A FORGOTTEN CONFLICT

COW 2014 A FORGOTTEN CONFLICT? Page � of �1 7

A FORGOTTEN CONFLICT?

The German Peasants’ War 1524~1526

An Introduction to and Ideas about Gaming this War with

Ian Russell Lowell The macho image of the Landsknecht — truly the peacock of soldiery, strutting

the battlefields of sixteenth century Europe — fighting under and against the

banners of the Holy Roman Emperor. A woodcut dating from 1545.

Cars pass him by; he’ll never own one. Men won’t believe in him for this. Let them come into the hills And meet him wandering a road, Fenced with rain, as I have now; The wind feathering his hair; The sky’s ruins, gutted with fire Of the late sun, smouldering still. Nothing is his, neither the land Nor the land’s flocks. Hired to live On hills too lonely, sharing his hearth With cats and hens, he has lost all Property but the grey ice Of a face splintered by life’s stone. R. S. Thomas, ‘The Hireling’ Selected Poems 1946-1968 This is the plaza of Paradise. It is always noon, and the dusty bees are dozing like pardoned sinners. John Haines, ‘Marigold’ The Stone Harp

Some contributory factors that led to the German Peasants’ War — within and without the Holy Roman Empire. An outer framework is the collapse of

Byzantium in 1453, the consequent expansion of The Ottoman Empire and

the discovery of the ‘New World’.

© 2014 Ian Russell Lowell


A PREACHER, A PAINTER, A PASQUIL &

A PACK OF PLAYING CARDS Geiler (1445-1510)] followed an established routine in his preaching. On entering the pulpit he first removed his hat and then knelt to pray. On rising he made the sign of the cross and read the Latin text of his sermon. After repeating that text in German, he knelt to recite the Ave Maria. He then stood up in the pulpit, put his hat back on his head, and proceeded to explain the Gospel lesson for the day. When he had finished the Gospel lesson, he would take up the topic on which he had been preaching during that season of the church year. He kept one eye cocked on the hourglass, and when the sands ran out, he brought his sermon to a punctual conclusion. His sermons were direct and pointed. Though were written out in advance in Latin, they were preached in a homely and often pungent German. Geiler believed that the preacher, unlike the lecturer at the university, dared not run the risk of being obscure. It is the business of the preacher of the gospel to be plain, to be understandable — if necessary, to be crude — in order to carry home to the hearts of his listeners in a direct and unforgettable way the simple truth that lies at the centre of all Christian proclamation. The preacher cannot be an instrument of reform if he restricts himself to the delivery of learned and — from the standpoint of the common people at least — generally incomprehensible essays in Latin. If the use of secular literature will assist the preacher in the performance of his task, then secular literature should be gratefully received and used. But above all the sermon must be simple. David C. Steinmetz (2001/2nd ed.), Reformers in the Wings Johannes Geiler von Kaiserberg (1445-1510) not only referred to secular literature for his sermon illustrations but also to worldly pastimes, including a game of cards named Karnöffel. While dice are an ancient gaming device,

playing cards are only known in Europe f r o m t h e l a t e fourteenth century. They were known as ‘naibbes’ or ‘nayps’ — naipes is still the term used for playing cards in Spain today, and which comes from the A r a b i c n ā ᐣ i b , ‘lieutenant, deputy’. Playing cards from at least three of these packs — dating from the rule of the Mamlūks over Egypt (1250-1517) — was discovered in 1939 by chance at the Topkapı Sarayı Müze (Topkani

Palace Museum, Istanbul) by Leo Mayer. They were used to play a game called Mulûk wa-Nuwwâb or ‘Kings and Lieutenants’: each of the four suits (Darâhim ‘Coins’, Tûmân ‘Cups’, Suyûf, ‘Swords’, and Jawkân, ‘Polo-sticks’) had three court cards — King (Malīk), Lieutenant (Nāᐣib), Second Lieutenant (Nāᐣib Thānī). These were transformed in German cards to the King (König), Ober and Unter. By the fifteenth century, German authorities both secular and religious were proscribing such card games — the earliest mention of Karnöffel in 1426 dates from such a municipal ban. Card games, however grew in popularity as cheaper printed versions became commonplace.


Court card from one of the Mamlūk

playing card packs.Nāᐣib Thānī (2nd

Lieutenant) of Cups.


Geiler was (what is now referred to as) a humanist theologian and was concerned with the need for both ecclesiastical reform. His correspondence with the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and the Church authorities bore no fruitful outcome and he was concerned that this would provoke rebellion by ordinary people, and his concerns were that such an outcome would be bo th revolutionary and destructive. His various references to the game Karnöffel expressed his alarm at such likelihood occurring.

