Weissenburg War
| date | 1334 to 1337 |
|---|---|
| place | Weissenburg reign in the canton of Bern , Switzerland |
| output | Bern victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
|
|
The Weissenburg War was a result of armed conflicts between the city and republic of Bern and the Freiherrschaft Weissenburg, in the narrower sense in the years 1334 to 1337, which reached its peak in 1334, in the broader sense with interruptions in the years 1286 to 1337. In these Wimmis was besieged a total of nine times for 51 years . The conflict resulted from the expansion efforts of the city of Bern and the growing influence of the Weissenburger in the Bernese Oberland .
prehistory
The barons of Weissenburg ("Wisinburc") are mentioned for the first time in 1175 in the entourage of Duke Berchtold IV of Zähringen (approx. 1125–1186). They came from the local nobility of the Bernese Oberland. Presumably they were the heirs and successors of the Lords of Erlenbach ("de Arlunbach"), who had significant influence in the Lower Simmental , which is not considered certain after the scant traces of documents. Secure family ties existed with the barons of Wädenswil ("Wadinswilere"), the von Turn and von Brandis as well as the Counts of Greyerz , von Thierstein and von Nellenburg . When the Zähringers died out in 1218 with the death of Duke Berchtold V , the last heir to the family, the barons tried to improve their position quickly.
From 1250 the barons of Weissenburg experienced an increase in power through marriage, inheritance, war and other skillful manipulations, which went hand in hand with the expansion of their territory. Under Rudolf III. von Weissenburg († approx. 1307), who appeared from 1258, these efforts intensified. He built his most important bulwark, the small town of Wimmis , which was built around 1200 by the barons of Strättligen , including the associated castle . By marrying a daughter of Konrad von Wädenswil, he came into possession of the Rothenfluh dominion, which was fortified by the former Weissenau castle, and the Balm dominion. In 1268 the lords of Weissenburg acquired Wimmis as a fiefdom, around 1260 the associated castle and bailiwick still belonged to the barons of Strättligen. The Weissenburg castle of the same name , the largest fortification in the Lower Simmental, is mentioned in the sources for the first time in 1278.
1286-1288: First phase
Rudolf III. sought proximity to the Habsburgs and thereby made the ambitious city of Bern , which had been free from the empire since 1218 and which viewed the growing influence of the Weissenburgers in the Bernese Oberland with suspicion, as an enemy. The first hostilities began in 1286, when Bern under Schultheiss Ulrich I von Bubenberg undertook a first campaign to Wimmis. The town could be conquered, but not the castle. As a result, the Bernese destroyed the castle town, and after overcoming the dam, the troops marched into the Lower Simmental, plundering and robbing.
In 1288, in the year of the first clashes between the Bernese and Rudolf I - who was Count Rudolf IV of Habsburg and also the first Habsburg King of the Holy Roman Empire - in the Battle of Bern , the Bernese went out for the second time. In front of the town of Wimmis, a battle that was victorious for Bern took place (" Battle on the Hag (in the perforated mat) "). In that year, Wimmis received city rights from King Rudolf and was secured for the first time with a curtain wall, which increased the importance of the place as the actual center of power for the Weissenburgers.
On April 27, 1289, Bern was defeated by the Habsburgs in the battle of Schosshalde , which led to a period of crisis lasting several years and a reorientation of the still young, 100-year-old city of Bern. Probably because of this, there were no (documented) hostilities between Bern and the Weissenburgers in the ten years from 1288 to 1298, but the conflict remained unsolved. Bern recovered quickly after its internal crisis, fought in Mülenen in 1294 in the feud between the von Wädenswil and the city, concluded a first alliance with Solothurn in 1295 and fought victoriously in the Battle of Leuk in 1296 at the side of Boniface de Challant , of the Bishop of Sion against the Upper Valais and the Baron Peter IV of Turn († 1308), whose domain was in Frutigland and in the upper Lötschental .
