the fosse and earthworks of the besiegers, strewn with the ruins
of houses and of farmsteads. The unfortunate creatures escaping
from Zion, wasted and haggard like spectres, spread over this
devastated region. The investing army drove them back towards
the city, unwilling to allow the rebels to protract the siege by
disembarrassing themselves of all the useless mouths in the place.
They refused, however, to re-enter the walls, and remained in the
Königreich, as this desert tract was called, to the number of
900, living on roots and grass, for four weeks, lying on the bare
earth. Some were too feeble to walk, and crawled about on all fours;
their hunger was so terrible that they filled their mouths with
sand, earth, or leaves, and died choked, in terrible convulsions.
Night and day their moans, howls, and cries ascended. The children
presented a yet more deplorable spectacle; they implored their
mothers to give them something to eat, and they, poor creatures,
could only answer them with tears and sobs; often they approached
the lines of the camp, and sought to excite the compassion of the
soldiers.
The General in command, Graff Ueberstein, sent information, on April
22nd, to the bishop, who was ill in his castle at Wollbeck, and
asked what was to be done with these unfortunates who were perishing
in the Königreich. The bishop shed tears, and protested his sorrow
at the sufferings of the poor wretches, but did not venture to give
orders for their removal, without consulting the Duke of Cleves and
the Elector of Cologne. Thus much precious time was lost, and only
on the 28th May, a month after, were the starving wretches permitted
to leave the Königreich, upon the following terms: 1st. That they
should be transported to the neighbouring town of Diekhausen, where
they should be examined, and those who were guilty among them
executed; 2nd. That the rest should be pardoned and dispersed in
different places, after having undertaken to renounce Anabaptism,
and to abstain from negotiations, open or secret, with their
comrades in the beleagured city.[256] These conditions having been
made, the refugees were transported on tumbrils and in carts to
Diekhausen, at a foot's pace, their excessive exhaustion rendering
them incapable of bearing more rapid motion. They numbered 200; 700
had perished of famine between the lines of the investing army and
the walls of the besieged town. On the 30th May, those found guilty
of prominent participation in the revolt were executed.
[256] Kerssenbroeck, pp. 161-8.
The prince-bishop might have spared his tears and sent loaves.
His hesitation and want of genuine sympathy with the starving
unfortunates serve to mark his character as not only weak, but
selfish and cowardly.
Whilst this was taking place outside the walls of Münster, John van
Gheel, an emissary of Bockelson, was actively engaged in rousing the
Anabaptists of Amsterdam. Having insinuated himself into the good
graces of the Princess Mary, regent of the Netherlands, he persuaded
her that he was desirous of restraining the sectaries waiting their
call to march to the relief of Münster. She even furnished him with
an authorisation to raise troops for this purpose. He profited by
this order to arm his friends and lay a plot for obtaining the
mastery of Amsterdam. His design was to make that city a place
of rendezvous for all the Anabaptists of the Low Countries, who
would flock into it as a city of refuge, when once it was in his
power, and then he would be able to organise out of them an army
sufficiently numerous and well appointed to raise the siege of
Münster.
On the 11th May he placed himself at the head of 600 friends, seized
on the town, massacred half the guards, and one of the burgomasters.
Amsterdam would inevitably have been in the power of the sectaries
in another hour, had not one of the guard escaped up the tower
and rung the alarm-bell. As the tocsin pealed over the city, the
citizens armed and rushed to the market-place, fell upon the
Anabaptists and retook the town-hall, notwithstanding a desperate
resistance. Crowds of fanatics from the country, who had received
secret intimation to assemble before the walls of Amsterdam,
and wait till the gates were opened to admit them, finding that
the plan had been defeated, threw away their arms and fled with
precipitation.[257]
[257] Kerssenbroeck, pp. 73, 74; Hast, p. 37; Montfort., p. 58
_et seq._
Van Gheel had fallen in the encounter. The prisoners were executed.
Amongst these was Campé whom John of Leyden had created Anabaptist
bishop of Amsterdam. His execution was performed with great
barbarity; first his tongue, then his hand, and finally his head was
cut off.[258]
[258] Montfort., pp. 68, 69.
