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78-654: The region of Upper Swabia is situated in the central south of Germany consisting of the south-east of Baden-Württemberg and the south-west bavarian Swabia region and lies on the Iller-Lech Plateau , also known as the Upper Swabian Plain, one of the natural regions of Germany . The landscape of Upper Swabia was formed by retreating glaciers after the Riss glaciation , leaving behind a large number of shallows which quickly filled up with water. This led to

156-400: A long-term tactical and strategic problem. Historians disagree on the nature of the revolt and its causes, whether it grew out of the emerging religious controversy centered on Luther; whether a wealthy tier of peasants saw their own wealth and rights slipping away, and sought to weave them into the legal, social and religious fabric of society; or whether peasants objected to the emergence of

234-470: A middle course in the Peasants' War, by criticizing both the injustices imposed on the peasants, and the rashness of the peasants in fighting back. He also tended to support the centralization and urbanization of the economy. This position alienated the lesser nobles, but shored up his position with the burghers . Luther argued that work was the chief duty on earth; the duty of the peasants was farm labor and

312-688: A modernizing, centralizing nation state. One view is that the origins of the German Peasants' War lay partly in the unusual power dynamic caused by the agricultural and economic dynamism of the previous decades. Labor shortages in the last half of the 15th century had allowed peasants to sell their labor for a higher price; food and goods shortages had allowed them to sell their products for a higher price as well. Consequently, some peasants, particularly those who had limited allodial requirements, were able to accrue significant economic, social, and legal advantages. Peasants were more concerned to protect

390-462: A new world order fused with the political and social demands of the peasantry. In the final weeks of 1524 and the beginning of 1525, Müntzer travelled into southwest Germany, where the peasant armies were gathering. Here he would have had contact with some of their leaders, and it is argued that he also influenced the formulation of their demands. He spent several weeks in the Klettgau area, and there

468-562: A peasant wished to marry, he not only needed the lord's permission but had to pay a tax. When the peasant died, the lord was entitled to his best cattle, his best garments and his best tools. The justice system, operated by the clergy or wealthy burgher and patrician jurists, gave the peasant no redress. Generations of traditional servitude and the autonomous nature of the provinces limited peasant insurrections to local areas. The Swabian League fielded an army commanded by Georg, Truchsess von Waldburg , later known as "Bauernjörg" for his role in

546-516: A pillage master. The peasants possessed an important resource, the skills to build and maintain field works. They used the wagon fort effectively, a tactic that had been mastered in the Hussite Wars of the previous century. Wagons were chained together in a suitable defensive location, with cavalry and draft animals placed in the center. Peasants dug ditches around the outer edge of the fort and used timber to close gaps between and underneath

624-696: A plaything of marauding armies during the Thirty Years War 1618 - 1648. Military actions followed by disease, such as the plague , led to a severe depopulation of Upper Swabia. After the end of the war, the Catholic Church intensified its efforts to regain ground from the Protestants. These efforts are known as the Counter-Reformation . The local lords, secular and clerical, tried to attract immigrants to areas affected by

702-505: A result, these days the river Iller marks the eastern border of Upper Swabia. The inhabitants of the former Free Imperial City Ulm and those that belonged to the former Imperial Abbey of Zwiefalten do not consider themselves as being part of Upper Swabia. Yet, in spite of their location close to the Swabian Alb , geographically, historically and culturally, they have always been closely connected to Upper Swabia. Upper Swabia

780-399: A supreme commander and a marshal ( schultheiss ), who maintained law and order. Other roles included lieutenants, captains, standard-bearers, master gunner, wagon-fort master, train master, four watch-masters, four sergeant-majors to arrange the order of battle, a weibel (sergeant) for each company, two quartermasters, farriers, quartermasters for the horses, a communications officer and

858-481: A tourist destination. However, during recent years, amends have been made in order to attract more tourism. This has been supported by the state government which provided subsidies , particularly to improve rural infrastructure . Upper Swabia is criss-crossed by several railway lines: There are no motorways ( Autobahnen ) in Upper Swabia. However, several federal highways ( Bundesstraßen ) traverse