1298-1308: Second phase
This phase of the conflict was related to Bern's disputes with Habsburg, the surrounding aristocracy and the city of Freiburg, and this dragged on for ten years. This war was a result of the rapid territorial expansion of Bern, which worried the surrounding rulers. In 1298 the Weissenburgs took part in the military deployment of the coalition, which suffered a bloody defeat in the Battle of Dornbühl . In the course of these disputes, Bern undertook a third, again unsuccessful move against Wimmis in 1298, using the pretext that the Weissenburgers were taking sides for its opponents. Regardless of this, at the expense of the barons of Belp - Montenach, with the conquest of the Gerenstein rule , Bern succeeded in the first territorial expansion of the city, which formed the cornerstone for the formation of the city and republic of Bern . The Gerenstein rule included the so-called "four parishes " Bolligen , Muri , Stettlen and Vechigen (excluding Utzigen ). In 1301, Bern entered into an alliance with the town of Laupen .
In 1303 Rudolf III fell. von Weissenburg in the same year because of breach of the peace, also in disgrace with the Habsburgs and the Counts of Neu-Kyburg - in this feud he lost the rulership of Rothenfluh with the castles Rothenfluh and Weissenau. This provided Bern - under Mayor Lorenz Münzer († 1319) since 1302 - another reason to take action against the Weissenburgers and besiege Wimmis for the fourth time. The town was conquered and razed by the Bernese for the second time, the stone weir was broken as a bar to the Simmental , but the Bernese did not succeed in taking the castle, as in 1286. Baron Rudolf III. was able to prevent the castle from falling through a ruse.
Rudolf III died in 1307. leaving behind three children and considerable debts resulting from the unfortunate campaigns and building projects such as the (repeated) restoration of Wimmis. Even his two sons, Johann I († 1341) and Peter von Weissenburg († 1314), did not succeed in paying off the debts through clever administration and good economy, as they used more money than their tribal lords threw off. Her sister Katharina was with Count Peter III. von Greyerz († 1342) married.
In 1308, after ten years of conflict, the first peace negotiations finally followed between the city of Bern, Johann I von Weissenburg and Count Hartmann II von Neu-Kyburg (1299–1322). The armistice with the Weissenburgers was only to last for a few years.
On June 7, 1311 the Weissenburgers received the pledge for the realm of Hasli , as King Heinrich VII owed them 184 marks of silver. As early as 1310, 8 knights and 2 crossbowmen from the Weissenburg family accompanied the king's Roman procession. In 1311 he guaranteed them 160 silver marks on this pledge. According to Conrad Justinger's Bern Chronicle, also in 1311, the Counts of Neu-Kyburg became citizens of Bern. From 1314 onwards, due to a fief of the Habsburgs, they had the title of Landgrave of Burgundy .
1315-1318: Third phase
Already six years after the conclusion of the armistice, Johann I von Weissenburg, who was meanwhile alone ruler after the death of his brother Peter in 1314, came into another conflict with Bern, which was, however, indirect. In the course of the Morgarten War, in which Bern initially behaved neutrally, the Weissenburgers marched on November 15, 1315, the day of the Battle of Morgarten , in the unsuccessful campaign of the Habsburgs with Otto von Strassberg , who for this purpose took the pledge over the realm of Hasli and In order to facilitate the attack on Obwalden, Unterseen received over the Brünig Pass and shared its defeat against the Unterwaldner.
In 1316 the Weissenburgers received Unspunnen Castle as a pledge, and they also came into the possession of Oberhofen .
The renewed conflict with Bern arose in 1318 when Duke Leopold I of Austria , who was on good terms with Johann I, was present in autumn 1318 at the siege of the city of Solothurn, which had been allied with Bern since 1295. Johann promised Leopold I on September 22, 1318 before Solothurn that after the fall of the city, 300 men would support him with an attack from the west against the Waldstätte. With the help of 400 men from Bern, the siege was unsuccessful for the attackers; it was called off after six weeks. Allegedly, the Habsburgs are said to have built a wooden bridge above the city, which was swept away by the Aare together with the crew after rains , and many are said to have died. The people of Solothurn saved a lot of people from the Aare, which is said to have resulted in a peace agreement with Leopold. However, a compromise solution is more likely.
In the same year Leopold gave Weissenau Castle , which the Weissenburgers had lost to the Habsburgs 20 years earlier, back to the Habsburgs in a pledge. This is clearly related to the participation of the Weissenburgers in the Morgarten War during the siege of Solothurn. Also in 1318, the strategically important town of Unterseen and its rule came from the Lords of Strassberg to the Barons of Weissenburg.