We must look once more into the doomed city.
In the midst of the general desolation John Bockelson and his court
lived in splendour and luxury. Every one who murmured against his
excesses was executed. Heads were struck off on the smallest charge,
and scarcely a day passed in May and June without blood flowing on
Mount Zion. One of the most remarkable of these executions was that
of Elizabeth Wandtscherer, one of the queens.
This woman had had three husbands; the first was dead, the second
marriage had been annulled, and Bockelson had taken her to wife
because she was pretty and well made.
She was a great favourite with her royal husband, and for six
months she seemed to be delighted with her position; but at
length, disgusted with the unbridled licence of the royal harem,
the hypocrisy and the mad revelry of the court, contrasted with
the famine of the citizens, a prey to remorse, she tore off her
jewels and her queenly robes, and asked John of Leyden permission
to leave the city. This was on the 12th June. The king, furious at
an apostacy in his own house, dragged her into the market-place,
and there in the presence of his wives and the populace, smote off
her head with his own hands, stamped on her body, and then chanting
the "Gloria in excelsis" with his queens, danced round the corpse
weltering in its blood.[259]
[259] Kerssenbroeck, pp. 176-7; Dorpius, f. 498 b; Sleidan, p.
422, says she was executed for having observed to some of her
companions that it could not be the will of God that they should
live in abundance whilst the subjects perished from want of
necessaries. Hast, p. 395; Heresbach, p. 145.
However, the royal magazines were now nearly exhausted, and the king
was informed that there remained provisions for only a few days. He
resolved to carry on his joyous life of debauchery without thought
of the morrow, and when all was expended, to fire the city in every
quarter, and then to rush forth, arms in hand, and break through the
investing girdle, or perish in the attempt.[260] This project was
not executed, for the siege was abruptly ended before the moment
had arrived for its accomplishment.
[260] Kerssenbroeck, p. 177.
Late in the preceding year, a soldier of the Episcopal army, John
Eck, of Langenstraten, or, as he was called from his diminutive
stature, Hansel Eck, having been punished as he deemed excessively
or unjustly for some dereliction in his duty, deserted to the
Anabaptists, and found an asylum in the city, where John Bockelson,
perceiving his abilities and practical acquaintance with military
operations, made him one of his captains.
But Hansel soon repented bitterly this step he had taken. Little men
are proverbially peppery and ready to stand on their dignity. His
desertion had been the result of an outburst of wounded self-pride,
and when his wrath cooled down, and his judgment obtained the upper
hand, he was angry with himself for what he had done. Feeling
confident that the city must eventually fall, and knowing that
small mercies would be shown to a deserter caught in arms, however
insignificant he might be in stature, Hansel took counsel with eight
other discontented soldiers in his company, and they resolved to
escape from Münster and ask pardon of the bishop.
They effected the first part of their object on the night of
the 17th June, and crossed the Königreich towards the lines of
the investing force. The sentinels, observing a party of armed
men advancing, with the moon flashing from their morions and
breastplates, fired on them and killed seven. His diminutive stature
stood Hansel in good stead, and he, with one other named Sobb,
succeeded in escalading the ramparts unobserved, and in making
their way to the nearest fort of Hamm, where the old officer,
Meinhardt von Hamm, under whom he had formerly served, was in
command. Hansel and Sobb were conducted into his presence, and
offered to deliver the city into the hands of the prince-bishop if
he would accord them a free pardon; but they added that no time
must be lost, as it was but a question of hours rather than of days
before the city was fired, and the final sortie was executed.[261]
[261] Kerssenbroeck, p. 179 _et seq._; Sleidan, p. 427;
Montfort., p. 71; Heresbach, p. 162 _et seq._; Hast, p. 395 _et
seq._; Dorpius, f. 499.
Meinhardt listened to his plan, approved of it, and wrote to Francis
of Waldeck, asking a safe-conduct for Hansel, and urging the utmost
secrecy, as on the preservation of the secret depended the success
of the scheme.