Part of a sheet of printed German playing cards showing the lewd humour expressed within the

illustrations. Printed by Hans Forster, mid-sixteenth century

The popularity of the game, and it's associated political influence is shown by two further instances. Jörg Ratgeb (circa 1480–1526) was one of an influential group of artists, contemporary with Dürer and Grünwald. He is associated with creating the ‘Rainbow Banner’ of Thomas Münzer’s Thuringian Bund during the Peasants’ War. One of his commissions was the Herrenberger Altar Panel, completed in 1519.

The internal panels of the Herrenberger Altar Panels as displayed in the Staatsgalerie at Stuttgart. They

depict (left to right) the Last Supper, the Scourging, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection.

In the final ‘Resurrection’ scene, based of St. Matthew’s account, the soldiers (dressed in contemporary Landsknecht costume) guarding the tomb are surprised by the appearance of the resurrected Christ while playing cards,. The game is most likely Karnöffel, as the Six of Rot/Herz (♥ ️) or Pabst (Pope) has just been played, which is trumped by the appearance of Christ — the supreme trump or Knave (Karnöffel).



The Resurrection Panel of the Herrenberger Altarpiece, with inset showing the Six or Pope just having been

laid just before the trump of Christ.

Like Grünwald and many other artists and artisans, Ratgeb actively supported the rebellion. Unlike Grünwald, Ratgeb kept faithful to the end and, after capture, was killed by quartering — pulled apart by four horses — in the glut of reprisal killings under the victorious Swabian League.

Finally, in response to a proposed Church Council at Mantua in 1537, a document was sent on behalf of ‘The Holy Order of Karnöffel Players’ purporting to support the Papacy through reference to the rules of the game, but, in fact, challenging it as a pasquil. For example by asking why the ‘Pope’ (6) can be beaten by the ‘Emperor’ (2), when the Holy Roman Emperor has a single-layered crown, which the Pope has a triple crown!

STRAWBERRIES, SNAIL SHELLS, A RAISED SHOE

& SO IT BEGINS In the year 1502, and again in 1513, peasants had tried to press their claims for greater justice. They had gathered in their Bund under the banner of a peasant’s shoe or boot inverted atop a pole. A further series of uprisings followed the following year against the Duke of Württemberg’s increased taxation with the peasants forming ‘Poor Conrad’ groups. These were all brutally suppressed. Further uprisings began in May 1524 in the Black Forest, again gathered under the Bundschuh. But a series of events would change this into a larger rebellion and a threat to the church and political powers. 1517, Martin Luther (1483-1546) had posted his 95 theses, challenging the theology of Indulgences and questioning the authority of the Papacy. The following year, 1518, Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) began his ministry



in Zurich. Both had grown up with the printed word (from 1455) and were contemporaries of the Dutch theologian Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), who challenged traditional Catholic theology on the basis of Greek texts filtering through to the West since the fall of Contantinople in 1453. Zwingli, unlike Luther, saw no separation between the secular and ecclesiastical authorities, and began to preach in favour of a theocratic state. The Swiss cantons had gained their independence, defeating the Swabian League, in 1499 with a new style of warfare, using the long pike. The enthronement of Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, the compromise over Italy came to an end and war began with France, and with the ever advancing Ottoman Empire. This led to the adoption of ‘Swiss tactics’ and the rise of armies based on the Landsknechter, often mercenaries, fighting in pike formation with accompanying hand-gunners, long swords men and halberdiers. Meanwhile the growing challenges of Luther and his ‘Evangelical’ followers led to a division within the polities that made up the Empire, with some becoming Protestant and pro-Reform. This led to the Knights’ War of 1522; the same year as he published his German translation of the Bible. This short-lived Protestant rebellion failed in its attack on Trier and lad subsequently to the complete reduction of influence in this class, who often oppressed their own peasantry to survive.

The rebellion in full,swing across the Holy Roman Empire in 1925.

Into this potent mix, in June 1524, peasants from the estate of the Countess von Lupfen in Stühlingen. She liked to wind yarn on snail shells, so after a violent rainstorm, when her peasants were desperate to get as much of the harvest saved, she ordered them to stop saving the harvest and start picking up empty snail shells. And also to gather strawberries and bilberries! Stühlingen proved to be the starting point for the rebellion across the Holy Roman Empire.

