Poor Conrad
Encyclopedia
The Poor Conrad was the name of a Peasant Rebellion in 1514 against Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg
Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg
Herzog Ulrich von Württemberg succeeded his kinsman Eberhard II as Duke of Württemberg in 1498, being declared of age in 1503.-Early life:...

. The rebels called themselves Poor Conrads because this was the term used by the nobility to mock them, meaning poor fellows or poor devils. The battle flag of the rebels was a farmer lying in front of a cross, under the words "Poor Conrad".

Despite his excessive lifestyle, Duke Ulrich of Württemberg raised taxes in 1513 to finance his planned war against Burgundy
Duchy of Burgundy
The Duchy of Burgundy , was heir to an ancient and prestigious reputation and a large division of the lands of the Second Kingdom of Burgundy and in its own right was one of the geographically larger ducal territories in the emergence of Early Modern Europe from Medieval Europe.Even in that...

. He also reduced the unit of measurement of weight, which aroused general indignation. For the same price one received for example, instead of one kilogram of flour only 700 grams.

As a protest against the fraud, Peter Gaiß (Gaispeter) from Beutelsbach
Beutelsbach
Beutelsbach is a municipality in the district of Passau in Bavaria in Germany....

 performed a Trial by ordeal
Trial by ordeal
Trial by ordeal is a judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused is determined by subjecting them to an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience...

 on 2 May 1514. The new weights of the Duke were to be thrown in the Rems
Rems
The Rems is a right tributary of the Neckar in eastern Baden-Württemberg. It is 78 km long. Its source is in Essingen, near Aalen. It flows generally west through the towns Böbingen an der Rems, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Plüderhausen, Schorndorf, Remshalden and Waiblingen. At Remseck the Rems flows...

 at Großheppach. Were they to float, they would be legitimized; were they to sink, they would be proven fraudulent. As was to be expected, the trial by ordeal proved the peasants right.

A growing crowd of dissatisfied peasants gathered and moved on Schorndorf
Schorndorf
Schorndorf is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located c. 26 km east of Stuttgart. Its station is a the terminus of line S2 of the Stuttgart S-Bahn....

, where little damage was inflicted, but Duke Ulrich was so impressed that he dropped the unpopular tax. This calmed the situation in the Remstal temporarily.

Shortly thereafter, however, more riots broke out in Leonberg
Leonberg
Leonberg is a town in the German federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg about 10 miles to the west of Stuttgart, the state capital. Approximately 45,000 people live in Leonberg, making it the third biggest borough in the rural district of Böblingen .Leonberg is most famous for its picturesque market...

 and Grüningen, encouraged by the town priest Dr. Rainhard Gaißlin. Gaispeter also traveled again across the country, persuading people to riot. On the Beutelsbacher Kappelberg the Poor Conrads installed a camp. But the news of approaching well-armed troops of the Duke, made more and more farmers leave the camp. Finally the Poor Conrad rebellion collapsed quietly. Ducal troops occupied without resistance the Rems valley, dragging the remaining 1,700 rebels to Schorndorf, where they were tortured, imprisoned and some beheaded. Fines had to be paid, and they were deprived of their rights.

The peace would not last a long time: some ten years later the peasants rebelled again, leading to the German Peasants' War
German Peasants' War
The German Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe, 1524–1526. At its height in the spring and summer of 1525, the conflict involved an estimated 300,000 peasants: contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000...

.

External links

  • http://www.mlwerke.de/me/me07/me07_359.htm Vorläufer des großen Bauernkriegs

zwischen 1476 und 1517
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