The Palatine Peasants' War () was part of the general

German Peasants' War The German Peasants' War, Great Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt () 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 befor ...

on the Middle and Upper

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

. The uprising in the Palatine Electorate and its surrounding area took place in April to June 1525. The start of the German Peasants' War in West Rhenish Palatinate was marked by the gathering of a band of peasants, a so-called ''Haufe'', at Nußdorf near

Landau Landau (), officially Landau in der Pfalz (, ), is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990), a long ...

on 23 April 1525. The Palatine peasant mobs plundered several surrounding monasteries (including the

Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there ...

commandry In the Middle Ages, a commandery (rarely commandry) was the smallest administrative division of the European landed properties of a military order. It was also the name of the house where the knights of the commandery lived.Anthony Luttrell and G ...

of Heimbach near Zeiskam as well as

Hördt Hördt is a municipality in the Germersheim (district), district of Germersheim, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Personalities *Jakob Baumann (1862-1922), cathedral vicar in Speyer, author, long-standing editor of the diocese newspaper "Der ...

, where the provost was killed) and castles, before they took Neustadt on 6 May without a fight. The peasants' programme was based on the Twelve Articles, which were drawn up at

Memmingen Memmingen (; Swabian German, Swabian: ''Memmenge'') is a town in Swabia (Bavaria), Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is the economic, educational and administrative centre of the Danube-Iller region. To the west the town is flanked by the Iller, the ...

and of which 25,000 copies were printed. A second ''Haufe'' gathered near Bockenheim. As a result, the Palatine

prince-elector The prince-electors ( pl. , , ) were the members of the Electoral College of the Holy Roman Empire, which elected the Holy Roman Emperor. Usually, half of the electors were archbishops. From the 13th century onwards, a small group of prince- ...

Louis V Louis V may refer to: * Louis V of France (967–987) * Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor and V of Germany (1282–1347) * Louis V, Duke of Bavaria (1315–1361) * Louis V, Elector Palatine (ruled 1508–1544) * Louis V, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (r ...

felt forced into negotiations with the Geilweiler and Bockenheim groups; these began on 10 May in Forst. The complaints were to be handled by a ''

Landtag A ''Landtag'' (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence ...

''. The Elector finally resorted to military force against the peasants on 23 May with the support of troops from the Archbishop of

Trier Trier ( , ; ), formerly and traditionally known in English as Trèves ( , ) and Triers (see also Names of Trier in different languages, names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle (river), Moselle in Germany. It lies in a v ...

, after other princes had defeated the uprisings in Württemberg and in the Alsace. The Palatine peasants mobs were crushingly defeated at the Battle of Pfeddersheim on 23/24 June. Eight thousand peasants were reported to have been killed in the battle.

Literature

* Miller, Douglas (2003). ''Armies of the German Peasants' War 1524-26'', Oxford: Osprey, . * Buzello, Horst et al. (ed.): ''Der deutsche Bauernkrieg.'' Schöningh, Paderborn etc., 1984, , pp. 90ff. (''Uni-Taschenbücher - Geschichte'' 1275) {{Medieval and Early Modern European Peasant Wars German Peasants' War Peasant revolts Rebellions in Germany Palatinate (region)