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936-425: Is concentrated in the cities of Augsburg , Friedrichshafen , Ravensburg & Weingarten and Biberach an der Riß as well as Memmingen and Günzburg . The eastern border of Upper Swabia has been disputed for some time. Historically, the river Lech marks the border between Swabia and Bavaria . However, this would mean that large parts of Bavarian Swabia would have to be incorporated into Upper Swabia. As

1014-697: Is located in southwest Bavaria . It was annexed by Bavaria in 1803, is part of the historic region of Swabia and was formerly ruled by dukes of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. During the Nazi period , the area was separated from the rest of Bavaria to become the Gau Swabia . It was re-incorporated into Bavaria after the war. The Regierungsbezirk is subdivided into 3 regions ( Planungsregionen ): Allgäu, Augsburg, and Donau-Iller. Donau-Iller also includes two districts and one city of Baden-Württemberg . * Part of

1092-596: Is part of the Regierungsbezirk Tübingen , a Regierungsbezirk being a sub-division of a federal state. The following districts are wholly or partially part of Upper Swabia: Upper Swabia has been populated at least since the Neolithic age. Archaeological evidence confirming this was discovered around the Federsee , a lake near Bad Buchau . Until around the year 260 CE, the region that

1170-555: Is some evidence to suggest that he helped the peasants to formulate their grievances. While the famous Twelve Articles of the Swabian peasants were certainly not composed by Müntzer, at least one important supporting document, the Constitutional Draft , may well have originated with him. Returning to Saxony and Thuringia in early 1525, he assisted in the organisation of the various rebel groups there and ultimately led

1248-404: The gemein , or community assembly, which was symbolized by a ring. The gemein had its own leader ( schultheiss ), and a provost officer who policed the ranks and maintained order. The use of the landsknechte in the German Peasants' War reflects a period of change between traditional noble roles or responsibilities towards warfare and practice of buying mercenary armies, which became

1326-423: The landsknechts , the peasant bands used similar titles: Oberster feldhauptmann , or supreme commander, similar to a colonel , and lieutenants, or leutinger . Each company was commanded by a captain and had its own fähnrich , or ensign , who carried the company's standard (its ensign). The companies also had a sergeant or feldweibel , and squadron leaders called rottmeister , or masters of

1404-410: The rotte . Officers were usually elected, particularly the supreme commander and the leutinger . The peasant army was governed by a so-called ring , in which peasants gathered in a circle to debate tactics, troop movements, alliances, and the distribution of spoils. The ring was the decision-making body. In addition to this democratic construct, each band had a hierarchy of leaders including

1482-857: The Allgäuer Haufen , active in the Allgäu and eastern Upper Swabia, the Seehaufen , centred on the region north of Lake Constance , and the Baltringer Haufen , named after the village of Baltringen , a few kilometres south of Laupheim in northern Upper Swabia. During the revolt, numerous castles and monasteries in Upper Swabia were destroyed by the peasants. By July 1525, however, the rising had been utterly suppressed in Upper Swabia, with countless peasants losing their lives either due to battles or due to punitive measures inflicted upon them afterwards by their lords. Economically and socially,

1560-944: The Duchy of Swabia . After the execution of the Swabian duke Conradin in Naples in 1268, his uncle, the Bavarian duke Louis , inherited some of Conradin's possessions in Swabia. In 1803, with the German Mediatisation , Bavaria acquired the further East Swabian territories, which were merged with Palatinate-Neuburg . After the founding of the Kingdom of Bavaria , the state was totally reorganised and, in 1808, divided into 15 administrative districts (German: Regierungsbezirke ), in Bavaria called Kreise . They were created in

1638-501: The Rhineland . The revolt was "suppressed by both Catholic and Lutheran princes who were satisfied to cooperate against a common danger". To the degree that other classes, such as the bourgeoisie , might gain from the centralization of the economy and the elimination of the lesser nobles' territorial controls on manufacture and trade, the princes might unite with the burghers on the issue. The innovations in military technology of