Bern did not remain idle either. Disputes over rule in the Neu-Kyburg family led to fratricide in Thun Castle in 1322. Count Eberhard II of Neu-Kyburg (1299–1357), who murdered his brother Hartmann II, had to seek help from Bern and in 1323 sell the city of Thun to Bern. He received the city back as a fiefdom, but in 1384, together with Burgdorf, had to finally cede it to Bern after the Burgdorf War, which was financially disastrous for him . At the beginning of August 1323, Bern concluded its first limited alliance with the Waldstätten .
In 1324, Laupen, which had been allied with Bern since 1301, was pledged to Bern. After 1324, Bern built the first Saane bridge below Laupen and established a toll.
1327-1329: Fourth phase
The financial difficulties of the Weissenburgers did not improve despite the extent of their territory and their reputation. In 1325 they sold the Alpe Niederhorn, half of the tithe in the municipality of Zweisimmen , in 1327 the church set from Bärswil ( Oberwil ) and Erlenbach and in 1330 the church set from Interlaken as well as goods and tithes in Erlenbach. The move to participation in warlike enterprises of great princes worsened the financial situation of the Weissenburgers further. They therefore borrowed large sums of money from the Lombard changers and other moneylenders in Bern and Freiburg. In order to pay off these and their high interest rates, the barons imposed heavy taxes on their subjects. Many Simmental citizens had adopted Bern citizenship since the first hostilities and complained in the city about the oppression of the barons.
This provided Bern with another welcome reason to undertake two further campaigns against the Weissenburgers in 1327 and 1329. These two further attempts to conquer the town of Wimmis, which was rebuilt from 1303, were unsuccessful.
1331-1333: Fifth phase
The fifth phase of the Bernese-Weissenburg conflict can be divided into two categories. On the one hand, there was the conflict between the barons and the Hasli valley community and the participation of the Weissenburger in the Gümmenenkrieg .
The realm of Hasli, which, like Uri, had been free from the empire since 1218 and entered into an alliance with the city of Bern as an equal partner in 1275, viewed the pledge to the Weissenburgers in 1311 with displeasure; Efforts to replace it failed. The country folk of the Haslital hoped for a status as imperial land similar to that of Uri. In 1330 the Haslital residents revolted when Johann I, who was also the imperial bailiff of the Hasli region, tried to reduce his financial pressure by increasing the tax claim from £ 60 a year. Motivated by the violation of their old freedoms, the Haslitalers planned to take action against the Weissenburgers with the support of Unterwaldners, many of whom were noble families who also had land rights in Hasli.
In 1331 there was a battle on the Hasleregg that was victorious for the barons . Johann I had been warned so that the Weissenburger could gather his teams and make defensive preparations. The Haslitaler believed they had the Unterwaldner banner of the same color in front of them and were surprised by the well-prepared Weissenburgers. These exploited the unfavorable position of the opponents, so that the Haslitalern was cut off the retreat by tactically favorable movements of the Weissenburgers. The Haslitaler were encircled and beaten, 18 of them fell.
It is unclear why the Unterwaldners remained absent from this battle. Either the Haslitalers advanced towards Unspunnen, the seat of Johann I, before the agreed time, or the Unterwaldner held back for other reasons. 50 prisoners of war were transferred to Unspunnen and interned for over two years.
After this defeat, the Haslitaler under Landammann Werner von Resti sought the support of the city of Bern to release the prisoners of war. Berne was given the prospect of military intervention over the Haslital, which, in addition to the monetary claims against Johann I (which he did not recognize) and the prisoners of war, had another reason to continue the war against the barons.
The fourth and most important reason was the Gümmenenkrieg in the same year, another dispute between Bern and the sister city of Freiburg and the surrounding aristocracy, in which the Weissenburgers again got into a war with Bern. In 1331 Freiburg, together with the Weissenburgers, the Lords of Thurn and the Count of Gruyères, besieged Mülenen Castle in the Kandertal , which had been pledged to Bern for a year. The Bernese, since 1328 under Schultheiss Johann von Kramburg, sent an army and they succeeded in relieving the strategically important castle.
