Battle of Wurzach

Battle of Wurzach Schlacht am Leprosenberg
View from the Grabener Höhe of the battlefield in 2012
Date 14 April 1525 Location near Bad Wurzach
Belligerents
Old Swabian Confederation	Swabian League
Commanders and leaders
Pfaff-Florian of Aichstetten	George III, Truchsess of Waldburg-Zeil
Strength
7,000	7,000

The Battle of Wurzach (

.

Course of the battle

During

skirmishes

took place in the run-up to the battle. Both army commanders had considerable local knowledge as the battlefield was only 20 kilometres from each of their home towns. The peasants were unable to penetrate the town walls surrounding Wurzach or to convince the townsfolk to take their side.

On Good Friday, 14 April 1525, the positions of the peasant army were fired upon by the cannons of the Swabian League. The two forces each had about the same number of troops. However, the experienced Landsknechte and armoured riders of the Swabian League, with their better armament and training, were the decisive factors in the battle.

In the evening the overmatched peasants began to withdraw. Those peasants who fled to the west of the positions of the Swabian League were lucky. They could escape in the direction of Gaisbeuren. The fleeing peasants who tried to escape in the night in the direction of the Wurzacher Ried and Wurzacher Ach were probably killed, since they were also pursued by Farmer George's cavalry.

A series of further battles followed. By September 1525, all fighting and punitive action was over and Emperor

thanked the Swabian League for their intervention.

Pfaff-Florian was one of the survivors of the battle and fled to the Confederation after the Treaty of Weingarten was negotiated. As a rule, commanders and leaders were executed immediately upon capture. Captured rebel peasants had to pay a general bounty of 6 guilders in instalments and were later released. George and his cousin, William, were each appointed by Emperor Charles V on 27 July 1526 in Toledo as a Hereditary Imperial Steward (Reichserbtruchsess). The Lepers' Hospital (Leprosenhaus) and Lepers' Chapel (Leprosenkapelle), founded in 1505, may still be seen on the site of the battlefield today.

References

Literatur

• ISBN 3-320-01829-9
  .
• Peter Blickle: Die Revolution von 1525. 4th revised and bibliographically expanded edition. Oldenbourg, Munich, 2004,
  ISBN 3-486-44264-3
  .

External links

• Overview of the German Peasants' War at historicum.net
• Official website of the town of Bad Wurzach

47°54′23″N 9°53′02″E / 47.9063°N 9.8838°E / 47.9063; 9.8838