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1716-592: The Swabian Keuper Land Historical population of Swabia: The Gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was € 74.8 billion in 2018, accounting for 2.2% of German economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was € 36,500 or 121% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 101% of the EU average. The Bavarian administrative region of Swabia is the eastern part of

1794-590: The Danube (ultimately flowing into the Black Sea ) and others emptying into Lake Constance (ultimately ending in the North Sea ). Due to Upper Swabia's altitude and hilly terrain, agriculture consists mainly of dairy farming, the exception being the basin of the river Schussen , where the predominant produce is hops and fruits. Upper Swabia is still a very rural area dominated by villages. The urban population

1872-741: The Free Imperial Cities lost their independence. With the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, marked by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , catholic Upper Swabia was incorporated into the protestant Kingdom of Württemberg . This annexation was finalized during the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The aristocratic dynasties that ruled Upper Swabia for centuries still have considerable political and economic influence and power. After World War I and

1950-494: The Late Medieval period began to render the lesser nobility (the knights ) militarily obsolete. The introduction of military science and the growing importance of gunpowder and infantry lessened the importance of heavy cavalry and of castles . Their luxurious lifestyle drained what little income they had as prices kept rising. They exercised their ancient rights in order to wring income from their territories. In

2028-470: The Reformation. Some of the poorer clergy sought to extend Luther's equalizing ideas to society at large. Many towns had privileges that exempted them from taxes, so that the bulk of taxation fell on the peasants. As the guilds grew and urban populations rose, the town patricians faced increasing opposition. The patricians consisted of wealthy families who sat alone in the town councils and held all

2106-466: The abuses of simony and pluralism (holding several offices at once) were rampant. Some bishops , archbishops , abbots and priors were as ruthless in exploiting their subjects as the regional princes. In addition to the sale of indulgences , they set up prayer houses and directly taxed the people. Increased indignation over church corruption had led the monk Martin Luther to post his 95 Theses on

2184-474: The administrative offices. Like the princes, they sought to secure revenues from their peasants by any possible means. Arbitrary road, bridge, and gate tolls were instituted at will. They gradually usurped the common lands and made it illegal for peasants to fish or to log wood from these lands. Guild taxes were exacted. No revenues collected were subject to formal administration, and civic accounts were neglected. Thus embezzlement and fraud became common, and

2262-461: The aristocrats to put down the rebels like mad dogs. The movement was also supported by Huldrych Zwingli , but the condemnation by Luther contributed to its defeat. While around 20 veterans of the war went on to become leading figures in the Anabaptist movement, James Stayer notes that "no large number of known Anabaptists can be identified by name as participants in the 1525 upheaveal". In

2340-523: The borders of the occupation zones. As a consequence, the northern areas of Upper Swabia became part of the state of Württemberg-Baden and the southern areas became part of the state of Württemberg-Hohenzollern. Both states joined the Federal Republic of Germany on its founding in 1949. This situation lasted until 1952, when, following a referendum the previous year, Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern together with Baden created

2418-558: The call of Luther of rebellion against the Church, two political uprisings responded, first, the one of lower nobility, headed by Franz von Sickingen in 1523, and then, the great peasant's war, in 1525; both were crushed, because, mainly, of the indecisiveness of the party having most interest in the fight, the urban bourgeoisie". (Foreword to the English edition of: 'From Utopy Socialism to Scientific Socialism', 1892) The plebeians comprised

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2496-603: The capital Augsburg and several other old cities including Donauwörth , Nördlingen , Memmingen , Mindelheim , Kaufbeuren and Kempten , the Ottobeuren Abbey and the scenic attractions of the River Danube in the north and the Allgäu in the south with the Allgäu Alps and Oberstdorf and the royal castles of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein next to Füssen belong to the major attractions. With

2574-632: The central and eastern areas of Germany and present-day Austria . After the uprising in Germany was suppressed, it flared up briefly in several Swiss cantons . In mounting their insurrection, peasants faced insurmountable obstacles. The democratic nature of their movement left them without a command structure and they lacked artillery and cavalry. Most of them had little, if any, military experience. Their opposition had experienced military leaders, well-equipped and disciplined armies, and ample funding. The revolt incorporated some principles and rhetoric from