The safe-conduct was readily granted, and the deserter was brought
to Willinghegen concealed amidst game in a cart covered with
boughs of trees. Willinghegen is a small place one mile outside
the circumvallation. The chiefs of the besieging army met here to
consider the plan of Hansel Eck. The little man protested that with
300 men he could take the city. He knew the weak points, and he
could escalade the walls where they were unguarded. Four hundred
soldiers were, however, decided to be sent on the expedition, under
the command of Wilkin Steding, "a terrible enemy but a devoted
friend;" John of Twickel was to be standard-bearer, and Hansel
was to act as guide; and the attempt was to be made on the eve
of St. John the Baptist's day.[262] However, the bishop and Count
Ueberstein, desirous of avoiding unnecessary effusion of blood,
summoned the inhabitants to surrender, for the last time, on the
22nd June.
[262] Kerssenbroeck, p. 169; and the authors before cited.
Rottmann replied to the deputies that "the city should be
surrendered only when they received the order to do so from the
Father by a revelation."
Midsummer eve was a hot, sultry day. Towards evening dark heavy
clouds rolled up against the wind, and a violent storm of thunder,
lightning, and hail burst over the doomed city. The sentinels
of Münster, exhausted by hunger, and alarmed at the rage of the
elements, quitted their posts and retreated under shelter. The
darkness, the growl of the wind, and the boom of the thunder
concealed the approach of the Episcopal troops. The 400, under
Steding, guided by the deserter, marched into the Königreich between
ten and eleven o'clock, and met with no obstacles till they reached
the Holy-cross Gate. Here they filled the ditch with faggots, trees,
and bundles of straw; a bridge was improvised, the curtain of
palisades masking the bastion was surmounted, ladders were planted,
and without meeting with the least resistance, the 400 reached the
summit of the walls. The sentinels, whom they found asleep, were
killed, with the exception of one who purchased his life by giving
up the pass-word, "Die Erde." The soldiers then advanced along the
paved road which lay between the double walls, captured and killed
the sentinels at every watch tower, and then, entering the streets,
crossed the cemetery of Ueberwasser, the River Aa by its bridge, and
debouched on the cathedral square, where the faint flashes of the
retreating lightning illumined at intervals the gaunt scaffolding of
the throne and gallery and pulpit of the Anabaptist king, looking
now not unlike the preparations for an execution.
The cathedral had been converted into the arsenal. Hansel led the
Episcopal soldiers to the western gates, gave the word "Die Erde,"
and the guards were killed before they could give the alarm. The
artillery was now in the hands of the 400.[263]
[263] Kerssenbroeck, p. 176 _et seq._; and the authors before
cited.
The Anabaptists had slept through the rumble of the thunder, but
suddenly the rattle of the drum on their hill of Zion woke them
with a start. They sprang from their beds, armed in haste, and
rushed to the cathedral square, where their own cannons opened
on them their mouths of fire, and poured an iron shower down the
main thoroughfares which led from the Minster green. But they were
not discouraged. Through backways, and under the shelter of the
surrounding houses, they reached the Chapel of St. Michael, which
commanded the position of the Episcopal soldiers, and thence fired
upon them with deadly precision.
Steding turned the guns against the chapel, but its massive walls
could not be broken through, and the balls bounded from them without
effecting more than a trivial damage. The Anabaptists pursued their
advantage. Whilst Steding was occupied with those who held the
Chapel of St. Michael, a large number assembled in the market-place
and marched in close ranks upon the cathedral square.
The 400, unable to withstand the numbers opposed to them, were
driven from their positions, and retreated into the narrow Margaret
Street, where they were unable to use their arms with advantage.
Steding burst open the door of a house, and sent 200 of his men
through it; they issued through the back door, filled up a narrow
lane running parallel with the street, and attacked the Anabaptists
in the rear, who, thinking that the city was in the hands of the
enemy, and that they were being assailed by a reinforcement, fled
precipitately.