When the Stühlingen Bund began to march to meet up with their fellow rebels in Hegau, other peasants took note and further uprisings took place. Into the political and social concerns came the decision to form Christian



Unions, committed to changing society into one based on purely biblical values, and with the hope of independence along the model of the Swiss Cantons.

ARTICLES, BATTLES, COMPROMISES, DEFEATS (Not necessarily in this order!)

With the war against France, Charles V delegates the Swabian League to deal with the rebellion, which covered five separate but inter-related areas — the Upper Rhine (Black Forest & Swabia), Württemberg & Franconia, Thuringia, Alsace & the Palatinate, Alpine lands. At first, because of the suddenness of the uprising and through lack of military personnel, the League negotiated wherever possible. But after the victory for Charles V at Pavia, more forces were available to crush the rebellion. The military commander appointed by of the League was Georg, Governor ( of Waldeburg, with about 350 horse and 2,500 foot in from various ecclesiastical and other polities. Against him was ranged peasant armies of upward of 4,000 men. Among the many leaders of the rebellion were Hans Müller, leader of the Stühlingen Bund of the Black Forest, who had military experience, and wisely connected with disaffected townspeople to broaden the appeal of the rebellion. However, he was outmanoeuvred by Georg of Waldeburg, who negotiated a treaty at Weingarten (April 1525) with Müller which led to the dismissal of most the peasant army,

giving Georg the opportunity to defeat Müller’s weakened force later on, after inflicting a defeat at the Battle of Böblingen, near Württemberg. Other leaders of the rebellion were Heinrich Pfeiffer and Thomas Müntzer in Thuringia. Müntzer is associated with the theological position diametrical opposed to Luther, in linking the spiritual and political doctrines of Protestantism together. Philip, the landgrave of Hesse, defeated and captured Müntzer at the Battle of Frankenhausen (May 1525). With the back of the uprising broken, the remaining rebels, even in new uprisings, were slowly defeated until the final rebellion was put down in Salzburg in March 1526. It is estimated that over 10,000 peasants and their allies died, and, although concessions were made at the Imperiek Diet at Speyer in over June to August 1926, for most of the peasants and townspeople in the areas of the uprisings conditions became much worse. An interesting ‘what if’ is whether Müller, instead of believing Georg of Waldenburg and dismissing his force had attacked and seriously damaged the impact of the Swabian League. The peasants agreed to Twelve Articles at their Parliament in Memmingen in March 1525. These were based on Zwingli’s Sixty-Seven Articles, and were covered spiritual and social conditions.



Article 1. Congregations should elect their own pastors. Article 2. Tithes should be paid to pay for the pastor and to help the poor. Article 3. No serfdom, all are free. Article 4. Hunting and fishing to be open to all — no private preserves. Article 5. Collection of wood available to all — no private preserves. Article 6. Fair labour service. Article 7. Lords and servants to mutually agree nature of service. Article 8. Fair rents dependant on circumstance — no oppression of servants. Article 9. Punishment of crime to be unbiased and fair “according to the facts.” Article 10. Common land to remain so, and, where previously appropriated, to be restored to the community. Article 11. Abolition of Herriot (death tax). Article 12. All the articles to be adjudged to be in accordance with the Word of God — “We bid God the Lord to grant it to us to live and practice every Christian teaching, for he alone and no one else is capable of giving this to us. May the peace of Christ be with us all.”

Michael G. Baylor (2012), The German Reformation and the Peasants War: A Brief History with

Documents.

SOME ACRIMONY… SOME VICTORIES…

Luther was initially even-handed in his reaction to the uprising, responding critically to both peasants and lords in his Admonition to Peace (April 1925)

However, Luther quickly changed his mind after the massacre at Weinsberg and condemned the peasants in his Against the Murdering and Robbing Hordes of the Other Peasants (May 1525).

The fortified city of Würzburg, taken by the peasants in May 1525; but their failure to take the Marienberg fortress (replaced by a new classical style in the

picture) led to over 8,000 being slaughted I by the Swabian League in June of that year.

There were some peasant victories — at Herrenberger in Württemberg and at Scaldming in Styria — but in the main, most of the encounters led to an imperial victory, although fresh uprisings constantly caused the finale to be delayed.

SIE SAGEN LANDSKNECHT JE DIS LANSQUENET

The card game of L a n s q u e n e t ( t h e French form of Landsknecht) also d a t e s f ro m t h e fifteenth century. A simple betting game, it is probably named from its popularity

among Landsknecht troops. (An Unter is illustrated from an old pack.)