2652-427: The clergy, who they felt had overstepped and failed to uphold their principles. They demanded an end to the clergy's special privileges such as their exemption from taxation, as well as a reduction in their numbers. The burgher-master (guild master, or artisan) now owned both his workshop and its tools, which he allowed his apprentices to use, and provided the materials that his workers needed. F. Engels cites: "To

2730-400: The consequences were dramatic: whole communities were bankrupt and unable to pay proper taxes for a long time, the legal position of peasants was not to be altered for another 300 years, and due to the large number of outlawed peasants trying to survive by illegal means, such as robbery, commerce was severely hindered. This instability was one of the factors that lead to Upper Swabia's becoming

2808-424: The countryside looking for work or engaging in highway robbery. To be effective the cavalry needed to be mobile, and to avoid hostile forces armed with pikes . The peasant armies were organized in bands ( haufen ), similar to the landsknecht . Each haufen was organized into unterhaufen , or fähnlein and rotten . The bands varied in size, depending on the number of insurgents available in

2886-578: The district of Lindau , Bavarian Swabia has access to Lake Constance . Swabian cuisine is down-to-earth and rather simple. Noodle products are very important. 48°30′N 10°30′E  /  48.5°N 10.5°E  / 48.5; 10.5 German Peasants%27 War partly : Electors of Saxony Holy Roman Emperors Building Literature Theater Liturgies Hymnals Monuments Calendrical commemoration The German Peasants' War , Great Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt ( German : Deutscher Bauernkrieg )

2964-429: The districts after historical territorial names and tribes of the area. This also involved some border changes or territorial swaps. Thus the name Oberdonaukreis changed to Swabia. In 1945, the town of Lindau was detached from Bavaria by France, but it was reunited with the district of Swabia in 1955. In 1972, the former Swabian city Neuburg an der Donau was reunited with the district of Upper Bavaria . Next to

3042-612: The doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg , Germany, in 1517, as well as impelling other reformers to radically re-think church doctrine and organization. The clergy who did not follow Luther tended to be the aristocratic clergy, who opposed all change, including any break with the Roman Church. The poorer clergy, rural and urban itinerant preachers who were not well positioned in the church, were more likely to join

3120-568: The duty of the ruling classes was upholding the peace. He could not support the Peasant War because it broke the peace, an evil he thought greater than the evils the peasants were rebelling against. At the peak of the insurrection in 1525, his position shifted completely to support of the rulers of the secular principalities and their Roman Catholic allies. In Against the Robbing Murderous Hordes of Peasants he encouraged

3198-477: The emerging Protestant Reformation , through which the peasants sought influence and freedom. Some Radical Reformers , most famously Thomas Müntzer, instigated and supported the revolt. In contrast, Martin Luther and other Magisterial Reformers condemned it and sided with the aristocrats. In Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants , Luther condemned the violence as the devil's work and called for

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3276-589: The end of the Kingdom of Württemberg , Upper Swabia became part of the new federal state Württemberg . After World War II , the northernmost areas of Upper Swabia became part of the American occupation zone , while the larger, southern area became part of the French occupation zone . In 1946, the Allied authorities founded the states of Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern , the borders of which ran along

3354-417: The equivalent of a half-company. At the beginning of the revolt the league members had trouble recruiting soldiers from among their own populations (particularly among peasant class) due to fear of them joining the rebels. As the rebellion expanded many nobles had trouble sending troops to the league armies because they had to combat rebel groups in their own lands. Another common problem regarding raising armies

3432-516: The fashion of the French departements , quite even in size and population, and named after their main rivers. In the following years, due to territorial changes (e.g. the loss of Tyrol , the addition of the Palatinate ), the number of districts was reduced to 8. The Swabian territories were merged with Palatinate-Neuburg and the new district was called Oberdonaukreis (Upper Danube District). In 1837, king Ludwig I of Bavaria renamed all