By an unpardonable oversight, Steding had forgotten to leave a guard
at the postern by which he had entered the city. The Anabaptists
discovered this mistake and profited by it, so that when the
reinforcements sent to support Steding arrived, the gates were
closed, and the walls were defended by the women, who cast stones
and firebrands, and shot arrows amongst them, taunting them with the
failure of the attempt to surprise the city; and they, uncertain
whether to believe that the plot of Hansel Eck had failed or not,
remained without till break of day, vainly attempting to escalade
the walls. The Anabaptists, who had fled in the Margaret Street,
soon rallied, and the 400 were again exposed to the fury of a
multitude three times their number, who assailed them in front and
in rear, and they were struck down by stones and furniture cast out
of the windows upon them by the women in the houses.
Nevertheless they bravely defended themselves for several hours,
and their assailants began to lose courage, as news of the onslaught
upon the walls reached them. It was now midnight. King John proposed
a temporary cessation of hostilities, which Steding gladly accepted,
and the messengers of Bockelson offered the 400 their life if they
would lay down their arms, kneel before him, and ask his pardon.[264]
[264] Kerssenbroeck, p. 385; Heresbach, pp. 162-6; Montfort., p.
72; Hast, p. 396 _et seq._
The soldiers indignantly rejected this offer, but proposed to quit
the town with their arms and ensigns. A long discussion ensued,
which Steding protracted till break of day.
At the opening of the negotiations, Steding bade John von Twickel,
the ensign, hasten to the ramparts with three men, as secretly
as possible, and urge on the reinforcements. Twickel reached the
bastions as day began to dawn, and he shouted to his comrades
without to help Steding and his gallant band before all was lost.
The Episcopalians, dreading a ruse of the besieged to draw them into
an ambush, hesitated; but Twickel called the watchword, which was
_Waldeck_, and announced the partial success of the 400.
Having accomplished his mission, Twickel returned to his comrades
within, cheering them at the top of his voice with the cry from
afar, "Courage, friends, help is at hand!"
At these words the remains of the gallant band of 400 recommenced
the combat with irresistible energy. They fell on the Anabaptists
with such vehemence that they drove them back on all sides; they
gave no quarter, but breaking into divisions, swept the streets,
meeting now with only a feeble resistance, for the soldiers without
were battering at the gates. In vain did the sectarians offer to
leave the town, their offer came too late, and the little band drove
them from one rallying point to another.[265]
[265] Kerssenbroeck, pp. 188, 189.
Rottmann, feeling that all was lost, cast himself on their lances
and fell. John of Leyden, instead of heading his party, attempted to
fly, but was recognised as he was escaping through the gate of St.
Giles, and was thrown into chains.
In the meantime the reinforcement had mounted the walls, beaten
in the gates, and was pouring up the streets, rolling back the
waves of discomfited Anabaptists on the swords and spears of the
decimated 400. Two hundred of the most determined among the fanatics
entrenched themselves in a round tower commanding the market-place,
and continued firing on the soldiers of the prince. The generals,
seeing that the town was in their power, and that it would cost an
expenditure of time and life to reduce those in the tower, offered
them their life, and permission to march out of Münster unmolested
if they would surrender.
On these terms the Anabaptists in the bastion laid down their arms.
The besiegers now spread throughout the city, hunting out and
killing the rebels. Hermann Tilbeck, the former burgomaster, who had
played into the hands of the Anabaptists till he declared himself,
and who had been one of the twelve elders of Israel, was found
concealed, half submerged, in a privy, near the gate of St. Giles,
was killed, and his body left where he had hidden, "thus being
buried," says Kerssenbroeck, "with worse than the burial of an ass."
When the butchery was over, the bodies were brought together into
the cathedral square and were examined. That of Knipperdolling was
not amongst them. He was, in fact, hiding in the house of Catherine
Hobbels, a zealous Anabaptist; she kept him in safety the whole
of the 26th, but finding that every house was being searched, and
fearing lest she should suffer for having sheltered him, she ordered
him to leave and attempt an escape over the walls.[266]
[266] Kerssenbroeck, p. 195.
On the 27th all the women were collected in the market-square, and
were ordered to leave the city and never to set foot in it again.