This war was fiercely fought on both sides and, together with Solothurn, Bern only managed with difficulty to maintain the upper hand until the end of the war in 1333.
1334-1337: Sixth phase
After the end of the Gümmenenkrieg in 1333 through the mediation of Queen Agnes of Hungary (around 1281-1364), Bern's troops had become free and Bern was thus able to take concentrated action against the Weissenburgers. Thus began the section that can be viewed as the actual Weissenburg War - in the narrower sense. After 31 years, Bern finally undertook a new - the seventh - well-organized campaign against Wimmis for the first time under Mayor Philipp von Kien, which ended with a third destruction of the town; this is where the Bernese succeeded in conquering the castle belonging to it for the first time. The army then besieged Unspunnen, as Johann I had previously moved his official residence here and the prisoners of war were interned here. Bern forced the barons to hand over and release the 50 Haslers without a ransom, as well as to acknowledge the city's financial claims. But above all, Bern forced the Weissenburgers on 8/9. August 1334 the handover of the realm of Hasli for 1,600 pounds, which the sovereignty of Bern recognized with a homage. It promised military service and in return received the privilege of choosing a governor from among its countrymen.
Since Freiherr Johann I did not agree with these contributions and refused his personal consent, his nephews intervened, who obviously did not agree with their uncle's policy. Wimmis Castle served as a pledge for the peace negotiations. On October 17, 1334, a ten-year castle rights contract was agreed between Bern and Johann's nephew - the sons of Peter, who died in 1314 - Rudolf IV (who assumed the citizenship of Bern in 1336) and Johann II von Weissenburg , with team rights for Bern and protection for the Weissenburger.
The Weissenburgers, who were in debt anyway, were forced to sell further properties due to their involvement in the Gümmenen and Weissenburg Wars and the resulting costs. The Weissenau dominion was pledged to the Interlaken Monastery in 1334 to repay a Lombard debt. Nevertheless, they managed to redeem the pledge of the castle and rule Mülenen in the same year.
Due to the boycott of the treaty of 1334 by Johann I, Bern intervened again in 1335 with an eighth siege of Wimmis, despite the official end of the actual Weissenburg War. This forced the Freiherr to give his consent to the power of attorney before witnesses. In addition, at Bern's insistence, the Weissenau estate was finally sold entirely to the Interlaken Monastery.
Despite the formal end of the Weissenburg War, new potential for conflict arose just two years later in the run-up to the Laupenkrieg. In 1337 Johann I allied himself with Count Eberhard II von Neu-Kyburg and other nobles against Bern. The little town of Unterseen in Weissburg promised Bern that it would behave neutrally in the upcoming military conflict. The Bernese did not accept the defiant feud letter unintentionally and got ahead of the Weissenburgers. They prepared in a hurry and marched against Wimmis for the ninth time, and this time the town and the castle soon fell.
This time they forced the baron to take permanent castle rights from the city, to subordinate the entire Lower Simmental to Bern's sovereignty and to hand over the keys to Wimmis Castle, which were then hung in Bern on Kreuzgasse. The Unterseen rulership temporarily placed itself under Bern's protection (final after the Sempach War in 1386) and promised to remain neutral in the run-up to the Laupenkrieg. The actual Weissenburg War and the hostilities between Bern and the Weissenburgers in general came to an end.
1339–1340: Laupenkrieg
In 1339, 300 Weissenburgers fought under Johann II on the side of Bern in the Battle of Laupen as well as on raids and castle sieges in the further course of the Laupenkrieg , whereby there was the assumption that Johann I was killed by his nephews at Unspunnen Castle during this war was imprisoned with a stubborn antibernic attitude. Baron Johann I died childless around 1341. His nephews, Rudolf IV. And Johann II. And their sister Katharina, succeeded him in the possession of his dominions Weissenburg, Mülenen, Unspunnen and Unterseen - as well as a high debt burden. After the end of the Laupenkrieg in 1340, Bern renewed its alliance with the Waldstätten in 1341 through renewed mediation by Queen Agnes of Hungary. In 1342 the Habsburgs redeemed the pledge of the Unspunnen rule with the castles Unspunnen and Rotenfluh, which Bern reserved as a bargaining chip during the Laupenkrieg. The rule was passed on as a pledge, u. a. to the gentlemen from Interlaken, von Hallwyl and von Neu-Kyburg .
