into camp for the night. In the meantime Richterswil was occupied by Schwyz and Glarus, where they received a letter from Hugo XIV. Von Montfort , master of the Order of St. John in the German territories, with the request that Richterswil and Wädenswil be spared as members of the order. As a result, the two communities were obliged to be neutral and the people of Zurich who were there were sent home. City and Office Zug now also declared war on Zurich and demanded military reinforcements from Schwyz and Glarus in order to take action against the Knonaueramt, which responded with a nightly dispatch of 400 warriors to Zug.
On Monday, November 7th, the Schwyzerisch-Glarnerische army set out for Horgen , which - apparently against the will of the two Landammans Reding and Tschudi - was set on fire and the fire was then extinguished again. The train, which was looted but not followed by fighting, continued via Thalwil to Kilchberg . The contingents from Lucerne, Uri and Unterwalden followed suit and moved into quarters in Rüschlikon and Thalwil. On the same day, the people of Zug advanced against the Knonaueramt, where the population had to swear an oath of loyalty and camp was set up in Kappel am Albis .
On Tuesday, November 8th, the people of Zug set out and marched across the Albis, releasing some occupying troops, to unite their 400 men with the main force. On the same day an army of around 2,000 men from the Bernese, who were still officially not at war with Zurich, advanced over the Albis to Adliswil , from where contact was made with the Central Swiss. A second contingent from Bern with mounted men and artillery moved towards the Reuss from the west .
The federal army departments in the area around Kilchberg, which grew to a total of 6,600 men as a result of the unification, remained in their positions there, and a siege of the city of Zurich was waived. In the meantime, Zurich fended off a wine robbery at Uznacher and Gasterer by intercepting the booty makers with some ships, killing three opponents, and then bringing the booty back to Zurich. As a result, ships from Zurich began to bombard the Lucerne departments near Rüschlikon with their ships from the lake. After they shot back with Tarras and hand rifles , the people of Zurich withdrew. They came back the following day with larger guns and started firing again. By shouting, the Lucerne residents threatened to set fire to a house for every shot received. When four houses went up in flames with the next four shots, the people of Zurich decided to give up the bombardment in order not to tempt the Swiss to commit atrocities and not to turn their own farmers in the lake area against them.
Before November 9, Zurich asked Bern to take over the mediation of the dispute. On November 9th, they responded with reserve that although they wanted to try to achieve peace, a more favorable solution could certainly have been expected, had Zurich shown itself open-minded in the previous mediation efforts.
Eastern theater of war
Meanwhile, the army commanded by Petermann von Raron first turned against Lommis in southern Thurgau , which belonged to Ulrich von Lommis, who was in the Zurich service (captain of the Zurich troops in the battle on the Etzel in the previous year), and had the tower there burned down. Ulrich von Lommis reacted by transferring 800 men to the small town of Elgg , which he soon had to withdraw on orders from Stüssis for concern about the threat to the city of Zurich, so that Petermann and his army soon appeared in front of Elgg and the town was handed over and the local castle as well as the homage of the citizens. From then on he turned against the entire County of Kyburg and covered it with fire and looting, with the threat of violence falling on fertile ground. Andelfingen , Ossingen , Pfäffikon ZH , Kloten , Bülach and other places surrendered to him and paid homage to him. This campaign brought a large number of prisoners of war for later ransom demands and induced numerous nobles to desert Zurich, such as the knights Albrecht von Landenberg ( Wetzikon ), Kaspar von Bonstetten ( Uster ) and Hertdegen and Friedrich von Hinwil (Greifenberg).
During the siege of the Zurich power center Kyburg , whereby the local outer bailey was taken, Petermann von Raron was warned by the Schwyzers and Glarnern to move to their siege of Grüningen . In doing so, he made the mistake of taking most of his crew with him and leaving only 200 men behind. When the people of Zurich marched into the Kyburg office with power and plundered them, 500 men with some mounted men under the leadership of Heinrich Schwend managed to attack Petermann's entrenchments in front of Kyburg after midnight and to take 40 Toggenburgers prisoner. The others used the night's darkness to flee.
consequences
In spite of Zurich's request, Bern and its nobles, including Heinrich von Werdenberg-Sargans, finally declared war on Zurich on November 11, but the fighting was officially ceased on November 12 and the imperial cities of Basel and Constance followed , Ulm , Ravensburg , Lindau , Überlingen and St. Gallen as well as by Hugo XIV. Von Montfort and Johann von Hewen - the brother of Heinrich von Hewen , the Bishop of Constance - mediated peace negotiations, which ended on November 18th; but on the day of the graduation, the people of Zurich complained that «von Raron's» that Wiler and Bös-Beringer were still in their field and damaging their people.
The peace conditions were as follows: Zurich had to lift its supply block, give up the castle rights with Sargans, cede the Pfäffikon and Wollerau farms to Schwyz, neutralize the Wädenswil castle with Zurich and - a forward-looking fundamental decision - make any future dispute subject to federal law. In return, Zurich should get its landscape back. In this situation, the people of Zurich had no way of opposing the judgment, but felt that these conditions were "grossly and vastly [very] damaged" . The Kilchberg Peace was chartered on December 1, 1440 in Lucerne.
Since the conflict remained basically unsolved, Zurich allied itself in June 1442 with King Friedrich III. from the House of Habsburg , through which the war finally broke out from May 1443 and from 1444 developed into an imperial war - and thus a conflagration.
See also
Web links
- Paul Wyrsch: Pfäffikon (SZ). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Martin Illi: Old Zurich War. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Klingenberg Chronicle (around 1460)
- ↑ Hans Fründ : Chronicle of the Old Zurich War from 1447.
- ↑ Johannes Wieland: History of the war events in Helvetia and Rhaetia, Volume 1 1827, pp. 154–158
- ↑ Aegidius Tschudi : Chronicon Helveticum Part 2: Anno 1415-1470 Basel 1736, pp. 309-324
- ^ Joseph Thomas Fassbind: History of the Canton Schwyz, Volume 2 1833, pp. 246-267
- ↑ Josef Anton Henne : New Swiss Chronicle for the People 1833, pp. 208–210
- ↑ Alois Niederstätter : The Old Zurich War 1995, pp. 86–93
- ^ Peter Niederhäuser, Christian Sieber: A "fratricidal war" makes history in 2006
- ↑ Bernhard Stettler: The Confederation in the 15th Century 2004, pp. 151–152