3510-530: The framework of the empire, and several dozen others operated as semi-independent city-states . The princes of these dynasties were taxed by the Roman Catholic church. The princes stood to gain economically if they broke away from the Roman church and established a German church under their own control, which would then not be able to tax them as the Roman church did. Most German princes broke with Rome using

3588-411: The large quantity of lakes in Upper Swabia. The landscape of Upper Swabia is quite hilly rising from approximately 458 metres above sea level in the valley of the river Danube to a maximum of 833 metres above sea level in the south-west of Upper Swabia only to drop again to 395 meters above sea level at Lake Constance. The European watershed also passes through the region, with some rivers emptying into

3666-529: The latter. By maintaining the remnants of the ancient law which legitimized their own rule, they not only elevated their wealth and position in the empire through the confiscation of all property and revenues, but increased their power over their peasant subjects. During the Knights' War the "knights", the lesser landholders of the Rhineland in western Germany, rose up in rebellion in 1522–1523. Their rhetoric

3744-541: The locality. Peasant haufen divided along territorial lines, whereas those of the landsknecht drew men from a variety of territories. Some bands could number about 4,000; others, such as the peasant force at Frankenhausen , could gather 8,000. The Alsatian peasants who took to the field at the Battle of Zabern (now Saverne ) numbered 18,000. Haufen were formed from companies, typically 500 men per company, subdivided into platoons of 10 to 15 peasants each. Like

3822-417: The lowest stratum of society. In the early 16th century, no peasant could hunt, fish, or chop wood freely, as they previously had, because the lords had recently taken control of common lands. The lord had the right to use his peasants' land as he wished; the peasant could do nothing but watch as his crops were destroyed by wild game and by nobles galloping across his fields in the course of chivalric hunts. When

3900-690: The men served, others absorbed their workload. This sometimes meant producing supplies for their opponents, such as in the Archbishopric of Salzburg , where men worked to extract silver, which was used to hire fresh contingents of landsknechts for the Swabian League. However, the peasants lacked the Swabian League's cavalry, having few horses and little armour. They seem to have used their mounted men for reconnaissance. The lack of cavalry with which to protect their flanks, and with which to penetrate massed landsknecht squares, proved to be

3978-622: The moderate demands of the peasantry embodied in the Twelve Articles. His article Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants appeared in May 1525 just as the rebels were being defeated on the fields of battle. In this era of rapid change, modernizing princes tended to align with clergy burghers against the lesser nobility and peasants. Many rulers of Germany's various principalities functioned as autocratic rulers who recognized no other authority within their territories. Princes had

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4056-453: The nationalistic slogan of "German money for a German church". Princes often attempted to force their freer peasants into serfdom by increasing taxes and introducing Roman civil law . Roman civil law advantaged princes who sought to consolidate their power because it brought all land into their personal ownership and eliminated the feudal concept of the land as a trust between lord and peasant that conferred rights as well as obligations on

4134-437: The new class of urban workers, journeymen, and peddlers. Ruined burghers also joined their ranks. Although technically potential burghers, most journeymen were barred from higher positions by the wealthy families who ran the guilds. Thus their "temporary" position devoid of civic rights tended to become permanent. The plebeians did not have property like ruined burghers or peasants. The heavily taxed peasantry continued to occupy

4212-417: The new federal state of Baden-Württemberg . In spite of this, the touristic development of Upper Swabia has been rather slow during the last decennia. The bordering regions of Allgäu , Swabian Alb, Black Forest and particularly the area around Lake Constance have been more prosperous. Even politicians remarked in the 1990s that Upper Swabia was more an industrial region, albeit only in a few centres, than

4290-565: The nobility and the rich, while others appealed to the masses. However, the clergy was beginning to lose its overwhelming intellectual authority. The progress of printing (especially of the Bible ) and the expansion of commerce raised literacy rates, according to Engels. Engels held that the Catholic monopoly on higher education was accordingly reduced. Over time, some Catholic institutions had slipped into corruption. Clerical ignorance and

4368-454: The nobility to swiftly and violently eliminate the rebelling peasants, stating,"[the peasants] must be sliced, choked, stabbed, secretly and publicly, by those who can, like one must kill a rabid dog." After the conclusion of the Peasants' War, he was criticized for his writings in support of the violent actions taken by the ruling class. He responded by writing an open letter to Caspar Muller , defending his position. However, he also stated that