1346–1349: Grüningen War
The Grüningen War from 1346 was ultimately an indirect result of the pledging of the Weissenburgs' properties to Bern, which provided funds to reduce their and their uncle's debts. In 1344, Bern received the castles of Wimmis, Diemtigen and Weissenburg as security for 13 years. This new political orientation of the Weissenburger to Bern worried and angered their rather anti-city-minded neighboring noble houses, so that Count Johannes von Montsalvens, head of the county of Gruyères (1342-1365) with Baron Peter III. von Turn (1324–1356) and Baron Peter von Raron (around 1325–1413) planned another military action against Bern in order to persuade the Weissenburgers to desert Bern. The theater of war extended mainly over the Simmental and the county of Gruyères. Bern and the Weissenburgs faced the new aristocratic coalition of the Gruyères on December 26, 1346 in a battle on Laubeggstalden (today's municipality of Boltigen , Obersimmental ), in whose heated crowd the Bernese Venner Peter Wendschatz is said to have thrown back the banner of his hometown, around the one for the Bernese to save the unfortunate outcome of the battle.
Baron Rudolf IV von Weissenburg died in 1347, leaving behind a single illegitimate son, Hänsli, who entered the clergy and became provost of the Interlaken monastery , so Johann II remained the last legitimate successor to the baron family.
In 1348 Gümmenen was broken. In the same year, the monastery people of Interlaken dared a revolt by stirring up the Obwalden. The attempt to achieve independence based on the example of the Waldstätte is suppressed with the help of Bern.
In 1349, Freiburg took part in the war on the side of Bern and a second Bern march into the upper Simmental followed, which ended with the fall of the Laubegg , Mannenberg and La Tour-de-Trême castles , the fire in the village of Vuippens and the victory of the Bernese and Freiburgers .
consequences
The rule of the last baron Johann II seemed to be overall successful, especially since he was able to pay off the debts in Bern in full and came back into full possession of his ancestral rule in the Simmental.
The events of the first half of the 14th century prompted Bern to look for other allies. In 1353, the alliance with Waldstätten, which was concluded in 1323 and renewed in 1341, was transformed into an eternal one in 1353, which is still often regarded as an official accession to the Swiss Confederation .
Johann II von Weissenburg died in 1368 without children and children, his sister Katharina von Brandis was married to Thuringia I von Brandis, who received the rule of Simmenegg. At his son of the same name Thuringia II, who had a Countess von Neu-Kyburg as his wife, the property of the barons fell and thus the Weissenburger dynasty died out.
The rule of Mülenen passed to Thuringia I von Brandis as early as 1350, who sold it to Bern in 1352 with the church set from Aeschi . The Unterseen rule and the Obersimmental fell to Bern in the course of the Sempach War in 1386. In 1397 Unspunnen came to Bern and the city redeemed the last pledge on Unterseen from Countess Verena von Neu-Kyburg. The Wimmis castle and dominion were sold half by the Barons von Brandis in 1398 and in full in 1437 to the von Scharnachtal family, who also received Unspunnen in 1398 together with the von Seftigen family. In 1439, Bern acquired the former Weissenburg property in the Simmental from the von Brandis, namely the courts of Weissenburg in Obersimmental and Därstetten , Oberwil and Erlenbach in Niedersimmental, as well as shares in the Diemtigen reign . In 1449 the city of Bern bought back the Wimmis rule for 1,040 Rhenish guilders from Niklaus von Scharnachtal, and from 1488–1515 the Unspunnen rule from the heirs of the Scharnachtal and Seftigen.
Individual evidence
- ^ Wimmis, village history
- ^ Anne-Marie Dubler : Wimmis. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- ^ Weissenburg. In: burgenwelt.org. Retrieved September 6, 2016 .
- ↑ Unterseen, history
- ↑ City of Solothurn, History ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Hasleregg, 1331 (PDF)
- ↑ Niederried, Dorfchronik (PDF) ( Memento of the original from May 6, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Laubegg ruins, castle side
