Muehlhausen was compelled to give up its liberty under the empire, and was incorporated into the Saxon lands, just as the Abbey of Fulda was incorporated in the Land-graviate of Hesse.
The prince now moved through the forest of Thuringia, where Franconian peasants of the Bildhaus camp had united with the Thuringians, and burned many castles.A battle took place before Meiningen.The peasants were beaten and withdrew towards the city, which closed its gates to them, and threatened to attack them from the rear.The troops, thus placed in a quandary by the betrayal of their allies, capitulated before the prince, and dispersed, while negotiations were still under way.The camp of Bildhaus had long dispersed, and with this, the remnants of the insurgents of Saxony, Hesse, Thuringia and Upper Franconia, were annihilated.
In Alsace the rebellion broke out after the movement had started on the right side of the Rhine.The peasants of the bishopric of Strassbourg arose as late as the middle of April.Soon after, there was an upheaval of the peasants of Upper Alsace and Sundgau.On April 18, a contingent of Lower Alsace peasants pillaged the monastery of Altdorf.Other troops were formed near Ebersheim and Barr, as well as in the Urbis valley.These were soon concentrated into the large Lower Alsace division and proceeded in an organised way to take cities and towns and to destroy monasteries.
One out of every three men was called to the colours.The Twelve Articles of this group were considerably more radical than those of the Suabian and Franconian groups.
While one column of the Lower Alsace peasants first concentrated near St.Hippolite early in May, attempting to take the city but without success, and then, through an understanding with the citizens, came into possession of Barken on May 10, of Rappoldtsweiler on May 13, and Reichenweier on May 14, a second column under Erasmus Gerber marched to attack Strassbourg by surprise.The attempt was unsuccessful, and the column now turned towards the Vosges, destroyed the monastery of Mauersmuenster, and besieged Zabern, taking it on May 13.From here it moved towards the frontier of Lorraine and aroused the section of the duchy adjoining the frontier, at the same time fortifying the mountain passes.Two columns were formed at Herbolzheim on the Saar, and at Neuburg, at Saargemund, 4,000 German-Lorraine peasants entrenched themselves.Finally, two advanced troops, the Kolben in the Vosges at Stuerzelbrunn, and the Kleeburg at Weissenburg, covered the front and the right flank, while the left flank was adjoining those of Upper Alsace.
The latter, in motion since April 20, had forced the city of Sulz into the peasant fraternity on May 10, Gebweiler, on May 12, and Sennheim and vicinity, May 15.The Austrian government and the surrounding imperial cities immediately united against them, but they were too weak to offer serious resistance, not to speak of attack.Thus, in the middle of May, the whole of Alsace, with the exception of only a few cities, came into the hands of the insurgents.
But already the army was approaching which was destined to break the ungodly attack of the Alsace peasants.It was the French who effected here the restoration of the nobility.Already, on May 16, Duke Anton of Lorraine marched out with an army of 30,000, among them the flower of the French nobility, as well as Spanish, Piedmontese, Lonibardic, Greek and Albanian auxiliary troops.On May 16 he met 4,000 peasants at Luetzelstein whom he defeated without effort, and on the 17th he forced Zabern, which was besieged by the peasants, to surrender.But even while the Lorrainers were entering the city and the peasants were being disarmed, the conditions of the surrender were broken.The defenseless peasants were attacked by the Lansquenets and most of them were slaughtered.The remaining Lower Alsace columns disbanded, and Duke Anton went to meet the Upper Alsatians.
The latter, who had refused to join the Lower Alsatians at Zabern, were now attacked at Scherweiler by the entire force of the Lorrainers.They resisted with great bravery, but the enormous numerical superiority --30,000 as against 7,000 -- and the betrayal of a number of knights, especially that of the magistrate of Reichenweier, made all daring futile.They were totally beaten and dispersed.The Duke subdued the whole of Alsace with the usual atrocities.Only Sundgau was spared.By threatening to call him into the land, the Austrian government forced the peasants to conclude the Ensisheim agreement early in June.The government soon broke the agreement, however, ordering numbers of preachers and leaders of the movement to be hanged.The peasants made a new insurrection which ended with the inclusion of the Sundgau peasants into the Offenburg agreement (September 18).
There now remains only the report of the Peasant War in the Alpine regions of Austria.These regions, as well as the adjoining Archbishopric of Salzburg were in continuous opposition to the government and the nobility ever since the Stara Prawa, and the Reformation doctrines found there a fertile soil.Religious persecutions and wilful taxation brought the rebellion to a crisis.