4446-465: The nobles were too severe in suppression of the insurrection, despite having called for severe violence in his previous work. Luther has often been sharply criticized for his position. Thomas Müntzer was the most prominent radical reforming preacher who supported the demands of the peasantry, including political and legal rights. Müntzer's theology had been developed against a background of social upheaval and widespread religious doubt, and his call for

4524-489: The norm throughout the 16th century. The league relied on the armored cavalry of the nobility for the bulk of its strength; the league had both heavy cavalry and light cavalry, ( rennfahne ), which served as a vanguard. Typically, the rehnnfahne were the second and third sons of poor knights, the lower and sometimes impoverished nobility with small land-holdings, or, in the case of second and third sons, no inheritance or social role. These men could often be found roaming

4602-414: The north of Germany many of the lesser nobles had already been subordinated to secular and ecclesiastical lords. Thus, their dominance over serfs was more restricted. However, in the south of Germany their powers were more intact. Accordingly, the harshness of the lesser nobles' treatment of the peasantry provided the immediate cause of the uprising. The fact that this treatment was worse in the south than in

4680-405: The north was the reason that the war began in the south. The knights became embittered as their status and income fell and they came increasingly under the jurisdiction of the princes, putting the two groups in constant conflict. The knights also regarded the clergy as arrogant and superfluous, while envying their privileges and wealth. In addition, the knights' relationships with the patricians in

4758-457: The patrician class, bound by family ties, became wealthier and more powerful. The town patricians were increasingly criticized by the growing burgher class, which consisted of well-to-do middle-class citizens who held administrative guild positions or worked as merchants. They demanded town assemblies made up of both patricians and burghers, or at least a restriction on simony and the allocation of council seats to burghers. The burghers also opposed

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4836-436: The preceding Bundschuh movement and the Hussite Wars , the war consisted of a series of both economic and religious revolts involving peasants and farmers, sometimes supported by radical clergy like Thomas Müntzer . The fighting was at its height in the middle of 1525. The war began with separate insurrections, beginning in the southwestern part of what is now Germany and Alsace , and spread in subsequent insurrections to

4914-608: The ravages of war and to re-populate these areas. This led to an economic upturn within the region. The efforts of the Counter-Reformation and the newly acquired financial ability of both secular and clerical lords enabled them to restore, extend and enhance the already existing seigneurial buildings in Baroque -style. The result of this is today called Upper Swabian Baroque. During the secularization and mediatization in 1803, almost all monasteries were dissolved and

4992-402: The rebel army in the ill-fated Battle of Frankenhausen on 15 May 1525. Müntzer's role in the Peasants' War has been the subject of considerable controversy, some arguing that he had no influence at all, others that he was the sole inspirer of the uprising. To judge from his writings of 1523 and 1524, it was by no means inevitable that Müntzer would take the road of social revolution. However, it

5070-420: The region: Swabia (administrative region) Swabia ( German : Schwaben , Swabian: Schwaabe ) is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria , Germany . It consists of ten districts and 340 municipalities (including four cities) with Augsburg being the administrative capital. It is the only German region officially named Swabia in the principle of spatiality . The county of Swabia

5148-487: The right to levy taxes and borrow money as they saw fit. The growing costs of administration and military upkeep impelled them to keep raising demands on their subjects. The princes also worked to centralize power in the towns and estates. Accordingly, princes tended to gain economically from the ruination of the lesser nobility, by acquiring their estates. This ignited the Knights' War that occurred from 1522 through 1523 in

5226-636: The sixteenth century, many parts of Europe had common political links within the Holy Roman Empire , a decentralized entity in which the Holy Roman Emperor himself had little authority outside of his own dynastic lands, which covered only a small fraction of the whole. At the time of the Peasants' War, Charles V , King of Spain, held the position of Holy Roman Emperor (elected in June 1519). Aristocratic dynasties ruled hundreds of largely independent territories (both secular and ecclesiastical) within