But just as they were about to depart, Ueberstein announced that any
one of them who could deliver up Knipperdolling should be allowed to
remain and retain her possessions. The bait was tempting. Catherine
Hobbels stepped forward, and offered to point out the hiding-place
of the man they sought. She was given a renewed assurance that
her house and goods would be respected, and she then delivered up
Knipperdolling, who had not quitted his place of refuge. The promise
made to her was rigorously observed; but her husband, not being
included in the pardon, and being a ringleader of the fanatics, was
executed.[267] The women were accompanied by the soldiers as far as
the Lieb-Frau gate; they took with them their children, and were
ordered to leave the diocese and principality forthwith.
[267] _Ibid._ p. 196; Heresbach, p. 166.
Divara, the head queen of John of Leyden, the wife of
Knipperdolling, and three other women, were refused permission to
leave. They were executed on the 7th July.
Münster was then delivered over to pillage; but all those who had
left the town during the government of the Anabaptists were given
their furniture and houses and such of their goods as could be
identified.
All the property of the Anabaptists was confiscated and sold to
pay the debts contracted by the prince for defraying the expenses
of the war. The division of the booty occasioned several troubles,
parties of soldiers mutinied, and attempted a second pillage, but
the mutineers were put down rigorously.
Several more executions took place during the following days, and
men hidden away in cellars, garrets and sewers were discovered and
killed or carried off to prison. Among these were Bernard Krechting
and Kerkering.[268]
[268] Kerssenbroeck, pp. 198-200. Dorpius says, "In the capture
of the city, women and children were spared; and none were killed
after the first fight, except the ringleaders."--f. 399.
On the 28th June, Francis of Waldeck entered the city at the head
of 800 men. The sword, crown, and spurs of John of Leyden, together
with the keys of the city, were presented to him.[269]
[269] Montfort., p. 73.
The prince received, as had been stipulated, half the booty, and the
articles and the treasure deposited in the town-hall and in the
royal palace, which amounted to 100,000 gold florins.[270]
[270] Kerssenbroeck, Heresbach, p. 168; Hast, p. 400.
Francis remained in Münster only three days. Having named the new
magistrates, and organised the civil government of the city, he
departed for his castle of Iburg. On the 13th July he ordered a Te
Deum to be sung in the churches throughout the diocese, in thanks to
God for having restored tranquillity; and the Chapter inaugurated a
yearly thanksgiving procession to take place on the 25th June.[271]
[271] _Ibid._ p. 200.
On the 15th July, the Elector of Cologne, the Duke of Juliers, and
Francis of Waldeck, met at Neuss to concert measures for preventing
a repetition of these disorders. The leading Protestant divines
wrote, urging the extermination of the heretics, and reminding the
princes that the sword had been given them for this purpose.
On the same day, the diet of Worms agreed that the Anabaptists
should be extirpated as a sect dangerous alike to morals and to the
safety of the commonwealth, and that an assembly should be held in
the month of November, to decide upon defraying the cost of the war,
and on the form of government which was to be established in the
city.[272]
[272] _Ibid._ p. 201
The diet met on the 1st November, and decided,--That everything
should be re-established in Münster on the old footing, and that
the clergy should have their property and privileges restored to
them. That all who had fled the city to escape the government of
the Anabaptists should be reinstated in the possession of their
offices, privileges, and houses. That all the goods of the rebels
should remain confiscated to defray the expense of the war.
That the princes of neighbouring states should send deputies to
Münster to provide that the innocent should not suffer with the
guilty. That the fortifications should be in part demolished, as
an example; but that Münster should not be degraded from its rank
as a city. That the bishop and chapter and nobles should demolish
the bastions within the town as soon as the city walls had been
razed. That the bishops, the nobles, and the citizens should
solemnly engage, for themselves and for their successors, never
to attempt to refortify the city. Finally, that the envoys of
the King of the Romans and of the princes should visit the said
town on the 5th March, 1536, to see that these articles of the
convention had been executed.
All these articles were not observed. The bishop did not demolish
the fortifications, and the point was not insisted upon.
As for the civil constitution of Münster, its privileges and
franchises, they were not entirely restored till 1553.
Francis of Waldeck now set to work repairing and purifying
the churches, and restoring everything as it had been before.
Catholic worship was everywhere restored without a single voice
in the city rising in opposition. The people were sick of
Protestantism, whether in its mitigated form as Lutheranism, or
in its aggravated development as Anabaptism.