5304-403: The social, economic and legal gains they had made than about seeking further gains. Their attempt to break new ground was primarily seeking to increase their liberty by changing their status from serfs , such as the infamous moment when the peasants of Mühlhausen refused to collect snail shells around which their lady could wind her thread. The renewal of the signeurial system had weakened in

5382-546: The suppression of the revolt. He was also known as the "Scourge of the Peasants". The league headquarters was in Ulm , and command was exercised through a war council which decided the troop contingents to be levied from each member. Depending on their capability, members contributed a specific number of mounted knights and foot soldiers, called a contingent, to the league's army. The Bishop of Augsburg, for example, had to contribute 10 horse (mounted) and 62 foot soldiers, which would be

5460-527: The towns was strained by the debts owed by the knights. At odds with other classes in Germany, the lesser nobility was the least disposed to the changes. They and the clergy paid no taxes and often supported their local prince. The clergy in 1525 were the intellectuals of their time. Not only were they literate in Latin, but in the Middle Ages they had produced most books. Some clergy were supported by

5538-583: The wagons. In the Hussite Wars, artillery was usually placed in the center on raised mounds of earth that allowed them to fire over the wagons. Wagon forts could be erected and dismantled quickly. They were quite mobile, but they also had drawbacks: they required a fairly large area of flat terrain and they were not ideal for offense. Since their earlier use, artillery had increased in range and power. Peasants served in rotation, sometimes for one week in four, and returned to their villages after service. While

5616-556: Was a widespread popular revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525. It was Europe's largest and most widespread popular uprising before the French Revolution of 1789. The revolt failed because of intense opposition from the aristocracy, who slaughtered up to 100,000 of the 300,000 poorly armed peasants and farmers. The survivors were fined and achieved few, if any, of their goals. Like

5694-455: Was composed of smaller units of 10 to 12 men, known as rotte . The landsknechte clothed, armed and fed themselves, and were accompanied by a sizable train of sutlers , bakers, washerwomen, prostitutes and sundry individuals with occupations needed to sustain the force. Trains ( tross ) were sometimes larger than the fighting force, but they required organization and discipline. Each landsknecht maintained its own structure, called

5772-626: Was part of the Duchy of Swabia . From the High Middle Ages onwards, Upper Swabia became fragmented into a large number of small independent political units: Free Imperial Cities , principalities , counties , seigneuries , Imperial Abbeys and other clerical territories. During the German Peasants' War of 1524–1525, Upper Swabia was a centre of the revolt. The peasants formed three armed groups, called Haufen (or Haufe ):

5850-473: Was precisely on this same theological foundation that Müntzer's ideas briefly coincided with the aspirations of the peasants and plebeians of 1525: viewing the uprising as an apocalyptic act of God, he stepped up as 'God's Servant against the Godless' and took his position as leader of the rebels. Luther and Müntzer took every opportunity to attack each other's ideas and actions. Luther himself declared against

5928-418: Was religious, and several leaders expressed Luther's ideas on the split with Rome and the new German church. However, the Knights' War was not fundamentally religious. It was conservative in nature and sought to preserve the feudal order. The knights revolted against the new money order, which was squeezing them out of existence. Martin Luther , the dominant leader of the Reformation in Germany, initially took

6006-580: Was that while nobles were obligated to provide troops to a member of the league, they also had other obligations to other lords. These conditions created problems and confusion for the nobles as they tried to gather together forces large enough to put down the revolts. Foot soldiers were drawn from the ranks of the landsknechte . These were mercenaries , usually paid a monthly wage of four guilders, and organized into regiments ( haufen ) and companies ( fähnlein or little flag) of 120–300 men, which distinguished it from others. Each company, in turn,

6084-890: Was to become Upper Swabia, was part of the Roman province of Raetia , after which the Alamanni invaded the Agri Decumates and settling there. During the Merovingian period, Upper Swabia came under the rule of the Frankish kings. It was part of the Duchy of the Alamanni . During the same period, the Christianization of the region began. During the Carolingian , Ottonian and Salian period, Upper Swabia

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